this meeting is being recorded. Good evening. This is the Council's January Legislative Public Hearing in which we will hear testimony for legislation for the Urban Renewal Project as well as legislation introduced on January 7th, 2025. This evening is a hybrid meeting which is being conducted in person and via WebEx teleconference. It is also available to the public through livestream on the County Council website and broadcast on channels 44 if you're Verizon and 99 if you're Comcast. Sign up to testify in legislation that is the subject of this public hearing was done online the last year's meeting with the staff. The staff was the first to provide a new request. Sign up to testify in legislation that is the subject of this public hearing was done online and was available in person prior to the start of this session. The cutoff for testimony sign up was at 7 p.m. this evening. The council will hold a work session to our council administrator, no later than 9 a.m. Wednesday, tomorrow, January 22nd. A legislative session for final consideration of certain legislation that is the subject of this public hearing will be held on Monday, February 3rd, beginning at 7 p.m. in this Banachar Room, public participation, for those meetings will be available in person, virtually via WebEx, and view live stream through the county council website. At this time I will do a roll call of our council members, Dr. Jones. Good evening everyone. Ms. Rigby. Here, thank you. Ms. Young, here. Mr. Youngman. Here. here. Thank you. Ms. Young here. Mr. Youngman here. And I am also here. We will now recite the pledge of allegiance. We will now proceed with our regular January legislative public hearing. If there are any students who will be testifying this evening, for those in person please come up to the front row so we can call you up to testify. And those virtually please contact Isaiah Anderson by raising your hand on the WebEx or sending an email to I Anderson A-N-D-E-R-S-O-N at HowardCountyMD.gov. Sign up to testify on legislation. We read that already. Please note that while we are receiving testimony this evening, we continue to receive written comments which will be fully considered by the council prior to taking action Anyone who signed up to testify at this hearing will be called to testify When you are called upon to testify please state your name and the city or town of your home address Representatives. Thank you from nonprofit organizations will have up to five minutes to speak. Individuals and other organizations have up to three minutes. Individuals who have indicated that they are testifying through an interpreter may be allowed a total of five minutes with interpreter translation. You may not yield your time to another speaker. You will be notified at the 30-second mark to begin wrapping up by the administrator, and then you will be notified when your time to speak is up You must please conclude when your time is up if you have written testimony You may also email it to us at council mail at Howard County in D.gov Pursuant to section 13-1-1-06 of the Howard County Code The Howard County Council will now hear public testimony on council resolutions 161 and 162, 2024 related to the Long Reach Village Center Urban Renewal Project. Will the administrator please read the legislation for the hearing? Certainly. And Chair Walsh, as you indicated, I'm gonna read Council Resolution 161 and 162 together for joint testimony. Thank you. Council Resolution 161, 2024, approving Urban Renewal Project Long Reach Village Center, Council Resolution 162, 2024, conveyance of 7.71 acres located at 8775, Cloud Leap Court to Columbia Concepts LLC. Thank you. And our first witness is Mr. Jonathan Song. Right here, directly in front of us, yep. And perfect. Because we've combined the two, we're giving individual six minutes, three and three, and organizations 10, five and five in no way feel compelled to use all of that time, but we're happy to hear what you have to say. There we go. Does that work? All right, terrific. Good evening. My name is Jonathan Song. I am a lifelong resident of Columbia, Maryland, a student of Bryant Woods Elementary, Burleigh Manor Middle School, and Wildlife High School. I taught at Talbot Springs Elementary and tried AlphaErigial Elementary School as a public school teacher and served our community in Columbia, Maryland with the Church of Philippi for over three decades, helping second generation Korean-American individuals like myself find meaning, purpose, and serving our city in tangible acts of mercy and love. I now pass through a congregation in the Longreach Village Center called City of Hope Presbyterian Church, where the Church has served the community there for almost two decades. We see firsthand how the community of Longreach benefits Colombia and the surrounding region. Its demographic makeup reaches all across socioeconomic, ethnic, and cultural divides that gives an important perspective to the community. We long for Longreach in this developmental process to reinvest into this community, to seek out how potential changes would be equitable for those who currently reside on Tamar Drive and its neighbors. To be a resource for long reach high school students who will find the village center to be a refuge after school and provide community services that cares for the poor, the orphan, and the widow, as our faith tradition reminds us to provide essential food and clothing and services for those in need. In these things, we hope that we open the door not to just economic opportunity for our region, but community building in a world in need of compassion and care and loving our neighbor. When redevelopment considers the needs of not just the potential growth of its economic investment and considers how instead we can invest in people who are longing to thrive here in Columbia, not just survive but thrive. We really believe that the long-reach community will be a place that longs to do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly before our God. As a son of first-generation immigrants who found Colombia to be a place not to just fulfill the American dream, but to live out their faith and serve over 2000 Korean American residents at my father's church. The message of the gospel is one that reminds us that it was through the sacrifice of one on a cross, Jesus Christ, that showed us the pathway for peace and reconciliation with God and with one another. Despite very different opinions, very different backgrounds, and very different situations, we pray that long reach. And this developmental team, as we go through this process process which share that same spirit of sacrificial love and care for this community as it considers its plans moving forward. So thank you so much for your time. Thank you, Mr. Sons. Next up we have Brian Shepter. Thank you, Madam Chair. And just for the record, it appears there was an inverdent error in that signups. Brian came should also be signed up to testifying it. You have the developer team if you could recognize that. Without delay, I'll get into my test, won't you though? You are both testifying though, you're saying? Yes, okay. Brian chapter here on behalf of the administration, I serve as Deputy Chief of Staff, addresses Ellicott City, Maryland. We're here on CR161-2024, requesting concept approval for redevelopment of the Longer-Each Village Center under the Urban Renewal Statue. You'll recall back in 2014 and 2015, the county acquired multiple parcels within the Longreach Village Center under the Urban Renewal Law. In 2016, the county proceeded with an RFP process, put an RFP out for three months and received three proposals for the redevelopment of the Village Center. Ultimately the county selected the Orchard Development Project. They moved that project through the Urban Renewal Plan approval and ultimately a zoning board approval in June of 2018. Shortly thereafter that project fell apart and the developer decided to part ways with the project, which left the county holding the property for the period until today. During that intervening time, the county focused on stabilizing the property, reducing vacancy and making improvements to the exterior to make it a welcoming place and try to, again, stabilize and reduce vacancy. In 2023, late 2023, the county put out an RFP again for the redevelopment of the Village Center, working with the county, excuse me, and working with the community. During from July of 2023 to January of 2024, the RFP was out on the street for six months. We received exactly one proposal for this redevelopment, which I think belies the complexity and the challenges of this redevelopment effort. We selected ultimately the county selected that development proposal from Columbia Concepts and proceeded to request an urban renewal approval from the county council in October of 2024. That urban renewal plan as it is before you today was approved by the planning board or recommended approval by the planning board to this body and that project will include a number of wonderful amenities for the community when it is ultimately complete. This is a an opportunity to create a strong mix of for sale and-rand housing. 4-town homes and senior housing, it presents the opportunity for a senior center and a grocery store that is very much needed and appreciated in the community. At the heart of the project is a 100,000 square foot multi sport facility that will accommodate pickleball among other wonderful things. And it also boasts 150,000 square feet of retail space across multiple buildings. The site will include ample parking and bike and pedestrian access, as well as sustainable green design. We are asking the county council to approve the urban renewal concept for this redevelopment project at this time, and with the understanding that the next step will be an extensive process with the community under the Major Village Center redevelopment process that culminates in a zoning board action. So this will not be the last time that this project is before the members here tonight. We're asking favorable approval and we appreciate your consideration of this project. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Scepter. Next up we have Tracy Bracolino. Good evening Council members. I hope you're well in this freezing cold evening. My name is Tracy Bracolino and I live in Mount Erie. Thank you for the opportunity to testify on behalf of the Community Action Council of Howard County. And I'm happy to offer a few remarks in support of the Columbia Concepts Plan for Long Reach Village Center. The Community Action Council is an anchor in the current village center property. And this project is incredibly important to us in our ability to fulfill our mission to the Longreach Village Center community and Longreach as a whole as a neighborhood. For 60 years, CAC has been working hard to meet the evolving needs of Howard County and that includes providing early childhood education paired with two generation services. And we have been doing that since April of 2021 over at the Long Reach Village Center. We opened in the midst of a pandemic with incredible support from county government and the county administration. We moved there from first Presbyterian church over there in that strange park and ride sort of circle place. Because we noted through our community needs assessment at the time of an incredible need in the long-reach community. We had two classrooms at first Presbyterian and by being able to move with county support over to Longreach Village Center and establish the Bouter Education Center at Longreach, we were able to double our capacity, making it possible to serve 78 children every single year there. At this time, we have served over 300 children and their families since then again throughout a tumultuous time in our community. We provide obviously free year round all day access with on-site food services and each family is a lot of family service worker who establishes goals with those families to help them reach economic stability. Bouter, as we finally call it and what our friend Dr. Lillian Bouter is so proud of, has met a long, unmet need in Long Reach Village Center. Bouter must stay and we are grateful for our partners in county government for insisting that any plan that is proposed for Longreach include the Bouter Education Center. In the past year, I've had the opportunity to meet with the Columbia Concepts team to understand their passion and their vision for the Longreach community. Rather than simply creating another multi-use center, and their passion and their vision for the long-reach community. Rather than simply creating another multi-use center, this team has a vision for addressing community needs. In fact, they have assured us that CAC will have a presence with the Bouter Education Center remaining as part of this community. They know that access to free and low-cost childcare is a sure way to maintain economic stability in a community, but by designing the new Long Reach Village Center to include the Bouter Education Center, Columbia Concepts, demonstrates care for the greater community and the Long Reach neighborhood. It assures that CAC parents will still be able to walk their two to five year olds every day to their classrooms. Accessing CAC's to generation services are Howard County Food Bank and meeting their goals towards economic and social mobility. Our Bouter families live in Longreach. They are walking their children to school and the Columbia Concepts Plan seeks to include them in the future of Longreach Village Center. I as such I urge you to approve their plan and consider what they are doing to continue to serve that community. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Buckley. Next up we have Howard Krieger. Okay. Next up we have Eric Chavaria? Erica, sorry. Good evening. My name is Erica Chavaria. I'm a former wildlife high school teacher of 13 years and the founder and executive director of Columbia Community Care, a Howard County non-profit that focuses on hunger relief, community programs, and youth programs. I am here to speak in strong support of CR 161 and 162. This project is extremely important to me and my organization. We have been a tenant of the Village Center for several years now, providing food distribution to the families of Long Beach on Saturday mornings. Recently, we moved our main headquarters to the Village Center as well, where we accept donations and operate our grocery home delivery service. We have hundreds of volunteers per week that come to our pantry and help us serve our community, and hundreds of families per week that come to access our food distribution. We would love nothing more than to see these hundreds of CCC families and volunteers not only come to the Village Center for Columbia Community Care but to have access to a resource rich and beautiful community hub. Urban Renewal is not just about transforming physical spaces, it's about uplifting people and communities. When we invest in our neighborhoods we send a powerful message, you matter. The inclusion of Columbia Community Care and the Community Action Council, two organizations that are dedicated to supporting families is a powerful way to show this community that their needs are recognized. Their struggles are acknowledged, and their well-being is prioritized. It shows that the Columbia Concepts team prioritizes addressing basic needs, fostering connections, and building resilience in our community. Longreach Village Center, an ideal location with immense potential, has lacked proper investment for far too long. But Columbia Concepts, ecstatically stunning design that is also resource rich and family centered, is a beautiful reimagining of Longreach Village Center's potential. With the Columbia Concepts team, we have an opportunity to create a space that not only meets the functional needs of residents, but also inspires pride and hope. When a community sees tangible investments in its future, it instills a sense of worth and belonging. This project is more than bricks and mortar. It is about the people who will benefit from it. It's a revitalization that will bring economic benefits, including jobs, and restore the Village Center to prominence as a community hub. This redevelopment will be a shiny example of what happens when a community is seen, heard, and supported. We are fortunate to have Columbia Concepts leading this project. They are the best team for the job, equipped with the expertise, vision, and dedication needed to get it done and done right. By supporting this redevelopment, we are not only enhancing infrastructure, but also reinforcing the message that the people of this community are valued and cared for. This investment tells residents of Long Beach that their well-being is not just a priority, it is the foundation for a brighter future. I urge you to approve this plan and make this vision a reality. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Jackie In, you're up next. Good evening, Councilmembers. The housing, Jackie Yang, coordinator of the Housing and Apportability Coalition. We appreciate this opportunity to voice our strong support of the Longreach Village Center Urban Renewal Project, particularly the intent to create an inclusive living destination. As the redevelopment project evolves, we look forward to additional details about how the forecasted 330 rental and poor sale units will achieve the proper vision of meeting the community's needs regardless of their age, income level, family dynamics, and stages of life. Specifically our questions will include, will the residential component include 20% moderate income housing units across the multifamily apartments, senior and townhouse ownership phases. How many rental units will be affordable to households making 60% or less of AMI? What will be the availability income level for the four sale townhomes? What level of accessibility and visitability will there be across all units? Will those accessibility standards meet the needs of seniors and people with physical disabilities? Will the Hoco by design goal of 10% accessibility of all affordable housing units be met? What amendment to the preliminary development plan, zoning requirements will be required to include the proposed residential uses effectively. What amendments to the final development plan will be required. One issue of coalition concern is the destination long reach of statement that if the affordable housing is put on Howard Hughes land, that that housing would be counted toward Howard Hughes' obligations under the downtown Columbia plans, developers' rights and responsibilities agreement, the DRA. The Long Reach Village Center is not within the downtown footprint, and therefore in the Coalition's view, it would be inappropriate for such a transfer of obligation. Thank you, council members, for the opportunity to express the coalition support for CR 161. We are enthusiastic about the redevelopment of this important part of our community, which will be a much needed housing and economic stimulation. Thank you. Thank you. Any questions? Joel Hurwitz is next. Thank you. Thank you. Any questions? Joel, her wit, says next. Thank you. Hi, good evening, Joel. You've now been elevated. Feel free to unmute yourself when you're ready to I'm going to go to the next meeting. Maybe can you hear me? Yes, we can hear you. Two meetings going. Joel Hurwitz in Columbia. Last one I've disappointed I haven't heard where we haven't heard from the Maloper of this project First for the record the VIP center was never legally blighted is required by the county codes state law and Maryland Constitution the county code Says that a blighted area Choming in an area with the majority the buildings have to quiet in productivity by reason of obsolescence depreciation or other causes To an extent of any longer justify fundamental repairs at it They've been maintained throughout all this long decade long process regarding the plan as member young Indian is this not a plan? It's only concepts for plan. Prior plan failed in large part due to the failure of the developer to reach agreement to acquire the rich friend liquor and deli town parcels. When that fell apart, CA moved forward with renovating Stonehouse and the art center. The board has not discussed the long reach for development publicly. When I asked Jeremy Sharpenberg, he said there's been no formal discussions with the developer. The packet for this week's CA board meeting on Thursday has several mentions of Stonehouse funding, including the discussions last month's meeting of supplemental funding for the redevelopment. Talks about construction has completed the major renovation of the elevator addition of Stonehouse and began work on phase two center It also met the FY 2029 $175,000 for exterior of Sodr improvements There's no evidence the developer will acquire Stonehouse in the art center at a price that will compensate the lean hundreds of Columbia for the value of C.A.'s buildings and the renovations C.A. did not appear before the planning board. Apparently they're not here tonight. Howard Hughes did not appear before the planning board for going their parcel. Neither C.A., Howard Hughes, Deletona provided a letter of support. Rich Birds letter of support. It's kind of weak. It does not discuss that they're actually offering the sale of their property. In the document, paraphrase, it says, destination long reach represents an effort to redevelop the entire urban renewal areas reflected in the illustration above on the prior page by focusing on acquiring or partnering with adjacent property owners to activate the entire urban room malaria. To this end, the owner of Rich Brown Lickers and adjacent parcel supports Columbia concept's vision as attached in their letter. We will work with all property owners to explain the benefit and value of teaming with Columbia concepts in this historic and critical long-reach redevelopment building center redevelopment opportunity. Even if limited to those village center footprint, our destination concept remains viable. As the illustration below reflects, our concept is designed, would create wonderful opportunities losing only the senior center location, townhomes in a small portion of the retail area. But we are confident our concept offers surrounding parcels and mutually beneficial path forward, that participation and destination language would be likely. With the additional owners, what will the project look like with all of the multiple permutations of the parcels if they don't acquire the Dalek former Delhi town rich bird, CA, the power power use parcels. Furthermore, page 9 is not even clear when it, in the text it says that two parcels are not included while CA's parcels are included in the outside proposed redevelopment site in the table on that page. Therefore, this project should not be approved until there's some signed agreement to sell my CA, how it used rich burden and the former Deletel. Not that they have to sell it but have a contract for sale. However, if the developer will take the county's parcels off the tans, Council will discuss that this project, as DICE says, the other people are testified, it is not ready yet. So we get some more clarity on the ownership because I cannot understand. You don't build this, but you have this and where the roads are going to go. There are too many questions if they don't really have agreement to choir in part. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Herwitz. We have one witness signed up for CR 162 that we haven't called yet to. Emily Ayaki. Yeah. Good evening. Chair Walsh, Vice Chair Jones, and members of the County Council. I'm Emily Ayaki, Chief of the Real Estate Services Division. And I am testifying in support of Council resolution 162 2024 Excuse me Which would declare that certain real property known as the Longreach Village Center containing approximately 7.71 acres and located at 8775 cloud-leap court in Columbia is no longer needed by the county for public purposes and Authorizes the county to sell the property to Columbia Concepts LLC or its subsidiary. The county acquired the property in 2014 and 2015 pursuant to the Urban Renewal Project initiated by Council Resolution No. 22, 2014. The Department of Public Works determined that there is no longer a use for the property and issued a request for proposals for offers to submit detailed plans for redevelopment of the property. Columbia Concepts LLC was selected for the purchase and redevelopment and under Section 4201 of the Howard County Code, the County Council's authorized to waive the advertising and bidding requirements for the conveyance of this property at the request of the county executive. Thank you again for your consideration and I respectfully request your approval of this resolution. Thank you. Thank you No questions for you Miss Ayaki doesn't seem we have one more witness for both CR 161 and 162 and that is Brian Kim. Good evening, Councilmembers. For the record, my name is Brian Kim. I am a resident at Ellicke City and also the managing director of Columbia Concepts. Columbia Concepts is a joint venture between established entities with deep county roots. Significant development experience and diversity like our community. After all, the most important member of our team is our community. Our team brings over 150 years of cumulative experience, not only revitalizing underutilized government only, but also successfully leading the design, entitlement, development, financing, and construction process of mixed income development. We are dedicated to revitalizing Longreach Philly Center and restoring its role as a community hub. In redeveloping Longreach Philly Center, our primary goal is to create a new hub of commercial and residential activity that will serve as a catalyst for transforming the village center, and its surrounding neighborhoods into a vibrant, sustainable ecosystem. Our development plan intentionally incorporates many elements of the plan Howard 2030 vision, and the re-imaginedRitch Village Center proposed plan, including economic sustainability, connectivity, community spaces, and inspiring building and site design. Our team will also strive to incorporate micro mobility transportation system to allow connectivity between the various county pedestrian and bike trails to the village center. We embrace the legacy of the village center as a hub for arts and culture exploration with a modern touch in the process. Public art will be utilized throughout the development as recommended by Hoco by Design as part of the general plan. Each facet of our concept aims to transform the Long Reach village center into a destination location for the best county in the country. For this reason, our proposal is aptly named destination Longreach. Some of the information about our redevelopment program. The destination Longreach will feature more than 330 residential, rental, and four cell housing. Residential components will be, retail will be located on the ground level of the residential units. It would also include various income levels and generational consisting of workforce, senior, market rate affordable, with efficiencies, one bedroom and two bedroom options, and also redevelopment program will also offer four cell town homes to cater to the income brackets within the county. The destination long, which will focus on creating a community destination with rental apartments for senior residents. The ground level will have an updated CA art center, facilities for nonprofits like Community Action Council of Harrow County, Columbia Community Care, a senior activity center, and other community focus activities currently operating in Longreach Village Center. with retail options to complement various indoor activities. The youth sports industry expanding, making facilities access for year-round sports and tournaments increasingly difficult due to limited space. This complex located to both new and traditional sports like Pickleboy and Volleyball, by offering flexible design for multiple sports, such as basketball, it aims to attract participants and boost local retail and dining businesses. We also aim to partner with Columbia associations as well as the county to enhance programs offered at the multi-sports complex. Additional green space amenities exist to provide mixing points for visitors and residents. We included a landscape green space along the main gateway to the village center, providing a visual layering from Tamar Drive. Pedestrians and vehicle operators on Tamar can see the outdoor activity of the green space and beyond to the different activities of the village center. The green space will support weekly and seasonal activities including farmers market, pop-up shops, outdoor concerts and festivals, each of which will spur participation from local vendors. The pedestrian experience is improved by a pedestrian only retail promenade. Additionally, we propose a wide sidewalk to guide visitors and residents through the various outdoor spaces to activate the interstitial areas. Our redevelopment plan anticipates keeping the neighboring gas station and church site in its original location aiming to enhance them as part of the destination language. We will work with both landowners to incorporate their buildings ensuring synergy with our redevelopment goals. Thus we focus on collaborating with the remaining five parcel owners to activate the urban renewal area. Even without participation from certain adjacent land owners, our mission to bring a vibrant, active, community focused development to Long Ridge Phyllis Center will not be compromised. We have made a commitment to the community and we fully intend to deliver on our promises. But we are confident our concept offers surrounding properties, a mutually beneficial path forward, such that their participation and destination long reach is likely. Upon the approval of the Urban Renewal Plan, our team is prepared to move forward to the Major Village Center redevelopment process. During this process, we will fully identify partnership with potential adjacent landowners, work with the community and the team members to develop a detailed development plan, identify preliminary financing sources. We are confident with the assemblage of the talented and well-respected team members of Columbia Concepts. We have the intellectual and financial resources to deliver destination long reach. In closing, we want to thank the members of the county council, the county executive office, the Longreach Village Board, and the community for this opportunity to share our vision for destination long reach. We ask that you approve the county resolution 161 and 162. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Kim used to be a member. I don't know how many people are registered. I don't know. I see Ms. Basu in the back. I know Mr. Freeman used to be a member. I don't know how many people are registered. I don't know how many people are registered. I don't know how many people are registered. I don't know how I see Ms. Basu in the back. I know Mr. Freeman used to be a member. How many people came here from Longreach Village Board today? One, two, million, yes. So there's four of you. Ms. Basu, would you be the best spokesperson? Guys, how many times have we not let people do it? I know, I mean, this is a problem. I just think. We shut down normal citizens every day. This is a huge redevelopment and I do think. I know. This is important. I think there was a misunderstanding about who was going to sign up for whom. I understand that. I just know that I understand that. I can't remember that. We that. Are you the current president of that of that? OK, come on up. We will be very grateful. And we'll hear from you. Thank you. And again, I apologize for our errors. I'm Nina Basu on behalf of the Longreach Village Board. The Longreach Community Association is pleased to collaborate with Columbia Concepts LLC, as it moves forward with seeking approval of the Urban Renewal Plan. LRCA believes that any future development should include collaboration with the community and stakeholders, as well as LRCA. The LRCA previously approved a Village Center Master Plan in 2012 and has embarked upon a review and update of the Villebs Center master plan in light of the changes in the community. LRCA supports a mixed use development in the Long Beach Village Center that includes retail, residential, community, and green space. LRCA seeks a redevelopment of Long Beach Village Center to be a focal point for the community to gather. We intend to be a focal point for the community to gather. We intend to be actively engaged and provide community feedback at every stage in this process. As Councilwoman Young did note, our Village Board is very engaged in this process. We have been meeting with Columbia Concepts in our open village board meetings. We are going through our community focus, community based update to our 2012 village center master plan with a diverse community committee that is made up of long reach residents. And we look forward to being engaged as this process moves forward and we're happy to entertain any questions from the council. Thank you miss Basu and thank you to the other members of the Longreach Village Board for coming out on this very cold evening and showing your support. I think that that's critical to the ultimate success of this project and it is good to see all of you. Thank you. Any questions? Thank you. Chair Walsh, we have Mr. Anderson. Can you clarify? My apologies. We did have one more person who signed up to a test fire on behalf of CR 162. So Matt Matt will height. Okay. He's in person. All right. Please come for Mr. Wilhite and Mr. Anderson is he individual or yes and just for the one one resolution correct just for timing three minutes. Yes, just this one. Okay. This was it Thank you. Thank you staff for doing that. I was a late Fill in I guess Thank you Madam Chair and members of the council again Matt Wilhite owner home at one zero four zero nine Kings Bridge Road in Ellicott City Talk about the process. I have no opinion on this project or what's being built here or the residents or their opinion or what it's going to be. I have a concern about the process. As you know, I don't like giving property away for free. I don't like putting them off RRP, which is a request for proposal, not for real estate sale. I have a concern that less than four miles away in another item you're going to offer to spend $5.5 million to build a building for services for the county here. Again, you know, when we say we have surplus property, I guess I understand that it has to be the guy for the best public purpose, but it also has to be the best value of the residents. And when we have property and we're giving it away again, when we're going to spend five and a half million dollars for one less lesson four miles away. I have concerned that are we being really responsible fiscally with our dollars for the taxpayers? And that's what I'm looking at. My taxes didn't go down this year, but there's certainly going to go up. When we give property away and we spend five million on another piece, or maybe we needed a building for that attorney, that inspector general, we talked about it the last time he talked about it. You know I talked about process. We gave away a piece in Columbia for the college. Yet we still need to house the Inspector General. All these things. So I just have a real concern that I keep talking about when we say we don't have a need for property and we're selling it. What is the sale price of this property? Is it gonna cover the one that we're buying or wanting to purchase five miles away, I'm sorry. So again, I'm just coming to raise my concerns, not individually, but everyone's opinion here about this project or this project individually, but about the process about what we're doing with our assets that us as the taxpayers own, that someone else is making decisions for us, and they make it in the best, being the most fiduciary and responsible with our tax dollars. So I'm gonna keep watching the projects, and I'm hoping that the best process is being done on our behalf, but I do have concerns and I want to raise them every time we talk about having properly we want to just give away or give away to a developer or to a project or something we think. And we don't really know we need in the future, do we? I certainly know we need some other locations for some more fire stations right now, or all of a sudden the inspector general comes up And we need something so I think giving these away We need to really think about our long-term range our long-range plans about what we're gonna do for everything here And what we have planned so again those are my concerns. Thank you Thank you I believe we are now leaving 161 and 162. Okay. All right. Then that means we will now continue with public testimony for our January legislation. Do we have any students here to testify? Or online? Okay. Then will the administrator please read the legislation for the hearing beginning with the resolutions for appointments. The following legislation is introduced by the chairperson at the request of the county executive unless otherwise noted. Council Resolution 1, 2025 appointing Edward Coleman to the alcoholic beverage hearing board. Mr. Coleman. Good evening. Strange to sit on this side of the mic. The, I believe most you know me in brevity. I was on the planning board, the recreation of parks advisory board. I'm currently on the school board task force funding. So I've interacted with you in various capacities. I'm a software engineer by trade. Basically, do you have any questions for me? Or is there anything that I can add? Anything do you want to know? I just want to say. OK. Thank you so much for being here tonight. OK. Thank you. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry disabilities. I get it in Dr. Arreas we're now ready for you to begin your testimony. Please begin when you're ready. Hello, good evening everyone and council members. I'm honored to be considered to serve on this council advising on disabilities. I've seen firsthand the different barriers that our citizens can encounter and I want to eliminate those on behalf of the council. I have served previously on a similar type of council, both at local state and other levels and I can bring that expertise and professionalism along with the PhD studies that I was engaged in. Do you have any questions for me from the council? It doesn't. Look that way. Thank you, Dr. O'Reyes. Thanks again. Council Resolution 3, 2025, Reappointment, Alicia, Alta Murano, S. Quarer to the Law and Law and Zalatina Commission. Council Resolution 4, 2025. Reappointment of Santiago Sierra to the Law of Lanzalatina Commission. Council resolution 5, 2025. A reappointment of James Cecil to the Planning Board. Mr. Cecil. Good evening, everybody. And James Cecil from Elkridge. No reappointments usually don't need to come to testify, but I wanted to for a couple of reasons one. To thank you for confirming my appointment. Last time I was here for this, I've really enjoyed my experience on the planning board. I feel a lot of value in the work that we do as a board. And also I know last time there were concerns around the time my appointment came up. And I know some of that was just kind of the form out of the board that has been resolved and working through and hopefully we'll get another D5 member at some point soon. But I did want to make sure in full transparency of if there was feedback or anything for me that I was here and available for you all if needed. So if there's any questions or feedback. I just wanted to be here because again, I do appreciate it and the opportunity to continue. Questions, go ahead, Ms. Yala. I just wanted to thank you, Mr. Cicil, for your thoughtfulness and your openness to all the people who are testifying for the planning board. You have an excellent temperament for this job, and I know it's volunteer, so it's not really, it's certainly not a paid job, but it has to be to a certain extent, a labor of love. But it's important that people on these boards and commissions, particularly those who interact and make decisions, that impact the community, have the kind of welcoming, I think, ability that you have. And I just wanted to thank you for all of that and let you know how much I appreciate it. I appreciate that and like as I appreciate getting to hear from everybody that I've gotten to hear from I've learned an incredible amount. Especially everybody's situations across the counties has It's been a great experience, so thank you. You strike me as a very open-minded member of the planning board, and that is so important. Being open-minded to everyone and everyone's viewpoints. I appreciate it, and I just appreciate you all being opened to our feedback whenever we've included them. Even tonight I was looking at the support we had for long reach. I did not mean to be included so much myself in that, but I appreciate an opportunity to amplify voices when they need it, but also we've taken the opportunity to send some things back. There need to be done better for the community so thank you. Mr. Howard you'll tell me if Mr. Igby wants to weigh in because I am not paying attention on my computer is that a request I can make? Yes and she is not weighing in. She has not raised her hand. Okay. Mr. Cecil before you leave I also wanted to extend my appreciation to you for your service on that board. It is a little overachieving to come and ask us this question, but we appreciate overachievers. I particularly the insight and experience you have living on Route 1. We haven't always heard that in that planning board discussion. You bring it every time and you always make great points and it's really important for our community and development of that particular corridor that we have you there so I would imagine we're happy to reappoint you but thanks for coming tonight. Thank you all so much. Council Resolution 6 2025 reappointment for Barbara Mosher to the Planning Board Council Resolution 7 2025 reappointment of Stephen L. Town to the Commission on Disabilities. And as we discussed, Chair, I was gonna read the TAAO and Council Bill's together, Council TAAO 1 FY 2025, transferring $5,345,000 for Project C0360, real estate planning design and Council Bill 1 2025, authorizing an empowering bonds of $2,445,000. Thank you. And we have three witnesses total for those two pieces of legislation. The first is Emily Ayaki. Good evening again, Chair Walsh, Vice Chair Jones, and members of the County Council. Again, I'm Emily Ayaki, Chief of the Real Estate Services Division. And I'm testifying in support of T TAO number one fiscal year 2025, which would provide for the transfer of $5,345,000 from various capital projects to capital projects C0360 real estate planning and design. These funds would be used to acquire an office building located at 9755 Patux Woods Drive, and Columbia for the county's future use. These under section 609 of the Howard County Charter, the county council is authorized and empowered to make interproject transfers and appropriations between capital projects upon the request, excuse me, of the county executive. Funding would be transferred from C, C0376, the Troy Park indoor track facility, C0377, public ice rink facility, C0378, the data center, and C0365 systemic renovations. The funds will be placed in C0360 to provide the funds necessary for the acquisition of 9755 Patuxent Woods Drive. The property includes a three-story building with approximately 98,000 square feet of office space. The location is close to the county's human services complex and other state community and nonprofit organizations. The county intends to move county agencies from least space to the county owned space in the future. Thank you for your consideration of this legislation this evening. Do we want to put this on a work session or should I just ask questions? I just have a couple. Okay, go ahead. All right, Miss Ayaki. How are you tonight? I'm doing well. How are you? Good. Nice to see you. Thank you. So, because I know Mr. Wilhite's gonna get up here and he's gonna say, what are we doing spending this money again? And I, you know, that I share some of those same concerns because you've heard it from me. So I'm wondering, how do you have any idea how many people we will be able to put in that building and how many leases we will be able to end as a result of purchasing this building. I know at one point we had looking out over the course of time, not on a yearly basis, but we had $90 million in leases. And that one of the big reasons for purchasing this building was the cost. And that the cost of the building was significantly less than what was paid the last time that this building changed hands. So I guess start with the easiest. Can you tell us the last time the building changed hands, what it was, what the cost of the building was? I apologize. I don't have that right in front of me at this time. Is Mr. Shepter still here? Did he, is he still here? No, he left. I think he told us it was 21 million, but I'm not sure, in which case we are getting a great deal. But could you send the council information about how many people you think we'll be able to put in that building, which leases we will be able to not renew as a result of purchasing this building. And how much money the county will ultimately save as a result of purchasing this building and being able to end leases and put people in this building. I think that would be good information for us to know. Right, right. And it had been mentioned previously we were working on a facilities master plan and I believe that this building and the leases would be incorporated within that master plan as well. Excellent. How far along are you guys on this master plan? That is the Bureau of Facility. So I apologize I don't have a current update on their status. Okay. I know they've been working on it for a while. So I'm hoping that they're going to be done soon. Right. Okay. All right. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. That's it. Thank you. Thank you, miss Yock. Next up we have Matt Wilhite. Hello, Mr. Wilhite. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. Matt Wilhite, 1049-14001. Is your old 4049 King's Ridwood. Again, the irony. Here we are. Now I'm happy to hear we're saving on some leases. If it was 21 million last time, it's five. Now we've done a great real estate deal. What were the costs of the leases in the meantime that we didn't buy at the first time would be a first question. And I'm glad, thanks for asking that. Madam, Mr. Representative Young. Yeah. Councilwoman. young. Yeah. Yeah. Out to woman. Yeah. Yes. But again, it's 3.8 miles away from the one we just gave away at the college as well. We talked about it at that meeting that we needed one for the inspector general. All these things we just keep talking about, but again, land, and this is rare. Land does not usually go down. Great deal here. But again, what is our overall plan? And if they're working on it, let's get to the end game because we're not getting any younger here. Let's find out what that plan is and let's put it in place and stop messing around with giving land away, buying land, leases. This robbing Peter to pay Paul just doesn't make sense here to me. We're a growing community. Let's start looking like it. And again, I only signed up for this because the price we're buying a building and we just gave one away last month. I know the college is somewhat funded by the county as well, but still we could have worked something out there, hopefully, even in the meantime to get rid of some leases or something. So, but I appreciate your comments. And again, just looking out fiscal year for all of us taxpayers in this process. Thank you. Thank you. Last up on those two pieces of legislation, we have Jen Sager. Sure, I'm good evening, Jennifer Sager, from County Administration. Council Bill 1 is the bond enabling piece that relates to TAO 1. There's a total of 2,445,000 in bonds that need to be put on capital project CO360 and Council Bill 1 is the mechanism to do that. Thank you. Any questions or comments? All right. Thank you, Miss Sager. T-A-O-O-2 FY 2025 transferring $2,500,000 from E-1038 planning and design. And Council Bill 2 2025, bond enabling for $2,500,000 for E-1058 systemic renovations. We also have three witnesses here for the combination of those two. The first of them is Mr. Dan Lubley. Good evening, Chair Walsh, Council members. I'm Dan Lubli, Executive Director, Capital Planning and Construction for our County Public School System. I'm here with Mr. Cornell Brown Jr., our Chief Operating Officer. This evening to speak in favor of TAO2 2025 and CB2 2025. These legislations request to transfer $2.5 million to fund a public-private partnership study and an educational sufficiency study for each of the HCPSS facilities. The Board of Education approved this recommended capital budget transfer at its December 12, 2024 meeting. As studies are not bondable projects, the Community Community Capital Budget Transfer at its December 12, 2024 meeting. As studies are not bondable projects, the transfer includes moving bond funds from the Hammond High School Renovation and Edition project, which is E1024, which is completing construction and is in the closeout and warranty phases. Sufish and funds to complete these phases have been maintained in the project. The transfer funds will be placed into the systemic renovation modernization project E1058, which contains bondable bond eligible projects. And then transfer fund transfer tax funds in the same amount will be moved into planning and design project E1038 for the studies. The P3 study will allow ACPSS to hire consultants to along with other stakeholders. Investigate the P3 model and determine if it is viable for some of our immediate needs. This study is also in line with Hoco by Design Chapter 8, PS2 AI number one, or IA number one. The Educational Sufficiency Study will allow for more comprehensive study of all the physical educational and spatial needs of the HCPSS facilities. This study will provide more comprehensive and updated data to be used in the future capital budget prioritization process. Thank you for having me here tonight and I'm happy to answer any questions that you may have. Go ahead. Go ahead. No, no, you're not first. I'm looking. Seems like a lot of money to pay for a consultant to do a study on the public private partnership. I'm hoping that I understand we're not going to spend that whole 2.5 million on the public private partnership consultant, but has there been any initial sort of look into the consulting market to see what to expect for this to pay this individual and why am I not a consultant? I mean, I think about how many people have come in front of us and asked for hundreds of thousands of dollars and millions of dollars for consultants and I am sad that I'm not one. Go ahead. Thank you for the question to provide clarity. The $2.5 million is for both studies, the P3 study as well as the educational sufficiency study, which are two separate studies. We did consult with other local education agencies, most recently Charles County, did a P3 study. They budgeted a little over 200,000 and ended up spending about 300,000 on their study. And through conversations with them, they recommended that we budget around 500,000. So that's what we're looking at for the P3 study. The educational sufficiency study would be the remaining amount. Yes, we would hope not to spend the 2.5 million, but we want to make sure that we do have the funds available to do adequate studies. How soon would you be able to start these studies? I'm particularly concerned about the second study, because we know that the school district is not getting sufficient funds from the county in order to meet all of their capital needs. And I'm fearful that we keep putting off making sure that we are satisfying or at least better satisfying these capital needs by not having this major plan in place. Sort of like not having our major facilities plan in place. Are we doing the right thing with all of our facilities? Are we still just sort of looping along when we're waiting to have a plan in place? So how long do you think it will take for that plan to be in place once this money is transferred? So the plan for our capital budget in the process we are currently working on and we are looking to present a Plan for the prioritization process to the board here in March The studies Specifically whenever the transfer is approved. we are currently working on RFPs for those studies so that as soon as the funds are approved, we can put those out for competitive bid so that we can have open and transparent bidding for both of the different studies. Each study will take a different amount of time, the educational sufficiency study, since it is looking at all of our facilities, we'll take longer. We're anticipating at least a year for that complete study to take place because it is a very detailed comprehensive study. Well, we have talked about this in work session, so I don't wanna go too deep into it, but I am concerned that we're a total year out again from making sure that we started talking about this, I guess, in September. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I'd be happy to put on work session. Okay. Do I need, do we need a thirder is too enough to put on work session? Two is enough to put on work session? Two is enough to put on work session. And is that both the TIO and CB2? Yeah. Dr. Jones, did you have a comment or question? Yeah, I was just going to say with respect to the P3, I'm a fan of it. I think that if that part of the study could be done sooner than later, probably beneficial to all. I've seen and heard about successes around the region and the country. I know that there's some pros and cons, but I've seen, you know, from an edge cage standpoint, I've seen successes in that. So I'm a fan of it, the faster it could be done, the better. Thank you. I'm the opposite. I'd like to hear about any other PE3 consultant paid half a million dollars who concludes that you shouldn't go forward with it. I mean, it's a predetermined conclusion at this point. I'd rather just proceed with it and reserve that half a million dollars for something else. I'd also really like to hear from the school board in this work session. We're going to schedule as to why they've departed from a vote that they've taken, at least twice that I've seen, voting against this kind of further consideration. And like Ms. Young, it physically pains me, both that were diverting funds from desperately needed capital expenditures. And that we're preserving a status quo. I see Mr. Brown. I'd love to hear from you. Another detail I'd like to hear in that work session is I know when Mr. Brown was first brought on, we heard about the last time we did this kind of systemic analysis of where our actual needs were. I don't remember the year, but do we also hire a consultant for that? And was it a commensurate cost that we're asking for now? But again, we talked, I think, before the last capital budget process about how indefensible, how ad hoc the priorities of that capital budget seem to be, and the solution that we identified more than a year ago was we were going to have that board agree to a priority plan that we were actually going to stick to. We are, I mean, every time you guys testify in, I bet they're going to be there at the work session, people show up with that board that shows the rankings and the respective schools that bears no relation to what a majority of that board is voting for in terms of capital priorities. And we're gonna continue that disconnect for at least a year according to your calculation. These are horrifying things that I'm staying out my mouth right now now to me at least. Good evening. Cornell Brown Chief Operating Officer with Howard County Public School System. And thank you for that. So if we can address the private public partnership evaluation first. So the study is not to only say yes or no we would like to move forward a P3 program but it is also to evaluate opportunities within Howard County. Not just P3 up or down but what opportunities do we have as a school system to engage the market? And that's different from other LEAs. They have different opportunities, different programs, different portfolio. So the study is not just to say yes or no, P3, but what opportunities are out there. The study is also to look at the financing structure within Howard County because our budget here and Howard County is different than Prince George's County, Carroll County, any other jurisdiction. So we look to bring on financial advisors who would be able to look at the school systems budget, our county's budget, money that we're getting from the state, and the requirements of addressing the needs within our portfolio. So that's very unique to this school district, very unique to this county, and that's really the purpose for moving forward with the evaluation and engaging and consultant that can bring on board the financial advisors that could help us through that. So it's not yes or no P3 is more than that. So that's the one thing. Then the second thing, and we kind of talked about this a little bit when I came on board in September. I started in August and we started talking about what we need to fully lay out a comprehensive capital program. The state has done the local education agencies a favor, as I had mentioned before, by evaluating the condition of our buildings. So we have that data. We know through the state's eyes, the facilities condition of our roofing systems, mechanical systems, and buildings, but what we do not have, and I'm sorry if I'm a little bit redundant, we do not have the information that really speaks towards how our buildings are performing in terms of supporting our instructional programs, our wraparound services, our administrative building. So, a classroom that is needed for a special ed facility and where our special ed programs are, we don't have that data quantified in order to lay out a full program. And so it just takes time. Just like it took the state, it took them a couple of years to go throughout all of the buildings to do that evaluation. But we're looking at not this coming capital budget cycle, but the one following where we'll have that data that will inform the capital program and we can couple that with the priorities that we're going to the criteria that we're going to put in place this year. So we'll have the state data, we'll have the criteria to prioritize and we'll have the data that says how well our buildings are performing when you talk about supporting our academic programs. And once we put all three of those together, then we'll be able to lay out a 20-year plan, a 25-year plan that could be modified, you know, over the years as we make improvements. So our goal is to have a comprehensive plan. Our goal is not to nickel and dime it. Our goal is to use data to make the decisions. And our goal is to help put on a shelf that emotional response to my building first. So we've just never gone full throttle with this type of assessment now in 2008. I believe there was an assessment done in 2008, but now it's 2025. So industry standard says, you have three to five years, you should reassess. I will be on that. You're talking about 16, 17 years of reassessing. And so now it's, we're beyond that. You're talking about 16, 17 years of reassessing. And so, you know, now is, we're beyond time. So, putting forth the investment to really take a look in America, get your playbook together. So, we're all on the same page as what we're talking about here. And it's just what we do in industry to, you know, lay out what our requirements really are. I know that's a long response to we have to do the homework, but with the homework then we can put some of these conversations to rest, but we always have to come back and just take a look and say, okay, what's changed, what improvements have we made? Where are we from a fiscal standpoint? It makes tweaks and that's gonna be an ongoing process when you start talking about a portfolio as large as the portfolio that we're managing. Okay, thank you, Mr. Brown, for coming up. Anyone else? We're still doing what, too. else? Mr. Rigby. No. Okay. All right. Thank you both. I think we have. We still have Mr. Jens Sager. We also have Mr. Matt. Oh, sorry. Mr. Wilhite. Thank you, Matt Wilhite. I'm 0409, Kingsford Road. The real question is if Hammond High School had $2.5 million extra, how much was that original contract for? And does it not need it? I mean, it's had three renovations, according to the Wikipedia, quick, quick, quick, a sense it was built. Centennial has had zero, and it was built one year later. And I'm begging for fence just around the portables, every council meeting I go to for the school board. I mean, I'd like doing studies. I'd like to get this study done. So we take the pillow, because every time there's an election, schools seem to get moved around for whoever's district is up and now Centennial High School is up to 2036. If you moved into Centennial district where I moved a year and a half ago, your children probably wouldn't attend Centennial before it got renovated. So all the taxes you'd have paid that I've been paying, it's pretty high in my neighborhood where I live, and that Centennial would get no money for the entire time my kids live there to go to that school but Hammond has an extra two and a half million dollars to be giving up to do a study. I just really wonder and my complete argument and concern every time I've gone to the school board to speak was on school safety. Wasn't about teachers, wasn't about facilities. It was strictly about safety and all I'm asking then is if they have two and a have extra million dollars, I hope ham in high school is the most safe school there is. Even though Guilford Park was the last one built in this county, which should have the most modern safety features in known to school safety across this country, they better have everything. And if I was a parent giving up to enough million dollars for that school, they better have my kids be the safest. But Centennial doesn't. We don't have any safety features in our school. We have an SRO there. Thank God he's there, the daisies there. They don't backfill or have in their extra days or anything else. But you can knock on the front door where there is a buzzer, but you can walk around the side parking lot and go right in the back door to the portables. Can I get some sidewalks to make sure these kids get to classroom safe right now when the snow's covering the sides of the road and all these features i mean i guess i'm just very frustrated we again politicize the ranking of schools where i bet you in this school system right now and i'm just gonna go out on the limit it would take a billion dollars to bring all of our facilities in this howard county up to safety standards of the entire country of what we're putting out there i mean where i move from, they're putting metal, and I don't like this idea, but they're putting metal detectors in every high school this year. Everyone has one. Again, I don't even have locks on portable doors. They don't lock them. They're not contained within a perimeter or anything. There's this, I just keep going to the school board to question them about safety things and I think they're trying to do some things. But we've got to take it the polarization out of capital for the safety of these kids' lives and the parents that are paying the taxes and stop paying this, pointing this football and playing this game with their lives. And I hope they can get these studies done and I hope they can do it in the most fiscally responsible way and get it done because the money should be in the capital, not in the analysis or studies or contractors. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Wilhite. Ms. Jenseger, you're up next. Sure, I'm here on Council Bill 2, which is the bond enabling related to TAO2. Part of that transfer moves 2.5 million in bonds to capital project E105H systemic renovations. Council Bill 2 is the bond enabling that is the mechanism to get that done. Thank you. Council Bill 3, 2025, a multi-year contract and related loan documents for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Section 108, loan guarantee assistance funding. We have three testifying witnesses for this, then the first is Ms. Rose Burton. Welcome. Thank you, good evening. Council Chair Walsh and Council members, I'm Rosepertin. I'm the recently appointed deputy director for housing and community development. I'm testifying on behalf of the administration in support of Council Bill 3-2025. When the county received its annual award letter from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in 2024, HUD encouraged jurisdictions to use the Section 108 Blown Guarantee Program to address the shortage of affordable rental housing units for low and moderate income households locally. Since Section 108 loans are federally guaranteed, the county can borrow up to five times of its current community development block grant funds in Section 108 loans. HUD encourages jurisdictions to use this CDBG funding for high priority housing projects that meet the national objective of supporting activities for the benefit of low and moderate income households. The county included the section 108 loan guarantee assistance program information in its annual action plan that was reviewed and approved by the council as council resolution 39-2024 on May 6, 2024. On September 24, 2024, HUD issued an approval letter to the county for $5.8 million in funding from the Section 108 Loan Guarantee Program to support the redevelopment of two mixed income housing communities in Columbia. Ranley Court and Waverly Winds. These two enterprise projects will increase the number of apartment units available for rent to households at varying income levels. The county will repay the section 108 loan with annual allocations of $350,000 from its community development block grant funding for a period of 20 years. Enterprise will repay the county from Project Cash Flow for principal and interest payments above $350,000. As required by Section 612 of the County Charter, Council Bill 3 provides authorization for the county Executive to sign a multi-reglement, contracts and related loan documents, as well as establish a debt service reserve account to secure $5.8 million in funding from the Section 108 loan guarantee assistance program. To support the costs associated with relocation, demolition and remediation, and site preparation for both of these redevelopment projects. We anticipate that construction for these two redevelopment projects will begin this spring. We thank you for your consideration of this important legislation. I'd like to put it on the work session. Okay, I'm happy to do that. Okay. One of the questions happy to do that. Okay. One of the questions, you mentioned Ms. Burton that there is a variety of housing units being provided in these two developments, but my understanding from the pilot legislation and others is that the actual number of affordable units does not increase, but rather we're adding to the mix market rate. That's not my understanding. My understanding is that it does increase the number of affordable units. Okay. And they are very significantly. Okay. Ranges of income. Okay. All right. You may say good. Okay. Yeah. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Walt, are you not testifying her? No. Okay. All right. Mr. Walg, are you not testifying her? No. Okay. All right, then that brings us to our last witness. On CB3 who is Jackie In. Good evening again. Jackie Hange on behalf of the Housing and Affordable Collision on the CAs. The coalition's offices are in Patux and Woods Rose in Columbia. On behalf of the Howard County Housing and Fortibility Coalition, I appreciate the opportunity to convey strong support of CB3 approving the administration's request for approval of Section 108, Lone Guarantee that will enable the Randley Place and Waverly Winds redevelopment and housing projects to proceed. It was so little affordable housing stock in the county, the loss of any units, whether due to deterioration or conversion to market rate, has a significant adverse and generational impact on our community. Preservation and redevelopment of our limited number of affordable homes is just as imperative as the construction of new homes. For over 50 years, these community homes properties have provided a significant number of affordable homes to low over 50 years these community homes properties have provided a significant number of affordable homes to low income county residents. Preservation of these projects is consistent with both the Housing Opportunities Master Plan and the newly adopted General Plan that states the scarcity of rental housing affordable to households that make less than 60% of AMI highlights the importance of policies and I would add policy actions that call for affordable housing preservation. The Coalition supports the county's financial assistance for the redevelopment of Randly Court and Waverly Winds, which will replace 103 functionally obsolete units with 205 new accessible up-to-date apartments, close to services, transportation, and medical institutions. The redevelopment will preserve federal rental subsidies, ensuring our lowest income residents continue to be able to call these communities home while creating larger, inclusive communities for people with a range of incomes and abilities. All units will be visible, and 13 will meet uniform federal accessibility standards with another four units that waverly wins being reserved for people with disabilities. The coalition is pleased that 170 and 7 of the units will serve those with incomes 60% of less to the Baltimore area, AMO meeting income, or about $60,000 for a two person household. 56 units will have no income or rent restrictions. The coalition continues to support shifting affordable housing to mixed income communities. Without market rents, the affordable units would once again be at risk of deterioration. Due to a lack of sufficient operating and capital funds. The integration of market rate and affordable units supports amenities such as in this case homework and after school program room, meeting rooms, business center and playground. Importantly, these mixed income properties will contribute to the de-concentration of poverty in Columbia and a hook-up by design goal that we know is shared by council members and community social justice advocates such as the coalition. The coalition supports CB3 and the county's proactive financial assistance for these inclusive communities. Thank you for this opportunity to testify as well to express appreciation to enterprise community development for its commitment to this Howard County neighborhood. Thank you very much. Thanks, missing. Council Bill 4, 2025, a multi-year agreement with the state of Maryland, Howard County, and Montgomery County bus rapid transit. Mr. Dickerson. Oh, nope. Well, we have Mr. Dickerson and Mr. Cookson on our list is only one of you speaking. Okay. Go ahead. You can do what Mr. Walla misburdened. You can do whatever you want, but I mean. Of course. Thank you. All right. You can do whatever you want but I mean of course. All right. We all said. Good evening Chair Walls and Council members. My name is David Cooks and Deputy Administrator of the Howard County Office of Transportation. And here tonight with me as well is Trade Eccristen, the Administrator of the Office of Transportation. I'm here tonight on behalf of the County Administration, request your support for Council Bill 4, the enabling legislation for Howard County and Montgomery County, enter in a memorandum of understanding. For the counties to collaborate, to plan, design, implement, a project to extend the Flash Bus Rapid Transit System from Montgomery County to Howard County. Your I-29 Flash Extension Service was going to build upon the existing flash service operated by Montgomery County, standing this existing terminal stop in Burton'sville to new stops in downtown Columbia, with additional stops in Maple Lawn and Johns Hopkins APL campus. The services intended to provide a seamless one-seat ride for passengers traveling between these key locations in both counties, including downtown Columbia during the AM and PM peak periods, and expected to begin service in 2026. This is a real significant step towards enhancing regional connectivity and improving transit service for our residents and businesses in both counties. I would also like to welcome our partners in the effort, the team from Montgomery County Department Transpiration Station who are here tonight and will provide some testimony and supportive issues initiative. While we are here to advance the MOU tonight, this moment represents many years of collaboration amongst the departments, including the Department of Planning and Zoning, Officer Transportation, the Department of Public Works, and Montgomery County, and including congressional delegations. Together, we have worked to plan, design, and secure federal funding to support this project. This MOU is going to formalize and memorialize this collective effort. Specifically, the MMOU guys are purchasing and funding buses, operating service, building stations, marketing, and coordinating fares. Of these areas, I want to highlight sort of two key aspects, currently underway, the buses and the stations. The four buses that we are purchasing for the service are going to be battery powered electric buses, designed to be very flexible and be able to highly maneuver and be able to maneuver on our roads both in Harrow County and Montgomery County. They're going to be supply with bike wrecks, Wi-Fi, internal and external cameras to provide security. These buses are going to be incorporated into the Montgomery County's fleet, which is already, which is already a, they have already adopted a transition plan to achieve a zero emission fleet by 20, 20, 30, 5. The secondary you want to highlight are the stations we are designing construction. Our partners in the Department of Public Works, who are here as well, are working diligently to ensure the stations will be fully designed and begin construction within the next year to make sure they're ready to go when the service starts. All these stations will be specifically designed to meet operational goals, and they will be able to ride us to board and just embark quickly while providing them with essential information and amenities. This is going to include level station platforms, information, kiosks, and seating. In conclusion, the Accenture Services is an important project that will significantly improve regional transit, connected between Howard and Montgomery counties and sets to saves for more connected and sustainable and efficient transit systems for residents and business in both counties. We respectfully ask for your support for Council Bill 4. Thank you for your time and consideration. We're happy to answer any questions. Go ahead, Mr. Yen. Do we have any interest in work sessioning this as well? I do not. If you want to, I will support you because I know you have some questions. I don't know that you want to ask them all tonight. Yeah, I mean, I don't want to ask them all tonight. But I mean, this has been around for a long time. I think it was Kittleman administration. We started talking about this. So that goes back 10 years. I've never seen anything on who's going to ride on this, what the demand is. We have a lot of expense information, but no marketing. You know, like marketing or demand or how much revenue we think we might bring in. I know at least in downtown Columbia, like a minuscule percentage of people are now commuting into the office. So I just, it's a lot of money without a lot of info. And I know a lot of work's been done based on an identified demand. And you know, a problem we were trying to solve 10 years ago. I just need some conversation of whether that problem still exists. So. I always think more information is better. just need some conversation of whether that problem still exists. I always think more information is better. I mean, I think it's a good idea to sit down with you guys. I also want to welcome Montgomery County here. Thank you all for showing up tonight and supporting this project. I actually have been a huge supporter of bus rapid transits ever since I was first elected. And I think the fact that we're pushing finally toward being able to get it here, connecting with you all. Thank you for letting us connect with you. I actually had a job in Montgomery County in Silver Spring that I ended up quitting because of my commute on 29. And I know that there's gotta be other people who feel very similarly and taking bus rapid transit will be, I think, a huge step forward. So, but that doesn't mean that we shouldn't get answers to all of our questions. Well, I think that's one of the, I think that's one of the things discussed is. Are there dedicated lanes? There's not dedicated lanes. So it's not, you know. It's not, okay. So I just, I just think that, and I know that's being worked on maybe and there's shoulders being worked on, I don't know, but I just, getting updates or not would be useful. Oh, we have a summary of what it's gonna cost us. Not really anything else in support of it. That's all for today. Okay. All right, we'll see you both hopefully at work session. And we do have a representative from Montgomery County Transportation, right? Signed up to testify. Christopher Conklin. Thank you. Good evening, Chris Conclan. I'm the director of Montgomery County Department of Transportation. I'm very pleased to be here and see a different legislative form than I'm used to so you guys conduct business very differently than our council. Are we kinder, Mr. Conclan? Are we? I think you are. I don't know if you're kinder but it's definitely an entirely different format and it's fun and interesting to see that. I wanted to share a little bit of information. We've been operating the bus rapid transit on US 29 for about four years now. It represents about 5% of our overall ridership on our transit system so one of 87 different routes is about 5% of that ridership. It is not what we might have expected in 2019 when we embarked on this given the change in the work environment but it has been one of our most successful projects and we're looking forward to being able to bring that to Howard County and make a seamless connection both for your residents to the Washington DC region but also for our residents to access the growing opportunities in Columbia, Maple on the applied physics lab. I did want to share that we are working on a second phase of this project that would add dedicated lanes closer to downtown Silver Spring. We are able to operate on the shoulders on US 29 for about 40% of the route now. So in the near future, the route will be largely out of fighting with existing traffic on that road and have its own guideway. I did want to acknowledge the extensive collaboration that we have had with your staff in developing this proposal. And it is a relatively unique opportunity where we have a large transit operation and we can add this service. I think at a much lower expense than it would be for a jurisdiction like Howard County to operate this on your own. So I think it's a really interesting model of by county cooperation that we don't see a lot of. And I'm encouraged by the work that we've done with you and your staff to get to this point. I also wanted to mention that the county executive from Montgomery County and our county council, particularly our East County representatives are very excited for this opportunity. As we see additional growth occurring in the East County and this additional connection will help alleviate traffic for our residents and alleviate future pressure on our parking right system in the east county and give a better service to the Howard County residents that want to use this. Convenience is going to be very important as the frequency of service. Both of those are going to be frequent. This is going to be a 30 minute service with access all the way to the end of the line in Silver Spring and it will be very convenient and dependable as we continue to implement the information systems that allow people to know when the bus is going to be there and when to prepare for that trip and also the reliability improvements that we talked about with expanding the amount of bus lanes that are going to be available. I have with us, if you had questions, but you may not given the extensive other discussions you have, our general manager for transit operations, Phil McLaughlin, who would oversee the operation of this service on your behalf and our bus rapid transit program manager, Joanna Conklin, who ideally we were able to carpool here tonight given our relationship, who has led the implementation of this program from Montgomery County since long before I was with the county. So I'm happy to answer any questions you may have about our operation, about how this can serve the residents of Howard County or about the collaboration we've had with you and your staff leading up to this point. And just as a note, a similar action has been introduced to the Montgomery County Council earlier today to allow us to move forward with implementation of the bus purchases and to prepare for service, should you feel so inclined after your work session. Thank you so much. Just one question. I hate to impose on you again because you were so kind to come out tonight in this unbelievable cold weather and again Thank you Montgomery County for coming here Could we impose on you to have somebody show up at the work session with that would you all be willing to do that? Yes, I mean I'm assuming availability with our other commitments We'd be more than happy to support that discussion that That would be great. And that can be done virtually as well, right? Yes, it can. That can be virtually. You wouldn't have to leave your warm little office. Well, we always feel better to see people face to face and work. I agree. I agree. I'm with you on that. Yeah. I'm with you. I know. Yeah. Thank you so much. Okay, thank you. Department of Transportation for coming out. Council Bill 5 2025 amendment for property tax credit disabled law enforcement officer or rescue worker or surviving spouse of fallen law enforcement officers or rescue workers. Mr. Healey. Thank you, Councillor Chaywash, Vice Chair of the Jones and Council Members. I'm Rafu here, Director of Fire for the county. The county administration supports Council V and the O5, that's 2025. This legislation is seeking an amendment to the current disabled law enforcement officer or rescue worker or surveillance parts of fallen law enforcement officer or rescue workers. The current bill has the maximum capacity of $6,000 for eligible task credit based on the asset tax on the property. CD5 2025 will extend the maximum capacity to $10,000. We are participating in the minimum impact, physical impact accounting. Currently we are only 10 people participants for this task credit. On three standard eligible participants, only two will have an access task, greater than the current amount of 6,000 of cash. We currently have information available on our website and all our clinical forms. If this amendment passes, we will update all our clinical forms on our website, all the more, would be nothing that the implementation of this amendment will warrant the additional staff. Thank you for your consideration and your opportunity to support this bill. Any questions? No, I just want to say that I think this is a great idea. And thank you, Mr. Healy. Wait, Mr. Healy, I do have a question. Are you still with us? Yes, I am. Oh, okay. Did you say there's 10 right now? Participants in this program? Yes. One zero. Okay. One zero, yes. All right, thank you. You're welcome. My apologies. Chair Walsh, we have the next two bills. We have duplicates for people who have signed up to testify for both. Would you like me to read both together? Sure. Okay. Council Bill 6, 2025, introduced by Dev Young, Inspector General and Deputy Inspector General Classification Plan Amendment, Council Bill 7, 2025 introduced by Deb Young, Inspector General and Deputy Inspector General Payscale. Okay, and we have four total witnesses for that that will give three times three if they would like to take it For right either six minutes or ten minutes. There are Council bills eight Which is oh we're not combining that okay. All right. I got it. Okay. Sorry All right, so the first witness who we have for those two pieces of legislation, CB6 and 7, is Ms. Anjubenit. May I interrupt for a moment? Yes. Yes. Often we allow these council sponsors to say a few words. All right. Okay. Do you want to go ahead, Deb? Yeah, I introduce these bills as a way to ensure that our new Inspector General will be paid. Once we hire that individual and that at a pay scale that would be appropriate for that individual. And then the, so that involved establishing a class code and a pay grade and pay scales. And then I guess we'll look at the other bill separately. But yes, it was that simple and that was just a part of making sure that we did the appropriate follow through legislation after passing our Inspector General Bill. Fantastic. All right, Ms. Bennett is on WebEx. Yes, thank you. Good evening, Chair Walsh. Vice Chair Jones and Council members for the record. I'm Chief Bennett, Human Resources Administrator for the county. I'm joined by Lori and Shipley, a lead analyst for the classification compensation team in my office. I'm testifying on the two council bills six and seven, which amend the county's classification plan and the county's pay plan to recognize two new positions, which include the inspector general and the deputy inspector general. The positions of inspector general and deputy inspector general are being added to the class and pay plans to carry out functions related to broad waste and abuse investigations covering Howard County government, external entities and individuals receiving county funds or in contractual agreement with any Howard County government department or agency. Council Bill 6, specifically amends the county's classification plan to establish the class code, the pay grade, qualifications, duties and general requirements for the inspector general and deputy inspector general and those amendments are outlined in the attachment to that packet. And then council Bill 7, immense immense account use pay plan to include new classifications of the inspector general and deputy inspector general with their respective pay grades and class codes and those are also the details are in the packet. I think the most important thing for us to mention is that the compensation classification grades are in alignment with positions of similar complexity and compensation ranges adopted by surrounding jurisdictions. My team had done a thorough analysis of all of the public jurisdictions in Maryland. And they're also in alignment with our county's internal classification compensation structures. The proposed amendments were presented to the Person Outboard on January 17th. I review those changes with them and they voted unanimously to approve the amendments. I want to thank you for the opportunity to present these bills and working with you on the compensation pieces and I'm happy to take any questions that you may have for us. Thank you so much to you and your team for the insight and guidance that you've provided in getting these two positions in place. Any questions from Ms. Bennett? I just wanted to double those thank yous to Ms. Bennett. It was important to me since I introduced these bills that we get this through as quickly as possible. And you did it, so appreciate it. You're very welcome. Am I correct that Ms. Hippley is not offering separate testimony? That's correct. She was just here in case you had any questions. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. We will then move on to Mr. Stucone. Missy online? Okay. All right. Well then, Mr. Herwitz, you are our last witness for 6 and 7. Are you, is he still with us? Yes. I could even Joel, you're ready to meet yourself and begin your test of money when you're ready. All right. Good evening, Joel Herwitz. I could even Joel, you're ready to unmute yourself and begin your testimony when you're ready. Right. Good evening, Joel. Herwoods. I was also kind of overlaps. You want me to wait on a. Yep, we're going to do eight separately. I'm clear which one to put it. Joel, her take leave in Columbia. I'm going to go ahead and take a moment to call on the air. These three bills are technical things that I repeatedly brought to the attention of the council who are committed from the ice bill support that you fixed this because you referred to the pay-go-hiding class codes in your previous legislation but didn't actually set it. The biggest thing that's still missing is that you have not dealt with the power of the auditor under CR-2 1985, which is 40 years old. You need to get the politics of the previous auditor problem, not about that. You need to give some clarification to it. And even if you didn't have the overlap, you shouldn't have a 40-year-old un-codified resolution out there which I only found out if you read the beginning of the auditor's report. It refers to that. It's unclear what the power of the auditor is in investigations because that resolution is supposed to evaluate the economy effectiveness and efficiency of operations policies and use of resources. And you also gave the IG the initiate review recommendations of county executive and the county council to promote efficiency accountability compliance and integrity and county government. That's basically the same thing. The auditors can review government operations whether they're consistent with established goals. That's also what the IG is doing. Other non-financial powers of the auditor and the resolution for 40 years ago is the real government system that has retained the extent to compliance to establish policies, regulations and procedures. That's also part of the IG. So get some clarification of that and I will give further overlap problem with CBA. Thank you, Mr. Herwitz. Council Bill 8 2025 introduced by Deb Young, Inspector General Advisory Board, Financial Disclosure Statements. Ms. Young, you want to introduce it? Yeah, this is just to make sure that our new Inspector General Advisory Board will also be ensuring that they are part of our whole process here where they will be required to file financial dis-financial disclosure statements. That's it. Simple. Thank you. And we did have Mr. Cohn signed up for this as well. Okay. Then that means Mr. Herwoods your last registered witness. Did you want to speak again on CB 8? Yes, please. Again, this is one of the technical things I brought to the attention of the Council's of Q. I had similar issue with the Ministry of Charter Committee was in the recruitment of those members, which steps the public ethics law, but it wasn't in the list. So I kept saying, well, you got to have it to the list. So the same thing here. The problem is I also put out provision that the solicitors accept from the ethics law, and whether you want it, the I.G. subject to the ethics commission, because then you have them investigating each other. So that's one problem. And the further problem is can the IG investigate things that are under the ethics commission's purview of finances and gifts and prestige of office and the other things that are numerated they act? And would either body know that the other one is investigating something because the ethics commission does things confidentially and so does the IG. So they could be investigating the same thing and not be able to tell each other. So you need to get some clarification of how they work together, because when you started with the chair's original bill with the S commission being rolled in, then you took it all out, but you didn't deal with the technicalities of how they should be functioning and which entity people should be bringing complaints to. Can they go to both? Can they go to one or the other. So I hope that's something for further discussion beyond adding the board members to the list, you still have some problems with the public ethics law that needs to be clarified. Thank you, Mr. Herwitz. I do believe that concludes our January legislative public hearing. Thank you all and have a good night. This meeting is