16 October 2012 | Approved: 18 December 2012
Present Members Mimi Styles, Bob Booher, David Stopak, Gail Littlefield and Wendy Harris. Town Liaison Joli McCathran was not in attendance. The meeting began at 7:35pm in the Town Council Chambers.
OFFICIAL BUSINESS
Approval of Agenda
The proposed agenda was approved unanimously, with minor omissions, i.e., there was no discussion of the Town Council report or revisions to the HPC Design Guidelines.
Adoption of Minutes
The September HPC meeting minutes were reviewed and adopted, as revised.
REVIEW SESSION
Projects
HPC members discussed the building permit application for installation of a pre-fabricated/kit garage (to be visible from public way) at 402 Ridge Road. Mimi is to draft the HPC review and send to HPC members for
OLD BUSINESS
Planning Commission Meeting Report
Bob provided an overview of the topics addressed during this month’s PC meeting as the HPC liaison. HPC members’ attention was drawn in particular to the review of a driveway expansion at 123 Washington Grove Lane residence. The discussion revolved around the value (or not) of the HPC interjecting its concerns/viewpoints and whether or not this topic would fit under the purview of HPC. Bob will contact Charlie for more details about this to discern whether a building permit was submitted for this expansion or if it’s a matter of expanding onto town property. If a building permit, in fact, was submitted, HPC would want to clearly identify issues HPC would be reviewing that could supplement the Town review.
Permit Review Procedure
In response to the HPC’s need to spend a concerted amount of time discussing progress on HPC permit review procedures, this topic will come first, following project reviews, on next month’s agenda. Margot will send materials approximately a week ahead of time to all regular HPC meeting attendees to enable all to read ahead/prepare for next month’s discussion.
Bulletin Material
Wendy Harris will contact Pat Patula about the possibility of providing an archive-related piece to the Town monthly bulletin. Alternatively, Wendy Harris will include some of the narrative she crafted recently nominating Washington Grove as one of Maryland’s “Endangered Historic Places.”
Bridge
Bob presented an update on the bridge/CSX project workgroup status. The workgroup is working to accommodate the lawyer’s recent comments to simply the agreement paperwork by putting demands in one document and describing the process in the other document.
Archive Report
See attached report.
NEW BUSINESS
Conservation Montgomery is a nonprofit coalition of civic and environmental organizations and individual residents who address a broad spectrum of environmental and quality of life challenges facing Montgomery County over the next decade as the county approaches a population of one million. This group has arranged to have a “Community Stroll” in Washington Grove on Sunday afternoon, Oct 28th, to be led by our very own Joli McCathran. Conservation Montgomery has led “Community Strolls” over the past 2 years because of its commitment to highlight unique and/or natural resources within our communities in the County. These strolls are a chance to explore communities and hear about rich cultural or natural history of a particular area.
The meeting was adjourned at 9:00 p.m.