Election Day

Now that another round of city elections is behind us, a couple of thoughts...

First, have to say it was nice to see a few "hotly contested" races. The results may not have been as close as the non-incumbents would've liked, but at least there was enough discussion to make things interesting. (Whether anything truly interesting was being said is another matter...)

But (barring a major scandal) those non-incumbents really don't have a chance under the current system. When the council voted to change the election schedule recently, they decided to hold elections in odd-numbered years. The argument in favor of this schedule is that local elections won't "get lost in the shuffle" of a general election. Sorry, but I'm sure the people of Laurel would have no problem spending a few minutes thinking about city races in an even-numbered year.

This schedule guarantees that the pattern of low voter participation will continue. With only the local races on the ballot only the most interested of eligible voters will head to the polls, which is an enormous advantage for incumbents (who will always have an easier time organizing the faithful).  But regardless of who benefits, the goal should be to maximize participation.  And that will never happen with a "standalone" schedule like this one.

If you want a real shot at beating an incumbent mayor or city council member - or if you're just interested in more representative results - you need to press for switching city elections to even-numbered years.

And while I'm at it:  Hasn't anyone in the city ever heard of "first Tuesday after the first Monday in November"?  They could've at least got that much right.

Okay, let's start over

In case you missed it, four years after the initial announcement about revitalization of the Laurel Mall...they've announced a whole new set of plans. Some of the details are outlined at ExploreHoward.com (successor to the old LaurelLeader.com site).

Highlights...

• Different name: Laurel Town Centre. As someone pointed out on the ExploreHoward site, I think I'd have a problem with that if I'm associated with Laurel Town Center on Route 197.
• More tearing down: Apparently the only things to be left standing are Macy's and the backside garage.
• Very different design: As the name implies, it'll be an "open-air, town center" type of project.
• Movies: Still planning to have a movie megaplex as a major part of it.
• Homes: Still planning to include "upscale residences" on the Cherry Lane side of the site.
  

After a quick look at the three drawings included with the online article, I'd have to say it looks promising. (Drawings repeated here, particularly for those of you using Internet Explorer and can't use the "slideshow" on ExploreHoward.)

The open-air idea offers more opportunities to tie it all in with the surrounding communities, although it looks like they haven't improved much over the lack of connections to the west (Fourth Street) in the previous designs. And the monolithic theaters + parking structure on the north side is unnecessarily antagonistic toward the Laurel Shopping Center. C'mon guys, if it's gonna be a "Town Centre", maximize the connections to the town.

It's nice to see all those trees in the drawings, but it would be even nicer to see a larger green space down the central north-south axis. As it appears here, there's still too much of an "islands in a sea of parking lot" feel to it. That kills the walkability. Give us BIG sidewalks throughout and connecting to the north, south, east and west.

Everybody sounds very positive, but we've been there before. It'll be interesting to see how it all works out.

Four years and scores of blog posts ago...

Time flies. Four years have passed since the big announcement. Happy Anniversary!

Lights

Went out for a walk this evening and was surprised to see that stoplights were still out along Cherry Lane after this afternoon's short storm. (A little secret: Those of us just south of the Lakes are historically impervious to power outages. Shhh!)

One dangerous thing noticed: Most folks driving along Cherry took the inoperative lights as an excuse to zip through intersections without even slowing down. Shouldn't those intersections be considered 4-way stops? A few drivers did come to a stop, so I think I'm right on this one. Perhaps this is a bit of education that could be transmitted via those portable electronic signs seen in the city recently (instead of advertising Chick-Fil-A as they've been doing for the past couple of weeks).

Wasteful thing noticed: The CitiBank building on Laurel Place was one of only two buildings where I noticed a (very loud) generator had kicked into operation (Comfort Suites was the other). The very-empty-on-weekends CitiBank building.

Also noticed a heck of a lot of mud in the Lakes after a couple recent rain storms. I'm thinking the creek project over on Van Dusen may be to blame. Hopefully this is a short-term negative leading up to a long-term positive.

Laurel High Addition

It certainly is an improvement over those portable classrooms that littered the Laurel High School front yard for the past couple of years. Work appears nearing completion on the addition to the high school on the site of the old "annex".



Nice to see that new school buildings are showing a little more architectural flair than they used to. Some would undoubtedly complain about the additional cost of making it look as nice as it does, but these are buildings that (hopefully) will be around for 30-50 years. May as well make them look nice.



One question regarding the design: Why couldn't they build an enclosed connection between the new building and the rest of the school? Considering the $millions spent on building it, the cost of doing just a little more would be pretty insignificant. As we're all too aware, it sometimes gets cold and snowy in Laurel.

Mall Again, Naturally

Believe it or not, tomorrow is the third anniversary of the meeting where plans for renovation of the the Laurel Mall were first discussed. It's great that we can now look back and see all the amazing improvements that have been made since then.

Or not.

If you haven't been checking the Laurel Leader or Gazette the past few weeks, you may not know that city officials have been making noise about the lack of progress, even threatening to revoke last year's TIF approval. At the city council's 1/25 meeting they chose to delay the consideration of revoking the financing deal, apparently hoping for more information from the developers.

The timing of this is strange. Mall owner Somera Capital blames the current lack of progress on their inability to find funding for the project. Considering the national economic situation, that's understandable. Any expectation that there should have been much progress over the past year is unrealistic.

On the other hand, over a year passed after that 1/30/07 meeting - back in the days when the economy was still rolling along - before there was any movement at all. And not a peep about the lack of progress from the city during that time.

Somera says that it's making some minor interior renovations in hopes that they can attract some businesses to the mall on short-term leases. Good luck with that.

It would probably be much more expensive than I imagine, but the best thing they could do in the short term would be to go ahead and tear down the parking structure on the Route 1 side of the mall. Immediately it would all look significantly more inviting and some of the concerns about lighting would be addressed. Put a Macy's sign above the front entrance and let the world know that the mall is still alive, if barely.

If the plans from mid-2008 are ever to come to fruition, the garage will come down. Unless the cost is truly prohibitive, why not do it now to greatly improve the current site, get a head start on the future and provide the city with a small sign of "good faith"?

A Minor Miscalculation?

On Friday afternoon I drove by the new location of the Dutch Country Farmer's Market for the first time during their business hours. Yikes, that parking lot has never been that full! At around 1:45pm it looked like cars were about to start lining up on Route 198 to wait for parking spots.

I have to admit that I never visited the market in it's old location (yeah, bad on me) but I do know that the Burtonsville shopping center had a much larger parking lot. Looks like the parking needs might not have been adequately considered before the move. Unfortunately, it's not something that can be easily fixed. If I'm running the Jerry's or the party store that share the shopping center and the situation continues, I'm not gonna be too happy on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays.

All Aboard For Destinations Unknown - From Baltimore?

When you think of taking a cruise, you probably think of departure points in warmer cities like Miami, San Diego or Los Angeles. But in the last couple of years Baltimore has established itself as a secondary cruise port popular with many cruisers from Maryland and the rest of the mid-Atlantic region. Located next door to Fort McHenry, the Baltimore cruise port terminal is a starting point for three of the BIG cruise companies (Carnival, Royal Caribbean and Celebrity), as well as smaller American Cruise Lines which offers cruises around the bay and down the Intracoastal Waterway. And driving a half-hour to Baltimore sure beats flying south for any Laurel area residents looking at a cruise vacation.

Search for cruises out of Baltimore and you'll find destination options include Bermuda, the Caribbean and northward toward Canada. Do a little online investigation and you'll find that there are numerous ways of finding discounts on Baltimore cruises. You'll discover that there are 2-4 cruises leaving Maryland every week.

The Election About Elections

In case you've forgotten - or never heard about it earlier this year - September 8th is the date for a special Laurel city election that could result in significant changes to the city's election process and give the mayor and city council members some very nice pay raises.

The issues...

1. Allowing "early voting", from the Friday before election day up to the day before election day. (Sure, why not?)

2. Change the standard city election day to the first Tuesday in November in odd-numbered years. (Bad idea. Should be trying to get more involvement by holding city elections in even-numbered years like the statewide elections. And shouldn't the wording be "...the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November..."?)

3. Extend current mayor/council terms to fit the change in the election schedule. (Sure, if you're gonna change the schedule, of course.)

4. Change the standard length of a city council term from 2 years to 4 years. (Not sure why this is necessary. It's not like a member of congress who spends most of their term working on getting re-elected. I've read some places where "getting familiar with the job" is given as one of the reasons for the change. Not convinced that there should be that much to learn, but...)

5. Vote for candidates that reside in your ward plus one at-large candidate. (Can't think of any objections to making sure that all parts of the city get represented.)

6. Bump the mayor's salary from $20,000/year to $25,000/year. (Not so sure about this one. 25% is a nice increase, but I don't know when the position last had a salary increase. Most importantly, I have no idea how much work is involved in being mayor. And I'm sure I'm not alone. It would be nice if we could get some insight on "a day/month/year in the life of the mayor". My uneducated feeling is that, with a significant number of full-time city staffers, the mayor's duties probably shouldn't consume $25,000 worth of his time. But I could be wrong.)

7. Bump city council member salaries from $7,500/year to $12,500/year. (Not so sure about this one. 66% is a nice increase, but I don't know when the position last had a salary increase. Most importantly, I have no idea how much work is involved in being...well, you get the idea.)

It's easy to forget about the city elections (don't worry, turnout indicates that you're not alone), but this one is probably worth putting on your calendar.

Maybe, Maybe Not

Laurel area residents who oppose bringing slot machines to Laurel Park undoubtedly saw a glimmer of hope in the news recently. Those companies interested in applying for slots casino licenses were required to put in their applications - with $multi-million fees - last week. Interestingly, Magna Entertainment (owner of Laurel Park) didn't bother to include the $28.5 million application fee. Also, a competitor for the sole Anne Arundel slots license has popped up at the Arundel Mills mall.

The total number of slot machines requested in applications throughout the state also fell well below the number allowed by legislation. Not too surprisingly, applicants blame it on the economy and, of course, on the percentage they're supposed to get from slots proceeds.

It'll be interesting to see how this all works out, but here's what I see happening:

- The Arundel Mills folks will try mightily to convince the state of the benefits of their proposal, but there's almost no chance that Magna/Laurel Park won't get the $billions. Magna has never said they would be satisfied with the racing purse and infrastructure subsidies that they would get under November's referendum. And certain leaders of the state legislature have been firmly in Magna's pocket for as long as slots have been under discussion.

- The percentages given to the casino operators will be increased. After all, if Pennsylvania gives too much to slots license holders, then we have to follow suit. Ultimately, we'll have more slots than were discussed this week, but we'll end up with less money going to the state's treasury because of the increased percentages.

- After the percentages have been tweaked, the application process will be reopened. This will allow applicants to increase the number of machines and it'll give Magna a second chance to do it right. (Magna now says they've put the $28.5M into an escrow fund, which may or may not be deemed satisfactory under the terms of the licensing process.)

- As has happened in other places where slots have been used to prop up horse racing, attendance and interest in racing will continue to fall. Delaware, Pennsylvania and West Virginia will retaliate by increasing their subsidies - and within a few years Maryland's horse racing industry will be looking for more, too.

Slots Update Meeting

The South Laurel News and Views blog has information about a meeting scheduled for this coming Saturday (1/17) whereat the latest news on slot machines will be discussed. Bringing slots to Maryland is all about putting $billions into the pockets of the owners of Maryland's racetracks, so it's a near certainty that we'll soon have a casino here in Laurel. Obviously it'll have a major impact on our community in the future. And we all need to keep the pressure on if we want to make sure that taxpayers get the best possible deal when the licensing process gets underway.

More TIF-ing

I've been a little lax about keeping up with the latest Laurel Commons financing issues, but you can participate in the discussion going on over at Rick Wilson's Laurel Connections blog. So far, it's Rick on the "pro" side and commenters taking the "con". City officials have been known to read locally-targeted blogs, so it's an easy way for everyone to get their 2 cents in. (Whatever happened to the "cents" symbol on keyboards?)

Pools and Courts

City council was planning to move ahead with a plan to buy the pool, tennis courts and basketball courts from Patuxent Greens Country Club - until some of the club's neighbors showed up at the meeting with some concerns. Seems they're not too thrilled about the idea of the increased traffic, etc that a publicly-owned facility would bring. Reasonable enough. They also expressed some dismay that the idea wasn't previously presented to nearby homeowner groups.

The cost of the purchase is $910,000. No information about expected maintenance costs was presented in the Gazette's coverage, but pools ain't cheap. I'm not familiar with how much usage the city's existing pool gets, is another pool really needed?

TIFs and Tax Credits

According to articles in this week's Gazette and Laurel Leader (strangely, the Leader web site is now part of ExploreHoward.com) Mayor Moe will ask the city council to approve a modifed TIF financing plan for the redevelopment of the Laurel Mall. The amount of the TIF requested by the mayor is $11.4 million, significantly less than the $18 million requested by the developers. There wasn't any indication in the articles about how the developers felt about the new amount, although I think it's safe to assume that an amount like $11.4 million (instead of $11 million or $12 million) must have been arrived at as a result of discussions with the developers. It's probably also safe to assume that the "public amenities" for which the TIF dollars are to be spent will be reduced as a result of the change in the amount.

The mayor is also proposing giving a 50% "tax credit" on the "Admissions and Amusements" tax that would be paid on tickets sold at the new megamovieplex. That "credit" is also supposed to go towards "public improvements", is projected to total about $2.5 million and would expire in something under 5 years. But calling it a "tax credit" is highly misleading because the movie theater isn't paying the tax - theater-goers would be paying and the city/county/state would turn over half of it to the owners.

Council member Smalls has suggested that all of this be the subject of public hearings. Sounds like a real good idea. It would be especially interesting to hear how local business owners feel about subsidizing new competition in the current economic environment.

Latest Mall Plans

As part of their presentation to the city planning commission the owners of Laurel Commons made it known that their overall plan has changed "a bit". According to an article in the Laurel Leader (sorry, didn't know about the meeting to go myself) the project has been scaled back in several areas.

The biggest changes appear to be in the "phase 2" planned for the current Burlington site and neighboring parking lots. A building that was to include a health club has been "downsized" and a parking garage has been eliminated. That new parking structure would've been along Fourth Street between the proposed residential building and the back entrance to the mall (generally in alignment with the current entry to the food court).

The proposed skating rink is gone, replaced by a $75,000 payment to the city.

According to the Leader, entrances to the mall have been tweaked to "make them more aesthetically pleasing". Improvements to the Fourth Street entry would be a good thing. Losing that new Fourth Street parking structure could help, it had the potential of making that entry path canyon-like.

There's some concern from city council members about changes in the materials to be used. Some brick facades will be now be covered with "brick-like" materials. I really don't know what that means. They've also presented cheaper plans for the lights to be placed along Fourth Street.

Looking for ways to cut costs on the project isn't surprising given current economic conditions. And even with the scaled-down proposal, it sounds like they're still looking for "TIF" financial assistance from the city and county. The second anniversary of the initial announcement for the mall is fast approaching - and the project spokesman said they're "still in preliminary discussions with the city" regarding the TIF. I think many of us are getting a little tired of various forms of "bailouts" and "giveaways" (Wall Street, banks, Maryland's racetrack owners), so it'll be interesting to see how the TIF thing plays out.

There was no mention of an updated construction timetable.