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It’s been a good week.
Labor Day is always good - the start of the season of perfect weather and a celebration that reminds everyone of something that I believe. It’s the workers, not the bosses, who actually make stuff.
The County Council came back from its August break with a marathon meeting until midnight, primarily because they are bravely tackling a long-awaited 250-page administration bill to update Article 18, the zoning part of the code. The bill mostly corrects inconsistencies that have been accumulating for decades, muddling up processes for homeowners, businesses, and county reviewers. It is the product of a 13-month public engagement process led by the Office of Planning and Zoning, and I was heartened to see the constructive approach from all seven council members at Tuesday’s meeting. Of the 22 amendments offered, 16 passed, 3 failed, and 3 were withdrawn, and there will be more at the next Council meeting.
We had our Housing Subcabinet meeting to review production of affordable units and to assess obstacles to progress. I left with a sense of gratitude for the depth of professionalism at the top of our agencies. Arundel Community Development Services (ACDS) is launching the Moderately Priced Dwelling Unit (MPDU) program, nurturing hundreds of workforce housing units to completion, and preparing families for mortgage approvals. The Housing Commission of Anne Arundel County is expanding our inventory of subsidized housing even as they rehab the units under their management. The Office of Planning and Zoning is negotiating proffers with developers to produce more affordable units as a public benefit. Inspections and Permits is exploring expedited construction pre-approvals for affordable housing designs. And Partnership for Children, Youth, and Families is moving families toward the economic stability that they need to become stable renters and homeowners. What we don’t accomplish by December 7 will be reviewed in transition documents for the next administration.
I joined two community associations this week and heard about what I focused on in my former career as a community organizer - the ever-elusive fuel for growth - the wins.
On Tuesday evening I sat down with about thirty residents of Queenstown, organized as the Severn Improvement Association, at the former Queenstown Rosenwald School that they have restored. We reviewed our eight-year history together, including, 1) their 2018 hospitality when I attended my first of many Queenstown Parades, 2) my visit to the homes on Jones Road that were rezoned from residential to industrial by former county politicians with no community notice, 3) their decision to engage fully in the Region Planning process after we re-drew the boundary to keep their community in one region, 4) the downzoning from industrial to residential that they demanded and won in the Region Plan, 5) the six speed humps and the speed camera that they got after first being told it would never happen, 6) the improvements to Queenstown Park, including gates installed to keep people out of the parking area at night, 7) the identification of their community by Planning and Zoning as historically significant, and therefore in need of preservation and recognition, and 8) a series of recommendations in the Region Plan for infrastructure investments and neighborhood preservation.
Many of the residents at the meeting trace their property and their lineage to the formerly enslaved families who owned the land and created the community. Elders at the meeting spoke of the disappearance of African American communities across the country, and pledged to keep organizing to protect their land from development and their neighbors from displacement. They are proud and they are strong.
Yesterday, I attended a ribbon cutting made possible by the Hillsmere Shores Improvement Association. This community organizes out of love and respect not just for their neighbors, but also for the coastline that is threatened by erosion and the life that depends on clean water for survival.
It was Arundel Rivers Federation that organized the ribbon cutting, because that nonprofit, under the leadership of my former Environmental Policy Director Matt Johnston, managed the project that was the community’s win. It was 252 oyster reef balls, stone headland breakwaters, and native marsh grasses that transformed 750 linear feet of vulnerable shoreline into a stable, living sanctuary of biodiversity, protecting the peninsula that creates the area where the community gathers.
I noted in my remarks to the 75 people who attended that they were confronting the two existential challenges we all face. One is the need for humanity to coexist with nature, rather than destroying it. The other is for communities to engage with their governments, rather than destroying them.
I did some thinking about mortality this week, especially this morning at the 9/11 Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Memorial Service. I described what it felt like watching the news, seeing the towers collapse, over and over again. It was a feeling that this life is temporary, that it can end for no good reason at any moment. But I also described an overwhelming sense of connectedness - to the victims, their families, our nation and the world. It’s something that people across our country and the world shared.
That was on my fortieth birthday. Today I turn 65. I’m at least three-quarters of the way done with my time in this world, and I just got my Medicare card in the mail.
But that’s ok. I’m not alone. We’re all just visitors, and we’re all heading to the same place. We might as well get to know one another, like our friends in Queenstown and Hillsmere are doing.
Until next week…