Environmental Matters Committee - Regular Meeting

The May 14 meeting for environmental matters. And for the record we have Alderman Conti. Here. And myself. That's it for now. So first item up, approval of the agenda. I am going to so if I get a motion to approve the agenda as amended to move Mr. Adams, so ID one hundred fifteen-twenty six to the beginning which would be first up in the general discussion. So move. I'll second that.

All those in favor please say aye. Aye. Motion carries. Thank you. Approval of the minutes driving approval of the minutes from March 12. I'll second that. All those in favor please say aye. Aye. Thank you. Motion carries. General discussion. So Mr. Adams if you could join us up front for ID 115.26.

Microphones.

Yeah, don't have to push a button. Oh,

don't. Okay. You can hear me? You

You you for joining us. Sure. I had I wanted to ask for you to join us because I did want to dig into some of the forest urban tree canopy urban forest program with the city and how it's associated with the watershed restoration fund. And just to get an assessment from you as far as where we are with that fund covering your costs. So I guess that's the first question unless you have. Oh, if you please introduce yourself and you're welcome to give any remarks.

Sure, yeah. I'm Brian Adams, urban forester in planning and zoning.

Did you have anything you wanted to say before we start?

Not really. I mean I just have, you know, high level numbers over the last couple years. I didn't put together a presentation or anything but I thought you wanted to primarily talk about this upcoming fiscal year which I'm certainly prepared to do.

Yeah. Can you give us a rundown?

Yeah. So last year we requested 515,000. We received $4.35. So I don't know where that how that decision was made but that ended up being what given to us for our budget. That worked out okay to cover costs because last year we did not hire which there was some money allotted to hiring someone.

From what I understand we had put it in the budget last year but it did not make its way to HR to the next steps. So it was not ready to go essentially is what I was told. So while we had some funding delegated to it, we didn't spend it. So this year we've requested five fifteen again. And I have 120 ks designated for the new position.

And just for background for people, again we did roll in the entire urban forestry program into the large restoration fund. So that fund covers all of the program and staffing costs. The way we structured it was to have the anticipated costs associated with meeting our tree canopy goal factored into that fund and fee as we move forward. And I know this was I think last term, last year you did provide a breakdown of how much you're twenty year judgment we would have to spend to meet the 50% by 2050 tree canopy goal, right? And so that's what you're saying.

This year you requested $5.15 out of the watershed fund. Do you know how much was granted? I don't know all that off the top of my head.

For this coming, for this upcoming fiscal

FY '27.

That's the number that I've seen that was in the Stantec report. So as far as I know that is what, you know, what's intended to be our budget out of the watershed restoration fund.

Okay. And that you said includes staff person which you did highlight last year you're saying that wasn't included.

Right. So that staff person is not included in the director of planning and zoning his budget. So I guess we need an amendment or whatever to get that position started again.

So the yeah because we don't have all we have is your what's your position title? Urban Forester. Urban Forester. There's no one, two or three, it's just urban forester. Okay. So there's no associated position in the class, the sorry, the classification list, right? Okay. So we would need to and I think I heard you before mention maybe last year about the idea of because I think your intention was to have this be a lower level position that you could supervise.

Yeah that after speaking with the director he agreed that you know this person should report directly to me. So what that job title ends up being I don't know. I've written up a description that I believe would meet you know what we what we need right now. But as far as how that's done through HR, I'm not I'm not clear.

For years Brian has been told

Jackie Guild.

Oh sorry. Jackie Guild acting city manager. So for years Brian has been told that he cannot go up grade because he's not supervising employees, which I don't think is true for every grade, you know, that's even above his. Some people aren't supervising others. But that shouldn't in my opinion, that should not be the criteria either.

You know, we should do this on experience and qualifications. So he's never been eligible for a grade change even though we provided plenty of information over the years about similar positions in even smaller jurisdictions for the urban forester because of their experience is getting paid more. Finally Brian would be supervising someone but we also have different people in HR so they may look at things differently. But this would require a grade change as well for Brian because he would now be supervising. And also it brings home the point of why we need those career ladders as well. He's been at the same grade for eight years or so.

Well there was a grade increase with the CLASS and COMM study. It wasn't what the director requested because the supervision wasn't there.

It

was one grade.

It goes back to the supervision which is not, I don't think should be a sticking point.

And again backing up further, we you know we've had since I've been on the council and when some other folks in the audience were on the council we had for years forest program was always one of the top things, first things that were cut. The tree maintenance budget. And so that was the intention of having a dedicated fund, the watershed fund, provide that secure funding. And we reached a point, was it two years ago, we realized well we can't make our 2,035 tree? 2,036 tree canopy target because even if we planted all the trees tomorrow, this was last year two years ago, the trees aren't going grow fast enough to actually meet the goal.

And so the idea was if we agree to push back that goal which we did the last council to 2050, we only agreed to do that if we had provided for this dedicated funding stream to actually pay to meet that pushback goal. And so that includes staffing up to make sure we have support and you would be looking for this support position to help with tree planting, identifying locations, that kind of thing, easements maybe?

Yeah, that would be their primary responsibility would be to identify, you know, do the outreach, sourcing, all of that for tree planting projects because that is really, it's a it takes a lot of time. It's time intensive activity and you know I could a person could work on that year round really. And there's other things that I would have them do as well related to my position, you know bond inspection, just things in the field, construction site inspections, that sort of thing for tree protection.

So for the committee's sake it sounds like this position is already included in the requested amount in the watershed restoration fund for this fiscal year, but we don't have the structure yet set up for these different positions. That is one of the amendments I put in. One of my budget requests is to create that ladder structure. And I just wanted to bring it up here to get the confirmation from the department and just to see if the committee had any thoughts on that. Just wanna make Yeah.

Thank you. I wanna make sure I'm clear. You're talking about the career ladder for the urban forester or for the person supporting them?

Yeah. Okay. The urban forester. Got it.

Thank you.

Unless I'm advised otherwise by the department, but this has been a again a long time request of theirs that we weren't able to do with the big class of comp study last year. I can't remember why but for some reason Any we're getting it other questions from committee or guests? Alright. So this will again, this is going to be a budget request. It's cost neutral. So hopefully the committee will support that. Cancel that whole. Anything else you wanna add for getting on the program?

No that's it. That's really it. Alright, well thank you

for taking the time.

Yeah I appreciate it. Thank you.

No. Alright, next up on the agenda is Jackie? Yes. Did you want to go now?

We could let mister Meakins go so he could leave.

I guess we'll use privilege of the chair if unless there's an objection to move. Looking up the ID number. Mr. Meakins if you could come on up. Oh it's ID5Dash26.

Greetings. Mike Meakins, senior planner in current planning.

Thank you for joining us.

Greetings to you too.

Thanks for having me. I trust that so this is an update, periodic update. I think we've talked about doing this quarterly for major current projects that are in the pipeline and or being constructed within the city. I trust that you have the updated menu that I provided. It's dated May 12?

Yes. Okay.

So just a quick recap of the color coding. Everything highlighted in blue is there's basically no change from the last update that I gave. And everything not highlighted or white with the red font is basically the update for several of these projects. So I'll go through the updates. And feel free to stop me, pause me, and I will answer any questions as best I can.

So the first one on sheet one is Gristling Square. It's a 12 unit residential family plan development. It's been in the pipeline since like 2014. I think the subdivision was created and finally pulled all their permits and broken ground and the first step in that development is utility connections. So they are actually actively working on putting in place the storm drain improvements and that right now is within Tyler Avenue at the intersection of Bay Ridge.

So if you've driven by there, I'm sure you've noticed the activity.

It's surprising I don't have any questions about that.

I was surprised too. I can come up with some problems. Yeah, I bet you could. So anyway, that's pretty much the update for Griscom Square. Moving down, still on the first page at the bottom is Parole Place.

Mr. Meeks, just to interrupt, Parole Place, the Parkside Preserve, just to bring to your attention for future consideration during review, we've received a significant I'm not exaggerating number of complaints from residents out there about parking issues. Yeah. I'm aware of In particular, I think for a number of reasons. One, and I'm hearing mixed reports, I don't know which is true, but I'm hearing reports that fire marshal may have ordered them to put up their signs, but they're still private streets.

And so they're and our parking enforcement was ticketing on a private street which they're not supposed to so we had to refund a bunch of the fines. So what I'm bringing up I guess is the timing as far as sign placement. I guess might not be your call from planning and zoning. But the other issue would be just designing in sufficient guest parking or connectivity to you know, transportation alternatives. Right?

And and also considering just making more roads run one way. I'm still digging into seeing if this was a fire department kind of barrier, but there's a two way street, no on street parking. They have no room for guests, on that street. So we're looking at trying to make it one way, but we can't do that until it's actually turned over to the city unless we can convince the developer to do it. Very complicated but I guess my point is you know, factored in that that guest parking during the design.

Yeah. I I understand. I understand that. And like I said, I'm familiar with some of those issues that have been raised. Frankly, some of them, the complaints I'll say or comments have come across our office.

And I did the deep dive. I looked at the road section with and read through the plan development approvals just trying to understand what happened way back. But to your point, hopefully there's a solution because those homeowners have guests that come in and maybe future developments if the road section was not widened, a future development could have a lot for those guests.

Yeah. That was one request made to us is there are some undeveloped lots that are still single family homes. There was a request for us to I guess see if we could put pressure on the developer to dedicate one of those lots to a guest parking lot instead of a house. Although I personally think the better solution would be just to make the road one way with

One way with one side.

One side parking.

Parallel parking on one side.

Yeah. Alright. I just wanted to ping you on that.

It's on the radar. So thank you for bringing that up though.

Definitely with the Alderman Savage. It would be a shame when we have such a housing shortage to build a parking lot instead of a house.

Yeah. And I'm sure the developer would push back on that as well. Yeah.

It's a parole place.

Yeah. So, on the parole place. That is a special mixed use plan development that includes townhouses and a centralized multi story building with retail on the bottom and more or less workforce housing apartments on top. The applicant came in for a minor modification which the director approved. And that minor modification added an additional floor to the large central building and an additional floor to the structured parking deck.

So that was advertised. We received no comments. The concept or the architectural that we received that additional floor to the multiuse building, the additional floor was actually pushed back from the facade of the approved building. So it was no closer to the property lines and that was approved, like I said, the director. We have yet to see grading or building permits come in on that, but it's my understanding that that project from the applicant side is still moving forward.

Great news on the ability to add that many units. That's I mean without increasing the horizontal footprint.

Yeah, the bulk of the structure.

Yeah. Question on that because I do do bike past this intersection whenever I do bike to work. Are there associated pedestrian cycling improvements?

So with the original application there are and actually with this minor modification the applicant did their due diligence in reengaging the traffic the traffic group that did the study and there was relatively no impact or there was a slight impact but nothing to the point where they would have to redo the entire traffic study and then address whatever needs that the traffic study uncovered?

I'm not too concerned about traffic. It's more just the sidewalks are very narrow. There are a couple of sidewalk gaps that when you're biking it makes it really difficult.

So around on this corner, the building, the proposed buildings are set back so you have wide sidewalks. As you come down Forest Drive from I'll say Old Solomons Island Road, there is a you're coming downhill and there is a streetscape that incorporates steps, seating areas, landscape that's terraced. But again, sidewalks are wider than the standard and the buildings push back. The concept within the structured parking garage includes bike lockers, bike racks for those individuals that are living in the apartments conceivably to bike within the city or across the county line into the town center.

Excellent. Thank you. Any other questions about this one?

I just have a clarifying question. When it says in one part there are 90 residential of retail units and then it says in the next adding an additional 40. So now we're at 130 or we were previously at 50 and now we're at 90.

So you're adding an additional 40. So 130.

Awesome. Love it. Thank you.

Okay. So moving on to the second and last page at the top, Rocky Gorge, Athens. That is a planned development that's as you come into the city off Aristy Allen Boulevard on the right hand side right before you reach Chicopend, There's a lot of history, I'll say, with that project. Quite frankly, I think we all know that eventually it will be developed but at this stage, due to a variety of reasons with the owner and different lawsuits that are going on, That plan development has been abandoned mainly because they have not picked up any permits for construction to keep the project quote unquote alive. So again, the subdivision has been recorded.

There are feasible lots with tax IDs. But in order for that project to move forward, whoever the applicant or developer that comes in will have to go through the process once again.

I'm actually glad to hear that it's been abandoned because it's somewhat of a fresh start might benefit this particular property. But I do have concerns about the original sorry, the approved record plat. I don't know how much that really jives with our vision in the comp plan at this point. So I think actually I can't remember the makeup. If you do you recall the makeup as far as townhomes? So Or some family?

31 townhomes, 17 single family with six MPDUs, so a total of 48 units.

So do we have any ability to revisit the record plot if we wanted to adjust unit location or density?

Yeah, that's a tricky so the short answer to your question is yes. I mean the record plat can be revisited, reconfigured, and that very well could take place given the fact that SHA is historically denied an access point off of Airsty Allen and Y'all Road was the primary access and obviously that's a dead end street at this point. There are again parking issues within that neighborhood and that neighborhood was also concerned about the increase in traffic getting into this new, I'll call it Rocky Gorge, whatever it becomes. A new developer, a new applicant could certainly reconfigure the subdivision. The one thing that could prevent them from doing that is there are some dry utilities already in place.

The site has been rough graded and graded in such a way not completely finished but in such a way that mirrors what the original application and what the original design was going to be. So there's a considerable amount of thought and work that would need to go into a redesign. But at this point, it's going to have to go through the process. So it really depends on whether or not that developer, that applicant wants to go through that legwork or just pick up where things were left off. Again, they have to go through the approval process and that involves supplying elevations and renderings of what the structures are going to look like.

Questions on this one? Okay.

Moving on to next to the last item, 15 Ridgely Avenue. That is a proposed three story commercial office building that sits in a vacant well, it's on a parking lot behind the growls, a couple doors down from growls. And the update is the site development plan was approved by the planning commission in March on March 12. We are awaiting submission of building and grading permits on that one. Okay.

And lastly, I have actually an update on this one just from yesterday. This is the Thomas Summerville property. Summerville plumbing, I'll call it plumbing supply, that is out on Solomons Island Road. It's actually the property is actually bisected by the city county line.

Right. I remember you telling us

about this. Okay. So it's a large green warehouse looking building. They're moving their retail and warehouse to the City Of Annapolis portion of the property. And they so the update that I have on this sheet is actually what I've delivered to you is we're awaiting their minor subdivision second submission.

I'm sorry, minor site design review second submission. We now have that of the, I'll say, nine reviewers that it was originally submitted to, they're now it's now pared down to about five reviewers. So they're very close to I'll say an approval for that. Within probably the next week or two they'll be posting the property. I always like to get the large issues if any out of the way in a first review and sometimes second review before posting the property.

So the idea is that the concept that when it's advertised citizens can look at a concept plan that is basically more or less not going to change. And I think we're at that point now. I haven't gone through and looked at the plan specifically that came in, but I've looked at the comment letter and it seems like everything is moving along. So again, that's probably going to be posted in the next couple weeks, fifteen day period and we're going to try to wrap up that review and move those folks along so that they can start with the grading and building permit submission process.

Any questions from the committee? So

those are my updates. That's all I have at this point.

When you add projects to this list, after they've actually submitted an application as opposed to going to the planning commission for a work session?

Correct. It's easier to keep track of and there's, I'll say, less hearsay involved. It's more official documented. I can answer questions regarding comments or reviews and so on and so forth. But there are a couple more in the pipeline. I'm sure you're aware of that.

Yeah. Napa Seafood and the one in my ward, the old CNC liquor. Gas

station on West Street, so what I'm looking at?

Correct. Some of those have planning or work sessions that are either have taken place or about to take place.

Personally, I would see some value if even if it's a separate section of just things that have work sessions coming up if we wanted to pay

attention to planning commission. On the radar sections. Yeah. Yeah. That's I can certainly do that. To the extent of explaining to you exactly what is being proposed is kind of difficult without tangible plans.

Understandable. Yeah. I mean, I think maybe you could even just do project name, address, and type. And even if we didn't have the description status or any of the other columns like that would be helpful.

That works. Can do that.

And just work session date or something like that.

Sure. Sure.

Alright. Well, thank you. Alright. Thank you.

Have a good rest of your day.

Alright. I think okay. So I'm gonna end up pushing Ms. Gahl back if you're okay. Because I'd like to do the ferry discussion first.

Me too. Sorry? That's me too.

I did you too.

Anyway, since we do have some folks from the public and also somebody virtually, director from Rec and Parks is joining virtually.

You want me to do the presentation first?

Yes. You guys will do your presentation first and then we'll go to director Johnson and as well as member from miss Dee from Blacks of Chesapeake. This is going to be a presentation dealing with the proposed electric hybrid electric diesel hybrid ferry that was started under the previous administration. I believe it's grouped in with our electric mobility CIP project. Just trying to figure out status supporting information.

While they're figuring that out, I'm gonna try and figure out where my water cup is.

Okay. So, this was the Annapolis electric ferry but as you can see here, the title's been changed, the Annapolis diesel hybrid passenger ferry pilot program. So it's diesel hybrid now because the Trump administration, when they put a pause on many grants and reconsidered whether they would make the grants available, can't open this one back up if it was brought in line with Trump administration priorities. So that that translated to it can't be all electric. It has to be something in all electric. So we agreed. Yes.

Mr.

Chairman? Is this brief available online?

No, I emailed it to this committee but it's not I'll

send it to miss Jackson to get posted right now. I'll forward it

to you Alderman Thorpe.

Thank you.

This is based off a presentation I made to another group and then I just threw in some extra slides this afternoon. So anyway, changed some things around. So what we found out was if we changed over to diesel or diesel electric then we perhaps could have our fund dollars released again and they were approved. The county as you may know also is working on a ferry. They had the same grant we had, all electric and they also changed to hybrid diesel electric.

So that's why the name has changed. Okay. So this was a picture of a type of ferry. It's an electric boat that was at the boat show one year. This is something that the mayor Buckley was very interested in.

And then when the grant opportunity came up from the federal transit administration, the city applied and we secured over $3,000,000 for this grant program to build two vessels, design build, and make dock improvements and have charging infrastructure. We no longer need charging infrastructure because it will be a hybrid. Okay. Okay. So

Just can I ask you

a clarifying question? Yes. So when you say hybrid, you mean not plug in hybrid. Hybrid like a Prius.

Like a regenerative like a Right.

Thank you.

Right. So as I said, is FTA. The grant awards being 2024. We've had some ups and downs with this being paused, etcetera, redrafting the RFP, and the grant expiration will be 10/12/2027. So we have about a little less than a year and a half to get all our funds encumbered for this program.

That would be the design build. We that would be an encumbrance in any dock improvements we would need to make. As I said, I'll see this later in the numbers, we no longer need charging infrastructure on the docks so that money was moved into the dock improvement part of this grant. So the main purpose from the federal government was to improve and expand ferry service in The US and provide new jobs and opportunities and new technology. So this is the revised budget.

For the two vessels up to $2.1800000 is allocated. Then for the design 300 of the dock improvements is $300,000 and then the renovation work $1,400,000. So some of that charging money about $200,000 was devoted to charging infrastructure got moved into the engineering design and renovation of the ferry terminals. So the total grant is 2.975 with the local match which is done in staff time it's $3,500,000.

Yeah. Would you prefer we wait on questions to the end?

Prefer to wait on what?

Questions?

Yeah. We can't get through this pretty fast. Okay. Let me move some of this through this. This was part of when we initially went for this grant, was under the go Annapolis goes electric, our transit options. So that was the gem cars and you can even see an electric trolley here which we're now discussing. So the basic pieces of the ferry was it was going passengers and bicycles, no cars obviously, about 35 to 40 feet to serve that purpose and to get into the docking areas around the city. Front loading and made it a little easier. You didn't have pull up dockside. And then we thought thought about a pilot run between Eastport and City Dock.

Other routes are also considered, and you'll see these later in the presentation. And this was going to be fare supported but maybe some free ride tokens to low income residents. And this is just some docking possibilities that the harbormaster has pointed out At City Dock. Come on. Pass that.

A second. I just there's this map is showing our one of our transit plans that the bus routes that serve the area in Eastport and head into Downtown Annapolis. That was part of what we had to supply was that there's some bus routes that could get you to where you want to go. So, you didn't have to take a car to get there. Let me see if I can get this back.

Okay. So these were the some of the considerations we put into the grant was this is supposed to be about connectivity and reducing parking and about where the landing sites were going to go. Some of the we had to look at navigation, maneuvering in and out of our busy built out harbor as well as the depths of the water depths at potential landing sites and the draw of the vessel, where we would store and maintain electric vessel, and impacts on our commercial water taxi service if any. And then resident and business input, maritime advisory board and ward port wardens input. And we also have to have the ferry built in The US and 75% of that business has to be US owned under the Jones Act which we're subject to for this.

So we couldn't do some of these Swedish boats that Bear Buckley was considering. Okay. So here are some of the proposed docks. I mean, routes that were proposed. Of course, there was a cross from City Dock to Eastport and back.

And then as as Hawkins Cove becomes redeveloped for that park program there, we go down Spa Creek to Hawkins Cove and then, Elktonia Cars Beach as it gets developed, they're building the pier out there, just for the purpose of the ferry being able to land there, but other boats could land there as well. But that's one of the reasons they're putting the pier at Carr's Beach. And then as you can see, we could have a route over to the David Taylor Center to Greenberry Point, maybe all the way up to Whitehall Plantation and Holly Beach Farm. So those are potential these are not being considered as stops for the county ferry. The only stop in the county ferry would be Annapolis itself downtown, City Dock.

So this would be all within the city and then the county would go other destinations such as up to Baltimore, across the bay to Mattapeak, and maybe some southern destinations as well. So this is Hawkins Cove. You guys are familiar with Hawkins Cove. Maybe Daisha is not as familiar with that project but we're taking that neglected overgrown area and putting a living shoreline there, improving the dock, putting a kayak launch, and removing all the invasives there. And also, this would create a community park and a gathering space for an underutilized area of the city.

And then we are tying as we improve the trails on the Hawkins Cove side, we would be tying into the trails at Truxtun Park as well. There used to be a bridge over there for a footbridge, but somebody actually stole it. It's really heavy. Really? Yeah. Was talking to someone. So I down to the bridge. They said, well, because public works put it in. Somewhat must have been several people picked it up and took it. So it's it's just an old photo of, Octonia Carr's Beach and the history there. Being a lively place for people to gather. That's the same property Carr's Beach. And that's the end.

Alright. And I think I'm gonna attempt to have our other presenters we could have that way the questions can be spread.

We have Roz on. She was going

to Yes. Join then I can we could have a representative from Blocks to Chesapeake and then we could meet with that. We said hear from everybody then we could Yep. However you want to do it. All right. So Ms. Jackson, is Director Johnson ready to join us?

Yes, I'm here. Excellent.

Thank you for taking the time to join us.

Oh no, absolutely. Thank you for having me. Did you want me to go ahead and get started?

Yeah, so what we're going do is just hear I think presentations from everybody then open up the floor for questions. You can get started with your remarks.

Okay. Thank you, Chair, members of the Environmental Matters Committee. Thank you for allowing me to speak today in support of a dieselelectric ferry for the City Of Annapolis and the greater Chesapeake Bay region. This investment represents much more than transportation. It's an opportunity to yet again remove barriers to access, protect our environment, and prepare our community for the future.

As the Department of Recreation and Parks continues the restoration and activation of Cars Beach, along with our partners at the Resilience Authority, as well as Blacks of the Chesapeake, we know transportation and parking will be one of our greatest challenges. We explored the purchase of a nearby property in an effort to help alleviate anticipated parking issues, but, unfortunately, we were not successful in acquiring the site. Because of that, we must think creatively and proactively about how people will access this historic and culturally significant destination. An electric ferry or diesel electric ferry will provide an innovative and sustainable solution for our own for our only public beach within the city. It would allow residents and visitors greater access to the Carth without placing additional strain on surrounding neighborhoods and infrastructure.

It would also improve accessibility for individuals who may not have reliable transportation or who simply want a more convenient way to experience the waterfront. Carth Beach also sits directly next to Baywoods, a senior living community whose residents deeply value their connection to Annapolis and the Chesapeake Bay. Uh-oh. Sorry. Hold on one second.

An electric ferry would help keep many of those residents connected to the community they have, the and that they love by providing safe and convenient access to Downtown Annapolis without the burden of them having to drive, park, or navigate increasing traffic congestion. This is not simply about tourism. It's about mobility, independence, and quality of life for all of the area's residents. Beyond Cars Beach, this project positions our region to be forward thinking as conversations continue around the future of

National Park. A ferry system would help connect residents and visitors to multiple destinations and access points throughout the park experience

continue while reducing traffic congestion and supporting environmental stewardship. We know that we have some parking challenges in the city, and this would help get rid of one of the major parking one of the major major challenges of using Cars Beach, and that's parking. So choosing diesel electric diesel hybrid electric transportation also demonstrates our commitment to protecting the Chesapeake Bay and reducing emissions. It reflects the type of leadership communities must embrace if we're serious about sustainability and resilience. This is an investment in access, history, tourism, environmental responsibility, and the future of our waterfront communities.

I respectfully urge you to support this effective use of taxpayers' dollars. Thank you so much for your time.

Thank you for taking the time to join us director on your while you're away. So I'd like to invite representative from Blacks to Chesapeake to join us. Thank you. Can you just introduce yourself?

Certainly. I'm Didi Strum. I currently am the CEO and President of Blacks the Chesapeake Foundation. I thank you mister chairman and council members for the opportunity to share both my prepared comments as well as some contemporaneous thoughts that I have following two really good presentations today. I'm glad that I had the opportunity to see the presentation just now and to get more context.

I come before you with support to establish a hybrid ferry service at Indianapolis City Dock to better connect residents and visitors to our neighborhoods, businesses, waterfront destinations, and the new Carr Zeltonia Beach City Park. This project really is more than transportation. It's an investment in mobility, environmental stewardship, economic development, and equitable access to our waterfront. A hybrid ferry would provide clean, quiet, and modern alternative to increased vehicle traffic in our already congested downtown corridors. By reducing automobile dependence, the ferry can help decrease emissions, improve air quality, and support Annapolis's climate and resiliency goals while protecting the health of the Chesapeake Bay.

The ferry would also strengthen our local economy. Easier access between city dock, commercial districts, neighborhoods, and waterfront attractions means more foot traffic for small businesses, restaurants, cultural institutions and tourism related enterprises. Visitors are more likely to explore and stay longer when transportation is convenient, attractive and connected to the waterfront experience that makes Annapolis quite unique. Equally important, this service can improve access for residents including senior citizens, youth, workers, and families who may not have easy transportation options or who face parking and traffic barriers downtown. A ferry system creates opportunities for safer, more accessible movement across the city while reconnecting communities to the water waterways.

The ferry connection to the new cars of Antonio City Beach Park carries special significance to blacks of the Chesapeake Foundation and area residents. That park represents not only recreation and environmental restoration but also the preservation and recognition of African American history and community heritage in Annapolis. A ferry connection will help ensure that residents and visitors alike can easily experience and appreciate this important cultural and historical destination. A collateral opportunity for the ferry connection is bringing visitors from the city dock and the Vincent o Leggett Memorial Park to the new Elktonia Cars Beach in 2028 after visiting the traditional West African parogue boat built and gifted to Vince Leggett the year before his death. This boat which is expected to leave Senegal in December 2027 will con will traverse the route that the Transatlantic slave trade took from Senegal to Brazil and then up through Jamaica and up to Virginia and then into the Annapolis City dock.

Once here, we see this as a place for storytelling and interpretation much in the history and tradition of the Blacks of Chesapeake Foundation where we can share the story beginning with at the top of the city dock, you have the statute of Haley excuse me, Alex Haley reading to the children and the parogue boat would be down at the foot where the Vincent O. Leggett Memorial Park is. We see that as the opportunity again to make Annapolis a place to come to. I fashion when I do my presentations, I share with particularly Maryland audiences that the Baltimore Harbor is known for the pirate ship and sharing the story of the buccaneers that roamed, I guess, the Chesapeake Bay waters. Annapolis can have its story its place in storytelling interpretation with the parogue boat and the history and the legacy of the Transatlantic slave trade and the descendants of the Africans who were brought here to help establish the maritime trades and seafood industries and now because of Vince's efforts with 42 invested with BOCF, the legendary descendants, the black watermen of the Chesapeake Bay.

Cities across this country are embracing clean water transit as part of a resilient people centered waterfront redevelopment effort. Annapolis has the opportunity to lead with innovation while honoring its time, its storied history, with maritime identity and black heritage. I do encourage the city to continue advancing this initiative through strong community engagement, environmental planning, and partnership that maximizes public benefit. I do thank you today for your consideration and your continued commitment to a more connected, sustainable and inclusive Annapolis. In closing, I want to share something and this is a personal note.

I live at Arundel On The Bay on again part of what is what Vince termed as the Annapolis Black Coast starting up where Eltonia Cars Beach is coming Bembe Beach Road down into Arundel on Highland Beach, Venice Venice Beach, Oyster Harbor, Fishing Creek, and Arundel On The Bay. It is more than a notion when family and friends are visiting to bring them to city dock because of the absence of parking. It drives me absolutely nuts because I think we have a beautiful waterfront area. The US Naval Academy is, I mean, just a jewel, a gem in our local landscape. And so again, I think that even as residents beyond just tourists, residents would, I think find greater opportunity to come there knowing that there's some way of getting around and we certainly for the effort and the investment we see going into the redevelopment of the new cars of Antonio Beach community, the educational strategy that BOCF has helped lead over the last year and a half with nonprofit partners in the maritime heritage and the environmental lanes.

We wanna see it used because we can have, I think, great content that the partners are offering for that particular platform. I want to share something that just came today and I hope Roslyn's still I don't know if she's still on the line or not. Miss Johnson is

I'm still here.

Good. This is so interesting and I I am a firm believer as she knows that everything is by God's hand and God's plan. Today, this morning at 10:18 a. M. I received an email from Mrs. CJ Lucas who lives in Washington DC. Says, good morning, miss Drum. I hope this email finds you well. I'm thrilled to follow-up and see if you have any more details about the upcoming Juneteenth celebration and the exciting activities planned at the legendary Cars Eltonia Beach Park. As I mentioned in my last email, my six senior citizen sisters and I cannot wait for this epic event.

We're buzzing with anticipation. Some of us have mobility challenges, so we want to ask whether there will be plenty of accessible parking. We're also eager to know if there will be any exhibits on display. We'd love to experience the beach's rich history up close and personal. I also want to thank mister Gwaltney with Blacks of the Chesapeake for his referral to the Seafarer Yacht Club. They have been helpful. My family and I are absolutely looking forward to making unforgettable memories in Annapolis over this Juneteenth weekend. I do hope to hear from you soon. Best regards, Mrs. CJ Lucas.

I have absolutely no idea what to tell her about accessible parking, any kind of parking as it relates. I know that Ms. Johnson and the city staff are working on some routing, maybe some trolleys or something. But again, you know, to have I could not believe that email this morning and I'm thinking, wow. Wow.

That ferry. So I just wanted to enter that for the record as well. That and we get inquiries like this frequently throughout the year. She made reference to mister Gwaltney who's with Blacks at Chesapeake, you know, leading her to a source, but people are in contact with us all the time who want to come back and reconnect with the heritage of this area. So in closing, I do have to ask one just real quickly, the reference that was made earlier to a community and business survey that will be forthcoming.

Right, right, under development but forthcoming. I just ask that we be kept in mind and that hopefully we can help participate in soliciting feedback that I know is very important to any planning effort. And the second one be being can the presentation be shared with community groups like ours or excerpts from it at the time that we start trying to get more input for your planning purposes. So that's it for my presentation. Again, I thank you for allowing me the opportunity to come and to share these comments for the record and particularly Mrs.

Lucas' inquiry today for she and her six senior citizen sisters. And we will we will think it through. We will try to figure out something and I'll be circling back to miss Johnson and her staff to say what can I tell someone like this who wants to spend the whole weekend and they have previously asked about bed and breakfast, restaurants, hotels and things like that? So we've been trying to give them information But this whole parking and mobility accessibility thing, it is a concern.

Well thank you. That really puts a fine point on your remarks. Very glad you shared that. And to close out the public testimony, we have another guest to oh we have two more. Okay. We'll have two more. The former mayor Buckley, you wanna come and give some Okay. Come on up. Former Alderman Ross Arnett.

Is it on? It is. Alright. Ross Arnett, 529 6th Street Maritime Republic Of Eastport. You've had three excellent presentations and some sort of spontaneous email that I think make a very strong case for this.

So I'll just highlight a couple of things I wanted to say. I think I wish we could pull back up Deputy City Manager Giles slide that shows green slide with all the modes of transportation. This isn't about bicycles or ferries or trolleys or EVs. It's about all of it and it's about mobility. And I can't think of anything that could really combine more modes of mobility than going to structured parking in Eastport right next to the 5th Street, getting your bicycle out, walking it onto the ferry, bicycling around Annapolis, getting off your bike, walking into shops, and things like that.

And then hopefully one day taking an exciting ride on the Annapolis trolley to go to other parts of the city. I think that's a grand vision. I also think that there's some nostalgia here in many of these things. A hundred years ago, ferries were the way that you got to places. You went to Tollchester Beach, you went to Baltimore, and you went to all the other points that are around the area and wonderful points to visit.

And if you combine that with the notion of trolleys where you can be going down Forest Drive or Maryland Avenue to get to shops instead of driving and parking and polluting and so forth. And I do hope we get back to e ferries rather than hybrid ferries. So it's easy on the surface to besmirch a beta test that goes from 5th Street and Eastport around to City Dock and certainly a longer trip than if you just rode your bicycle down Compromise Street and into downtown. But it is a beta test. It's a pilot and it's something that won a big grant and it seems to me that it would be a shame to turn back $3,000,000 because we don't think going from 5th Street to City Dock is good thing to do.

It is a good thing to do and it's a beginning. And this is also the city and the county are becoming part of another beginning which is the planning and the parks commission. I can't think of Wendy O'Sullivan's National Park Service which will be using Annapolis again as its beta test to take ferries all over the bay. Just think about having friends and family come and visit and the wonderful times you can have hopping on a ferry, going to places, taking your bicycle with you, maybe taking your bicycle to Smith Island and then bicycling around the island. So this is just the very beginning, the nugget, the beta test to something that is a much grander plan.

It is fully incorporated in our comprehensive plan and I think it would be a shame to lose this opportunity.

Thank you. Thank you very much for taking the time. We have former mayor Gavin Buckley.

Gavin Buckley, 6 Stewart Avenue. First of all, thank you for all the hard work you guys are doing. You know, what's great about this city is that we innovate. Right? And what's old is now new again.

There used to be two trains that came to the city of Annapolis. There used to be a ferry system that moved us around the Chesapeake Bay. And then we built a bridge, and we forgot about everything else, and we just focused on cars. So what's so exceptional about this plan is that not a lot of people are as lucky as some of us that have an auntie or an uncle or a mom or a dad with a boat. If we can actually really make this happen between City Dock and 5th Street, we could just make that one section just free for locals, just to test and prove the concept.

Right? But we could be operated by a third party. I mean, the city probably doesn't have the capacity to run a ferry system. We're aware of the city's budget. But this could be a third party operator. Of course, watermark cruises is a perfect fit. Watermark is. But there's also the seamanship academy. That's another option for us. They've expressed a lot of interest in trying to train people, how to be pilots, how to be captains of boats.

It could be a system where we bring kids up to learn that skill. And and I think we shouldn't, discount the fact that this $3,000,000 came with nearly half $1,000,000 for street and improvements, landing improvements. Please come with me anytime you want to the end of 5th Street and look at the condition of that street. And then imagine, when it's raised and it's a little pocket park with a floating dock, and a place where a 32 foot boat could just turn around and go in and out and people could come to that amazing shopping precinct of 4th Street. The two best things you can do in the city, I think, you go to Eastport and go to the shopping area there.

Of course, come to City Dock, but walk across and then maybe walk back across the Eastport Bridge if you've come across on a ferry. So I know the county is not gonna run from their grant. The county is gonna take full advantage of that $6,000,000. We're a creative team here. We we have smart, smart people working in the city of Annapolis.

And and I I beg you not to give up on it because, a lot of people are gonna be envious of us having a facility like that. And the idea of getting Americans back to using public transport is to make it experiential. So maybe if you use the public transport option of a ferry, then you might consider using a tram. Then you might consider using a bus. You might consider, using a train.

You know, when I'm in the county working for the city, I'm gonna make sure that we're gonna be bringing some bus trams and different initiatives like that into the city. We And can all connect it and we can all electrify it. We're gonna do a good thing for our kids. So thanks for the hard work. Thanks for letting me testify. And keep up the good fight. Thank you. Cheers.

Thank you. Thanks to all of you. And now I wanna open it up to the committee for any kind of questions for any of the presenters.

All went out of my head with that great testimony there. I want to just dig in. So basically where I'm at on this, and this is gonna color my questions, no doubt this has huge benefits for us. I just wanna get a better accounting of the costs. And so could you talk some more about where we are in developing, what the city's cost would be for this at a super broad level, and in particular this idea that a couple of you have mentioned about it would be likely run by a private operator. How do we do we know that that is viable?

I the slide back up with the total cost. So our total grant was 2.975. There's a local match of course for a total of 3.5 for this whole grant. The local match is given in staff time. So it's no money up front from the city at all.

So to actually design and build the ferries up to two and then to make the dock improvements, there's no money out from the city to do this. So we even got some more money put back into the dock improvement pile when we got rid of the all electric. We no longer have to have charging infrastructure on the dock. So there's more money for the improvements. Not all of that was going to be taken up by 5th Street.

We thought that some of that could go towards Carr's Beach Dock and any other places we might consider. But depending on how many destinations we decide to bring the ferry, we might need more money for landing. However, we already have the Hawkins Cove landing covered by the Hawkins Cove grant budget and any other funds we raise for Carr's Beach could be covered in there, could come out of this one as well. We did put Hawkins Cove and Carr's Beach in our grant application as potential routes. We are not wed to any particular route or landing.

We just had to put some ideas into the grant application. That's what we, you know, we put those three, 5th Street, Hockets Cove, Cars Beach and with some potential others that are mentioned on that slide where I show potential routes. Operating, there was no operating costs associated with this grant so that would be on the city unless we have a third party operator which that is what's the plan from the beginning and we don't have maintenance. Some of these vessels that we explored when we had our first RFP out had some maintenance plans and of course they all have warranties on parts. So we would need to get the actual maintenance costs when we do it this time again because it'll be different now that it's diesel electric.

Probably higher. Right? Like, a diesel engine probably has higher maintenance costs than an electric one?

Probably. So we use this. But the electric we probably will operate mostly on electric when you think about where you're going to be operating in the city. Your range is, know, most of the

time. So

then you would go over to a diesel when you needed to. What it does also is it gives us a little bit more power and design flexibility so that we could take the ferry out in a bit rougher waters and also across to like, Holly Beach Farm, that area in Whitehall. So did I answer all your questions?

Not exactly. What I'm trying to get at I mean, you helped me understand sort of the capital cost of it. But what I'm really trying to get at is what is the if we if we go ahead with this, which, again, like, see huge benefit to doing. Five years from now, what is the line item in the city's operating budget that we're gonna be saying this is related to the ferry. And I understand you probably can't have a perfect point estimate, but, like, what is the range that

we're So would say well, I don't have the number on the maintenance. So the maintenance will be that's something we have to gather from this next RFP. Maintenance would be a line item unless the operator assume that. I don't think they're going to. But we are we would be handing them the vessel to operate. So that might be something we build in there that they have the maintenance on it. And then the operator, we wouldn't be depends on how we do it with the operator. Whether we pay them, we don't pay them, or they have to come up with a business plan that makes them enough money, that it makes sense to them. So, we don't plan to have any operating costs and maintenance might be taken off by the operator. But I would think the one we could think of would be operating costs.

Got it. Yeah. And and again, like, can't emphasize enough. I'm excited for this, but I wanna know what we're committing to. Mhmm. So how do we know that we wouldn't have operating costs? I mean, presumably, you're looking into, like, what potential operators what they they do in other cities or, how do you know that we could say we're not gonna have operating costs for this?

I I didn't. I say I qualified that as it might have operating costs. It just depends on the arrangement that we make with the operator whether they take that on or not, whether that makes financial sense to them. So we are looking at what other cities are doing. I'm having the harbormaster do that and when we do the request, RFI for that for the operator, we will also be asking them, you know, what kind of business plan do you have for this? So there will be suggestions about who's taking care of the cost of operation and the maintenance, etcetera. So we have to develop that operating RFI.

Got it. So okay. So it's a little bit looking at other places, but mainly it's we're going to say to people come come to us in an RFI and they'll tell us whether it's a $100,000 cost to the city or a $50,000 benefit or whatever.

Because if we don't have enough information to do an RFP we can always put out an RFI request for information so that we can build our RFP in a better way.

That sounds great. And what how does the timing of doing an RFI let's assume we're not doing an RFP, an RFI interact with the timing that we need for this grant?

So so we only have until October 27 to have these funds encumbered. We would need to get going on this right away as we have we have an RFP that we revised to put out for the design build of this new propulsion system and that's ready to go as soon as the mayor says I can let it go. I would say we should do the RFI about the same time. It's a little complicated because some of the operator might want to know exactly what kind of boat it is but we could tell them based on all the information we gathered during the last RFI process we have a good idea of what we can tell them it will be.

Got it. Okay. That that I think answers my question. This I should know the answer to this. But if we put out the RFP and then the RFI comes back as, oh my god, everybody's going to it's gonna cost us a million dollars each per year. Everybody says it's gonna be some crazy number. Are we committed to go through with that RFP? Or we could say based on the results of the RFI, the operating cost would be too high, so we don't wanna award the RFP.

We're not we're not required to go through with RFP. We could just say we didn't find anybody that could do this. You know, we didn't like any of it. There's no requirement to finish it.

It sounds like we ought to do those two things then. Or revise it.

Yeah. Revise an

RFP. I think that's all my questions.

Well, there's a great line of questioning. I so going off of that, first of all, I just wanna philosophically want to point out that public transportation often does not pay for itself directly, right, through fares. I think it does pay for itself through often the the economic associate economic and just social cultural activities. I think miss Odom is it? Strum.

Strum. I'm sorry. Miss Strum from Black's Chesapeake, I think really touched on that quite a bit as far as getting people around the city connecting especially the African American community with their their history and there clearly is is quite a bit of interest to do that locally. If we can help, I think this is just one tool we have to help address the accessibility puzzle that we have. And so as far as timing, I'm wondering, I think the the RFI is a great idea and I I also like to get some more details on some of the operation options for stops.

And I'm wondering if we can either use some of that leftover grant money to pay for any of that. You said that there was some of them, we're not using all the grant money necessarily at least not for the charging infrastructure so we could redirect that in. You can't use that for any of those.

You can't write that. We can use, we can redirect it to something that's already funded such as the landing improvements and that's where we redirected it. So we we could either do a better landing at 5th Street or we could add some of that money to Carr's Beach or we don't really need it for Hawkins Cove.

Okay and so

Just so you know the county is doing that feasibility study associated with their grant for a hybrid electric ferry but they are funding it independently because their grant did not provide funds for a study.

Well, this I'm wondering if we need to track down some funds for that. I mean, have a couple options. Know I already reached out to the transportation director because they do have a contractor kind of its own call that they use. I don't know if they would have any expertise in ferries but it's it's not all that different from buses in the sense of figuring out routes and stops and timing. But any case, that would be one potential way to do it quickly if we could find the funding and we might be able to reach out to local foundations to help with that. Another option would be the Resolence Authority like we

We are

may be able to save some money by using the same consultant that the county is using because they studied Annapolis as part of their plan.

Have they completed their

No. It's going to be completed November. They're doing a comprehensive plan for everything, what type of vessel, what it should be made out of, how fast it should go, routes. They're doing operation and maintenance. So it's they've been doing this since the oh, it started at last year. They won't have it ready till November.

Yeah, that's a good idea too. We could always just give them some additional money to expand their efforts. Alright. But going back to the landing question is the terminal. So when you say that that's is that 5th Street that you're referring to? Yes.

Right now, that was what we initially saw as the the landing on the on the Eastport side. So we have money for that. But as I said, there may be some extra money we could use over at Cars Beach.

But was that because we're not gonna need to make too many improvements on Citadoc? We won't we won't need

to make any improvements. I mean, there'll be need a need for a gangway, an ADA accepts accessible gangway. And we we don't need to do anything with charging infrastructure now.

And I'm just thinking trying to think this through. So it sounds that we're kind of are we kind of locked into the 5th Street?

No. No.

Okay. So that could

be But that that is the it looked like as you look at different spots on Spa Creek, some are just not accessible. They're too high. You know, the range between the water and the deck is too high. There's areas that are too small. Other areas, you know, impeded by private marinas. So that was the logical place to put it. It also is a failing bulkhead. It's right in rough shape. It floods all the time. So we would be addressing that issue as well.

The idea, you know, the only protest I've heard from Eastport is that parking. You just hear parking all the time and I've tried to emphasize over and over that this is not about bringing parking to them. Because every time I go down in that 2 5th Street there's plenty of parking for a few cars like if you did come by car because there's mostly condos and apartments around. They're in businesses. They have their own parking.

They're not parking on the street and there's no houses on the street to park in front of on that on that part of his street at least. So I don't see what the big worry is there and I don't, and I see a lot of Eastport residents using the ferry to come over to City Dock rather than having to go all the way around and down again to get to City Dock. I've been at City Dock where someone said they were over at a restaurant in Eastport and I was like, you know, I'm either gonna have to walk and take half an hour to get there or go back and get my car out of the parking garage. And so I see it's a real benefit for Eastport residents to use this. And then the people who do wanna go over there, they could take a they could take it from City Dock.

They're not driving there. They're taking it from City Dock and going over there. Another aspect of the grant application, we had to provide information about transit that could get you to the ferry landing or near enough to walk. And that was included had that one slide where I showed you where the bus lines were going and either there we determined it was less than a five minute walk where the buses were going. We also could add a gem that would take you directly to the dock. So we really worked around not adding parking because FTA doesn't like to hear that. They want to know how how your existing transit system is going to help you connect with this transit system.

But we don't like to hear parking either.

Yeah. You just heard it in the last presentation.

But so all so I wanna try to see if there's room for because I know there as you mentioned there are some concerns that we may hear about that soon here. But some concerns about from Eastport. But let me throw out a potential scenario to see if this would be doable. Example, if we did use the grant money as planned to improve then to 5th Street, could we, as a part of our pilot, again assuming a lot, but as part of the pilot, just run the ferry between say Cars Beach, City Dock, Hawkins Cove to kinda show, hey, this is this is doable, to study some of the parking impacts elsewhere before it's actually activated in Eastport, before and if it's activated. Because if Eastport decides they don't want it, well, maybe that's fine.

They'd still have an improved street end. Right? Mhmm. So it it

No. And I've discussed this with director Vogel that we can make those improvements that are needed. And even if we're not running it to Eastport yet, sentiments can change later as you said, and we could be running it to Eastport, later. Meanwhile, we would have the improvements done for the dock. There's nothing preventing us from doing this. As I said, we were never locked into routes or landing sites by this grant. We just had to provide examples of that we had thought it out. We weren't just, oh, let's just do this. Let's just get these ferries.

Well, that's the key, I think, piece of information because that would I think that would make it easier to go to the community and say, look, it gives us some of us, I think a lot more time to talk with the community to see if this is something that they would support what they might need. It's not locked in. Again, in the end they would get an approved shoot in that currently is flooding in in awful shape. But I guess that would ultimately be the council's decision as far as what routes to authorize or not. Because I think my sense is there's still more dialogue to have on that particular issue.

But again I don't want to have that hold up the entire kinkaboodle, you know, and not throw the baby out the baffler so to speak, right? We can then get these greater improvements done and kind of deal with

the The part of point of doing the survey the mayor wants me to do is to get more input from just not just the residents but also from the businesses and the other stakeholders that it's not all about Eastport either. It's other people living in other parts of the city that may use the ferry and also visitors. The visitor center is 100% convinced this should be done. They're very enthusiastic about it. Their their goal is to expand the current one night in Annapolis to eventually one week. And they see this as something this and the streetcar as real draws for tourism.

Yeah. Yeah. These systems, and we certainly saw that abroad and we've seen that in the other jurisdictions that have streetcars that we've been to. People do seem excited by having alternatives to cars in the parking woes and so thank you. And so as far as the survey, is there a way we could roll that in with a consultant who may end up supplementing with an RFI or some other additional study?

Yes. They would be better equipped than staff to do it most likely and the Maritime Advisory Board has, I can't remember his name, one gentleman who volunteered to help us with that. He has a lot of knowledge about ferries and ferry systems and Beth Bellis agreed that he'd be very helpful to us. And Fort Warren has some expertise as well. So we could tap into that.

Because my concern with I always have a concern with kind of community surveys in the sense that, you know, the surveys are done before we before people even know really how to conceptualize their options. Because again, Americans don't think about anything besides cars. They don't think about taking their bike. It's it's just they've grown so accustomed to. They don't think about taking the water taxi or the ferry.

And so, you know, Annapolis, think, is a little different because we are more of a water based town. But we also still have a lot of those handicaps. And that's why I think with successful transportation transit, you see they all need marketing outreach efforts to get that behavior change. Right? And so I'm just wondering what kind of value a survey is really going to provide if people don't really know how to conceptualize it.

Right. Well, and we might not get you know that many responses to it either or diverse responses. We might just just get residents out of Eastport responding because they're so worried about it. That's the part that concerns me. It may not be a very balanced view of what Annapolis really wants.

Yeah. Also, you don't innovate by consensus. You

know? Yeah.

That's a phrase I could have stolen from former mayor Buckley back there.

Yeah. And I know I think we all try to do our best to respond to constituent concerns, I think we're doing this genuinely because we think it will solve. Yeah. I have seniors who have difficulty driving downtown. This would give them an option.

People without cars too that live in the city, children without driver's license.

Absolutely. We have a lot of people who don't have cars in the city, including the youth. My son has to bike all over and this would be another option for him.

Probably a safer option. Absolutely. Well I think Ms. Strum had some comments she wanted to add.

Thank you if I could. Two thoughts both being just reflections. The intersection between my history and Vince's history and how he came to me before he passed and I was just supposed to be a grant writer, eventually assumed his position, is that my background is in housing and redevelopment and I've done, projects all over the country. I really appreciate the comment or the the the questioning and concern about future costs, which often aren't what are right before us now and people don't consider that. So I think that there's great value in the councilman who asked about the operating cost and the out years.

Something I wanted to share that came to my mind for some reason when we were talking about, I think it's your plan for RFP that might allow for the private operator is that I was in Indiana. I was a Guinatoli appointee then and back years ago we were the leader in privatizing toll roads and it was the I-ninety 94 stretch that came across from Chicago, well across this anyway And there was and the there was a private operator that took over the toll road and they had to as I recall, they had to assume the upper the maintenance cost as part of it. So I just wanted to say that when that came up, I would say that may be something to look at as the models because I know other states have since done it privatizing toll roads and sections. I don't know if that's true in Maryland. But that was a thought that came to mind.

The other one that I thought about was the the acquisition itself for the cars Eltonia, the Parlatmore piece of the property, the 0.65 Acres was a public private partnership and in some of these areas and it's something you said, I forget the first part of it, what you said was reaching out to local foundations and just to say that again, one of the way of closing some of the gap on some of cost of areas that may be of both concern as well as interest in advancing this is to lean into a nonprofit like Blacks the Chesapeake Foundation or others who can get grant money that maybe is not otherwise available to the city.

So

those were just two thoughts that came to mind.

Thank you. And I apologize for the delay to Alderman Thorpe getting to you. Did you have anything you wanted to ask or?

Sure.

Thank you Mr. Chairman. Just a couple questions and I like everybody else applaud the idea of more people on the water. So whatever we can do to get more people on the water, great. I'd like to kind of follow-up on some of the questions here to put a fine point on this. Is there a requirement for this grant to use if we use the grant to fix up the bulkhead on 5th Street, is there a requirement to operate the hybrid ferry from 5th Street?

So we wouldn't want to be disingenuous in the use of this grant that we're going to fix up 5th Street and then not use it. I would say we don't have to use it immediately as long as we're using it for other places. But I think if you want to get be taken seriously by the federal government for future grants, the FDA, you need to use what you've used you need to use it for the purpose the money was given to in the first place. So I would say we we don't have to do it right away, but we could look at other places still on on Spot Creek, but I think we did that pretty exhaustively already. Still don't understand completely why there's such an objection to 5th Street.

I think it's one of the better places to put it at East Port.

Okay. Just and everybody's clear the answer is if we do the ferry, the hybrid ferry, there would be a total expectation that it would operate on 5th Street?

From the federal government, yes.

Okay. The second question is, is there a requirement?

But let me just qualify that Frank real quick. But if we didn't do it on 5th if we did not make the improvements on 5th Street, we're wed to that. We don't have to do that. We don't have to make the improvements on 5th Street. We could do it somewhere else. That was an example we put in the grant. But if we did use the funds to make the improvements to 5th Street, the expectation would be we would use it as a ferry landing.

Okay. So we could we could accept the grant, accept the the hybrid ferry, not use grant money for 5th Street, and operate the hybrid ferry to Cars Beach, City Dock, and other locations to be determined not 5th Street. That's a possibility.

Yes. And when I discussed this with, director Vogel, he said he would just have to add funds in the CIP perhaps for the, for, 5th Street for the improvements we need to correct the flooding and the bulkhead there. And when I asked him, well, how hard would it be to add on so that in the future it could be very accessible? He said, not. Nothing much at all. Because really again it's really about a ramp adding the ADA accessible sides to it and then the ramp.

Yeah. But just to be clear about the issue here is if we use the grant money for 5th Street repairs, we need to operate the water, the hybrid ferry from 5th Street. If we don't use the grant money to fix up 5th Street, we could still accept the grant, still accept the hybrid ferry, but the city would have to take on any repairs to 5th Street water end.

Yes, that's Okay.

Separate subject. Is there any requirement in the grant to provide transportation on the hybrid ferry for free? Or is there an expectation yeah, that's the question. Is there any requirement for the hybrid ferry to provide transportation for free?

There's no requirement for that. We could charge a fare. We can make it free. We can make it we could charge a fare and offer low income residents a token to make it free for them. We can do any sorts of combinations.

Okay, thank you. So then I think my last question is, so the business plan that is associated with information that will be gleaned from the RFI will come forward with proposed dollar amounts that how much it would cost to operate the hybrid ferry, how much a company is willing to invest in it, and what the expectation is for any city money to support the success of it. Is that correct?

That's correct.

Okay. Thank you. That's all

the questions. Thank you Alderman Thorpe. So I think we can wrap this up and I'll just say I think as far as the ferry dock improvements, it right that it would cost us? So if we don't do the improvements to 5th Street with the grant money for the landing, we would have to invest over the half $1,000,000 to do the improvements ourselves?

Yes. I don't know the exact exact number anymore. You know, those numbers keep going up with materials. So I'll have to ask director Vogel exactly how much it will cost.

But perhaps again we could use this if we get this other interim study to take a closer look at some of those estimated impacts parking impacts. It sounds like we have a path forward here. Let's just keep us posted on if we need to do anything to offer support on getting this additional study done. Do you see that as a parallel effort to the RFP?

I would do the RFI like as quickly as I could and then we would get the RFP out and this study since we

But RFI is kind

of Originally you should have done the study first you know, like like the county's doing it. They're getting all their information up front. But we have a we have a you know, the time is clicking on this grant so we need to move forward. So let me think about that a little bit, what order I would do it in.

We'll keep us posted if there's yeah, if there's anything we can do to help. I do have a placeholder I think in the budget for an amendment if we need to adjust anything on the CIP. Was kinda waiting till we got some more information. If I guess if you could

I can check what director

do Vogel but if we could figure out with you and director Vogel if we need to adjust the CIP at all to allow for perhaps to use that to fund the interim, the RFI. I know some money was removed from that but I'm not sure if it was removed related to the ferry or something else from the CIP. Director Vilgul might have more info. But but I'll just end to to say, you know, we've we've heard a lot about how this connects the African American community locally. But I do wanna emphasize since we are on environmental matters, the connection between I I've wanted for, you know, at this point over a decade to protect cars at Octonia Beach.

And I started off from an environmental perspective. And that is a huge environmental asset to have our first public beach access to the Chesapeake Bay and the shoreline improvements that we're making there, connecting that to City Dock and the environmental resilience work that we're doing down there and then with the Hawkins Cove which obviously has an environmental component there for the restoration. That I think really ties together some key projects for us and I think provides a really compelling narrative environmentally as well that I'd like to work into some of the interpretive information that we have downtown. And I know that's also very strong focus of the blocks to Chesapeake. So I wanna thank you particularly for your involvement, but also director Johnson for taking time to join us and to everybody providing.

Thank you all.

Thank you.

I believe next up we have updates from deputy city manager Kyle.

Getting my notes.

Oh yeah, sorry I did ask. I just asked the studio to put up these pictures. This picture of the ferry at the Naval Academy. You can see it on the left.

Oh yeah, I it. Yeah. Want to add that to my slide deck.

Another picture they may bring up next is a picture down at the Naval Academy as well getting on from the train to a bus to a ferry. Yeah. I mean, the the midshipman the midshipman used to come in as well, I'm like, Ormond Thorpe, I'm sure, is well aware, but come to the Naval Academy via train. And, yeah, I love seeing that which we can't replicate today, unfortunately. One day. Alright. So I think it's

just frustrating that I can't get to Baltimore by train. Know. Or DC for that matter. Thank you to

the studio. You can take that down now. Okay.

Alright. Here's some highlights. Alright. So I just gave you guys a paper version of this well. I did email it to you.

But you'll see that we are pretty focused on energy efficiency and LED retrofits and going for all kinds of funding for solar, rooftop solar and every other kind of solar in our city facilities. The newest one resilience and sustainability staff is working with central services on some financing options to install solar panels so we can meet our solar generation goals. And, looking into those organizations and other funding resources that can provide installations at no cost, with some revenue incentives to the city. So we're more on that later, but we're trying to find everywhere possible we can finance this through partnerships. And there's some collaborations with BG and E.

One that we are doing right now is with the fleet. We're doing a detailed fleet inventory. BG and E is a contractor, that it's free technical assistance to the city. We only had to pay $2,500 up front. This is probably $30,000 worth of fleet analysis which will show fuel savings, carbon savings, maintenance savings, and which vehicles you should be purchasing in which year to meet your goals of, you know, zero emissions from your fleet.

So it'll it will be a real tool to central services every year with the budget, and it will be show exactly what how many dollars we have to spend to get to zero emissions in our fleet. So and that's just we spend $2,500 for that. But as soon as we buy an EV within a year of that study being done, we get the $2,500 back. So we're looking at a of those kinds of relationships.

If I could point out real quick, we don't have any electric vehicles funded in the FY '27 budget currently. I found out, still trying to figure out why, but Department of Central Services requested, I think some of the older vehicles get replaced but for some reason finance department chose just to replace police vehicles. So that's all that's getting replaced next year. So we're gonna we may lose some of that money if we don't

We need we need to be able to purchase at least one to in order to get the $2,500 back. I know it's not a lot of money, but you would think we could purchase one EV in a year. Okay. So I'm moving on to I'm trying to hit the new things in here which are they're indicated in red. It'll say new or it'll say update where things have changed significantly.

Oh, so this is another one where Empower Maryland is working with central services. BG and E has that Empower program that encourages energy efficiency in homes and in other ways. But this is a program for no cost LED lighting retrofits and upgrades for municipal buildings. One of the ones is municipal buildings. They're working with a contractor called Matrix Solutions and they will upgrade interior and exterior lighting.

And the first project that we're looking at doing with this partnership is lighting the firehouse on Forest Drive. And if this works out and there's more funding, can move on to other city buildings for free LED lighting. Moving on to page three where I have near the bottom of the greenhouse gas emissions inventory and the climate action plan. Our consultant, Karamita, provided the draft plan in April. It's online and anyone can drop in comments or questions online in the portal or they can contact Dylan.

We had our CareMeta consultant come to Annapolis last week and give a presentation at town hall and then there will be a webinar that Dylan will run on May 26 and then all public comments must be in by the May. A work session will be had with council on June 18. We'll have our consultants live by screen virtually and after that if there's any comments from council, we wanna wrap this up by the June and get a final plan, climate action plan done by July.

Can I ask if if we wanna give input, what would be the best way? I'm not well, you did say online, but I'm wondering, I was hoping to get a presentation to the committee, but it doesn't sound like that's gonna work with the timeline necessarily. I mean, we could do it early June, but I don't know if that's gonna give you enough time to make changes. So if that's the case, perhaps some of us could meet with you individually or Dylan to go in to dig into this.

Yes. So as the comments are coming in and the reason they want the cutoff to be the May is they're going to do that is, is going to do another draft to to get ready for the June 18 work session with council. So, it'll be a little bit cleaner by the time we have that work session, but it's not gonna be done yet. I'd wait for the council, you know, hopefully it won't tear into it like they did the comprehensive plan. I had to do a redo but I wanted that opportunity before I finished it.

Know, Ross really tore into that comp He's not paying attention. So yeah, we might be able to do that. When's the next meeting? Oh, not till June. We're already in May.

We can talk offline about it.

I'll go

off the

And then on page four, have an update on the electric streetcar trolley. Rob and I and Patrick Denker from the Denker Foundation made a trip out to Kansas City to

Mister Leshinsky.

Oh, and Eric Leshinsky. Good. Yes. Thank you. It was much needed for that too. So they this was the summit. We learned a lot. We took a tour of the operations center and the the trolley line. They have a really nice operations center. It is a tour.

It's on a lot of tours, like especially for children, for schools. And they did it very nicely so it is available and very accessible in that way. Which is a good thing to do because then you do have it as an educational center as well. But we learned so much more about how important this tool this is for economic development and housing development and can really drive business to certain areas. And I also learned about ways you can help alleviate the pinch on businesses and we could be applying some of these tools at City Dock with some grants to businesses paying a portion of their rent during the time of construction.

Lots of media about driving media campaigns about driving business to businesses that are impacted by construction and the way that they communicate that they're open for business, you know, go to this area, support them, your next cup of coffee should be at this coffee shop and it happens to be where the construction is. So some really good tools we took away from that And we have an RFP that will be revised by the Resilience Authority and an extension of two weeks is going to be added so early June for RFPs for the RFP for feedback and those who want to apply to do the feasibility study. And the reason we delayed it in our advising is because it was shared with the Maryland Transit Administration and they had some comments that we thought should be included. Anything Anything you want to add to that Rob?

Just that I'm still kind of contemplating how to best get some of this information to the council. Certainly talk offline about if council might be interested in presentation from those of us who attended as far as what we learned and perhaps the status of the RFP. We'll have to think about that some more. So we haven't we're not intentionally leaving people out of the loop. We're just trying to get all the information first before we give that update.

And then on page five, what we already did the city ferry pilot project, so skip that. Let's see. Hawkins Cove update on page six. The applications to MDE and the Army Corps have been submitted. They were submitted in May and they are based on 90% design plans. So we're pretty much done with the design. MDE has to do a review and approve, but that was paused because we have we had that legislation reduced about the harbor lines, adjustments which was passed in mid April by council. So now we can go back to getting the approvals from MDE, and that project can keep moving. It's been taking a very long time. But it's been enhanced several times.

More money was obtained so we had the opportunity to blow up that project a little bit. Here I'm on page seven with electric leaf blower enforcement. We still are receiving many, many calls and emails and enforcement staff, code enforcement staff and planning and zoning are receiving complaints. They are doing they've issued 18 citations, 18 or 19 citations. They but if they get someone complaining, of course a citation isn't issued automatically.

A warning goes out first and then when they actually see one in someone in the act of using a gas powered leaf blowers when the citations occur. So sometimes they've been able to give out two at a time because there are multiple leaf blowers in action. So we do have overtime available to our inspection staff to do leaf blower enforcement. They were doing some of that in the fall but no one has taken Chris up on it recently. Let's see.

We have the program of course, Harry's favorite program for electric leaf rebates. And so far our last report was we've spent $36,000 a little over $36,000 on rebates. The Chesapeake Bay Trust has processed 170 rebates. And so more outreach will be going on this spring that these are available. Most of the rebates have gone to in the past to residents, just individual homeowners. It's starting to pick up now with some of the landscaping businesses. So before it was mostly just individuals.

The rebates?

The rebates? Yeah. Was very low number for the landscaping businesses. Either that tells me two things. It's either they don't really they're not really feeling that much pain or they're just ignoring it and taking the fines.

How much money is left?

There's about $40,000 left.

Personally I'd be open to moving that to some other effort if we need to just I feel like we've given people a pretty good opportunity to Yeah.

So Dylan was gonna do a big push this month and because we're running out of time because it was on this but we have a contract through August or October. I have to go back and look with the trust to do this. So we might have to they already had all the money's already been allocated to the trust. So we won't have that opportunity to move the money unless we get to the end of our contract with them and there's money left over.

And so I just wanna make sure I'm clear. So we had this whole debate for the f y twenty six budget about whether the f y twenty five funds were gonna roll over. Did it end up being that the f y twenty five funds did not roll over? So we have a $105,000 total, not a $210,000 total?

We had a $105,000 to work with from the beginning.

Right, right. But there was at one point a thought that the FY twenty five funds had been encumbered and so then we were appropriating new money in f y twenty six for this. But if you're telling me that's not the case, that's fine by me.

I think there was f y twenty five money. There was.

I think we just had to we had to ask for it again, the 105,000. So it's not 210. Yeah. We only ever had a 105.

That was the goal. Yep. Well, my goal. That was

have one other big update. Our climate change litigation that where we the city had joined Anne Arundel County in Baltimore in lawsuits to, bring bring a case against the fossil fuel companies and their trade association, American Petroleum Institute. We were seeking damages and other relief based on the company's concealment of information, deceptive marking practices that then delayed jurisdictions response to climate change, and we incurred many costs. And we will continue to incur costs, to address climate change impacts. The the court the appeals court decided against this us, the plaintiffs, and the so the case is now closed.

Our lawyer lawyers share a deadling after doing an analysis of various cases around the country. They just thought we have pretty much exhausted everything we could have done and so we are the case is closed. We're not doing any further appeals. Now about half the cases in The US have found in the other direction. They have found that the cases are valid, that state law which is much better applies, not federal law which was found in our case.

It went back and forth. First it was yes state law applies and then it was no federal law applies and then it was that was upheld. So things could change in the future because there's also a case from Boulder, Colorado that's before the Supreme Court of the United States right now. Probably won't get a ruling out of that until 2027. So we will see what happens with that.

But for now that case is closed for us and Anne Arundel County and the City Of Baltimore. Okay. And then I just wanted to note that since Ashley Diaz joined our staff as an environmental program manager, we've really been focusing on education and getting people educated about what they can do for the environment and for resilience building and, you know, other resources available to them. And Ashley's really stepped up with the social media. She created the newsletter that goes out every other month.

She's been doing more events with the interns we have. And so she estimated that we are reaching right now about 1,500 community members and we wanna we wanna increase that. We wanna double that by more education and putting out tips and doing more events. I'm encouraging her to do a lot of that around energy efficiency. She worked on that when she was in Bowie, and we learned from other counties that they do a lot of giveaways like LED giveaways.

They do bar crawls where you go to each bar and you get like a thermostat for your refrigerator or you get LED lights and things like that. That's a popular way to do it. And other places where you can drop off your old lights at the library and in exchange you get some LED lights. So hopefully we can before that, we asked for a little bit of a bump in the budget for funds to do that kind of thing. Because the biggest complaint we're hearing now in the environment is the cost of gas, the cost of groceries, the cost of heating and cooling, energy use. And a lot of that's not within the city's control, but we can start exploring ways that we could partner or, you know, do some of these giveaways and education.

I don't know. Have you considered reopening the Strait Of Hormuz? Have you even tried?

I mean what?

Have you even tried reopening the Strait Of Hormuz?

I said what? Yeah. Just woke up this morning and I got right on it.

That's what the new ferry is for.

We're putting the gunboat on it.

Napa's Alma. Alright. Anything else?

Nope.

Anything else for the good of the order?

None from me.

All right is there a motion to adjourn?

Yes, so moved. I'll count the other

one as a second. All those in favor please say aye. Aye. Meeting's adjourned. Thank you all.