News – THE NEW NHCA INC.

Merritt Station II CIM Synopsis, Meeting Minutes & Attendance

January 7, 2022 Published by: david

Merritt Station II CIM Synopsis

There was a “sparsely attended” virtual community input meeting on October 19, 2021 on Merritt Station II to put in 84 apartments.

“As the civil engineer, Stuart Darley, stated in the Dundalk Eagle on October 21, 2021, “The apartments are expected to create an average of 300 vehicle trips a day and most of those vehicles will go straight out to Merritt Boulevard.””

“The new apartments will be age-restricted to those ages 62 and older, Jeffrey Paxson, the president of development company Pax-Edwards LLC, said at the meeting.”
– Dan Belson, Dundalk Eagle

Merritt_Station_Reviews_As_Of_20220107 — *Merritt Station Reviews as of Jan. 7, 2022*

Read more reviews at of January 7th, 2022 of the first Merritt Station located in approximately the same location in Dundalk, MD
http://nhca.info/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Merritt_Station_Reviews_As_Of_20220107.pdf

Please consider the reviews of this company since they’ve been established in just a few short years. It’s unusual for a new business to continue “succeeding” with poor service to the community.

Next Planned Meeting

Wednesday, January 12⋅10:00 – 11:00am

Meeting number (access code): 1801 06 9841
Meeting link: https://baltimorecountymd.webex.com/meet/pbwilliams

Project: Merritt Station II
Proposal: Affordable Senior Housing 84 units
Location 1500 Meritt Blvd
Council District: 7
PM: Patrick Williams
Engineer: Colbert, Matz, & Rosenfelt, Inc.
PAI: 12-0169
Tracking No: MAJ-2021-00003

October 19, 2021 Meeting Attendance & Minutes

Formatting may not be properly displayed here. You can download the PDF here:
http://nhca.info/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Merritt_Station_II_CIM_20211019.pdf

111 West Chesapeake Ave, Rm 123 410-887-3321

Towson, Md. 21204 410-887-2877 (fax)

COMMUNITY INPUT MEETING MINUTES

Project Name: Merritt Station II                                                           Date: October 19, 2021
                                                                                                                      PAI No.: 12-0169
                                                                                                                   District: 12c7
Location:          Webex
Engineer:          Colbert Matz Rosenfeld
Attendees:       5 Citizens from the community
                          Scott Link, Pax Edwards, LLC.
                            Jeffrey Paxson, Pax Edwards, LLC.
                            Jason Vettori, Gildea & Schmidt, LLC.
                            Karin Scott, Habitat America
                            Judi Miller, Architecture by Design
                            Stuart Darley, Colbert Matz Rosenfeld.
                            Patrick Williams, Project Manager Baltimore County, PAI

Mr. Williams opened the meeting at 7:00 pm and introduced himself. He stated that the purpose of the meeting was for the community to see a presentation of the concept plan that has been submitted to Baltimore County by the developer and Colbert Matz Rosenfelt. Mr. Williams let the attendees know that he would be taking minutes, and that copies of those minutes would be distributed to everyone who signed in.

Mr. Williams explained to the citizens about the county’s development process, in particular how this project fits into that process and what lies ahead. Mr. Williams stated that the county’s process begins with a submittal of a concept plan to the county by the developer. The concept plan is reviewed by various county agencies, and then a Concept Plan Conference (CPC) is held to discuss the reviews and comments made by the various county agencies. The next step in the process is a Community Input Meeting (CIM). Mr. Williams indicated that this meeting is an opportunity to see what is being proposed to their community, to talk with the developer and ask questions, and a chance to voice concerns. He further stated that, after tonight’s CIM, the developer had one year to submit a development plan. When that plan is submitted, a Development Plan Conference (DPC) is held to review and discuss agency comments. After the DPC, a Development Plan Hearing (DPH) is held to make a decision of approval or disapproval of the project. Mr. Williams stated the DPH is a quasi-judicial hearing in which the developer and his attorney will present the final development plan for approval. Mr. Williams stated that the DPH is the most important part of the process. He further stated it is the responsibility of the community to make themselves available for this hearing should they have issues and/or concerns. In addition, Mr. Williams shared with the community that proper notification would be given for each step of the process, and that the community was entitled to any information regarding the potential project. Mr. Williams then turned over the presentation to Mr. Scott Link.

Mr. Link introduced himself and explained that the purpose of tonight’s meeting was to discuss the concept plan. He said that he would be discussing a few key points and then would open the floor to discussions.

Mr. Link stated that the proposed development encompasses an 84 unit building that is four stories, elevator served and accessed controlled. The apartments are for seniors with 40 one bedroom apartments and 44 two bedroom units. The building itself will also incorporate many spaces within the building and around the exterior will be an outdoor patio. The interior of the building will feature a multi-purpose community room with a kitchenette and lounge for gatherings. There will be onsite laundry and leasing offices. Members of the development team present tonight are our Stuart Darley our civil engineer from Colbert Matz and Rosenfeld, architect Judi Miller from Architect By Design, and Karin Scott from Habitat America who will be managing the building once constructed. Mr. Link then turned the presentation over to Mr. Darley.

Mr. Darley indicated that the plan being shown has proposed parking in the front and the property itself is approximately 4.84 acres. It is currently vacant and the property slopes moderately from the northwest. Towards the southeast runoff will reach Merritt Boulevard and get into the public storm drain. The property has multiple zoning designations including BM CC as well as slivers of DR zones including 5.5, 10.5, and 16. The existing cemetery reaches German Hill Road from this location. To the direct west is an apartment complex the Holabird East Apartments. To the direct south is a residential subdivision Merritt Homes. To the east between the property and Merritt Boulevard is a large medical office building. To the northeast is Merritt Station I which was constructed in 2015 and featured apartments and some retail space. The building is L Shaped and access to this building will be from Merritt Boulevard through an access road. There is some existing paving that comes back into the lot that is intended to be improved. There will be new water meter and sewer connections. There will be 73 new parking spaces with approximately 5 or 6 handicap spaces near the front of the entrance. Runoff from the new impervious areas will be collected onsite by our private storm drains which will discharge into our storm water management facility. Our storm water management facility is shown on the plan by contour lines that go in circles. That represents the grading needed to develop a sump area where water is discharged and cleaned in a gravel wetland which is addressing water quality. It will then drain out from the location into the storm drain system and go the east to ultimately connect to Merritt Boulevards public storm drain system. We have received comments from the county during the Concept Plan Conference and going forward we will be addressing those comments. The project we predict will generate approximately 300 average daily trips. We are required to do a landscape plan which we intend to create a fairly developed landscape plan that will serve the site and will screen the neighboring properties. With the dumpster enclosure and landscaping there will be amenities on site including benches and walking paths to allow people to walk to the Merit Station I property as well as retail locations associated with the Town Center.

Mr. Darley then turned the meeting back to Mr. Williams who opened the floor to the attendees for questions, comments, and concerns.

Citizen: I heard that there were 90 units, however, tonight I am seeing a proposal for 84 units. What is the correct number?

Mr. Link: It began as 90 but we have decided on 84.

Citizen: Next to Denny’s the storm water management facility is not managed well with overgrown vegetation. Is your property connected with that facility? Are you proposing to better manage your facility?

Mr. Darley: The facility I spoke about earlier is an onsite water quality facility and it only provides quality management for the runoff that we capture. The output from that facility ultimately discharges into that, which is a quantity facility. The issue with respect to trees and things growing in the pond that need to be removed is a consideration and will be assessed in response to county’s comments and advisory.

Citizen: Certain vegetation destroys the mounds and alters the shape. It requires constant maintenance and reporting when vegetation becomes overgrown.

Mr. Darley: I know there are agreements between property owners regarding that facility and I know that the county routinely inspects.

Mr. Paxson: Would our development enhance the management of storm water due to the fact that we are creating more impervious areas as well as creating an onsite storm water management facility?

Mr. Darley: Yes. That is correct. We can either make it the same or better.

Citizen: Looking at the plan I believe that it is a good development because it features a lot of green space. Across from the dog park is a nice wooded buffer that separates the medical facility which is good. Will the housing be age restricted? Schools are overcrowded so I always worry about that impact.

Mr. Paxson: By definition senior is 62 and over for head of household so we are building, designing, and marketing to seniors.

Citizen: All 84 units?

Mr. Paxson: Yes.

At this point, Mr. Williams closed the meeting and reminded everyone who registered for the event, will receive a copies of the CIM minutes. He further stated if anyone had any questions regarding the process, to contact him by phone at 410-887-3321 or via email at pbwilliams@baltimorecountymd.gov .

Respectfully submitted,

__________________________

Patrick Williams, Project Manager

Development Management

410-887-3321

pbwilliams@baltimorecountymd.gov

cc: Honorable Todd K. Crandell, All attendees who registered for the Webex event; Stuart Darley, Colbert Matz Rosenfelt, Scott Link, Pax Edwards, LLC., Jeffrey Paxson, Pax Edwards, LLC. Judi Miller, Architecture By Design, Karin Scott, Habitat America; County Reviewing Agencies: OP, PAI-DPR, Zoning, R&P, EPS, EDC, CDC, BD OF ED, FIRE.

Visit the County’s Website at www.baltimorecountymd.gov

News

Violence in Baltimore County Public Schools

November 13, 2021 Published by: david

Baltimore County does not record violence, so long as suspension and expulsion are avoided as a disciplinary action.

We have heard from many community members over the years that our local schools have become more and more violent. People ask for safer schools and the schools, many have said have gotten worse.

Baltimore County has been reducing suspensions for a long time and attempting to reduce the number of suspensions superficially by race for a few years. Baltimore County’s own statistics show from 2004-5 to 2018-19, the percentage of suspensions went from 11.1% down toe 6.3%.

Obviously, the goal should be to reduce violence directly, but maybe simply reducing disciplinary actions for it will have the same effect?

After seeing how reducing disciplinary action failed in another town [Fig 1], we wanted to see how reducing disciplinary action has affected overall violence in BCPS too.

[Fig. 1] Clark County, Nevada school records showing as disciplinary actions declined, school violence and other inappropriate behaviors significantly increased

We asked Baltimore County Public Schools (BCPS) for “information on violence to students by year and violence to staff by year.

BCPS responded “no records exist that are responsive to your request.”
[Fig. 1, Fig. 2]

[Fig. 2] Letter response from MPIA Officer Baltimore County Public Schools

[Fig. 3] Letter response from MPIA Officer Baltimore County Public Schools

This is not an attack on the Baltimore County Public School system, it’s a wakeup call. You are needed to reduce violence – reducing suspensions does not make schools safer and may in fact have the exact opposite effect.

School Board members across the country must ask themselves, is reducing the level of safety in their schools worth the bureaucratic prize awarded for lower suspension numbers? Are you for education and safety or are you for political favor?

Not one black, white, rich or poor student benefits from increased violence in their schools. Nor do they benefit from the increased learning disruptions associated with increased violence and misbehavior.

NHCA President
David Rader II

News

Crossing Guards Needed in Balt. Co.

July 24, 2021 Published by: david

Know someone looking for work?

From Baltimore County Police Community Outreach:

“Good morning. The Baltimore County Police is looking for School Crossing Guards. Our Traffic Management Team has asked our office to send out their recruiting flier to all of the community associations with the request that you post these on your social media platforms.

Unfortunately, we are very understaffed with School Crossing Guards and when there is no guard to work an assigned post a patrol officer, traffic officer or outreach officer must be assigned to work that location. School crossings are considered priority calls for service and must be manned by either the crossing guard or an officer and if a police officer is assigned to that detail they may not leave, even to handle a call for service close to them that citizens would consider more serious than the crossing of children (which would include burglaries, robberies, domestic violence, etc.)

Since school restarted (I used the approximate date of 04/01/21 to the very last day of school, 06/22/21) officer in the PC-12 Dundalk area have handled 827 crossing details. Each crossing detail lasts 30 minutes which equals a total of 24,810 minutes or a total of 413.5 hours or a total of 17.23 days assigned to the crossing of children for school instead of potentially handling calls for service or doing business checks or working a crash scene or traffic stop or other police related activities.”

Meetings Minutes News

Meeting Minutes 4/3/18

April 30, 2018 Published by: david

Meeting starts at 7:01 with the Pledge of Allegiance.

Officer Addair gives her report Salvo’s and Quest Diagnostics have been sent a letter on letter head. 486 calls for march, 52 reports, 55 traffic stops, 26 officers sent to do school crossings, 2 Destruction of property, 1 overdose, 1 narcotics, 4 auto theft, 5 burglaries.

Mike Yancura, a new treasurer voted in. Treasury report is $1511.23. $646.14 must be returned as part of the C.O.P. grant.

Barry states on Ives lane and Westfield Road. There are commercial cars, we cannot do anything. Advertising a business or not. Anything over 10,000 pounds is illegal. Anything under his legal. Cintas trucks are legal. Officer Addair can run any tag to find out the weight of a vehicle. Code season is just beginning more complaints this month, then last month especially dog waste in the back yards. No word on Ives Lane Alley. Sheila and mikes friend Phil is in code. He may be able to help us.

Merritt Boulevard and Westfield Road accidents. State Road-not a County road. State says it will take 90 days to do this study. April 17^th. We should have a word on what is being done. The light sensor at Holabird and Searles road is broken. We have emailed them multiple times. There’s no word yet. Mike Yancura to call traffic in engineering about the traffic camera.

As far as the no soliciting for our community. There is no change. We need special permit signs to put in the ground, it’s a very bureaucratic process. No place to put our own signage. If someone is soliciting they would have to have a permit sunrise to sunset.

David Rader went to Towson to protest the Sparrows Point Country States. They said an amazing amount of community input was considered in this process, but they did not mention the petition that Richard Davis took in his community protesting this development. It is a PUD development. Which means that there is a community benefit that supposed to be given to local communities but they forgot a lot of local people.they also forgot to mention the traffic that it would add to our already over Crowded streets, they did not donate any money to the volunteer firefighters or the Police Department in our local community. Nor did they mention the overcrowding in the schools that we have already. and where are they gonna put the children that are gonna be living in the 320 plus houses that they are about to build! They did, however, give money to Todds Inheritance, which is state owned building. They also forgot to mention the environmental issues that building on this property is going to have on our community. Our friend Russell Donnelly has worked for 30 or 40 years with Chesapeake Bay restoration and the Critical Area Boundaries protecting the environment from the hazards left behind from the steel mill among waste from other sources. Those toxins are in the land and water that this development will be stirring up.

This PUD has also donated money to Patapsco High School for their athletic field to be Astro turf. We called the athletic director at Patapsco and he said he will not bar people from using the field; like Dundalk high school did after they rebuilt. You must pay Park & Rec for usage.

We do have welcome packets for new neighbors in our community. If you need one please reach out and let us know. We will gladly get one to you. Our community clean up is April 7^th at 1 PM. Ives lane is in major need of cleaning the alley has a lot of debris and broken concrete from a remodel. ( A special tank you to John Melzer for cleaning that up!) A House on Ives Lane sold for $150,000 and it’s not an end of row.

There was a fish study done by the Maryland Department of environment that recommends we do not eat many of the fish that come out of the Bay.

Tradepoint Atlantic’s plan to dredge is building opposition who are making sure they do things properly and safely with all of the pollution and health hazards under control. Paid experts and volunteer experts have 2 different opinions on this study. We asked for the blessing to write a letter for environmentally friendly support and it was unanimous.

Barry is representing us on April 9^th at the PCRC meeting for NHCA he represents our area and will update us on topics he learns about while there.

We would like to welcome Ed and Diane our new faces.

For National Night Out Officer Addair requested Donuts. She will be there for a half an hour to 45 minutes this year.

Meeting ends at 8:04 PM.

News

Official Response to Sewage Dumping

December 26, 2017 Published by: david

Regarding the sewage dumping on Lund Ln. in Dundalk, MD that took place for over a month.

The gentlemen surrounding a concerned citizen in pink obtaining information in the video.

Official Response:

It has now been confirmed by the Bureau of Utilities Chief that the dumping of raw sewage in massive quantities, by an out of state contractor has been taking place without permission in Dundalk for over a month.

So far, the official government action that we are aware of has been to tell the company “cease all further dumping without express permission from Utilities.”

Dundalk already has sewer systems in dire need of immediate maintenance (Colgate for example) being neglected. It’s obvious that further investigation and action must be taken by Baltimore County, and the State of Maryland. We need to hold anyone, including out of state contractors accountable, especially with prolonged utility misuse. Who’s going to pay for Norwood-Holabird’s infrastructure replacement if it has an issue?

Originally we made a phone call to Councilman Crandell’s office we spoke to a Mr. Ron who informed us that this company doing the dumping had a permit to do so. We provided D.O.T. truck numbers over the phone to verify the company could legitimately dump there and we were told they had permission from State Highway. We officially dropped the issue with that information.

Another member of our community continued researching the issue; The EPA and Md. Dept. of Environment were contacted and no one knew anything about a dumping permit for this company. We reached out again to Councilman Crandell’s office via email this time, so we could provide our community a hard-copy permit. Mr. Anderson replied and said they asked the Dept. of public works to investigate. He wrote “…from time to time, county contractors must pump out part of a section of sanitary sewer that is blocked and pump it back into an unblocked section to get it to the wastewater treatment plant. this is common practice and the contractors who do this are permitted by the dept. of public works to do so, however the contractor did not have permission to do this on Lund Lane.” That might also explain why they originally assumed and told us they had permission. Unfortunately, numerous truckloads of raw sewage came over the following month.

Our community may have a combined 80+ volunteer hours away from our friends, family and work trying to track this issue down. Baltimore County and the State of Maryland should fully hold these companies accountable if they’re found avoiding proper procedures, especially for such a lengthy time and take into consideration the huge community effort to stop this. A clear method to prevent future misuse should also be instituted; a hotline or email for example. It shouldn’t of taken so many emails and phone calls to determine the legality of this massive dumping operation.

The questions remain; Who has the authority to grant the dumping of raw sewage in Baltimore County? Who holds those accountable who dump without permission?

Thank you to all the residents of the Norwood-Holabird Community Association for their work in resolving this issue, the communities of the 7th District, Baltimore County & The State of Maryland for their support.

Norwood-Holabird Community Association

Anchor link
EMAIL RESPONSE REFERENCED IN LETTER:

Doug Anderson <w—***—n@baltimorecountymd.gov>

Thu, Dec 14, 2017 at 2:51 PM

To: “c—***—d@gmail.com” <c—***—d@gmail.com>, “n—***—n@dundalkeagle.net” <n—***—n@dundalkeagle.net>

Hi David & Nicole.

When our office was made aware of this issue, we asked the Department of Public Works to investigate. We know that from time to time, county contractors must pump out part of a section of sanitary sewer that is blocked and pump it back into an unblocked section to get it to the wastewater treatment plant.

This is common practice and the contractors who do this are permitted by the Department of Public Works to do so, however the contractor did not have permission to do this on Lund Lane. Here is what was reported to us by the County Bureau of Utilities’ Chief today:

The Bureau of Utilities and DPW have looked into the concerns of the New Norwood Holabird Community Assoc. expressed by their President David Rader. We appreciate the eyes and ears of the Community Association and their request for information. We have the following findings at this time:

· The Bureau of Utilities do not have any information that the material dumped involves an environmental issue.

· The company Standard Pipe Services is a subcontractor to the Prime Contractor Anchor Construction.

· The County does not have a direct contract with Standard Pipe Services.

· Standard Pipe Services did not have permission to open up a sanitary manhole for the purpose of discharging the contents of their Vac Trucks at the Lund Lane location.

· The Prime contractor Anchor has been instructed to cease all further dumping without express permission from Utilities.

Doug Anderson

Senior Council Assistant,

Councilman Todd Crandell

Merritt Station II CIM Synopsis

Next Planned Meeting

October 19, 2021 Meeting Attendance & Minutes

Anchor link EMAIL RESPONSE REFERENCED IN LETTER:

Anchor link
EMAIL RESPONSE REFERENCED IN LETTER: