On July 17 the Greenbelt City Council held its annual stakeholder meeting with the board of directors of Greenbelt Homes, Inc. (GHI). All councilmembers except Leta Mach were present. Six members of the GHI Board were present: Stefan Brodd, Chuck Hess, Diana McFadden, Ed James, Stephen Holland and Linda Seely.
New Zoning Concerns
Much of the meeting was given over to updates on activities from GHI board members and General Manager Eldon Ralph, with several items requiring action or additional discussion. Arguably the item of greatest immediate concern to everyone was notification Ralph had received on July 10 from City Manager Nicole Ard, who was also present, regarding proposed regulations for the Neighborhood Conservation Overlay (NCO) zone that were being developed with Greenbelt as part of Prince George’s County’s revision of its zoning ordinance and subdivision regulations.
Both the provenance and the status of the 17 regulations were uncertain, but the assumption was that the City Planning Department had submitted them. GHI Vice President Stefan Brodd said GHI had not previously seen them and that if they were incorporated in their present form, they could severely limit GHI’s authority over the potential modification and maintenance of its structures. The content of a number of the regulations appeared almost to refer back to the restrictions that would have been imposed had GHI decided to seek county historic district status about 20 years ago.
Read more of this story in the July 27 News Review