NOTE: Public hearing and testimony. October 24th from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm at Pip Moyer Recreation Center.
Annapolis Mayor Gavin Buckley halted design work on the re-building of the Public Works facility shortly after taking office. He has proposed a land-swap with the owner of a 4-acre parcel along Forest Drive to house the public works facility that has been operating out of a couple of locations for several years. Public Works previously operated on a portion of the 12-acres Spa Road property.
Essentially, public works will consolidate operations to the vacant lot just to the east of the American Legion on Forest Drive, and the Spa Road site would be available to a developer to build single-family homes and townhomes. The Mayor has said that part of the proceeds from this swap would be used to build pedestrian bridges across Forest Drive and Spa Road to connect a network of bike and walking trails in the City.
The Council was poised to move forward with authorizing this in the Spring when Alderwoman Finlayson, who had many concerns, moved for the establishment of a task force to study the pros and cons. This was voted on and approved by the Council and former Alderman Jared Littmann was selected as the chair.
The task force is holding another public meeting on Thursday evening, October 24, 2019 at the Pip Moyer Recreation Center from 7:00pm to 9:00pm to seek additional public input and to update the public on the findings of the various sub-committees.
Full details of the task force’s work can be found here.
EDIT: The sentence regarding pedestrian bridges was removed from this article.
