Author: Chao Wu

Chao Wu Maryland State Delegate, D9 ( Howard and Montgomery Counties)

We Are In Need Adequate Public Facilities (The Villager, 2017-08)

We Are in Need of Adequate Public Facilities

Dr. Chao Wu

This article will be published on River Hill “The Villager” August 2017 Issue.

We are facing probably one of the largest school redistricting efforts in the Howard County Public School System’s (HCPSS) history. The  current HCPSS redistricting proposal aims to move 8,800 students, the equivalent of 16% of the total student population county-wide, where the River Hill community is greatly impacted as follows:

Elementary Schools: Clarksville sends 42 students to Triadelphia Ridge; Pointers Run sends 160 to Clarksville, 38 to Dayton Oaks and receives 196 from Clemens Crossing.

Middle School: Clarksville Middle sends 28 students to Folly Quarter;  and receives 123 from Lime Kiln Middle and 33 from Wilde Lake Middle;

High Schools: Atholton sends 337 students to Hammond High and 614 to River Hill; Atholton  receives 325 from Hammond High and 420 from Oakland Mills; River Hill sends  227 to Glenelg High.

This redistricting is urgent and needed because of over-capacity issue in some schools. However, such a large-scale redistricting creates unnecessary burdens and pressures on our students, who are the primary focus of our educational system. This over-capacity problem was created by the imbalance between housing development, public facility development, and insufficient funding of our school system. The urgency of school capacity issues could be greatly mitigated in the future if the to-be-revised HoCo Adequate Public Facility Ordinance (APFO) is modified accordingly.

The balance between school capacity and community development is not so difficult to fix. Just as when we see water leaking, the first thing we do is close the faucet. The overcapacity in our schools is caused by over-development. We need to reduce the speed of development first, and reducing the existing over-capacity now . Otherwise, over-capacity in our schools is like a leaking facet.

With the Adequate Public Facility Ordinance (APFO) is currently being reviewed and planned to be updated  by the Howard County Council, we need ask the county council to decrease the ratio for school capacity limits from 120% to 100% and remove the maximum wait times but freeze new project developments when projects fail APFO adequacy tests. Currently when a project fails APFO test first time, it will be automatically pass after three years without another test. When capacity is permitted to be higher than 100%, it means we cannot smooth out the current school over-capacity issue. The result is that we will probably see another large-scale school redistricting in five years.

Adequate means “enough school capacity” to handle the additional students generated by development. Portable classrooms once used become quasi-permanent. A new high school has not been  built in the County for a while. Considering that each year HCPSS gains another 1000 students, we need plan ahead. The average elementary school has around 800 students. The annual increase of total students will fill a new elementary school each year. These students will eventually go to high school.

Adequate means “enough road capacity” to handle the additional vehicles generated by development. With many new houses and other facilities being constructed, I do not see much improvement to the local roads. One very example in our community is the intersection at Ten Oaks Road and Clarksville Pike, in front of commercial development under construction. The traffic is both congested and dangerous during peak traffic times. At least, there should be some work to widen both MD 108 and Ten Oaks Road in this location. Please also notice, there are two schools in the vicinity.

Furthermore, we need to be forward-thinking with our roads which means we need to build roads anticipating higher traffic volumes in the future. One example is Route 29. The State Highway Administration is replacing many intersections with overhead bridges which greatly improves the traffic situation. In fact, they should build those bridges when they first design/widen the roads. Planning ahead on the traffic patterns and traffic volumes while building a road may cost more money, but it is really worth the extra money. This upfront investment could be used to build a bridge, widen access to intersection, better signal control system, etc.

I am looking forward to your thoughts on how we ensure there are adequate public facilities.

Chao Wu, Ph.D.

River Hill Representative to Columbia Council and Columbia Association Board of Directors

Email: chaowu2016@gmail.com  Website: http://chaowu.org

Disclaimer: This letter only represents Dr. Chao Wu’s personal opinion. It does not represent River Hill Board of Directors nor Columbia Association’s Board.

List of Columbia’s 165 tot lots

3 Comments

Columbia Association has many tot lots to maintain. Some of them are tiny and some of them are large. They are scattered around into our community and serving us in different forms. Apparently, some of them need an upgrade and can serve our community better.

CA tot lot list p1CA tot lot list p2

CA tot lot list p3CA tot lot list p4

CA tot lot list p5

CA tot lot list p6

Oceania CultureFest Performers Needed Oct. 22 and more!

From: Columbia Association <Marketing>
Date: July 24, 2017 at 12:30:48 AM GMT+8
To: jhan
Subject: Oceania CultureFest Performers Needed Oct. 22 and more!

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Seeking Performers and Exhibitors for Oceania CultureFest on Oct.22
CA is seeking musicians, dancers, exhibitors and food vendors for the upcoming Oceania CultureFest, which will celebrate Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands. The event is hosted by CA and the Howard County Library System.

This free family event will be held on Sunday, Oct. 22 from 1:30-4:30pm at Howard County Library System’s Miller Branch, 9421 Frederick Road in Ellicott City (this CultureFest was originally scheduled for May of this year).

Performers (dancers, musicians, singers, haka) and exhibitors from Oceania are invited to participate and show the Howard County community what makes their countries and cultures unique. Representatives from Australia, New Zealand and all of the Pacific Islands are invited to participate, including but not limited to the islands of Fiji, Hawaii, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Tahiti/French Polynesia, and Tonga. Performers can be children or adults.

Exhibitors are often local residents who set up tables to display cultural items from their country. Vendors may not sell items or services unless they are vendors or food trucks selling food outside of the library. There will be no payment for performances. Families who attend will be able to pick up a “CultureFest Passport” upon arrival and complete it for prize drawings.

Interested parties should contact Laura Smit, program manager for CA’s International Exchange and Multicultural Programs, at International

Clarksville Senior Living Home by Erickson

2 Comments

I had the opportunity to meet Roger Caplan (The Caplan Group) and Steven Montgomery (VP for Erickson) and got a deeper understanding of this new senior living facility. I am sharing two key pictures for this project. It is still early and future changes may occur.

The facility scale is very large. It will hold 1300 residents, 240 full time staff, 60 part time staff.  It has its own cafeteria, hospital, recreation facility. It is not cheap. You may have to pay about 500k refundable deposit and a monthly 2500 fee to live there. It will create many job opportunities for locals.

Senior Living Home at Clarksville

Senior Living Home at Clarksville-Transportation Plan

If you need their presentation, please email me. It is too large to be put here. The presentation is also on their website, but I just could not find the link again for the moment.

 

 

Summary of CA Board Work Session 2017-07-13

Resident speakout:

Michael Glasgow. : Issues with Orioles game ticket with extra charge from CA. He felt that was not right.

Advisory Committee report:

Green and Golf Committee, Health and wellness committee, International Multiculture Advisory Committee (IMAC), Senior Advisory Committee(need committee members from River Hill, Hickory Ridge, Harper’s Choice), Tennis Committee, Art Center Advisory Committee, Waterrshed Advisory Committee (need committee members from River Hill and other village).

Work Session Topics:

  1. The board will keep the annual charge rate 0.68 and annual cap of 3.5%.
  2. The board will set 20 million dollars each in 2019 and 2020 for capital expenditures.

 

How to report your opinions about Columbia Gym Closing Too Early at Weekend

2 Comments

I keep hearing from residents who complain that the Columbia Gym closes too early at weekend which does not meet their needs. In fact, Columbia Gym operates on the following schedule at weekend:  Saturday, 7am-7pm; Sunday, 7am-5pm.

Personally, I also feel the gym closes too early at weekend. So last year, I checked with the CA Director of Sports and Fitness. He told me there were not so much need from residents and he shared some data with me which supported his claim. I was convinced with the number even I felt this is a chicken-egg issue ( when the gym closes earlier, less residents will come to gym later afternoon at weekend. When less residents come to gym later afternoon at weekend, the resident count will be low) . He told me if residents feel the need to close later and they should email the staff. Then the staff could count the need and may make proper changes on the operation hour. Please note the facility needs time for maintenance at weekend too.

So if you feel the gym should close a little later at weekend, please contact the following persons:

Dan Burns, Director of Sport and Fitness, Daniel.Burns@ColumbiaAssociation.org

Columbia Gym: Columbia.Gym@ColumbiaAssociation.org

CA board members: Board.Members@columbiaAssociation.org

 

Please help Grace McComas Memorial Scholarship

Please help Grace McComas Memorial Scholarship at https://www.gofundme.com/gracemccomas .

Julie McCready of the well-know Village Green/TownSquare blog shared her article http://villagegreentownsquared.blogspot.com/2017/07/sharing-story.html about the Grace McComas Memorial Scholarship.  She wrote:

In the Spring of 2012 the Glenelg High School community was rocked by the suicide of a sophomore named Grace McComas. She took her life in response to a drug-assisted rape by a fellow student and the subsequent cyber-bullying from members of that same community in the aftermath of this traumatic event.

The McComas family has established a fund which is to be the basis of a schorlarship in Grace’s name. The scholarship will be awarded each year to a student who exemplifies the qualities of G.R.A.C.E. — Give Respect and Compassion to Everyone. It is a seed sown in faith that we should grow more than academic excellence in our children, something far more precious: love, respect, and courage to stand against bullying and harassment. 

I believe this is a great opportunity to honor Grace McComas and promote awareness  on this issue. Please donate or spread the message.  The link is https://www.gofundme.com/gracemccomas

Thanks.

Seeking input for FY 2019 and FY 2020 CA Budgets

As a board member on the Columbia Association, I have the opportunity to submit new operating initiatives and new capital projects that are important to our community. Note CA spends around 70 million dollars per year.

I have to submit my proposals by close of business on Wednesday, September 6, 2017.  The new initiatives and major capital projects, as well as those submitted by the community stakeholders and staff will be the basis for the October 12, 2017 work session.  During that work session, straw votes are taken for each new initiative and each budget request to determine if that item should be included in the proposed draft FY 2019 and FY 2020 budgets.

If you have any thoughts/projects/initiatives to be considered by Columbia Association through my advocacy, please contact me directly.

Thanks.

Chao Wu, Ph.D

Board Member of Columbia Association

 

APFO 101 Seminar on July 5th 2017

APFO is one of key issues for us. It has a strong connection to school redistricting. One expertt Brent Loveless will host an APFO 101 seminar. Please attend it.

Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance – covers all public facilities including schools, roads, water, sewer, library, police/fire departments.  

It has been 14 years since APFO was last reviewed.   At that time, school capacity was reduced from 120% down to the current 115%. 

With an amendment, this capacity could be brought down to 110% or lower.  

Prefiled legislation is posted here: 

CB61 https://apps.howardcountymd.go v/olis/LegislationDetail.aspx? LegislationID=2890

CB62 https://apps.howardcountymd.go v/olis/LegislationDetail.aspx? LegislationID=2891

We  are hosting an APFO 101 class at the Miller Library on July 5th at 6:30. 

Community members can learn more about the pending legislation and learn key point to assist in preparing testimony before the County Council.  

​HCPD brand NEW Youth Advisory Council is looking for members!

HCPD’s brand NEW Youth Advisory Council is looking for members!

This new council is designed to provide youth with a safe and engaging environment to interact with local law enforcement. The group will meet monthly with members of the department.
Who can join? Howard County residents in 8th-12th grade.
What are the benefits?

• Earn student service hours

• Advise the Chief of Police on youth concerns

• Be a positive agent of change in your community, school or place of worship

• Attend free educational and social field trips

• Gain and strengthen life skills such as leadership, public speaking and social skills
How do I apply? Complete and return an application form: https://www.howardcountymd.gov/Departments/Police/Youth-Programs
Questions? Contact HCPD Youth Liaison PFC W. Harris.

phone: 410-313-0275

email: HCPD-YAC@howardcountymd.gov

Proposed 2018 HCPSS redistricting

49 Comments

2018 HCPSS Final School redistricting result came out on 11/16/2017. It is here https://chaowu.org/2017/11/16/final-2018-hcpss-school-redistricting/

 

The document is located at http://www.hcpss.org/f/schoolplanning/2017-feasibility-study.pdf.

I am very surprised. This report is so different from the 2016 report. In the 2016 report, only a tiny change was proposed. Please see my original post at https://chaowu.org/2017/04/06/2017-hcpss-redistricting-for-elementary-schools/

Now, the approximate number of projected students moved is 8,800 for the 2018 school year, which is 15.6 percent of the total projected student enrollment.　I am a little puzzled and concerned by this dramatic change.

2018 HCPSS School Redistricting Figure 5-12018 HCPSS School Redistricting Figure 5-22018 HCPSS School Redistricting Figure 5-3

How to find HCPSS school polygon map number : http://hcpss-gis.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=78bbfc96270e4e16bcec96478fe1f24e

Please search in the above link.

Some recent important CA activities and date

11 June 2017 — Books in Bloom, Columbia’s First Book Festival; at Chrysalis

11 June 2017 — CA Summer Picnic at Sports Park 4-8 PM

14 June 2017 — Design Advisory Panel meeting on Lakefront Core Design Guidelines

15 June 2017 — Luminarium sneak preview at Lakefront (invitations were sent out by Columbia Festival of the Arts)

16-18 June 2017 — Lakefest at the Lakefront

17 June 2017 — Columbia’s 50th Birthday Cake Cutting at Lakefront 7 PM

18 June 2017 — Reception for “heART of Columbia” exhibit at HCC

21 June 2017 — Wilde Lake’s 50th birthday celebration at village center 5-8 PM

21 June 2017 — People Tree Birthday & Bells dedication at Lakefront 

21 June 2017 — Columbia Orchestra’s POPs Concert at Chrysalis in celebration of the Columbia’s 50th Birthday 7 PM

22 June 2017 — CA Board Meeting

22 June 2017 — Longest Table event for 50th Birthday

22 June 2017 — CA’s World’s Largest Swim lesson

24/25 June 2017 — CA Open House

26 June 2017 — Audit Committee meeting

Swim Center is closed until early September.

Athletic Club closed 30 July to 28 August 2017 for renovations (phase 1)

Mitigate plane noise from Nextgen

Tonight I received a call from Lisa Hosinski from Orange County, California (Citizens for No Plane Noise). They knew from my website that Maryland Citizens are concerned with the extra plane noise created by the new Next-gen FAA routing policy at BWI. They want to exchange some information with the group here, leading by Paul Verchinski.

I am sharing their slides here and they proposed a solution too. I wish the coordinated effort across the country will mitigate plane noise from Nextgen soon.

The slide is here: Citizens for no plane noise

Howard Dialogue : The longest Table

Columbia Association is a sponsor of The Longest Table, an event seeking to build new relationships and discuss the future of Columbia. Tickets are now available via Eventbrite: click here.

You are invited to the table!
We provide the dinner; you provide the conversation. The first of its kind in the state, The Longest Table is an idea to build new relationships and talk about the future of our community. Share a meal and conversation with someone you don’t know — to enhance the experience of getting to know different people, guests will not be seated with their companions — exchange stories about life in Howard County, and discover both common ground and new ideas. The dialogue starts when you come to the table.

Adult tickets limited to two; student tickets limited to one per person.
We are seeking people to be “table hosts” and facilitate conversations. If you are interested, please complete this form.
Additional details at ChooseCivility.org.

New Clarksville Retirement Facility Project Proposal from Erickson

Clarksville Continuing Care Retirement Community Proposal Announced
On Thursday, June 15, 2017, Erickson Living will be hosting a community discussion regarding its proposal to locate a continuing care retirement community (CCRC) in Clarksville. The meeting will be hosted at The Gathering Place, 6120 Day Long Lane, Clarksville, MD 21029 beginning at 6:30 p.m.

The proposed CCRC community is intended to be located on the west side of Route 108 (Clarksville Pike) near Route 32, between the Freestate Gas and Sheppard Lane and will contain approximately  60 acres of land on two parcels  (Tax Map 34, PAR  185 and a portion of Tax Map 28, PAR 100).  Across the River Hill Garden Center, besides Free State Gas Station.

Representatives of Erickson Living will be sharing information such as:

  • What the Erickson CCRC model is and the vital need for expanded housing opportunities for the aging members of our community.
  • The potential impacts, benefits and opportunities of an Erickson Living CCRC.
  • Potential enhancements and efficiency of traffic flow along Route 108 through Clarksville.

For more information, Erickson has shared the following website: www.ericksonatlimestone.com

By the way, I have been hearing praises for Erickson from many people and would love to see their detailed plan.
River Hill Community Association

We are Neighbors and Friends (The Villager 2017-06)

We are Neighbors and Friends

The article is published at River Hill Villager, 2017-06 issue.

There is an old Chinese proverb that says, “neighbors nearby are better than relatives faraway”. That is so true in today’s world since more family members are scattered around the globe. Instead, many families have been neighbors for more years than they have live with or near parents and other relatives.  At a difficult time, or for convenience, a friendly neighbor can often offer greater help than a relative not in the area.

I am writing this article  following two of my experiences in the neighborhood. The first  experience is an example of a not so friendly situation. A family sought my help because their neighbor always parked their car along the curb in front of their home. River Hill’s Covenants do not address areas within the public rights-of-way and the location and manner in which the vehicle parks is not illegal and therefore there is no action the police can take  However, the parking of the car did cause difficulty for the family when backing out from their garage and there appears to be enough space in their neighbor’s driveway to park which adds to their frustration. Though the family talked with their neighbor, they were unable to resolve the issue and asked for my assistance. I tried to mediate and have not succeeded yet.  In another example, some neighbors are very friendly and considerate. I know of two neighbors who both have dogs. They set up regular play-dates for their pets. When one neighbor has a vacation, the other neighbor takes care of their dogs and cats, and vice versa. This level of cooperation is a tremendous help to each resident and to their pets.

We are now living in a more compact world and in Howard County, Columbia, and at in the villages we are dedicated to creating a more walkable environment which will lead to more interactions with each other. The most important element of  a good neighborhood is our neighbors and our connections to one another.

This concept can also be extended to land development. Adding a wall to reduce sound disturbance or a fence to avoid light pollution are soft and friendly measures developers can take to give consideration to residential neighbors. Improving traffic conditions around commercial development as early as in the design phase as possible will increase acceptance from the neighborhood as well. Surely, some residents do not want any changes in their neighborhoods and the surrounding area; but, most our residents are reasonable and ask no more than necessary to protect their peaceful existence. Their concerns should be respected and honored.

We are neighbors and have the potential to be friends.  If we cannot be friends, at least, we can be considerate of our neighbors. A greeting, a smile, or offering to help with kids or pets are ways we can assist each other. Let us embrace our neighbors.

Chao Wu, Ph.D.

River Hill Representative to Columbia Council and Columbia Association Board of Directors

Email: chaowu2016@gmail.com  Website: http://chaowu.org

Disclaimer: This letter only represents Dr. Chao Wu’s personal opinion. It does not represent River Hill Board of Directors nor Columbia Association’s Board.