Attendance: Erin K, Jim F, June F, Andrea H, Susan F, Theresa K, Terry P

Important Upcoming Dates:
February 6 – Calvert 2040 Transportation Workshop
February 22 – Calvert 2040 Community Workshop
February 26 – HCA General Meeting, 6:30pm

Meeting Recap

No meeting in December because of holidays. The issue with BOCC changing electronic signage ordinance was discovered because Andrea and Theresa went to a BOCC meeting. Theresa doesn’t think they will exempt anyone, but will make the changes apply across the entire county. There will be a public hearing in March or April about the signage ordinance.

There was discussion about St Mary’s redoing their signage ordinance and now businesses are being fined a lot for not complying. It was also brought up that there could be safety issues with driving depending on what the proposed changes to the ordinance are.

Andrea has been doing a lot of research on the Calvert 2040 items. In the material for the first workshop, date from a study done states that there was been no increase in traffic along 2/4 from 2000-2015. But the study does state that when people were surveyed, most people say it feels more congested. The same material also states there is a six phase plan to widen 2/4 to a six lane divided highway from north of Stoakley Road to south of MD 765A. There is also a recommendation in the material that 2/4 be converted to a controlled-access expressway.

It was decided as many HCA team leaders and Huntingtown Citizens should be encouraged to attend the upcoming Calvert 2040 workshops as possible as this is the best chance to have a say in what is done. There will be information distributed at the end of each workshop for the following workshop. For the first workshop, the information, and a survey if you are unable to attend, can be found here: http://www.co.cal.md.us/futureCalvert

We also discussed what the differences are between being a Minor Town Center or a Rural Village. This is still unclear and being researched, but it’s possible that changing what Huntingtown is classified as could either automatically reduce what type of businesses are allowed in or could provide the opportunity for us to define what is and is not allowed. The current Huntingtown Master Plan can be found here: http://www.co.cal.md.us/index.aspx?NID=610

It was discussed about whom to invite to a community meeting to get answers on changing the Huntingtown Master Plan. Pat Nutter represents Huntingtown Minor Town Center, but there is concern he would only say what he thinks we want to hear. So it was proposed to instead or in addition to, invite Steve Weems one of the other at-large commissioners.

Some of the HCA leadership are interested in trying to go a Dunkirk Citizens Association meeting or talking to some of their members to see how they operate and keep things from going in to Dunkirk that they don’t want. This would be to learn and get some advice on how we might be more effective.

It was also brought up that there is regularly a Southern MD Delegation/Cocktail Reception held in Annapolis, which provides the opportunity to network and communicate with representatives. The next one will be February 23^rd. More info: http://tccsmd.org/2017-southern-maryland-legislative-reception/

Action Items

• Susan will create a flyer and a Facebook event for the next HCA General Meeting. She will also add that date and the Calvert 2040 workshops to the event list in the Huntingtown Citizens Information Group.
• Andrea will distribute the flyers.
• Terry will contact SoMD.com about getting the meeting added to their community calendar.
• Erin will contact the Calvert Recorder about getting the meeting added to their community calendar.