New Montgomery County planning liaison needed

NORTH WALES >> A key figure who has helped plan the future of North Wales Borough over the past half-decade is moving on.

Borough Manager Christine Hart announced earlier this month that Maggie Dobbs, the borough’s liaison to the Montgomery County Planning Commission, is moving on.

“She has accepted a position as director of planning and zoning and assistant manager at Westtown Township, in Chester County — which is good for Westtown but bad for us,” Hart said.

Starting in early 2016, North Wales has contracted with the county planning commission for work on a series of long-term projects, most notably the two-year public process that started in June 2016 to update the borough’s comprehensive plan. Dobbs helped lead a series of public meetings through 2017 and early 2018 to gather input on the plan, before it was presented to council and the public in fall 2018 and formally adopted that September.

Since then, Hart told council on Feb. 9, Dobbs has continued to vet development projects and work with the borough’s planning commission to identify and prioritize short-term projects that fit with the 2040 plan’s long-term goals, and a new borough liaison to the county planning commission should be able to do the same. Hart said she and assistant manager Alan Guzzardo have already met with MCPC to talk about finding a replacement liaison for the borough, and how the change would affect the borough’s current contract with MCPC.

“I feel it’s more important for them to be able to transition properly, find the right person for our borough, give them the weeks and/or months needed to learn about our comprehensive plan, learn about what our goals were, and then give us that person,” Hart said.

“But in doing that, we’re losing time and services that we paid for, on our contract” with the county, she said.

The solution? The borough has proposed, and MCPC has agreed to, a six-month extension of the current contract between the two, at no charge, as that new planner gets up to speed.

“They’re going to be giving us an extension letter, and an extension, to Dec. 31 of 2022, whereas it would have run out on June 1, and then we’re looking forward to picking up the ball with whoever our new planner is,” Hart said.

MCPC has also indicated that their portion of work related to the Center Street gateway project, which would add sidewalks along a pedestrian route running to the borough’s border with Upper Gwynedd, is about 75 percent complete, and can be done by other planners and experts there.

“We won’t lose any speed there, but as far as goals, and comprehensive plan implementation, and redoing the zoning as Alan and Maggie were working so very hard on, that will be stalled a little bit,” Hart said.

Council President Jim Sando asked if the new county liaison would be brought to meet and greet council once chosen, likely in an online meeting; Hart said they “absolutely” would, before adding thanks to Dobbs for her years of work with the borough.

Reappointment gets OK: One local resident will be working with the MCPC’s next liaison, whoever is appointed.

Council voted unanimously on Feb. 9 to reappoint resident Greta Martin Washington to the borough’s planning commission.

“I was hoping to get a written letter; I know she is extremely busy this time of year, but she has indicated verbally, and she was appointed by the planning commission as their chair for 2021,” Hart said.

When making appointments to borough boards and commissions, council typically sees a letter of interest and/or resume that is posted, with personal info redacted, in their public meeting materials packet, and can invite the member to address council. Hart suggested, since Martín Washington is an incumbent member who has already served multiple terms on the planning commission and on council, those normal procedures could be skipped, and borough solicitor Greg Gifford concurred.

“We don’t have to have something in writing, if it was confirmed by someone reliable to borough council,” Gifford said, in this case by Hart.

Council then voted unanimously to approve the appointment; the planning commission next meets at 6 p.m. on March 3.

Human Relations Commission gearing up: Hart also gave an update on the borough’s Human Relations Commission, which was formally established in October 2019 to field and rule on complaints of discrimination in town.

Members of that body were appointed in January 2020, and Hart reported that May that the board had started receiving formal training; as of Feb. 9 they had recently held their first formal meeting of 2021.

“They are meeting regularly, each month, and training they’ve signed up for should begin in April. They’ve appointed their chair and secretary, and that board’s moving along quite nicely,” Hart said.

Councilman Sal Amato said he had heard talk about Montgomery County’s human relations commission looking for feedback from members of the local boards, and Hart said she knew the North Wales HRC had already been in contact with similar boards in “Ambler, Lansdale, and a few others;” HRC member Collette D’Angelo added that she didn’t know of any direct contacts with the county yet, but would investigate.