City Manager Josué Salmerón’s proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2026 (FY 2026), which begins July 1, allocates $1.404 million to the Department of Planning and Community Development, up from $1.393 million in FY 2025, an increase of 3.3 percent. This represents 3.5 percent of total proposed city expenditures.
On April 16, the Greenbelt City Council discussed this budget and received some general budget updates from Salmerón and City Treasurer Bertha Gaymon. The department’s expenditures are partially offset by $970,000 in fees such as street permits, licenses and permits, alarms and false alarms, and municipal infractions. Currently the department has 10 authorized positions. In balancing the budget, Salmerón’s proposed budget calls for not filling the vacant supervisory inspector position.
Director of Planning and Community Development Terri Hruby provided a brief recap of her department’s activities and accomplishments. She said they had conducted almost 1,000 single family rental inspections and over 3,000 rental apartment inspections and collected more in commercial licensing fees than expected due to better data, policies, procedures and quality control. On the good news/bad news front, they collected $20,000 in fines for municipal infractions, well over the budgeted $7,000. However, this windfall was due to unfortunate “challenges” such as loss of heat at two apartment complexes and trash issues. Hruby anticipates receiving a grant for the city’s Vision Zero activities, which seek to eliminate deaths and serious injuries to motorists, bicyclists and pedestrians.
Hruby reported that the request for proposals for a contractor to prepare the 90 percent engineering plan for the Hanover Parkway off-road bicycle facility was to be issued the following week (update: it was and is posted on the department’s website). Finally, rapid flashing pedestrian crossing beacons, such as have been used at the Crescent Road crosswalk near St. Hugh’s church, have been installed on Hanover Parkway and Cherrywood Lane.
Objectives
The budget document lists the department’s management objectives for FY 2026. The department will seek grants to implement the city’s strategic wayfinding plan for design and implementation of the Cherrywood Lane Complete and Green Street retrofit project and for a traffic calming study for the center city area. In addition, they will manage pedestrian and bicycle improvements, the bus stop construction project, complete a parking study and establish policy with regard to crosswalks, intersections, driveways and bus stops as well as oversee the completion of the cemetery preservation master plan. On the community development side, objectives include maintaining a 90 percent compliance rate with municipal codes, updating sections of the city code and developing an online payment system.
7010 Greenbelt Road
Hruby provided a quick update on the construction of 95 senior condominium units at 7010 Greenbelt Road. That property, located near the Greenbelt Armory and University Square, has recently been cleared and is attracting attention. She said that the first building is scheduled for completion in the fall of 2026. The entire complex is scheduled to be completed during the summer of 2028.
EV Chargers
Salmerón reported that electric vehicle charging stations should be installed behind the library by the end of this June. It was determined that the city could tie into an existing transformer, rather than having to obtain a new one.
Boiler Systems
Council asked about the problems encountered this past winter when there were prolonged heating outages at two apartment complexes inside the city limits. Both complexes use boiler systems and it took a long time to get those systems back in operation. One of those systems was still using an original 1938 boiler, per Assistant Director for Community Development Gilberto Cabrera. One complex, Parkway Gardens, still has at least one of those old boilers.
Hruby told council that the state, not the city, is responsible for inspecting and certifying heating systems. To try to head off problems in the future, though, Cabrera said that city inspectors will contact property owners six months before the start of heating season on September 15 to obtain a copy of the certification and report.
Fees
Hruby also plans to look at the schedule of fees charged by the city based on new state legislation that raised the ceiling on those fees. The current limit has been in place for many years, she said, so she wants to examine the entire fee structure in addition to the actual individual rates charged. For example, for hotels, the city currently charges a flat fee, rather than a fee per room. She does not know the history of why the fee was set in this manner but noted that the city appears to be the only municipality that uses a flat fee. Mayor Emmett Jordan cautioned that hotels have not yet fully recovered from the pandemic so council will have to balance the city’s need for revenue against the anticipated impact on businesses. Hruby noted that the fees also have to be examined relative to the city’s costs, as the fees are supposed to be a cost-recovery measure, not a revenue generator.
Budget Updates
Salmerón noted that he and city staff are continuing to monitor economic conditions and are identifying ways to adjust to unanticipated changes. They have now received information that the state has received over 60 requests for abatements to property tax assessments with a total value of over $2 million. Gaymon reported that the city has set aside $2.1 million for abatements. The appeal process typically takes 18 months, she said. Another uncertainty is that Prince George’s County has not yet passed its budget. Changes to this budget could impact the city.
Further Information
The agenda packet for the April 16 work session includes the department’s work program, Hruby’s budget memo and several reference tables.
