Advisory committee to address Town Center

Wednesday, Sept. 7, 2005

An advisory committee will be formed to address the new design for Olney’s center of town.

As part of the Olney Master Plan approval in March, the County Council recommended establishing a committee that would support the redevelopment of the Town Center and help to create a new civic center.

The Park and Planning Commission recently released a draft for the proposed Olney Town Center Design Advisory Committee.

The idea is to create consensus among all stakeholders and potential advisory group members about the purpose, role and organization of the committee before it is established.

The details as to how the committee will function will be determined by Park and Planning staff, the community and the property owners within the Town Center.

Representatives from both the Olney Coalition and Greater Olney Civic Association (GOCA) say they welcome the opportunity to be involved.

‘‘We look forward to the formation of the Town Center Advisory Group and look forward to having a voice,” Olney Coalition President Barbara Falcigno said.

Art Brodsky, GOCA executive vice president, said that GOCA is pleased whenever the county government takes citizens’ views on major changes in the community.

‘‘Obviously, we have to be realistically skeptical about what the committee will be allowed to do,” he said. ‘‘We learned from the Master Plan Advisory Group that many of us served on and our recent experience with the master plan that the council does not always listen to the large cross-section of Olney.”

Brodsky stressed that the committee will only serve an advisory role, and not a policy-making one.

The group is expected to consist of eight to 10 people who should represent all stakeholders in the redevelopment of the Olney Town Center. That may include representatives of residential areas within the Town Center, as well as the larger community, property and business owners in Town Center, GOCA and the Olney Chamber of Commerce.

The committee meetings will be open to the public and the committee will accept suggestions from all interested parties, but active participation will be limited to committee members.

The advisory group will be discussed in detail at next Tuesday’s GOCA meeting, to be held at the Buffington Building’s Community Room at 7:45 pm.

The full text of the proposal is available on the GOCA Web site, www.goca.org.