By Greg Ellison

(May 28, 2020) After experiencing difficulties staging a virtual OPA Architectural Review Committee meeting during a test run last Saturday, the committee plans to hold a socially distanced in-person event on June 2.

ARC Committee Board liaison Steve Tuttle said since cancelling the groups bi-monthly meetings during the current health crisis, a number of variance requests have been received that need to be addressed.

“The attempt was made by the committee to do a test virtual meeting to see if we could work through these variance requests,” he said. “The test run encountered technical challenges with video and audio connections.”

To further muddy the waters, ARC Committee meetings are typically held in the Public Works conference room, where OPA members seeking an exception to bylaw requirements present their case.

“They make their presentation and then the committee discusses, deliberates and makes the decision,” he said. “To do this virtually, we have to get all of those different people who have variance requests into the virtual meeting along with the ARC Committee.”

Tuttle said since the deliberation process undertaken by the ARC Committee is more complex than other OPA advisory bodies the decision was made to meet in person next Tuesday.

“We have made a request to have … an emergency ARC meeting on June 2 in the Assateague Room,” he said. “It will be set up in such a way that social distancing is practiced carefully.”

Tuttle said in addition to keeping committee members far enough apart, the plans call for applicants to appear only when summoned.

“They won’t come into the building until we call them and say we’re ready for your presentation,” he said. “They would be waiting in their cars outside until its time.”

A maximum of two people would be allowed to present details for each individual variance request.

“The person who has the variance request would come and make a presentation from across the room,” he said.

The committee would then deliberate to reach a decision before moving onto the next case.

“We think we have come up with a satisfactory way to at least get a meeting in to make decisions on some of theses variances that are waiting,” he said.

Tuttle said in a departure from normal meeting procedures the public comment portion would be abandoned.

“We will never have more than 10 people in the room,” he said. “There won’t be public people invited into the meeting [because] it’s just going to be to functionally get done what needs to get done by this committee.”

Tuttle also stressed that the emergency ARC meeting is not intended to establish precedent for other advisory committees.

“We’ll see what happens after that,” he said. “Hopefully, some of the restrictions will be reduced or eliminated going forward and we’ll be able to start meeting in a more normal way down the road.”