President's Message

by Lisa Miller

   The Prince George’s Property Owners Association, Inc. (PGPOA) is made up of property owners of both single-family houses and smaller apartments who, for the most part, rent these dwellings to students, faculty, families and young professionals.  The association does have members who do not rent their properties yet have similar concerns with the continued assault on their property rights.  Most of the members have strong ties to College Park.  Many either went to the University of Maryland, have kids who attend there, live or have lived in College Park and care deeply about both the success of the University and the College Park community.
         
PGPOA has, in one form or another, been working for property owners for almost a quarter of a century. Throughout those years there have been many obstacles to overcome.  For example, the Mini-dorm Law was overturned at the Court of Appeals level a number of years back.  That law reduced the number of unrelated students who could live in a single-family house to three.  The City has attempted over the years, and continues to chip away to this day, to take zoning authority away from the county and place it into its hands. We are now faced with rent control and there's no way to know what we'll be faced with in the future. That's why the most important goal I have for this year is to make every effort to strengthen our association through an increase in membership while continuing to fiercely fight to protect our property rights.
 
We have a deep resolve to strengthen and grow our association while remaining committed to keeping our members better informed and involved. We also see the need to help get out “The Facts” regarding what the city government has done and is doing, much of which the community is unaware.  To help EVERYONE keep better informed, we are putting the final touches on our new PGPOA website.  This website will allow for a greater breadth of communication for our members, tenants seeking housing, people interested in finding out about our organization, and informing people about what is going on in our community.  The website will make our records, links and blogs more easily available to the membership and the general public, with both public and private sections available on the website.  If we can encourage you to become more involved and bring your ideas and viewpoints to the association, we will be much more prepared to overcome the obstacles we will be faced with in the future.
 
We currently send at least one member to as many City and Maryland (state) Property Owners network meetings to represent the interests of PGPOA, hear what is being planned and to offer, when allowed, input on ways to improve our community without over-regulating our industry. This year, our focus includes expanding our network of influence through businesses, communities and politicians.  The benefits will be substantial if we can cooperate with other organizations whenever possible.  I would like to invite you to join us, come to our meetings, and avail yourself of many of the other benefits of membership and I welcome your participation in the association in whatever way your schedule permits. The most important part of this association is the members whom we serve and I look forward to working with each of you throughout the coming year. Please feel free to send us any articles, publications, editorials, suggestions or comments which could be posted on the website or used in future newsletters.  The sharing of information, helping members run a better business and the pursuit of fair and reasonable government intrusion into our property rights is the PGPOA mission.  We look forward to very productive (and busy) year.
 
Thanks for your interest.
Lisa Miller
President, PGPOA, Inc.