September 28, 2009
Board of Appeals
Rockville City Hall
111 Maryland Ave.
Rockville, MD 20850
Dear Sirs:
I am writing to you on behalf of the West End Citizen’s Association (WECA) in regards to the Victory Housing proposal for affordable senior housing.
At the most recent Board of Appeals meeting on September 12, 2009, I came before you requesting additional time for WECA to review and evaluate the potential impact of this development on the community. This letter is a follow-up to my testimony.
At that meeting the final decision regarding this project was delayed until your October meeting; this delay provided an opportunity for WECA to invite Victory Housing to its September 17, 2009 meeting. This was an effort on our part to make the citizens of the WECA community aware of the project and provide them with an opportunity to provide input.
Jim Brown of Victory Housing along with the lead architect from Grimm & Parker Architects attended the meeting and gave a presentation of the Victory Housing project. At the meeting, we had over 25 residents in attendance of which 17 were block area captains. By way of background, organizationally, WECA is made up of 43 block area captains and 5 executive board members who are responsible for disseminating information about issues within the West End to neighbors within their block. In addition, the board and block area captains have voting rights at our monthly meetings on all issues requiring a vote. There are over 1600 residents in WECA and while every meeting is open to every resident, only block captains are eligible to vote at regular meetings. Twice a year we hold general membership meetings per year where all residents are eligible to vote on issues. Our September meeting was not a general membership meeting.
Many residents asked questions and sought clarification on the size and design of the project. Specific questions included: accessibility features, the length of the lease, parking, if religious affiliation will be required given that Victory Housing is affiliated with the Archdiocese of Washington, income qualifications, the need for a Special Exception, the financing process, construction time, rent fees, competition in area from other such facilities, and design issues, notably the high roof and the number of units for this particular lot.
After Victory Housing’s presentation, we had a presentation by Alice Liu of Courthouse Walk to review the concerns of area residents.
At the end of Alice’s presentation there was general discussion about the project and ultimately a motion was made to write a letter to the Board of Appeals stating WECA’s concern over this project’s height and density and that both be reduced. This motion was passed 10 in favor, 6 against and 1 abstention.
As such, I respectfully request that you take the concerns raised at our September meeting into consideration as you evaluate Victory Housing’s request for a special exemption.
If you have any questions about this letter, please do not hesitate to contact me at (301) 762-5354 or by email at sprince@cadencemarketing.com.
Thank you or your consideration in this matter.
Sincerely,
Susan Prince
Susan Prince
President of West End Citizen’s Association
