Since Piotr Gajewksi was unable to attend the WECA Candidates' Forum, due a prior professional commitment, many residents asked WECA to give him the opportunity to respond here.
(May not be the exact wording)
Q1. I have lived in Rockville since I was 1 year old and that was in the early 1960s. Rockville has always had such a “livable” feel to it with many small local businesses and the like. Now to put it bluntly, I don’t recognize my hometown. My local pizza place is now a wine restaurant (whatever that is). The High’s where I bought milk is gone and in its place are a bunch of boutiques and chain restaurants. After years of the Town Center, there is still no grocery store. Do you think this is progress? What are you planning to do to get us some useful stores? A grocery, a hardware store, a garden center?
A1. This is a difficult topic. The stores that one person finds useful are not necessarily the stores that another person finds useful. The reason that the High’s is no longer here is because not enough people found it useful. The reason that a wine restaurant (if that is what it is) is here is because enough people find it useful for it to prosper. It is as simple as that.
I was also a kid in the early sixties. I lived in Poland, under communist rule, where the government decided what stores were needed for each neighborhood. I can tell you from personal experience that government does not do a very good job of dictating what store should go where.
And so it is in Rockville. If reelected, I promise to continue to stay out of the way while Rockville’s residents, voting with our spending habits, decide what stores we should have in Rockville and where.
With respect to the grocery store in Town Square, I share the frustration. Clearly Town Square is a right place for a grocery store, which is precisely why a major grocery store chain has been willing to pay monthly rent on an empty store front just to keep the place reserved for the future store. It is frustrating that the store has not yet opened, but soon this will be “yesterday’s story,” and the grocery store will be in Town Square for decades to come.
Q2. One issue that has clearly been of great concern to many residents is the massing of high-density, affordable housing in certain parts of the city, like the Haiti area of the West End – a policy that many feel violates the city’s master plan which calls for “scattered site” affordable housing. If elected, how will you address these concerns?
A2. The master plan makes a passing reference with respect to scattered sites for affordable housing without trying to define this concept in any way.
Certainly, if the City ever gets in the business of providing affordable housing (and I hope that the City never needs to do that), we may want to set some bench-marks in this respect. However, when affordable housing is being erected by non-profits (with a mission of providing affordable housing), trying to bean-count, according to some yet to be developed formula, where such apartments may or may not be erected would not be productive.
I happily live within 150 feet of an affordable housing complex. I could not ask for better neighbors and I would be delighted to have more.
Q3. The State and County had to cut back by laying off employees, furloughing employees and cutting back on programs. Do you think the $1.7 million in raises to city employees were appropriate given our current economic downturn?
A3. I am appalled that the State and County did not foresee the economic downturn and are so poorly managed that they had no choice but to layoff employees, even after raising taxes.
Rockville was able to honor its contractual obligation to its employees without raising taxes.
To renege on our employee agreements, simply to further lower Rockville’s property tax rate, would be unethical, and would potentially expose the City to costly litigation. Having credibility as a government means telling the truth and keeping promises, both to our citizens and to our employees (too few of whom are also residents, because they already cannot afford to live here).
Q4. Business and restaurants in the Town Center are either going under or are barely holding on. Many owners feel the recent increase in parking hours will negatively impact their business. How will your resolve this issue?
A4. The premise of this question is inaccurate. Businesses in Town Square are actually thriving at a higher level than businesses in other parts of Rockville. A few have closed – victims of a tough economy, questionable business plans, or both.
For each business that has closed, a new one has taken its place, because investors are eager to locate in Town Square to make money. There are no boarded up storefronts in Town Square. There are numerous empty storefronts in Rockville Pike strip malls where parking is free.
Having said that, Town Square business owners have recently proposed a new protocol for Saturday and evening parking in Town Square, and on Monday, October 12th, I joined my Council colleagues in endorsing this proposal.
Q5. The Master Plan says the city should identify all possible ways to preserve open space, and underdeveloped parcels should be evaluated for parkland acquisition before they are developed as infill. Why hasn’t the parcel where Victory Housing is proposed to be built been considered for green space? How do you reconcile that it hasn’t with Rockville’s claim as Tree City USA and the State and County programs to encourage citizens to plan more trees?
A5. I am comfortable with Rockville’s present commitment to open spaces, which includes 905 acres of parkland in 65 parks.
The owner of the property slated for Victory Housing, Montgomery County, has no interest in selling the property. Of course, even if the site were for sale, a revenue source would need to be identified in order to purchase this prime piece of real state in downtown Rockville.
I do not advocate raising Rockville’s property tax rate in order to purchase additional parkland.
