Bealls Grant II Site Plan Review

The April 28 Rockville Planning Commission Meeting will include a review of the Bealls Grant II site plan. Montgomery Housing Partnership is seeking approval of Site Plan Amendment STP2010 ‐ 00025, for a 74‐unit apartment building with underground parking and modifications to the existing surface parking. The applicant also seeks a 49 parking space reduction as part of this application. This application is a major amendment to Use Permit, which was approved by the Planning Commission on July 23, 2008, for a 109‐unit apartment building. This application will reduce the number of units by 35 and the number of provided parking spaces from 229 to 121, a reduction of 108 parking spaces. Read the full staff report for more information.

The meeting will be held at City Hall at 7:00 pm on April 28.

Victory Housing Site Plan Post-Area Meeting

The site plan application for Victory Housing has been submitted and the post-area meeting is scheduled for April 22 at 7 pm in the cafeteria of the Council Office Building at 100 Maryland Ave.

April WECA Meeting Announcement

The next WECA meeting will be held on Thursday, April 15, 2010, at 7:00 pm at the Rockville Presbyterian Church. Enter church from Harrison Street.

Chuck Aubertin from Code Enforcement, will be coming to this meeting, as well as Susan Swift, (Planning), Robert Purkey (Inspection Services) and Dean Mellander (Zoning Administrator). They will all be present to speak and go over questions, concerns and property information on properties of interest that WECA may have.

The meeting is open to the public and all West End residents are encouraged to attend and participate.

Hope to see you there!

March WECA Meeting

The March WECA meeting is scheduled for 7:00pm, Thursday, March 18, 2010, at the Rockville Presbyterian Church.  Enter church from Harrison Street.

The meeting is open to the public and all West End residents are encouraged to attend and participate.

Hope to see you there!

Deduct This! TCA Free Tax Seminar Feb 28th

The Twinbrook Citizens Association

presents

DEDUCT THIS!

UPDATE ON THE 2009 TAX LAW CHANGES

For homeowners and small business owners

This is the third in a yearly series of tax seminars presented as a public service by the

Twinbrook Citizens Association of Rockville, Maryland. The seminar is free and open to the public.

SPEAKER: RICHARD GOTTFRIED, CPA, Master of Science in Taxation

DATE: Sunday, February 28, 2010
TIME: 1:00 PM TO 3:30 PM
PLACE: Rockville Public Library * First Floor Meeting Room
21 Maryland Avenue
Rockville, MD 20850
Telephone: 240-777-0002

COST: FREE

PARKING: FREE IN THE TOWN CENTER GARAGES

Time

1:00 pm to 3:00 pm Deduct This! Update on the 2009 Tax Law Changes

Learn about tax law changes for 2009 in the first time homebuyer credit, making work pay credit, expanded Earned Income Credits, expanded child tax credit, residential energy tax credit, IRA to ROTH IRA conversions, and others that might affect your return.

3:00 pm to 3:30 pm Questions and Answers

Need more information?

Call Richard at 301-717-9558 or email: richgott3@verizon.net

RSVPs appreciated but not necessary.

Please forward this email to your family, friends, neighbors or co-workers and anyone who may be interested in the topics listed above.

Sidewalks in the West End

If you have not already done so, please clear the sidewalk in front of your house. The record snowfall has made this task very difficult, but to ensure the safety of the children walking to school as well as the safety of all pedestrians the sidewalks need to be cleared. Higher temperatures predicted for Saturday and Sunday should make this task easier.

Many thanks in advance!

District Courthouse Post Completion Signs and Parking Plans Meeting Update

The Western Montgomery County Citizens Advisory Board will hold a community forum for the Rockville area on Tuesday, February 16, 2010 at 7:00 pm at the Rockville Library, 21 Maryland Avenue, Rockville, MD, 1st Floor Conference Room. Issues raised by community members are sent to the appropriate County departments for action and tracked by the Montgomery County B-CC Regional Service Center staff. The City of Rockville is within the expanded area of service of the Citizens Advisory Board.
The primary role of the Board is to offer substantive advice on regional issues and needs to the Montgomery County Executive and the County Council. The Board is comprised of 19 representatives - twelve neighborhood representatives, six business community representatives, and one non-profit representative. As representatives to and from these communities, the Board strives to reflect the varying points of view within the region. The Board has committees on land use, transportation, public safety, and quality of life. For further information or special accommodations please contact Karen Thon at 240-777-8210 or karen.thon@montgomerycountymd.gov

Please Note: Because of the MC Advisory Board Meeting, the District Court Community meeting to discuss Signs and Parking Plans post District completion, has been moved to be a part of TCAT's agenda for their February 23rd meeting at 7pm, at City Hall. All are welcome to join!

February WECA Meeting

The February WECA meeting is scheduled for 7:00pm, Thursday, February 18, 2010, at the Rockville Presbyterian Church.  Enter church from Harrison Street.

The agenda is as follows:
Treasurer report
Discuss WECA survey results*
Planning Commission Committee
Victory Housing Update
Nominating Committee

*This is the link to the WECA survey:
http://cadencemarketingsurveycom.ennectSurvey.com/28519/3862

The meeting is open to the public and all West End residents are encouraged to attend and participate.

Hope to see you there!
 

Victory Housing Withdraws Request for Letter of Recommendation

Victory Housing has informed the City that they are withdrawing their request for a letter of recommendation for public funding from the Mayor and Council. Victory Housing's letter to the Mayor and Council expresses their frustration with the development process.

Vote on Victory Housing Letter of Recommendation Delayed

The Mayor and Council has scheduled a vote for Monday, February 8, 2010 to determine whether to write a letter of recommendation in support of the Victory Housing proposal. The vote was have taken place on Monday, February 1, 2010, but the Mayor and Council voted to delay this vote until next week due to the lack of sufficient advance notice. Victory Housing needs this letter from the Mayor and Council in order to secure state funding for the project.

Today's Gazette has an article discussing what took place during Monday's discussion.

On tonight's M&C Agenda...

Late breaking news! 

WECA has been informed with just two days warning that on Monday, February 1, the Mayor and Council will decide whether to approve a letter supporting an application to be submitted by Victory Housing for low-Income Tax Credits to be used in financing the development of Victory Court.  Staff is recommending that the Mayor and Council give favorable consideration to the request for a letter of support. 

You are encouraged to attend this meeting to speak out about the manner in which this request is being rushed with no notice, no discussion, no citizen input. This is not how the City's business should be conducted.

This item is on the agenda at approximately 8:20 pm.

Please visit the Rockville City website for more details on this agenda item.

The Big Surprise

January 31, 2010

Dear Mayor and Council,

When will the City planning staff stop dropping the “Big Surprise” on the citizens of Rockville?

We were shocked to find, on the Mayor and Council agenda for this coming Monday, an agenda item to approve a letter of support for Low Income Housing Tax Credits for Victory Housing. City staff’s memorandum, recommending the approval, was signed by Susan Swift on Wednesday, and by Scott Ullery on Thursday, and posted on the City website late in the week for the Mayor and Council meeting for Monday. Prior to this, there has been absolutely nothing about this item posted on any future agenda, list of upcoming agenda items, or the like. Just two business days notice prior to a major Mayor and Council vote on a highly controversial issue. That might set a new record!

Regardless of one’s opinion about the merits of the Victory Housing project, it is precisely this kind of “Big Surprise” that gets the City in trouble with its citizens over and over again.

And why all the hurry? Ms. Swift and Mr. Ullery’s memo states the rationale as follows: “the applicant has indicated that early submission of its financing application is being requested because dates for future Funding Rounds have not yet been established by the State.” As Ms. Swift and Mr. Ullery well know (from Beall’s Grant II, if nothing else), the State never sets dates for future funding rounds until the current round is completed, after which the State sets the date for the next funding round, with plenty of notice for developers to get their ducks in a row. So the stated reason for “early submission” is entirely specious, and both Ms. Swift and Mr. Ullery know it.

The neighbors have asked the developer repeatedly about the sources for their funding of this project, including whether they would be applying for Low Income Housing Tax Credits; apparently the developer has evaded all such questions until this very moment. The developer had three months notice about the February 23 deadline, as the State sent out notification of the deadline on November 20. But the developer, in concert with Ms. Swift and Mr. Ullery, is now dropping the “Big Surprise” on the Mayor and Council at one minute to midnight. No notice, no discussion, no citizen input. How convenient for the developer.

Ironically, Ms. Swift, on the previous Thursday, addressed a meeting of the West End Citizens Association, where she was challenged by WECA members and leaders for precisely this type of behavior on the part of the planning department in the recent past, and for a pattern of her department working closely with developers while effectively shutting citizens out of the process. Ms. Swift, predictably, denied all of it.

But a City planning department that truly gives citizens a level playing field would have told this developer that a letter of support from the Mayor and Council is supposed to reflect support in the community for the project, support which has not been established yet. Citizens and neighborhood groups, including WECA, have not yet had the opportunity to adequately review and evaluate the current site plan. The developer should have been told that their request is premature, and that the developer still has work to do to build community support for this project. Instead, Ms. Swift and Mr. Ullery are, once again, willing to sacrifice due process, fairness, communication, and transparency in the interests of a developer. You would have thought that they would have learned something, after their mishandling of Beall’s Grant II resulted in an explosion of citizen outrage. What they’ve learned, apparently, is to draw the wagons in a circle and continue doing business as usual.

This is not how the City’s business should be conducted. For anyone who still questions the need for a Communications Task Force, here is just one more example of why such an effort is urgently needed. But the task needs to go beyond improving the mere mechanics of Channel 11 and Rockville Reports, and should address the larger issue of a culture at City Hall in which the City planning staff has consistently failed to communicate appropriately with the citizens regarding new development in the City.

We would respectfully ask the Mayor and Council to deny the letter of support at this time, not because of the merits of the project one way or the other, but because to write a letter of support at the eleventh-hour, without appropriate discussion and citizen input, would be a gross violation of due process and basic fairness. Further, we would ask the Mayor and Council to please do whatever it can to put an end to the “Big Surprise” as the modus operandi of the City’s planning department.

Thank you for your time and consideration of this matter.

Sincerely,

Jack Leiderman & Vicki McMullen

January WECA Meeting - Building Codes

The January WECA meeting is scheduled for 7:00pm, Thursday, January 21, 2010, at the Rockville Presbyterian Church.  Enter church from Harrison Street.

The agenda is as follows:
Treasurer report
Housekeeping items
Two Rockville City staff, Robert Purkey, Construction Inspection Supervisor, and Susan Swift, Director of Planning and Community Development, will be speaking on the topic of Building Codes.

The meeting is open to the public and all West End residents are encouraged to attend and participate.

Hope to see you there!

Rockville Senior Center Holiday Bazaar

The Rockville Senior Center invites you to join their Holiday Bazaar on Saturday, December 5, from 9am to 2pm. Lots of fun for the family and a great opportunity to do some holiday shopping. Try your luck in the Raffle with its $500 first prize and many more. Visit their attending craftsmen with their lovely items for sale, and don’t miss the Gift Shop, Thrift Shop and Book Sale for additional gift ideas, as well as the Cafeteria and Bake Sale.

The Rockville Senior Center is located at 1150 Carnation Drive. For information call 240 314 5010.

November Meeting Announcement

The November WECA meeting is scheduled for 7:00pm, Thursday, November 19, 2009, at the Rockville Presbyterian Church.  Enter church from Harrison Street. 

The agenda is as follows:
Treasurer report
Housekeeping items
Victory Housing Update
Community building ideas

The meeting is open to the public and all West End residents are encouraged to attend and participate.

Hope to see you there!