Politics & Government

Council Agenda: Twinbrook Project, City Budget and Water System

Council members also want a closer look at the city's public facilities ordinance.

A hearing on a plan to bring a mix of residential, retail and office space and a hotel to a redeveloped shopping center site near the Twinbrook Metro station, briefings on the city budget and water system, and a vote on a fiber optic project are on the Rockville City Council’s agenda for Monday.

The council meets at 7 p.m. at . The meeting will be carried live on Rockville 11.

The council also is expected to hear new business not on the agenda: requests for a closer look at the city’s Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance.

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Councilman Tom Moore said he wants to request a Maryland Attorney General’s opinion on whether the ordinance should address school capacity. The ordinance, adopted in 2005, seeks to ensure that the city has proper infrastructure in place to support new development.

Meanwhile, Councilman John Hall, who helped draft the original ordinance, has sent to his council colleagues a revision to the standards that make up the ordinance.

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“My specific objective is to effectively depoliticize the role of the Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance (APFO) and [Adequate Public Facilities Standards] amidst discussions of future growth and development in the City of Rockville, as well as to foreclose future potential lawsuits against the City of Rockville regarding the implementation of the APFO and APFS,” Hall wrote in an email to colleagues sent Saturday.

Former Rockville Mayor Larry Giammo is seeking judicial review of the city Planning Commission's approval of on the Frederick Avenue site of the former Reed Brothers Dodge. Giammo told The Sentinel in December that his problem stems from his belief that approval of the project was not consistent with the city’s Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance.

Twinbrook Metro Place

The council will hear testimony on a mixed-use redevelopment project known as Twinbrook Metro Place. Twinbrook Partners LLC is proposing to build 811 multi-family units, a 190-room hotel and 162,000 square feet of office space on 6.73 acres at 1592 Rockville Pike, just north of Halpine Road.

The proposed project includes three 14-story residential buildings, a 10-story office building (three floors of which would be dedicated to a health club) and a 10-story hotel. It would redevelop a one-story shopping center that is home to . Each of the buildings would include ground floor retail space.

The developer is requesting a waiver to the city’s parking requirement that would allow 43 percent fewer spaces than typically required (1,278 spaces vs. the maximum requirement of 2,199).

City staff recommends the waiver as well as approval of a request to build up to 150 feet high—beyond the 120-foot maximum building height allowed in a mixed-use zone. The project meets several requirements, such as on-site public use space, in order to be granted the additional building height, staff wrote in a report to the council.

The developer also would extend Chapman Avenue to a new road that would be built, called Festival Street, which would connect Chapman and Rockville Pike.

Twinbrook resident Richard Gottfried told The Gazette that he is concerned that the development will bring traffic and school crowding.

Gottfried, a candidate for City Council in 2011 and 2007, said the project is “all about density and profit for developers,” The Gazette reported.

The schedule for consideration of the project is as follows:

  • March 12: Public comment period closes.
  • March 19: City Council discussion and instruction to staff.
  • April 9: City Council votes on a final resolution on the project.

Budget and finances

The council will hear the season’s second presentation on the fiscal 2013 budget. City staff will use feedback from the council following the presentation to develop the operating and capital budget proposal. Staff is scheduled to release the proposal March 14 for discussion by the council March 26. The council is scheduled to adopt the budget May 21.

The council also will hear a finance report on the second quarter of fiscal 2012. The quarter closed Dec. 31.

Water system

City staff will brief the council on the challenge of meeting demand while maintaining water quality amid an aging city water system. The briefing will provide context for a recommended rate increase in the fiscal 2013 budget. The new connection and usage rates would lead to an 8.86 percent increase in the typical residential bill, according to a staff report.

Fiber optics

The council’s consent agenda includes a vote on whether to grant Georgia-based FiberLight LLC permission to use the city’s right-of-way to build a fiber optic network. In return for granting the access to city right-of-way, Rockville would receive, at no cost, four strands of fiber optic cable in the network’s “backbone” and two strands of cable in laterals, where available.


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