Duball: There’s ‘Excess Parking’ at Rockville Town Center

Parking is more than plentiful in Rockville Town Center, representatives from Duball Rockville LLC told the Rockville City Council on Monday night.

“We think there’s excess parking,” Duball president Marc Dubick told the Mayor and Council.

Representatives from Duball presented changes they’re proposing for a project that has already been approved for Rockville Town Center.

The first phase of the project—a 144-foot building with 263 apartments and a 140-room boutique hotel— is already under construction across from the movie theater.

The second project, which is expected to begin in 2019, was the subject of Monday night’s presentation. Duball is asking for a 40-percent reduction in the amount of residential parking for an apartment building that will be built next door.

They also want to nearly double the amount of apartments—from the 222 that was already approved to 400—by offering smaller units.

The reason? There’s too much parking downtown, according to Dubick. 

What was approved for the second building included 566 “structured parking spaces," city records show. The combined projects would create nearly, 1,200 parking spaces in Town Center.

"Which we still think is way too much," Dubick said.

The developer’s proposed changes would create 587 in total parking for the second building—but the proposal would reduce the amount of parking by exclusively available to the building’s residents 40 percent, representatives for Duball said during the presentation Monday.

An article in The Gazette on Tuesday explained how that would work. Rockville’s zoning laws would require Duball to build 470 parking spaces for those 400 apartments, 105 parking spaces for the building's commercial space, and a parking garage with 200 spaces to replace the parking lot across from Giuseppi’s Pizza Plus.

Instead of creating 470 spaces, Duball wants to offer 282 and said commercial and residential tenants could share the parking garage.

>>> See: Duball seeks parking reduction in Rockville’s Town Center at Gazette.net.

On Monday, Nancy Regelin, an attorney for Duball, said the company was conducting a study of parking demand in Town Center.

Representatives from Duball also said there was a regional trend, where residences being built near Metro stations had little if any parking.  They also cited Petworth as an example.

They Mayor and Council seemed skeptical.

Prior to the presentation, Mayor Bridget Donnell Newton had complained of the lack of parking during the city’s tree lighting ceremony—a point she reiterated during Duball’s presentation.

Councilwoman Virginia Onley said comparing Petworth to Rockville was an apples-to-oranges comparison and said Town Center residents could find grocery shopping without a car at Town Center to be cumbersome.

Councilman Tom Moore said he’d like to get some data on Town Center parking from city staff.

>>> Speak out: Do you agree with Duball’s assertion, that there’s an “excess” of parking in Rockville Town Center?