UPDATE: City Manager Search, King Farm Farmstead, Sudan and Deer on the Council's Agenda

Mayor Phyllis Marcuccio said that the City Council will discuss as part of new business, toward the end of tonight's meeting. 

Original post, 2:15 p.m., July 11:

Proposals to convert King Farm Farmstead Park into a nonprofit campus or a center for sustainable growing, the divesture of city funds from companies doing business with Sudan, an update from the city's White-Tailed Deer Task Force, annexation proposals and bond ordinances pack the agenda as the Rockville City Council returns from a three-week recess with a meeting at 7 tonight at .

New uses for King Farm Farmstead Park

The council will hear presentations and discuss three proposals for the reuse of King Farm Farmstead Park.

GrowingSOUL (Sustainable Opportunities for Universal Learning) proposes returning the farmstead to its original agricultural use as part of a program “to create and perpetuate a sustainable food system” in Montgomery County and to teach residents “to become the rural and urban farmers of tomorrow,” according to a city staff report on the proposal. The nonprofit would use all of the farmstead buildings year-round for its various initiatives, including composting, compost sharing, conserving and reusing water and increasing the number of residents and farmers using sustainable practices.

The nonprofit would partner with CS2 Investments, LLC on financing and would collaborate with Growing Power, Inc. and its founder, Will Allen, a former Rockville resident. Manna Food Center, Interfaith Works, Project Change, Montgomery Victory Gardens, Pepco, Whole Foods, local restaurants, and others also would be involved in the venture.

Habitat for Humanity-Montgomery County, Maryland, Inc. is proposing turning the farmstead into a nonprofit center or campus.

Under the proposal, Habitat would use one of the big dairy barns for offices, meeting space and the storage of construction supplies. Other nonprofits would be recruited to use the farm’s garage, additional tenant house, second dairy barn and the main house.

Bikes of the World is already using a barn on the property for bike storage and repairs, and one of the small tenant houses for office and shop space. The organization is using the property rent-free while participating in the city's program to collect, repair and distribute used bikes, along with helmets, to needy Rockville children.

The nonprofit proposes establishing a “community bike shop.” Bikes of the World would assist Habitat in renovating one or both dairy barns.

Sudanese divesture ordinances

City staff will present an ordinance calling for Rockville to divest the city’s pension funds and Retiree Benefit Trust from any companies doing business with the government of Sudan.

The ordinance would exempt some investments, such as those that are directly contracted by the government of southern Sudan, whose population voted in January to secede from the Republic of Sudan. Businesses conducting humanitarian efforts also would be exempt.

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Once introduced, the council could vote on the ordinance on July 18.

The Maryland General Assembly voted to take steps to divest from companies doing business in Sudan in 2007 in response to the ongoing war in the Darfur region.

The Montgomery County Council approved similar legislation in 2008.

Annexation hearings

The agenda will include two public hearings on a proposal to annex parcels at East Gude Drive and Southlawn Lane and rezone several of the parcels. BP Associates Limited Partnership owns the property, which includes a retail center known as the Burgundy Park Center.

Bond ordinance introduction

The council also is scheduled to introduce two bond ordinances. The first would restructure the city’s debt on the parking garages at Rockville Town Square so that the city can turn the responsibility for the operations, maintenance and future improvements to the garages over to Federal Realty Investment Trust.

The second would allow the city to issue bonds to finance water and sewer system improvements as called for in the city’s recently-adopted fiscal 2012 budget.

If introduced, the council would vote on both ordinances on July 18.

Updates

The council also will hear updates from the Rockville Chamber of Commerce, from VisArts and from the city’s White-Tailed Deer Task Force.

The task force was formed in January 2010 to review state and county deer management plans and to propose a plan for managing the deer population in Rockville.

Correction: The original version of this article incorrectly stated that the City Council would vote on Monday, July 11 on an ordinance on divesting city retirement funds from Sudan. The ordinance is scheduled to be introduced on Monday, July 11 and voted on July 18. This version corrects the ninth paragraph and adds a line for clarification in the 12th paragraph. Rockville Patch regrets the error.