Mayor and Council - Regular Meeting

Rockville. Today is 05/04/2026, and we're beginning meeting 12 dash '26. Please join me as you're able in the pledge of allegiance. Thank you, everyone, for joining us today. I know one of our colleagues will be here shortly, but just want to go ahead and get started with some very important proclamations and celebrations. I'm going to ask my colleagues to join me at the podium so we can get started.

Okay. So, thank you everyone. We have many proclamations and celebrations today so we're going

to try to be expeditious but also celebrate our community. They range

from cultural celebrations to health observances as well as some important public safety and operational things that our city really works hard to make sure we're achieving for our residents. I'll start off with a few proclamations that relate to topics where we don't have someone accepting but we wanted to make sure that we are honoring those proclamations. So, will have about four of those to proceed. The first one is a proclamation from May 2026 recognizing ALS, and ALS is better known as Lou Gehrig's disease. It's a fatal neurodegenerative disease characterized by degeneration of cell bodies of the lower motor neurons in the gray matter of anterior horns of the spinal cord.

We're also going to be acknowledging Greek Genocide Remembrance Day in Rockville, Maryland. Whereas the city of Rockville is home to many, many diverse ethnic and religious communities who came to The United States seeking refuge from war, ethnic and religious persecution, and the genocide of the Anatolian Greeks as and is a tragedy that took the lives of an estimated 900,000 Greek people during World War one. And it is noted by scholars as the model used by the Nazis for the Holocaust. We also recognize Jewish American Heritage Month, whereas Jewish American history commenced in 1492 with the expulsion of Jews from Spain, and this action set off a period of intense Jewish migration seeking to escape the clutches of inquisition. Some Jewish people in the sixteenth century sought refuge in the Calvinist Republic Of The Netherlands, and hundreds of their descendants crossed the ocean to settle in the new Dutch colony of Recife in Brazil, where Jewish communal life became possible for the first time in the New World.

We recognize Jewish American Heritage Month and the rich culture that it provides in the city of Rockville. We proclaim May 2026 as Lyme Disease Awareness Month in Rockville, Maryland. Lyme disease is the fastest growing vector borne disease in The United States caused by Bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi and is transmitted by the common black legged tick found in nearly one half of all US counties. And ticks that carry Lyme disease can also carry at least 15 other pathogens, many of them transmitted within minutes of being bitten, with one painless tick bite frequently resulting in multiple infections including bacteria, parasites, and viruses. Colleagues,

those are the proclamations without people to accept, we want to fully welcome and support. Do we have a motion to approve?

Madam mayor, I move all five proclamations.

Thank you very much. Do we have a second?

Councilman Villarney seconds. All those in favor, please raise your hand and say aye. Aye. Thank you very much. We also wanna recognize Glenview, which is honoring its one hundredth year Glenview Mansion.

It has a long and storied history. I will also note that the entire land at the Civic Center has a long history in Rockville. It was cleared by enslaved peoples, and we have now reclaimed it for the people, for all people.

Whereas in 2026, the city Of Rockville celebrates the one hundredth anniversary of Glenview Mansion and recognizes its evolution from its early nineteenth century origins through its transformation into a prominent neoclassical estate and ultimately into a public civic asset for all people and operated by the city of Rockville since 1957. Now, therefore, the mayor and council hereby recognize the one hundredth anniversary of Glenview Mansion honoring its rich history and multifaceted events, celebrating its enduring legacy as an inclusive and cherished gathering place for our community. Do we have a motion to approve?

Council member Jackson?

I make the motion to approve.

Thank you. Do we have a second?

Second.

Alright. It's been moved. All those in favor,

please raise your hand and say aye. Aye.

And with that, I'd like to welcome the Recreation and Parks Advisory Board.

And while she's coming up, please make sure that you check out our calendar of events.

There are many activities happening to commemorate Glenview Mansion. Come on this side.

Thank you.

Good evening. Thank you mayor and council and all community members here. We invite the entire community to celebrate Glenview Mansion's one hundredth anniversary by attending a variety of events scheduled throughout the year. As part of this celebration, please join Glenview Mansion and Peerless Rockville for their co sponsored speaker series event on May 14 at 7PM at Glenview Mansion. This free event will feature a guided walking tour of the mansion along with light infringements. Thank you. Thank you

very much.

Good evening. It is my honor to, present the National Public Service National Public Service Month proclamation, whereas National Public Service Recognition Week has been recognized and organized annually since 1985 by the Public Employees roundtable, PER, and its members organization to honor the men and women who serve our nation as federal, state, county, and municipal employees. Madam Mayor, I move the proclamation.

And

I believe we have Farak Matite, our assistant deputy city manager, to accept the proclamation.

Good evening, mayor and council. On behalf of all of the city employees, I wanna thank you for this proclamation.

It is my distinct pleasure to give the proclamation for Police Week. It's actually Peace Officers Memorial Day and it is it falls, in the week of Police Week.

That's great. Okay. Just wanna make sure

I had the right one. Alright. Whereas the congress and the president of The United States have designated May 15 as peace officers Memorial Day and the week in which it falls as police week. And whereas the members of the Rockville City Police Department play an essential role in safeguarding the rights and freedoms of the residents of Rockville. Now, therefore, the mayor and council of Rockville, Maryland do hereby proclaim May 2026 as National Police Week and 05/15/2026 as Peace Officers Memorial Day in the city of Rockville and call upon the residents to commemorate this observance by thanking our police officers, past and present, who by their faithful and loyal devotion have established an enviable and enduring reputation for preserving the rights, safety, and security of all residents of Rockville and the surrounding communities.

Madam Mayor, I move the proclamation. And we have with us today, our wonderful police chief, Jason West, and I believe some other representatives from Rockville's own police department.

Thank thank you mayor and council for recognizing peace officer Memorial Day and National Police Week. You know, I personally have, former friends and colleagues whose names are on the wall in the memorial in DC who paid the ultimate sacrifice in the line of duty. But it's not lost on me that every member of our police department, and I'm very proud to stand here with corporal Rogers and corporal Lewis, who are longtime veterans of this police organization. It's not lost on me that they're in harm's way every day that they come in to serve our residents of Rockville, and they do incredible work every day. Unfortunately, not everybody hears about those things.

You know, across the nation a lot, we hear about the bad things, and they do happen. But good things happen in this city every day because of officers just like them, and that's what's important to me today. So thank you again for honoring us this week.

Thank you. I will read the Women's Health Week proclamation on behalf of council member Fulton. And this is a good time to make sure you're getting your health checkups if you don't have it scheduled already. Whereas National Women's Health Week celebrates the extraordinary progress in women's health and recognizes that more needs to be done to safeguard the health of women for generations to come. Now, therefore, the mayor and council Maryland do hereby proclaim the week, May, as National Women's Health Week and encourage the community to engage, keep up to date on news and your health screenings, as well as activities that benefit the health and well-being of women and all families. Colleagues, can someone move the proclamation?

Council Member Shah? Do we have a second? Council Member Vallari. Thank you. And we have with us All those in favor. There we go.

I got excited. I alright. We have with us registered nurse practitioner, Abayomi Walker. Welcome.

Thank you,

mayor and council members. I'm honored to receive this proclamation on behalf of, Women's Health Week here in Rockville. As mayor's previously stated, I have spent the past twenty years of my life serving women as a women's health care nurse practitioner from all aspects of life, from high risk obstetrics, postpartum, women's oncology units, and the menopause transition. So I have seen women at all aspects of their their health through all aspects of their life. And as we approach Mother's Day, I would implore all of you to think about all of the women in your lives, including the woman that brought you forth, whether she is here presently on this earth or above us.

Be mindful of the women in your community. We all benefit when women are healthy mentally, physically, and emotionally. And so think about that when you select your representatives and the policies that they will advocate for. Thank you.

It is my honor to read, the National Kids to Parks Day. Whereas 05/16/2026 is the sixteenth annual National Kids to Parks Day organized and launched by the National Park Trust, held annually on the May. And now, therefore, the mayor and council of Rockville, Maryland do hereby proclaim 05/16/2026 as National Kids to Parks Day and urge the residents of Rockville to take their children to one of the many great city of Rockville parks. Madam mayor, I move the proclamation. And we have miss Marsha Douma here to receive the proclamation from the recreation and parks advisory.

Hello again. This has a lot of personal meaning because when I first moved here, I had very young children and I used the parks for all the wonderful children's activities and it made a huge difference in our family. So I'd like to thank the mayor and council and all the community members who have made all these programs possible. The City Of Rockville's recreation and parks department will be officially celebrating Kids to Parks Day at Croydon Creek's Spring Festival and Kids to Parks Day event on Saturday, May 16 between ten and twelve noon. It's a free event for families with nature games, crafts, animal meet and greets, woodland hikes, and sustainability vendors and exhibits. There is going be a face painter, an ice truck, and much more. Thank you all.

So it's my honor to present the proclamation recognizing the public works employees, especially the amazing public works employees of our fair city. Whereas public works professionals focus on infrastructure, facilities, services that are of vital importance to sustainable and resilient communities and to public health, high quality of life, and well-being of our residents' everyday lives. And now, therefore, the mayor and council of Rockville do hereby designate the week of May 2026 as national public works week week in the city of Rockville and call upon all residents and civic organizations to acquaint themselves with the issues involved in providing public work services and to recognize the contributions which public works officials make every day to our health, safety, comfort, and quality of life. Madam mayor, I move the proclamation.

Thank you. Do we have a second? Councilman Villarney seconds. All those in favor, please raise your hand and say aye.

Aye. Excellent. And now I believe we have Jim Woods from our public works department to say a few words and accept the proclamation.

Good evening. Thank you, mayor and council, for recognizing, National Public Works Week. Each year, the public works department, likes to take time during National Public Works Week to really recognize the contributions of our employees and to celebrate our successes. This year in particular was pretty challenging. I think everybody remembers Snow Crete and Yeah. A new one for us. And yeah. So we had a very challenging winter, very challenging with some, difficult water main breaks that we dealt with. But our employees who show up every day, and respond to emergencies twenty four seven are really what, provides that success for our department. So we really wanna take time, during National Public Works Week to recognize them.

And to celebrate, the week, we we highlighted our, our events with our annual truck show, which will be held again this year on Tuesday, May 19 at Manny Stepanic Park from 10:30 to 04:30. So it's a great opportunity to come meet our employees, learn about our services, and most importantly, hop on a truck and honk a horn. So thank you.

Good afternoon. Thank you for this opportunity, madam mayor. I get to read the proclamation, with regard to Asian American and Pacific Islander Day. It reads as follows, whereas the Asian population makes up more than 20% of the Rockville population according to the census data. Now therefore, the mayor and council of the city of Rockville do hereby proclaim May 2026 as Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month and encourage all residents to acknowledge acknowledge rather, embrace, commemorate, and celebrate with this vital group of our population here in Rockville.

With that madam mayor, I move the proclamation. I think we have somebody here to receive it. I read on the paper correctly. Mister Lin? Good afternoon. Please come forward. Thanks for joining us today.

Thank you very much. Thank

you, mayor and council. On behalf of the Asian Pacific American task force, I'm very honored to receive this approximate proclamation. And if you haven't been to our Lunar New Year event, you you miss a whole lot. We had the last one on February 21. We have over a thousand people attending, and we're continue doing that every year.

And I hope everyone will be there next year in 2027. And I'm very proud to be an Asian American. I've been here almost half a century. And this is the wonderful city and the best place for Asian to grow their business and stay and grow the family. Thank you very much.

Thank you.

I Failed to mention with the last proclamation although I missed the Lantern Festival this year We had another activity. I think soccer practice that night Girl Scouts yesterday there the local troop did a presentation on Asian American and Pacific Islander month, complete with food, which was delicious, so y'all missed out. Now I have the honor and pleasure of reading the proclamation for Building Safety month. It reads as follows, whereas this city of Rockville, Maryland is committed to recognizing that our growth and strength depend on the safety and essential role our homes, buildings, and infrastructure play both in everyday life disaster strikes. And now, therefore, the mayor and council of Rockville, Maryland do hereby proclaim the month of May 2026 rather as building safety month in the city of Rockville.

We encourage our residents to join us as we participate in building safety month activities. And with that, madam mayor, I move this proclamation.

I

think we have somebody here to accept this one as well. Miss Campbell, awesome. Good to have you both here this this evening. All three of y'all. Awesome. I'm gonna step aside.

Thank

you. Good evening. My name is Keena Campbell, chief of inspection services for the city of Rockville. Thank you, madam mayor and members of the council for this proclamation and the acknowledgment of building safety month. I'm joined here tonight by the fire marshal for the city, Carl Young, and Catherine Lopez, one of our permit technicians.

The overall theme of this year's Building Safety Month is built to last, and there are four weekly themes. And in the interest of time, I'll just go through two of them. This week's theme is safe homes, strong communities, and it's a reminder for all homeowners to look around your homes and see if there are any repairs that you need to ensure safety. To help with this theme, as a courtesy, the inspection services division is offering free residential deck inspections to the first city residents who make a request. Visit our website for more information about this complimentary service that will be offered this month only.

Also, as you are looking around your home and considering projects, visit our website or please reach out to us to see if a permit is required before you start any work. Week two is voices of the built environment, and during this the second week of the month, we will shine our spotlight on the team who is committed to ensuring our community is safe and that existing buildings are properly maintained. So just a little bit about our division as we shout out our great employees. The inspection services division is made up of administrative support, permit technicians, engineers, plan reviewers, building, fire, and code enforcement inspectors who last year performed more than 25,000 plan reviews or inspections. Our services include building and fire protection systems plan review, building and fire inspections, property maintenance compliance, rental licenses for single family and multifamily, and rentals for hotels, motels, fire safety licenses for home day cares, and assisted living facilities.

So as you can see, we've we've got a we've got a lot going on, but we're we're we're excited to do it, and everyone is committed to ensuring safety for the residents and visitors to the city. I'd like to close by also just highlighting that today is the observation of International Firefighters Day, which is a day to honor all firefighters for their courage and their service to our community and to remember those who who gave the ultimate sacrifice. So, again, thank you.

Alright. It is my, sincere, honor to give the proclamation for mental health awareness month. And I think that it benefits the city for us all to focus on various policies, that will be most supportive to those in the community, living with mental illness or have loved ones with mental illness. Whereas in May 1949, Mental Health Awareness Month was established by Mental Health America to encourage people to consider their mental health as important for overall health. And whereas the city of Rockville Department of Housing and Community Development reaches out to Rockville residents about mental health wellness and substance use substance use disorder prevention with educational seminars as well as emergency assistance and information and referral services to support their striving for success in home, school, and community.

Now, therefore, the mayor and council of Rockville, Maryland do hereby proclaim May 2026 to be Mental Health Awareness Month and encourage the Rockville community to remember this year's theme, more good days together, and to always seek help if and when it's needed. Madam Mayor, I'm honored to move the proclamation.

Miles, I can all those

in favor. Please raise your hand and say aye.

And we have someone to accept this. Yes. Oh, thank you. Corinne Beasley. You so much. Thank you.

Thank you, mayor and council. Shorty. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, about one in five US adults experience mental illness each year. If we look around this room, that could be a colleague, a family member, or even ourselves. Mental Health Awareness Month reminds us how important community really is.

We all go through hard moments and having people around us who care can make a big difference. Being a supportive part of our community means checking in, listening, and offering support without judgment. It also means speaking up and fighting the stigma around mental health so people feel safe asking for help. Even small actions can help someone feel less alone. When we look out for each other, we create a stronger, more connected community where it's okay to ask for help. Thank you.

So it's my pleasure to, proclaim, this month, May 2026, as, Older Americans Month in, Rockville, Maryland. Whereas, May is Older Americans month, a time for us to recognize and honor older adults and their immense influence on every facet of American society, and therefore, the mayor and council of the city of Rockville, Maryland, do hereby proclaim May 2026 is Older Americans Month. This year's theme, champion your health, focuses on prevention, wellness, and personal responsibility as key aspects of healthy aging. It encourages older adults to take an active role in managing their health, advocating for themselves, and making informed decisions that support independence. We call upon all residents to recognize the contributions of our older residents and promote programs and activities that foster connection, inclusion, and support for older Americans or older adults.

Sorry. And with that, mayor madam mayor, I'm with the proclamation.

Thank you. Do you have a second? Council Michelle seconds. All those

in favor, please raise your hands and

say aye. Aye.

And believe we have two, commissioners on the counts commission on aging, Vicky Gottlich and Dick Frisano to come up and take the proclamation. Maybe say a few words.

Thank you.

We want to thank the mayor and the council for the support for Alderman, citizens or noncitizens, older residents of Rockville. We particularly appreciate your support for the senior center and for, the village community and the services you provide. And in keeping with, Champion Your Own Health, on May 20, the senior center is having, its annual health affair and so we encourage all, older residents of Rockville to attend this great fair. Thank you.

So May is also National Preservation Month. Whereas May is designated as preservation month by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, this year's theme, all people are created equal, is a national effort to recognize the individuals and organizations that pour their time, energy, and resources into protecting places and inspire others to do the same. And now, therefore, the mayor and council of Rockville, Maryland, recognizing that the efforts of historic preservation enrich our present and enhance our future, do hereby proclaim May 2026 as preservation month and call upon the community of Rockville to enjoy historic homes, sites, and landscapes. Madam Mayor, I move the proclamation.

Thank you. Do we have a second? Councilman Jackson seconds. All those in favor, please raise your hand and say aye.

Aye. Next. Now I believe we may have people from, the historic district commission or appeal to Schrockville there. I don't see them. Okay. Well, we welcome them to come to the clerk's office and accept the proclamation.

So May is also stroke awareness month in Rockville, Maryland. Whereas stroke is a leading cause of disability and death impacting individuals and families across the nation, and now, therefore, the mayor and council of Rockville, Maryland do hereby proclaim May 2026 to be stroke awareness month and encourage the Rockville community to remember that this year's theme, make May purple, and act fast, this f, period, a, period, s, period, t, period, and then meet something, go to American Stroke Association and look it up. I can't remember exactly whatever it means. And to always seek help quickly and immediately. Madam mayor, I move the proclamation.

Seconds.

All those in favor, please raise your hand and say aye.

Aye. And I believe we have our own Mary Grace Siebel to come up and sec the proclamation and say for words.

I'm accepting this in memory of my good grandmother, Nora Meehan, from County Galway. She was an immigrant, and she died of complications of a stroke. We also lost my 66 year old cousin this year, two months ago, to a stroke. Hit her fast and hard, and we're still kind of reeling from how quickly we lost her. So only thirty six percent of people in The US could recognize symptoms of a stroke, So I want to talk about that for a minute.

The full phrase is BE FAST. Balance if somebody's balance is off. If there are changes in their visions, that's eyes. The F stands for face so if there's drooping of the face or one side of the body. Arms and legs can become weak.

The speech difficulty if they can't pronounce a sentence, just say it out loud, and time is critical. They call the first hour the golden hour, and that has a lot to do with, how much stroke victims actually recover. So call 911 as quickly as possible, and hopefully, you'll have your relatives and your friends around for a very long time. Thank you.

Alright.

And May is also Bicycle Month in Rockville, Maryland. And whereas the bicycle plays an important role in the lives of many Rockville residents by providing a means to travel to work, school, parks, and a popular form of recreation. Now, therefore, the mayor and council of Rockville, Maryland do hereby hereby proclaim May 2026 as Bicycle Awareness Month and urge all residents of Rockville to seek opportunities to ride a bicycle this month and throughout the year, to recognize the importance of bicycle safety, and to be more aware aware of people bicycling on our streets and roadways. Madam mayor, I move the proclamation.

Thank you for the second. Doctor Miles seconds. All those

in favor, please raise your hand and say aye.

Aye. And I believe that Jake Jacobitz, the Rockville Bicycle Advisory Committee Chairman is not here. So we'll leave this with the Crooks office.

While we're getting set up, I'm very honored, to be giving out the next proclamation. And this one is in honor of Taiwanese Americans And, you know, I do love bubble tea. I love our bubble tea festival. But there are so much more as well. Wonderful contributions to the community from Taiwanese Americans.

So, I do want to note that, but I also wanted to note how much I love bubble tea. Okay. And I do. Whereas America has been continually renewed and enriched by the many different people who choose to come here and become residents. Each brings part of their own heritage to contribute to our common culture over time.

Generations of Asian Americans have helped make America what it is today. Whereas more than 700,000 Taiwanese Americans live in The United States with a significant Taiwanese American population in the city of Rockville. Now, therefore, the mayor and city council do hereby proclaim May 10 through 05/17/2026 to be Taiwanese American Heritage Week and encourage all residents to observe, celebrate, and enjoy this special week. Madam Mayor, I move the proclamation.

Second. Councilor Michelle seconds. All those in favor, please raise your hand and say aye.

Aye. And I believe we have some very special guests to accept the proclamation.

We want a little bit

of room. Thank you. We welcome

it. We

love a crew.

Yeah. It's cool.

Roman with an entourage. Who would like to be first up?

Good morning, mayor and city council and our friends. It's my behalf of WAPA DC chapter. It's my honor to receive two thousand twenty six Taiwanese American Heritage Week from city of Rockville, and we look forward to continuing work together with our United States. Thank you.

Good evening, mayor Ashton, members of city council, distinguished guests. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm Minji Chen. I'm the current president of Town and Sisters Cities and also former, national president of FAPA. It is my great honor to stand before you today, express our sincere credit gratitude to your continued support of Taiwanese American Heritage Week and the Taiwan Bubble Tea Festival at Rockville. Taiwan Taiwanese American Heritage Week was established in 1999 during the Clinton administrations through the dedicated efforts of FAPA, the Formosan Association of Public Affair.

Since then, it has served as a meaningful bridge, bringing bringing in communities together, celebrating the curse curse cultural heritage and strengthening the friendship between Taiwan and The United States. Your support has played a vital role in making this effort possible, especially the support from the the city government and the RCC. Because of your commitment to community engagement and cultural diversity, events like the bubble tea festival continue to grow and thrive, bringing people together through a shared shared experience and values and tradition. We had over 15,000 people join us last year. This year, we are very excited to announce that the Bubble Tea Festival at Rockville will take place on 09/19/2026.

We hope to bring more people to join us. And it promised to be a vibrant celebration of culture, community, of course, the beloved drink, bubble tea and townish food, and that has connected people across generations and borders. We warmly invite all of you to join us this for this special occasion, and your presence will mean a great deal to us and to the community. We thank you once again for your unwavering support. We look forward to celebrating with you in September. Thank you.

Thank you all for celebrating with us. I'll call this many May. There are a lot of celebrations of culture, of our infrastructure, of our quality of life, our people who help do all the work behind the scenes as well as make sure you're taking care of your health. Thank you all of you for joining us, those online and those who are here with us in person. It means a lot that you take time out of your busy schedule to share your insights with us and to celebrate with us.

We will be taking a brief break until about 06:30 and we'll then begin our meeting. Thank you all. Good evening, Rockville. Today is 05/04/2026, and we're reconvening meeting twelve-twenty '6. We'll begin with agenda review.

Ms. Sarah Taylor Farrell.

Madam mayor and council members, there are no changes for the agenda this evening.

Thank you very much. Mister city manager, city manager's report. Bless you.

Mayor Ashton, members of city council, ladies and gentlemen, good evening. Earlier today, we heard a little bit about chasing problematic water main breaks, but we're still chasing one, unfortunately. That's the one that we're experiencing along Wooten Parkway. We had a pretty significant water main break, and we've been trying to do all the repairs. I'm not making excuse excuses, but I'm gonna give you the reasons why.

The first weekend, our asphalt plants weren't open just yet. Second weekend, we didn't have warm enough weather, and it was damp. And this weekend, we got some work done. But as we got into the site and started looking at the damage created by the water main break, we found out that a lot of the, material underneath water main break was, really compromised. So we're having to go in there and dig all that out, replace the material. You gotta do all that work first before you put any asphalt over the top because you put asphalt over a top to a base that's not compacted. All it's gonna do is crater. So it's taking much longer than we, thought it would, but we're on it. I don't want people to think that we're we're walking away from that site because we're far from it. We'll continue to work on it.

Our hope is with good weather and less surprises underneath the water main that we'll get that worked on this weekend. Onto better news, the summer program registration for Rockville residents begins tomorrow, May 5 at 08:30AM. I know people get excited and anticipate that, so I wanna remind everybody. And then new for this year, we're gonna have Thursday, May 7, is for general registration for non Rockville residents. So, again, Rockville residents are getting priority. And then lastly, and this is great news, the summer concert series at Town Square is all set, and we hope people come down and enjoy those really nice musical events. That's all I have, Mira. Thank you so much.

Thank you. I just wanna acknowledge that policy for Rocker residents going first and then opening up to all is a newer policy. Wanna thank the recreation and parks team for listening to our feedback and resident feedback on that. I did wanna just also acknowledge the Rockville Arts Festival that happened this weekend. It was an incredible event, two days, and it was really nice to see so many people from all over coming to enjoy arts and humanities in the city of Rockville.

Thank you to VisArts for that. I also wanted to acknowledge, in addition to some business owning openings that we had in the city, we had an incredible large scale statue of Harriet Tubman on the Bill Dawson House property. There is a scholar named Tony Cohen who is making the trek from the Underground Railroad from he started here in Rockville, then went to Sandy Spring today, and he is making the trek all the way to Canada. So I wanna acknowledge that history and the work of the community, and thank you to Montgomery history and others and doctor Tony Cohen for creating creating that note. Council Member Jackson and I really enjoyed that ceremony.

Okay. Alright. So we'll now move on to our community forum. This is a chance for us to listen to residents, then to hear feedback, concerns, and questions. We do have some city staff at the back in case there is something that needs attention, and we will encourage you to visit our team in the back if needed. Please address the Mayor and Council and speak in a civil and courteous manner. Please also be respectful to audience members and be respectful of each other. Each person is allowed three minutes, and we ask that you stick to that time. There is a time clock in front of you. You will hear an audible beep at the end of your three minutes.

Please state your name and if you live in Rockville for the record. We'll now proceed with those who have signed up in advance. Welcome Libby Adams.

Hello. I'm back again. Everybody knows my story, so I'm not gonna share it again. I'm just gonna, you know, kinda break it down. It's been three hundred and thirty two days since I found toxic black mold in my apartment.

It's been three hundred and eight days since the city came to inspect it, two hundred and forty seven days since the apartment was forced to do an actual mold test, and my family was sent to a hotel. We have been back we were sent back a hundred and fifty eight days ago, which means we spent seventy two additional days in an apartment with toxic mold after, the city inspected it and said it was cleared. It has been a hundred and seventy eight days since they sent an email saying that their industrial hygienist said that our belongings needed to be cleaned. It's been eighty six days since we've abandoned our apartment, a hundred and forty six days since Barry did the reinspection clearing our apartment. I did a test forty days ago, shared the results with you guys thirty three days showing toxic mold, active mold growth.

I've been back here, what, three times since then. Twenty eight days since I asked for an inspection, twenty one days since I asked for a follow-up, and then finally, I heard from Barry's. But it's been twenty days now since I've heard from him. I haven't had any update or nothing. And it's been twenty seven days since landlord tenant wanted me to sign a release, releasing the apartment from all of their responsibility.

I don't feel like my family should have to sign anything in order for the apartment complex to be held responsible for what is obviously their responsibility. There is a Mold Protection Act in Maryland, which means the Rockville City has to follow it, yet I don't see anything being done on behalf of that. My test, which I shared with you guys, indicated that the mold was in the HVAC system, which means that it is spreading to everybody else there. Still, nothing is being done. So, again, I am here to present myself to Rockville residents as an advocate.

It is time that we, come together to speak up on the ways that we're being taken advantage of and require you guys to actually do something to help us because I'm not the only one. I'm just the only one here, and you guys know that. I've pointed that out so many times. So I got twenty seconds left. My phone number is (657) 855-3194. I can be reached at fields of rockville complaints, at Gmail, moldinrockvillecity@Gmail, and moldinGaithersburg@Gmail. I urge everybody to reach out to me so that we can come together and hopefully have something done. Thank you.

Thank you. We have Cassidy Ayres.

Actually, I'm good. Okay.

Thank you for coming. Mister city manager.

Mayor, thank you for giving me the opportunity to, comment on this. We do appreciate miss Adams coming forward and expressing her concerns. We acknowledge and understand that a lot of the concerns she has is due to a disagreement between her and her landlord. It's an unfortunate circumstance, to be sure. City of Rockville staff have been out to the site and all through the the building on multiple occasions, done a number of different inspections. If additional inspections are needed out the site, we're certainly willing and able to go out there and conduct those inspections wherever possible. If miss Adams wants to talk to a member of our staff, we can get those scheduled. We're happy to do that. We appreciate it. Thank you.

Thank you very much.

I'm sorry. Do I get to rebuttal what he said?

You can meet at the back with Mr. Mattite. Deborah Moore is next.

Episodes, then there's not really

a point. Miss Moore is virtual.

Alright. Let's go.

Oh, hi again.

Hello? Can you hear me?

Yes. We can hear you. We hear you.

Okay. Very good. Good evening. My name is Deborah Moore. I am a Robville citizen, and I am here representing the Human Services Advisory Commission.

It is my honor and pleasure to thank this body for the funding provided in the FY twenty seven budget for caregiving organizations. Funding for these organizations has always been a priority item of consideration. Given the times we're currently finding ourselves in, the need for this funding is more paramount than ever. Thanks to the continued leadership this body has demonstrated, in addition to the generosity of our community partners and to the city of Rockville residents. This much needed funding continues with an eye towards continued advocacy for those who need it.

Whether we're talking about housing or medical assistance, food security, or the myriad of other areas this funding addresses, funding levels in the f y twenty seven budget continue to show strong advocacy for the need to keep these organizations going. Again, on behalf of the Human Services Advisory Commission, we give our sincere and hearty thanks to you for continuing your tradition of strong, robust support for those often referred to as vulnerable in our community. Thank you for your time.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

That exhausts us of those who have signed up in advance for the screening form. I'd like to open the favor to see if anyone else would like to speak speak. And also to that we have a hearing hearing. Thank you. Thank you.

We clear?

We clear.

We'll now move on to agenda item nine a a, which is consent agenda. If everyone at the desk can just check your computers and make sure that you are on mute. Thank you. Okay. Agenda item nine a, adoption of resolution to designate Cindy Walters as acting city attorney 9b, authorization for the city manager to approve public improvements easement associated with sidewalk maintenance on Lots 6 Through 8, Shady Grove Neighborhood Center that supports our Vision Zero efforts.

9C is a resolution amending the master fees for community planning and development services and public works and stormwater management monetary contribution rates that was discussed during our budget work sessions. We have Item 9D, which is the authorization for the City Manager to execute the modally priced dwelling unit homeownership program agreement and approval of authorization for the City Manager to execute the declaration of restrictive covenants for Village at Upper Rock development between the Mayor and Council of Rockville and Toll Mid Atlantic Company, subject to approval as to legal form by the city attorney. That is the creation of new moly priced 20 units for ownership in the city of Rockville. And you can learn more on our site. 9E, adoption of a resolution to establish the service charge rate for municipal refuse collection and to establish a charge for unreturned refuse and recycling carts pursuant to Section twenty-six of the Rockville City Code.

Agenda Item 9F, adoption of a resolution to declare the official intent of the Mayor and Council to reimburse expenditures for certain projects from the proceeds of tax exempt obligations under the U. S. Treasury Income Tax Regulation one-one 100 fifty-two. Item nine gs, adoption of a resolution to close completed capital improvement program projects. 9H, adoption of a resolution to establish the equivalent residential unit rate to be used in calculating the stormwater management utility fee pursuant to Chapter 19 entitled Settlement Control and Stormwater Management of the Rockville City Code and to establish a fee for the application for credit against the stormwater management utility fee for private stormwater management facilities.

Those are all of the consent items we have. I would like to ask if colleagues have any questions or would like to pull any before we move to accepting a motion for approval. Councilmember Valery.

Yes. Madam Mayor, I'd like to pull item c, please.

Thank you. Do you want to ask questions first? Do you want is that something you want to vote on separately?

Can I do both? Can I ask questions and okay?

Okay. Okay. All right. So, colleagues, can we prove all of the rest? Is that is everyone okay with alright. Would you like to make a motion to move the other items?

Madam mayor, I move the following items on the consent agenda. A, adoption of resolution to designate Cynthia Walters as acting city attorney. B, authorization, etcetera. D, e, f, g, and h.

Thank you. Do we have a second? Council Member Shaw seconds. All those in favor, please raise your hand and say aye. Aye. Excellent. Thank you. It's unanimous. Please proceed, Council Sure. Member

So on the master fees, I know that we talked through some of these during our budget work session. Do the fees, as noted in the consent agenda item, do those reflect all the changes that mayor and council agreed upon?

They do.

Okay. I think I'll just put a pin. I think it's always helpful. We can't always redline things. I know it's very tough when we don't have apples to apples, but when it takes a little bit of time to determine whether or not a change has been reflected in a new even if we just got like a quick summary of this, this, and this, I think that that would be helpful.

In addition, if there are items that we didn't have a discrete straw poll to, that would be helpful as well. I just wanted to note that procedurally. To the point of some of the concerns that I saw in the Consent Agenda item, I saw that the fencesmall accessory fee remains at $100 which shows an increase of 150%, a jump on a routine homeowner permit with no phase in. Is that accurate?

That's correct.

Okay. Madam Mayor, for that reason and I think there are some other questions as well. I think there was a significant change in the annexation fee that I don't recall us having that conversation at all. So for that reason, Madam Mayor, I would like to maybe go back to the drawing board on this item, get a little bit more information, particularly as it impacts residents. I'm hesitant to pass this on consent.

So if my colleagues would agree to that, I know I've personally heard from residents on the defense fee, and that is a significant increase.

Thank you, Councilmember. Mr. Mihilek, I know I also personally raised on some others about some of the increases in fees. We worked to try to get things under double digits. There's some that were still higher. This is one of them. Can you just provide some background to the mayor and council as to the rationale? And I also will just note that when we we talked about in the future picking some more targeted areas to do comparisons with and then also considering the fact that there's an automation fee, find and find ways to compare more apples to apples. So Mr. Mihelic, you could please provide more context.

Thank you, Mayor. Yeah. When we originally presented the entire fee schedule to counsel at a work session, there were a number of comments from the body. The body clearly gave direction, the majority, to for us to take another hard look at it. We did.

Went back, took a fine tooth comb through it all, came back with a number of recommendations, which significantly lowered a number of those fees. We thought that the fees, as adjusted, were in very good order. Heard from the majority of the council as a follow-up that those fees are good. In the future, if you want us to call out and try to do the best we can to show how the fees would change, we can certainly do that. And anytime you guys have a question about a fee in advance of the meeting, if you give us a heads up, we're happy to do that research. But the feedback tonight's very helpful. And moving forward with with future budget discussions and any changes of fees, your feedback tonight is helpful. Thank you.

Thank you. Councilman Vallari.

Thank you, Madam Mayor, and thank you, Mr. City Manager. I know that this was not easy. We have a bajillion different fees, and I think that it's a tough one. I think also it's a tough one for residents right now, in particular with the situation that we're all facing as a society, as residents, for us to put that sort of burden on them when I don't really see the good cost benefit analysis to the increase in that.

Know it seems like small potatoes and maybe worth it to wait, For residents right now to have a year of spending $100 on a fence permit when that is clearly above the Montgomery County fee, I feel that that is it's outsized, and I'm really curious about that. Similarly, I don't recall the conversation about the annexation fee change, so I would be interested if you have and I definitely heard your answer on the fence on the annexation nonresidential fee, was that something that got adjusted since March 9?

Mr. Mihelic.

Madam, members of counsel, all the fees were presented full transparency once and then a second time again. So there are not new fees included in your schedule this evening. So

I want to

be Sorry. Clear about

Can I also just if you want to just answer the question about the fence fee, and then councilor next, and then councilor is right after?

Yep. The challenge with with many of our fees, including the fence fee and others, is the city's had a long standing policy to try to do as much cost recovery as possible. We know that. So when we came up with a whole fee schedule, we we looked at cost recovery. We looked at peer cities include and the county to see where we're coming in line, and then made some adjustments based on the feedback we received from council.

But one thing I stress to the body, and generally, I saw agreement, was that we have to be really careful about making some of those fees so small that the cost of processing those fees are passed to others. These really are, user fees. In other words, if someone applies for a fence permit by way of example, then most of the cost should be borne by the person applying for the fence. Otherwise, if we're doing taking in the application, reviewing the plan, doing the inspection, we still have all those costs. We're passing those costs off to somebody that isn't actually going forward with the permit. Having said all that, we still significantly adjusted our fees downward per the direction of council. Thank you, mayor.

Councilman Goyer?

Yes. No. And I I appreciate that, and I understand completely. Montgomery County is $78 for their fenced fee. So we're still significantly higher than the county. So I'm really curious about where the 100 came from. I understand, and trust me, know that none of this is easy, but I am really concerned with this one.

Councilmember Fulton, please.

So I just wanted to clarify, like substantively approval of an individual fee is fair game, and I appreciate raising concerns. But just from a procedural perspective, we have seen the full fee schedule two times. We have never straw polled individual fees the same way we do not straw poll individual line items on a budget, like, or every little tiny thing that happens here. So I just don't wanna set the expectation of the public that we would be straw polling all elements of a package that we are approving. It's incumbent upon us to have read it and raise questions. But I'm fair game to discuss any of the individual fees, but procedurally, I just wanted to be clear about that.

Thank you. Councilman Van Grack.

I just wanna note, I know that this body gave a really detailed perception with regard to the fees that were put forward initially in the budget. And I know that I want to really note that staff did a extremely diligent effort to focus on those fees that would be most importantly focused on residents as well as focused on broad based development that would be potentially by square footage, which could be significant. I know that not all of them were reduced, but I know that staff did a you know, mister Mahelek, correct me if I'm wrong. Staff did a really detailed analysis to try to determine what fees we've been doing to the point where we've been losing money on doing those efforts and that you guys went through and really did, as I understand it, when it was presented the the revised termination, that you really took it down to where, even in some of the other revisions, we're essentially losing money on those efforts. Do I have that kind of recollection correct?

Yeah. You're exactly right. We went the entire team, public works, CPDS, finance team, my office, went through all the fees, received clear direction from counsel, had taken another hard look. We did come back, lowered a ton of the fees to the tune of $642,000 So big, big, big change.

So I just want to say I really appreciate the effort that you took back. You really took the mayor and council's feedback to light. The staff, I know, really worked. And while I know it wasn't perfect because there are still fees that we really need to recover where we had really been on the opposite direction, I just want to note that I really appreciated what staff did and appreciated the revised effort, which really put into chart where you've reduced it in comparison to prior years.

Mr. Mihilek, can I just ask a question about this there were some significant increases this year? I know that we pushed back and you came and evaluated and we had to make some changes in the budget because of it. I know that we have to do cost recovery. But just to confirm, this was your big update. You will not be coming back to us next year with a bunch of increases. Is that correct? Generally speaking, there may be some adjustments. But generally speaking, you do not anticipate a push from major fee increases. This is a onetime review that you're trying to look at all of them and make changes just so the body is aware of where we are in the cycle.

I generally agree with you, Mayor, the way you qualified it. I agree. We're always going to if we see a fee that we think is woefully below what we think is is appropriate, we'll bring those forward. But you're correct. We're not planning on bringing forward a wholesale change wholesale changes in fees again next year. You're correct about that.

Okay. Thank you. And I will just say when you look at the fees next year and, again, we're delivering a budget without any tax increases. I know that there are discussions in other jurisdictions about that. Will you also factor in that there is an automation fee? So if you're comparing a fee, you also have to add our automation fee to another jurisdiction.

Understood. Yes.

Thank you. I

have a procedural question, and maybe this is for Ms. Walters. If there is one fee that perhaps some of us have very strong feelings on, could the rest be passed on consent and then that one voted on separately? Or how would you you know what I'm saying? Like, am I making sense? I don't know if I'm making sense.

You're asking to it's not we don't typically will pull That's one why I was wondering. Point. Yeah. But I will have the city attorney answer the question. I just curious.

I was saying that's irregular, but I don't know that there's anything that would permit or prevent you from pulling one fee. Okay. I think it's highly unusual.

Highly irregular. I I appreciate it. And and thank you. And thank you to mister Mihaelic. I know that a lot of work was was put into this. I just don't want us putting any more fees than we have to on resident specs.

Mister Mahelek. Just it seems minor, but I think it is really important. Adopting the budget tonight, there's multiple pieces and parts. Everything has been woven together very carefully based on a series of work sessions that we've had with the council, including the last meeting, the work session, where we balanced everything out to the penny. I'm obligated to present you guys with a balanced budget. We've done that. So even taking out one fee, just remember, it's not just one fee for one person, it's one fee, and then we have to project how many permits would not be then charged the similar fee, and that leaves a bit of a hole in our budget. So I just wanna be clear that. It's not major, but it is.

Yeah. Thank you. I will just note that I did not like all the fees. I appreciate the body weighing in, and we removed or reduced significantly many of them. Is it exactly perfect with what I like? No. But the majority supported the package that's in front of us, and the the budget has been prepared with it. So what what I will say is that this is the major fee update, The body, I don't think, be anticipating another major update like this next year, you have confirmed that with us. Councilmember Van Grakonen will go for the vote.

I was just going to move for the approval of agenda item 9c.

Thank you. Do we have a second? Councilmember Shah? Second. Alright. Thank you. All those in favor, please raise your hand and say aye.

Aye.

Thank you. And those who oppose? Thank you. And no abstentions.

Thank you, mayor.

Thank you. And I I do wanna say I appreciate the spirit of my colleague, council member Valeri. That's the spirit of which I came to the fees. We wanna be very mindful of cost and affordability as well as economic development. So please keep that in mind for next year's budget.

So we are now moving on to a public hearing, and I want to encourage staff to get in place for this public hearing. It is for the zoning text amendment TXT twenty twenty six zero zero two seven one, the draft zoning ordinance, mayor and council applicants. Wanna welcome Holly Simmons, deputy zoning manager from the community planning development services, as well as Evan Johnson and Jim Waselik. Welcome. And, also, if you could just make sure you're clear about what we're accepting feedback on. Know there were two hearings last time. Thank you for your guidance.

Absolutely. Thank you, madam mayor, and good evening, members of the council. So as stated, we are here for our second public hearing, second set of public hearings after our April 13 meeting at which we had our first set of public hearings. We did go ahead and per mayor and council's request, add a third public hearing on May 11. So that is one week from today.

So, we are we are right in the middle here with public hearings. This will be this evening on, two item items. The first is our zoning text amendment for the zoning ordinance rewrite. So as folks will recall, anyone hoping to provide testimony on the text of the zoning ordinance, the policies contained therein, this would be the public hearing to provide testimony on that. And once we've concluded that public hearing, we will proceed on to a public hearing on the comprehensive map amendment.

So for folks wishing to testify on any proposed rezonings or the zoning map itself, that is the time to provide testimony. And with that, madam mayor, I believe I'll hand it back to you, but happy to provide any additional detail.

Thank you. To Sarah, Taylor Farrell has this been properly noticed, and I'll say that for both hearings.

Yes, madam mayor. Both public hearings have been publicized in the and on the city's website.

Okay. Thank you. I'm going to read the folks who have signed up in advance for this particular one just because I don't want to create confusion with the two public hearings. But for this one in particular, on the zoning text amendment draft zoning ordinance, as miss Simmons mentioned, we have council member former council member Mark Fischela representing the College Garden Civic Association, and then we have received written comments from several people. I also see that we have JD Kumar and Anna Asiya as well. So I will see if you if you were wanting to do this section, please let us know. I will call for folks after we're done taking those who have signed up in advance. Welcome, Mark Pichela.

Thank you, madam mayor, members of the council. So I I'm going to read you some of the resolutions that the College Garden Civic Association passed at its March 24 meeting. That was a special meeting specifically on the zoning, ordinance re review. And just to remind everybody, it's as I understand, it's complete repeal and total reenactment of the zoning ordinance. So, the first resolution I'm gonna read to you tonight, the College Garden Civic Association Association resolves mayor and council that that section twenty five point seven point one point four a purpose of the small lot single unit residential zones be reworded as follows.

The small lot single dash unit residential zones include the r dash 90, r dash 75, r dash 60, and r dash 40 zones. These zones are intended primarily for single unit residential uses on smaller lots than those in the large lot single dash unit residential zones. Now what we're asking is to add the following. The purposes of these zones include one, provide appropriate located areas for residential development that are consistent with the plan and public health and safety, and two, stabilize and protect the essential characteristics of the existing residential neighborhoods and that text came out of the current zoning ordinance so it's not made up but it's sorely missing from the proposal. Then on proposed resolutions, two of them on differences on uses in zones, the College Garden Civic Association resolves that mayor and council instruct city staff that the uses of small and large lot single unit residential zones be tabulated in a similar manner to to the one I presented at the College Garden Civic Association and officially be appended to the staff highlights document and distributed to all neighborhood associations.

Well, it looks like this. Okay? And the highlights document that was produced by city staff is good as far as it goes, but totally missed out on differences and uses, and there are a large number of differences. Some are due to state law and some are due to this body, and we you really should know the difference there. State there's approximately four state laws that impact the zoning ordinance revision.

We should know how they do that and and I don't see how we can do our job as association leaders without that. And that leads the second resolution. The College Garden Civic Association resolves that mayor and council instruct that the table clearly indicate which changed uses are due to state law and which are due to mayor and council direction. And then there were two resolutions specifically impacting the College Gardens neighborhood and the first resolution, the College Garden Civic Association resolves that mayor and council for MXCD zones, which would be College Plaza, put back the notation, quote, no vehicular access to any secondary residential street, end quote, in the new zoning ordinance. That comes out of the current ordinance.

It's missing in the proposed. That really protects more directly the Ivy which is multi unit rather than the single family homes directly but College Plaza, if it's ever redeveloped, you know, having secondary streets coming right on to that very highly parked Rutgers Street would be a disaster. So, that's that. And, secondly, we acknowledged one thing that we really want you to keep, so no changes here. The College Garden Civic Association agrees with the proposed MXC designation that there'd be no vehicular access to any regional street from the MXC zone, and there we have in mind, it's called the Goudy, it's a it's a plaza next to us which has four or five office buildings which could go to residential.

We'd be fine with that. No problem. It's just, you know, we that should not then spill out into our neighborhood directly and that's for that one you just have to keep what is in the proposal. Finally, we we also, you know, pass some resolutions on process that's already been sent to you. I think you're you're just coming through this zoning ordinance way too quickly.

We ask that you, pass it earliest in September 2026. I understand the next, next meeting you have will be on uses, for example, but we won't see any staff input on uses until then. We have our next College Garden Civic Association meeting, our regular spring meeting on May 12. You're all invited 7PM College Gardens Elementary School all purpose room, and I'll have to give a review at that time for you all covered through May 11. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Can you please pass any documents you want to our city clerk, please? Thank you.

Okay.

Thank you very much. We now have Anna Astrid. Welcome. And while she's coming up, I wanted to flag that Engage Rockville has the documents with summary of changes in case folks are trying to follow along with what we're talking about. Welcome.

Good evening. My name is Anna Stry Molina, and I live in Markwood. I just wanna regarding the tax amendment sorry. I'm not I'm not as prepared. I thought I had another chance, but you said you're gonna discuss this tonight.

Regarding notifications for rezoning, I know that when, it is for amendment, it's only newspaper notification and through the website. But at the time, I believe, when the current code was written, you know, we have newspapers the time. So we have the cassette, which was weekly, and, I think that the the website was actually easier. Now there's, like, two websites that we have to look at. And the newsletter, you know, I I just was wondering how many people subscribed to the newsletter for the zoning.

And since December to now, it's only like two thirty. So I don't think that is a significant part of the population that are receiving I believe by now we all have emails and the city has a lot of emails that we could provide to especially to residents like me that have no homeowners associations. I And think that will be good to improve in that tax amendment rewrite. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much. Welcome, J. Lu Kumar. Okay. Thank you. Is there anyone else who would like to speak as part of this portion of the public hearing? We'll have another. Focus on the maps. Okay. Thank you. I'll turn it back to staff. Is there anything you want to say before we move on to the next one?

No, you're perfectly fine to move on.

Okay. Thank you. We next move on to public hearing number two on map amendment MAP twenty twenty six-one 126, comprehensive map amendment, mayor and council of Rockville applicants. And thank you, Holly Simmons and Jim Wasilek.

All right. So this will also be our second public hearing on the comprehensive map amendment. Again, we will have a third public hearing on this item next Monday. And for folks who are interested in addition to providing appropriate notice in the Washington Post, we also provided an email update to subscribers to our Engage Rockville page after this was, solidified for next week. With that, happy to turn it back over to you for the public hearing.

Thank you. I'd like to open up to Alex Belida, you're first, followed by Tanya Rakovskaya.

I apologize.

Good evening. I'm Alex Belida, resident of Newmark Commons since 1985. And I wanna extend my thanks to you, all of you, for your understanding as we have appeared here before you time after time to express our concerns about the original proposal to rezone a small parcel of land next next to us, RMD 25. We're grateful that you have agreed there should be a much lesser level of development density and that there should be no direct road link between that plot and our community except for emergency access. Now on behalf of the residents in Newmark and Markwood who have discussed the various new options that have been presented by the planning staff, we would urge you to specifically adopt RMD 10 as your final zoning decision.

At the same time, we would ask you to limit building height to no more than 40 feet. This is the solution most compatible with our community and would provide for a better quality of life for the new residents of that plot. I wanna acknowledge the planning staff's willingness to offer options that vary from the comprehensive plan recommendation and the planning commission's efforts to respond to our concerns. Thank you all. We also welcome the contribution of the attorney for the plot's owner for advancing the idea of emergency access only through Newmark and Mark Wood.

But today, we've heard some suggestions that because he advanced this idea, we should accept a higher density level like RMD 15 and taller height limits. Please don't do this. While we support the goal of increased housing, we still consider this level of development incompatible with our neighborhood as well as with the plot's heavily wooded terrain and wetlands and the noxious noxious proximity of I 270. Now I'm proud of our Newmark residents and our newly elected HOA board for standing up and defending our position before the city. Will you now show us that Rockville has a government that listens to its residents?

Thank you very much.

Thank you. Welcome, Tanya Rakovskaya. Please note for everyone of whether you live in the city of Ville. Thank you. Welcome.

Good evening. I am Tanya Rokhovska. My family moved to Newmark in 1997. We chose this community because it was safe, quiet, and beautiful historic neighborhood. We loved this family oriented environment so much that when our older daughter started the family of her own, she also bought a home in Newmark.

And now her family of six enjoys the advantages of raising children in this wonderful community. Just yesterday, the Newmark swim team had a kickoff meeting of for this season when our daughter's third child will join two older siblings as a member of the team, just like their mother when she was growing up. Because of this deep family connection, preserving the character and nature of our community is extremely important for us. I want to thank you for listening to our concerns about the proposed rezoning over the last several months and agreeing that lower development density and no extra traffic through our community, except for emergency access would help to preserve the character of our wonderful neighborhood. Thus, together with a 100 other residents, I ask you to designate RMD 10 with 40 feet height limit for Zohr ID 17.

We insist on lower density development to preserve green areas supporting the wildlife that is abundant in and around Newmark and the character of our neighborhood, which is a nationally recognized historic community. I do hope that Rockville mayor and council will kindly consider our appeal and agree with our arguments. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Thank you very much. Anna Astri

Good

evening, again. My name is Anna Astri Molina, and I have lived in Markwood for over thirty years. I deeply value this opportunity to speak to you, and I urge you to reject the RMD '25 rezoning for Parcel SOR ID 17. I want to thank you, mayor and council, for recognizing that Markwood, Lex, and HOA and that our residents were not properly notified or involved in the conversations. We appreciate your suggestion of lower density designations like RMD Infill or RMD 10, including a buffer close to Newmar Commons and Markwood and a greater allowances closer to Tower Oaks.

We support the proposal that primary access must be through the contiguous Tower Oaks planning development confirmed by Mr. Commoners, restricting Dunmills Court only to emergency vehicles. These along with pedestrian walkways allows for growth while maintaining the safety and cohesion of our neighborhoods. To that end, we will be requesting further clarifications from staff on the specific height and massing examples for these, different designations. There is a sacred reason for this high density that is unsortable.

Research written by Julian Mandling and published by Montgomery History in 2025 has revealed that the numbers of burials at the poor farm is far higher than previously thought. With two thirty one confirmed and estimate over 1,000 remains, For the first one hundred years, no records were kept. The most vulnerable residents, the poor, the elderly, and those with mental illness, were buried in unmarked grave because they have no other recourse prior to Social Security. This site also holds the remains of, John Dix and Sidney Randolph, victims of the nineteenth century lynchings. I hope that the city will commit to identify these remains and treat them with respect when they're that were they denied in life, a respect that was missing when the 100 remains were previously relocated to Parkland Cemetery.

Finally, we must address the noise pollution. Even with traffic is restricted through Wooten Parkway, most of future residents will directly impact Newmark and Markwood. Currently, the high noise levels from two seventy and nursing home traffic is cumbersome. My backyard wall and fence currently bounce and amplify the noise. So on days with a heavy nursing home activity, it is impossible for me to work from home, forcing me to find quiet at the library. I ask you to honor the dignity of those buried there and the safety of those living here. Please prioritize our shared history and our quality of life over high density development. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Welcome, Laurie Krug.

Dear mayor Ashton and council members, my name is Laurie Krug, and I'm a resident of Newmark Commons who along with my husband invested our life savings to purchase a townhome four years ago. I am here to comment on the rezoning of Parcel 12, the 10 acre wooded property near Newmark Commons in Markwood. I first spoke to you in December where I tried to emphasize the beauty of the tree canopy since Parcel 12 is often depicted merely as a geometric shape on a cold map. I have attended additional planning meetings these last few months, and I've truthfully had begun to despair So it seemed rezoning was preordained, and the developer held all the cards. I was thrilled as a virtual attendee at that marathon mayor and council session that went well past midnight a few weeks ago.

The lawyer representing the Tower Dawson developers stated in that meeting that they were open to a lower density option with no road access via Don Mills Court except for emergency vehicles. No road was a no brainer to keep us safe from car traffic from hundreds of homes to the south, and I'm excited that we can all agree to lock that resolution down. It was also terrific that the council members in their discussion recognized the complex issues of this property that my neighbors have brought to your attention. With regard to this mature tree canopy, unmapped historical burial sites, stormwater management concerns, in addition to the need to be compatible with our nationally recognized historic neighborhood is described in the comprehensive plan. With regard to rezoning, I remind you that R And D 10 capped at 40 feet accommodates a much higher density than the current R 90, and this will prevent incompatible high rises by future developers.

In conversations with our neighbors, I agree this is the best path forward, and I welcome Jim Wassilak's presentation to our board meeting this coming Thursday. Please keep compatibility, history, environmental impact in mind as you consider one of the last intact parcels of mature canopy in Rockville. Tower Dawson has a clear track record of clear cutting prior to development, exposing our community to the noise and pollution of two seventy, Replanting trees with a goal to restore even a portion of the current tree canopy won't be realized in our lifetimes, and wildlife that we have not even surveyed will be displaced, and an ecosystem will be lost. I, like many Newmark residents, have a strong connection to the trees and wildlife, and you actually are the stewards of this pressure precious parcel. Your decision on the rezoning is an important one that paves the way for development, and we urge you to make sure that it's compatible with our community.

We will stay engaged well after the zoning decision is finalized to monitor the details of development, and I hope to help position Newmark as a partner when planning pedestrian walkways to connect their new homes to our highly prized footpaths as a conduit to schools in Rockville Town Center. Please, RMD 10 at 40 feet. Thank you for engaging with us.

Thank you very much. Welcome, Susan Knowles.

Hi, mayor and council members. My name is Susan Knowles, and I am a resident of Newmark Commons. I'm also proud to say that we are one of the most diverse communities and neighborhoods in the city of Rockville. Our community represents many different nationalities, including Ukraine, Russia, India, Iran, Germany, Argentina, and Spain, and numerous languages are spoken here. We have always been a very welcoming community throughout our almost sixty years representing the city of Rockville.

Even our street names reach out to the global community, having roots in such countries such as The United Kingdom, Finland, Sweden, and Canada. I'm not sure Radbourne, New Jersey counts as global, but it does have representation in our community street names. When our community was built, Edward Bennett took a census of all trees that were 12 inches in diameter in our 96 acres and built the houses and townhouses around them. We appreciate the zoning plan that now realizes how important it will be to preserve as many trees as possible in this 9.7 acre plot of land adjacent to Newmark, lessening the environmental impact to our neighborhood, Markwood, and the new homes that will be developed. We appreciate the addition of access for walking and biking into our neighborhood, which was discussed at the last work section.

We already are a bike route to Dogwood Park, and I know that some of you already ride your bikes or take leisurely strolls through our neighborhood. Please continue to work on creating a new neighborhood with density RMD 10 with a 40 foot height limitation, keeping it compatible in relation to established neighborhoods and the property's proximity to I-two 70. We appreciate you listening to all of us as we represent the neighborhoods surrounding this undeveloped parcel. Thank you for your time and as you continue to meet with us in person and listen to our concerns. It is appreciated and shows that your constituents still have the power to make things happen for the betterment of the city of Rockville.

Thank you.

Thank you very much. Welcome, Julia Binder.

Good evening, mayor and council members. My name is Julia Binder. I'm a newly elected member of the Newmark Commons HOA board. Part of the reason I earned the highest number of votes among the candidates is because of my involvement in the group that opposes the plan for rezoning ZOR ID 17 to RMD 25. I want to thank you for making time to listen to the hundreds of residents of Newmark Commons and Markwood in taking the first steps towards supporting the health and safety of our communities.

It was an unexpected and gratifying surprise to hear your discussion on April 13 and to learn that the majority seems to support the RMD 10 designation for the 9.75 acre Tower Dawson property. Thank you for touring this parcel with us, taking meetings with us, listening to our testimony, and reading our letters. I'm very grateful for your consideration of the voices of your citizens in addressing our concerns about pedestrian safety, environmental impact, Montgomery County history, and respect for sacred grounds in weighing your decisions. Mister Waselek has asked to meet with the Newmark HOA board this week to present the latest discussion by the mayor and council on the proposed rezoning of the adjacent 9.75 acre parcel and allow him to gain feedback for you. I trust your tentative approval to permanently block vehicle access to Newmark Esplanade, Don Mills Court except for emergency fire and city vehicles will be reflected in the final plan.

I urge you to replace the r m d 25 zoning recommendation with the less dense and 40 foot height limited RMD 10 designation enabling development of additional housing of a type and height that is compatible with surrounding neighborhoods as well as preserving at least some of the tree canopy to filter air pollution, decrease storm water runoff, and preserve a habitat for wildlife. Thank you.

Thank you. Welcome, Pat Reber.

Good evening and thank you for, listening to us again. I know you've listened to us a lot and now here we are again. My name is Pat Reber. I have been a resident of Rockville since 1985. My husband, whom you heard earlier, and I raised three children

there.

I wish to explain why so many residents of Newmark Commons and Mark Wood are advocating for the r m d 10 zone for this plot. We are 100 people working actively on this issue. Two thirds of our more than 400 households, including Markwood, are represented on a petition we circulated last year opposing r m d 25. It is it has about 700 signatures. We appreciate that you have heard our witness over the last month.

Since September, we have been coming to you and are considering a lesser density. The current zoning on this plot is r 90 or about 4.5 homes per acre. The recommended zoning of R M D 25 in the comprehensive plan calls for nearly six times that density. Both R M D 10 and R M D 15 offer the owner considerably more density than it currently has. We are advocating for R M D 10 because it would be more compatible with our current communities, but also because of the terrain on this plot.

Only half of it is buildable. The rest is wetlands, wetland mitigation, and and a city operated storm water filtration system. That means that with R M D 10, all 100 units would be crowded onto the five acres that abut up against I 270. In a sense, the density on those five acres would be equivalent to RMD 20. Also, at the April 13 meeting, a majority of mayor and council indicated support for RMD 10, and we took additional impetus for our position on that.

At the same meeting, you heard that the Newmark HOA board voted to oppose R m d 25 and asked the city to find a less dense sew solution. Planning staff has reached out to our board to provide an update on May 7 about the new options, and we welcome this initiative. We are not opposed to building on that plot. What we want is a density that is compatible with our two neighborhoods and respects the safety and security of our neighborhood. We've got a lot of kids walking to Julius West, school every day. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Welcome, Bill Commoners.

Good evening, Mayor Ashton, members of the council. My name is Bill Commoners, and I'm here representing Tower Dawson LLC, the owner and the original developer of Tower Oaks planned development, and the former school site that you've been hearing so much about for so long. My comments tonight relate to that former school site. The owner has always been supportive of the recommendation and the comprehensive plan and carried forward by the staff to rezone the property. But as a compromise to address the concerns expressed about the staff's recommendation, Tower Dawson supports the rezoning to RMD 15, a 40% reduction from the density originally proposed with the RMD 25.

The RMD 15 zone is the best alternative, in our view, within the context of the choices of zones that are available to consider in the comprehensive map amendment. Tower Dawson believes that the RMD 15 will both address concerns about density while also supporting the city's efforts to increase the housing supply. Tower Dawson believes that this is a feasible alternative that can strike a balance of the greatest range of choices of unit types and sufficient density to support economic feasibility while protecting community concerns and being coupled with the access restrictions that everyone seems to agree on. Tower Dawson notes that the appropriate route of access to serve the property will be from the land within the Tower Oaks planned development located to the South rather than from the abutting community. The only connection would be for emergency access.

Higher density under the RMD 15 presents an opportunity to achieve economical development of the property. The significant development cost can be spread across a greater number of dwelling units. And the combination of the density potential with the RMD 15 coupled with access from the South and emergency access only from Don Mills Court finally makes development of the property feasible to consider. It is not a guarantee nor is the density to be achieved a guarantee. It is an opportunity to apply subject to a plan which would then be reviewed by the city staff with their normal rigor.

But for all the foregoing reasons, Tower Dawson supports the rezoning of the property to RMD 15 as a compromise with the recommendation of the city's comprehensive plan and as the best choice among the rezoning choices that are available. Thank you for your consideration.

Thank you. Welcome, Thomas Crumley.

Good evening, mayor and council. Thank you very much for hearing me. Thank you. I've been able to meet with a couple of you about this issue. I am a member of the Newmar Commons board of directors. I've lived in the neighborhood since 2021, and I never really got involved in local politics until I attended a virtual zoning meeting, last fall. So that was my entry. And I'll say it I've always wanted to say this, but I've always thought that the city's plan was very logical on its face. Higher density in your nodes of transit and commerce and shopping centers. But I still don't see the logic of having high density housing near Newmar Commons.

But this issue energized me to run for the board and become involved. And, I've had the chance to meet with some of you. Mister Commoner spoke last week. He said that he didn't have a plan. I understand that.

I was an attorney for the United States Army for twenty five years. Big organizations may not have a formal plan, but they're always considering things in the background, and I guess that's what we're worried about. We hear about talk of access from the South. What if this parcel is sold? What if Tower sells this when it's increased to r m d 10 as we advocate or r m d 15?

Will the access have to come through Don Mills Court? I'm not a real estate lawyer lawyer, but will it be subject to something like reverse condemnation? So that's the city attorney's job, but that's something that concerns us. Most of us love or like that development that they've built. It's very handsome.

It's very nice. We believe that we can work with them. But we would ask that there's be a greater amount of transparency, a greater amount of contact that they reach out to us and talk to our, our, group, our neighborhood. And so that's what I wanted to say. Thank you for your time and I know this is a difficult issue. There's a lot of passion. And I believe we have a very thoughtful group of neighbors, that want to provide more housing. They just don't want to have a very high dense traffic and all the other attendant issues. Thank you very much.

Thank you. I see Jadu Kumar is on the list, but I don't see him in the room. Is there anyone else who would like to speak? Thank you to all who have testified and shared your feedback. I know we've also gotten written testimony, we appreciate all the input. I'd like to turn it back to staff if you could share a couple of closing comments about public hearings and when the people can participate again and how they can share their feedback.

Certainly. So we do, as I mentioned previously, have one additional public hearing coming up next Monday, and we also will have a work session later this evening for folks who are interested particularly in the changes from the old ordinance to the new ordinance when it comes to our articles one through five. I'm sure it will be an engaging conversation. And we also, at the end of this work session, probably would like to discuss with mayor and council the potential of bringing this particular rezoning back for discussion at next week's work session. That is something that we do not currently have outlined as time slot for it in over the course of the next three work sessions tonight, next week, and the following week.

So we do wanna make sure that there is time to discuss that proposed rezoning. And as a number of our residents did mention during their testimony, mister Wozlak and I are planning to attend the Newmark Commons board association or board meeting this coming Thursday. And we are also working to connect with Mark Wood regarding the same.

Thank you very much. So you heard it here. There will be another public hearing on May 11 and work session on that date. That we also have one scheduled for May 18. That is work session number four.

Please look at Engage Rockville. Per our request, last time staff included the full document plus a red line version. And then I just wanted to note the feedback of our residents given the how how far reaching this is in terms of the city. I know we have I heard something of a couple of 100 people on our registration list. If we could get the confirmation as to how many people are on that newsletter and perhaps considering to actually send it broader to the Rockville reports list given that this is a citywide initiative.

Yes. Absolutely. And we do, regularly update through Engage Rockville. We've had, we've had notices in every single monthly Engage Rockville since, I think, January, and we also do push them out through the online version as well. I believe there's actually an update in this week's Rockville reports.

Excellent. Thank you very much. We're going to come back to this very topic, but we are moving on to our work session regarding budget. We have an action item, actually. So those who are interested in this topic, please stay tuned. We'll come back. We do have to take care of our budget to make sure our city can operate effectively and efficiently. So we're now moving on to agenda item 11a, adoption of an ordinance to appropriate funds and levy taxes for fiscal year twenty seven. I'd like to welcome Kim Francisco, Deputy Chief Financial Officer in our Finance Department as well as Stacey Webster, who is the CFO and Director of Finance. Welcome.

Good evening, Madam Mayor and members of the council. Tonight's action represents the culmination of a thoughtful and public FY 2027 budget process. Staff appreciates the mayor and council's leadership throughout the process, including the clear direction provided through multiple work sessions, public hearings, and budget discussions. The ordinance before you appropriates funds and levies taxes for the FY 2027 operating and capital budgets. It reflects the direction provided by the mayor and council and maintains the city's real property tax rate at 29.2¢ per 100 of assessed value, a rate that has not increased since 1995.

The personal property tax rate also remains unchanged. The adopted budget totals $186,800,000 across all operating funds and includes a $125,600,000 capital improvements program. These investments support core services, infrastructure, public safety, parks, utilities, community services, and long term capital needs. I'd like to recognize the mayor and council's continued commitment to community engagement. This year's process included four public hearings, proposal project submissions, written testimony, a community budgets priority survey that received five thirty seven responses.

That level of participation reflects both the strength of Rockville's civic culture and the mayor and council's commitment to making the budget process accessible and transparent. The final budget adjustments also reflect a balanced approach, responding to community and stakeholder feedback, incorporating updated revenue assumptions, supporting community services and enrichment grants, and adding funding for a city placemaking plan. This budget advances equity through affordable housing, recreation assistance, community safety, and neighborhood services. It supports environmental stewardship through climate, stormwater recycling, fleet, and building energy investments. It also reinforces Brockville's economic stability by maintaining a flat property tax rate while continuing to invest in infrastructure and economic development.

Thank you. To conclude, we are very grateful for the mayor and council's careful review, thorough questions, and continued support throughout the whole budget process. We're also thankful for the leadership and direction provided by our city manager, mister Mihelic, as well as the contribution of our budget team behind me, Mary Sue Martin and Dan Chambers, the city's executive leadership team, and the department staff who helped build the operating and CIP budgets. With that, mayor and council, we respectfully recommend that you adopt the f y twenty seven budget budget ordinance by two motions. The first to amend the ordinance as shown in attachment one, seconded and passed. And the second, a motion to adopt the amended ordinance seconded and passed. That's all. Thank you.

Thank you. I want to extend a huge thank you to you all for coming together with a very robust budget, but one that keeps our future in mind and doesn't just think about what we want today, but really plans for the future. I appreciate the thorough section of CIP as well as the budget balancing that we've all had to do to make sure that we maintain excellent city services while also maintaining our budget bond rating AAA bond rating. I also appreciate the careful nature which you worked with us through the community grants. I know there will be a work session this summer to discuss those further.

My only overarching question is this body gave a couple of things that said, please make sure this is reflected in the narratives. Please reflect this is in the KPIs. I know one of them was a senior center entrance KPI that was noted that that needs to be corrected and a few other small minor things that came up. Those things that we said, will this be reflected in final draft? That will be coming, correct?

We have notes on all of those requested revisions and those will be incorporated into the adopted budget documents.

Excellent. Thank you so very much. Okay. Well, colleagues, I also want to note to our residents that we did not increase taxes. I said it earlier. But I think it's worth mentioning, affordability is something we do care deeply about while also being good stewards of taxpayer dollars and living our value as the mayor and council. Colleagues, we have some motions to make. First, we have to amend the ordinance. Does anyone have any other questions? Councilmember Vallari.

Yeah, no, and thank you. I won't be very long. I am deeply distressed that the mental health specialist position was not restored in the budget. I hope that this body can have a real serious conversation about walking the walk on mental health. We give out a proclamation honoring mental health awareness, then we cut a mental health specialist, while at the same time funding two police officers a police sergeant.

And I think we can do both. I think that we are an expansive enough city that we can increase our officers on the beat, and we can provide services that actually help our officers stay healthier. I think that this was extremely shortsighted. I'm not quite sure. Maybe we can get to that point.

Maybe we can get to a budget amendment point as well on this, but this body needs to have a little bit of a reckoning on living our values. I think budgets are living values. I sat here going, Do I vote against the budget? Do I vote I'm gonna vote for it because I think it needs to function, but it is under extreme duress because I wanna live my values in my votes. And right now, without restoring that, I just can't do that. Thank you, madam mayor.

Thank you. Councilmember Shaw.

I want to echo the mayor and thank staff for all of your work with the budget. And I just wanted to highlight with the zero increase in property taxes, how important affordability is and housing stability, particularly with the zero property increase I mean, with the property rate the zero property rate increase. Thank you. Councilman Jackson.

Thank you, Mayor. So I just want to jump on the train and say thank you so much to staff. This year is my third budget, and this process has been even smoother than the past two. And I think that's a testament to your diligence in crafting something that really takes takes it apart bit by bit and that walks us through it so that we and the general public can, like, understand it, digest it, and really get to the the crux of of the matter. And also, the engagement that you have done was fantastic.

The survey, talking to people really does make a difference to our residents. They know that they can propose CIPs. They know that they can talk about services they need or services they like. And I would be remiss not to say that I really do appreciate you monitoring the economy and what's going on with the the state government and the county government and the federal government. And looking at that and making sure that, you know, we're protected, that if there is a downturn in the the economy that we noticed it and we're not playing catch up, which is a a really good thing to have.

So I just wanna say thank you to that. It's been a great process, at least for me. It's even better than before. And one thing that I would say, I left well, we left out one group that's a financial advisory board, and they do a great job in looking at the budget, communicating questions to you all, and we would be remiss not to give them a big thanks as well.

Thank you. Councilman Van Gruk. Have a feeling you're gonna hear more thank yous.

I know we've said a lot during all of our work sessions, but I also wanna echo staff phenomenal job to not To not have any increases to our property taxes and also make sure that we are getting the services at the high quality that we continue to do so, to make sure that we are making sure that our public safety personnel and our public safety organizations have what they need, and we're making sure that the capital projects, including new capital projects, are getting done well. This is a tremendous work by staff. And I know you incorporated a lot of the changes that we put forward in our work sessions in putting together what we have before in our in our agenda item. So I just want to express my sincere thanks for staff for a job phenomenally done.

Thank you, Councilmember Fulton.

I won't pass up an opportunity to fangirl the finance team. Excellent job. I've been involved in many budgets in my day in many different organizations. I am consistently impressed by how you all run this budget process. So thank you.

Thank you, doctor Miles.

Thank you, madam mayor. Thank you all. I've already made my comments known about mental health, the specialist, but I do take city staff at their work. We'll just get the data and see how things go. Certainly wanna make sure people have access, and if we can continue to do that, so be it. If not, then we can make adjustments as needed. Thank you all.

We all said thanks, and we we really mean it. We appreciate all of your hard work. I will say that I, too, was concerned about the mental health specialist. Actually, this weekend, someone went into a faith based institution who was not feeling stable, and a police member responded, did bring the person to psychiatric support. That situation turned out well, but I do know that what I'm hearing among our community is that people are feeling stressed, and mental health is really important, so I want to make sure this is a topic actively monitor.

Our police need mental health supports, and our community needs mental health support. Actually, we all need mental health supports. It's very stressful and trying times, and I want to make sure that our police have the resources that they need and the community to deescalate and get people to proper support. So this is something I do want us to continue to monitor. I am concerned. I've raised it, but I do support the overall budget. This one area that I have concern that I would like to keep monitoring. With that said, thank you to all of you. I want to just see if anyone is willing to make the motion. Councilmember Jackson.

Thank you, Mayor. I move to amend the ordinance to appropriate funds and levy taxes for fiscal year twenty twenty seven as modified.

Do we have a second? Councilmember Shaw seconds. All those in favor, please raise your hand and say aye. Aye. Excellent. Thank you. We need the motion to adopt the amended ordinance. Councilmember Van Grak.

Madam Mayor, I move to adopt the amended ordinance to appropriate funds and levy taxes for fiscal year 2027.

Do we have a second? Councilmember Fulton seconds. All those in favor, please raise your hand and say aye. Excellent. Thank you. It has passed. You have a budget. I know that will be posted. Can you just share information about when people can look at this glorious

document on this final form? We will have the adopted budget document posted no later than July 1.

Thank you. And I would be remiss if I say the county is still adopting their budget and the ground could shift and so we'll we'll continue to monitor their work through mid May to see how it impacts our budget. Thank you very much. Thank you to everyone who participated in our surveys as well as our CIP projects. Colleagues, I'm proposing we take a quick ten minute break just to allow us to be refreshed and go into a very hearty and important zoning ordinance rewrite discussion.

That work session is coming up next. Good evening, Rockville. Welcome back to meeting twelve-twenty six. Today is still 05/04/2026. We're now moving on to our agenda item focused on our 12A work session on Zoning Text Amendment Application TXT twenty twenty six-two 71 for zoning ordinance rewrite and map amendment Application Map twenty twenty six-one hundred twenty for the comprehensive MAP amendment, Mayor and Council of Rockville as applicants.

We're looking at Articles one through five of the Zohr General Provisions interpretation and measurement administration, development applications permits, procedures and zones and zoning map. I'd like to welcome back Holly Simmons, Deputy Zoning Manager at the Community Planning and Development Services as well as Jim Waselik and Evan Donson. Welcome.

Thank you so much. Good evening, madam mayor and members of the council. Again, as noted, we are back for our work session on the zoning ordinance rewrite this evening. So getting into our topics, we are going to go through, as the mayor said, articles one through five. I did wanna make a note before we get into things that you will see text that is in red, italics, bold, and that is reflective of direction that we have received previously from the mayor and council.

There's also black text as well. Those are changes that have been made also. So we'll go through the key changes from, again, the old ordinance to the new ordinance. And then we will have question and answer at the end. So we're going to go through articles one through five, pause for question and answer, and then get into next steps.

And I should note as well that we are also joined by our colleague, mister John Foreman. He is online with us, and he will be covering article four this evening. So first up is article one, general provisions. This article really lays out the legal framework and the general purposes of the zoning ordinance, kind of basic building blocks. So our key changes in the general provisions article is starts with eliminating the ability to waive comprehensive plan consistency findings.

This is something that our current ordinance contains. It's a waiver that is really never used, and we don't think that it's appropriate. Comprehensive plan consistency should be and is required for our approvals. It also removes regulations pertaining to vesting of zoning rights. This is something that's governed by state law and subject to change, so we have proposed to eliminate this from our ordinance to avoid repeating state law where possible and allow flexibility for state law to change.

This article also includes new transitional provisions, which we've discussed previously, most recently at our April 11 work session. It revises our zoning text amendment process to allow authorization to file a zoning text amendment by mayor and council only. Currently, our ordinance allows filing by any interested party, which we think is a little bit too broad. Interested parties should certainly have the ability to petition mayor and council to file a zoning text amendment. But understanding that there's quite a bit of staff time and resources, time before the planning commission, the mayor and council involved in the zoning text amendment, we did think that it's appropriate, for the mayor and council to have that authority.

And then also revises the annexation process described in the zoning ordinance to provide more detail and to better align with state law. You all may be aware that our annexation process is a little bit more robust than state law, but there are areas in our current ordinance that are inconsistent with state law. So we wanted to keep the process generally intact as is, but align it with state law where necessary. Moving into article two, our definitions, interpretation, and measurement. This article really, as defines many of the terms in the zoning ordinance.

It provides guidance on interpretation and then also instructions for calculating and measuring certain standards, particularly including things like height and setbacks and also outlines encroachments, which are exceptions from our height and setback requirements. So the first key change in this article is ensuring that all terms are properly defined and up to date. This is something that our current ordinance had some room for improvement. We discussed this with you all previously back in May 2025, I believe. It also simplifies, clarifies, and makes consistent our measurement standards.

For example, when it comes to height, building height is measured differently in different residential zones, and we thought it made the most sense to make that measurement requirement consistent from one zone to another. It all I'm sorry. Do we need to pause for a moment? Yeah.

Can we have more one more copy of this? This? Thank you.

Please proceed. Absolutely. Thank you. So the new draft also allows encroachments of covered unenclosed porches into the rear yard setback. This is something that we allow into the front yard.

Unenclosed porches can encroach a maximum of nine feet into the front yard, but that same allowance is not provided for the rear yards. We thought that does not make a ton of logical sense, so we've extended that encroachment into rear yards as well. And it also allows in kind replacement of existing nonconforming air conditioners and heat pumps in residential currently, if your air conditioner is projecting into a side yard setback, you don't meet that side yard setback, you are not allowed to replace that air conditioner in kind in its current location, which can be quite difficult when folks have their air conditioners go out in the July, and we're really looking for a fast process for them to be able to replace that. Currently, it's a little bit of an extended process, so we wanna correct that. Article three, administration.

So this article provides, general information on administration, including sections that deal with various approving authorities, entities like yourself, the Planning Commission, the Board of Appeals, etcetera, processes for appealing development decisions, applications and notification requirements, and processes for amending the zoning ordinance itself. So in this article, we have two main key changes. We're clearly identifying the appropriate appellate body for administrative decisions. Our ordinance currently deals with appeals from administrative decisions but not as clearly or comprehensively as we would like it to, so we've gone and filled gaps there. It also simplifies our provisions allowing extensions of plan and permit expiration.

So right now, various different plan and permit types have different expiration periods. We've gone through, though, and made those largely consistent across plan and permit types, generally allowing for two, one year extensions approved by the chief of zoning. There are certain exceptions to this. For example, our sign permits are treated a bit differently as our certificates of approval in historic district zones. And with that, coming up on article four, I will pass it over to my colleague, mister John Foreman.

Thank you, miss Simmons, and good evening, mayor and council. I wish I were there in person, but I wasn't able to be. So thank you for letting me attend remotely. If we could go to the next slide, please. So we have two slides this evening.

The first, as miss Simmons noted and as you can see from the red, these are items that mayor and council has, seen previously and provided direction on. Most of these items were associated with the fast two initiative to streamline processes and to improve transparency. As we discussed in those work sessions, these changes changes are really critical for economic development and to ensure that new housing and particularly affordable housing are built. The changes in the latest staff draft are consistent with that mayor and council direction and were supported by the planning commission. So I'll go through them.

The first notes that it the change allows applications to proceed from project plan to level one site plan. What this means is that once a mayor and council approves a project plan, currently, the project has to develop out through site plans that are level two that go to the planning commission. This change would allow the chief of zoning following the mayor and council's approval to administratively approve those site plans. There's no change to the mayor and council's approval authority under this change. The next item is to eliminate the pre application meeting process while retaining the post application area meeting.

We currently require two area meetings at the beginning of a project, and we found that these are redundant and not well attended, well attended. So we, have changed to combine those into one area meeting. The third change is to clarify within the points table, the residential area impact section. So what the points table is is a table that determines what type of approval process is required for a certain proposed development. This will determine whether it's a level one site plan approved by staff, a level two site plan approved by the planning commission, or for the largest projects, project plan approved by mayor and council.

The change would be the one element of that, which is the residential area impact. And, really, unlike the other changes, this is really not intended to change process. This is intended to

be a

clarification. We found that that as it's written now, it's very unclear and requires a a level of analysis to determine the residential area impact, and it's currently draft as it's a much simpler and more clear and transparent measure. And I'll note we evaluated prior cases and found that this would not have had an impact on the level of approval, but it would have been much easier to administer. Finally, the last bullet is to increase the number of projects eligible for level one site plan approval, which is chief of zoning instead of level two, which is planning commission. These are for certain residential type projects, smaller residential projects, as well as research and development uses in the MXE zone.

Again, there's no change to mayor and council's authority under this or any of the changes on this slide. Go to the next slide, please. Other changes in this article include, removing the planning commission review of special exceptions while retaining board of appeals as the approving authority for those. Currently, the planning commission provides a recommendation on consistency with the comprehensive plan. We find that the board of appeals is able to make this finding on their own and can do so in a much more streamlined manner than having this go to the planning commission and adding weeks or more to the approval process for these.

The next change is to clarify the threshold between a major amendment and a minor amendment. So for a site plan, the difference here is that a minor amendment is approved at the staff level, whereas a major amendment would go to the original approving authority. The issue is that the current language is very unclear and difficult to administer for applicants, staff, really everyone involved in the process. So this is a with the exception of the next bullet, the intent here is not to wholesale change with the main or major or minor amendment, but really to clarify which is which and to be more definitive about the the threshold. The exception to that is in the next bullet where currently for a change of use, where no other change on the site is occurring.

So this isn't only a change of the use of the property. No external construction. Those currently do require a minor site plan amendment. We found that there's really no value in going through that process. Staff's able to review for compliance with required elements at the time of building permit, and so there is a new provision that exempts changes of use from a site plan amendment. The next bullet is to create new permit categories for fences and small sheds. This I wanna be clear. This is not requiring a new permit or a new process. This is really codifying our current process. We found that the language in well, either the building code or the zoning code is very explicit about requiring a permit for fences and small sheds.

The city does require a permit for those. We historically have required permits for those. We intend to continue. This language really just clarifies that that permit is required through the zoning ordinance. And then finally, throughout the ordinance, we placed the ability to approve waivers and alternative compliance with the approving authority for application.

There are some provisions in the ordinance now that regardless of who approves the project, a certain body is tasked with being the approving authority for that waiver. For example, there are certain architectural elements that are exempt for from the height requirement under certain conditions. Those conditions can be waived, but only by the planning commission. So for example, if there were a project plan that were before the mayor and council, the mayor and council would not be able to approve that waiver because it's only eligible for approval from the planning commission. So it's a lot more clear just to allow the approving authority of an application to also approve waivers, for that application. And that concludes my section, and I'll hand it back to miss Simmons.

Thank you, mister Foreman. And finally, last but not least, article five, our zones and zoning map article. So this portion of the zoning ordinance establishes the city's zoning districts and our official zoning map and also includes processes for amending the zoning map. In this article, we do have three key changes. The first is to include a new table showing all of the zones and their abbreviations as well as their corresponding categories, so this is not really a substantive change.

This is something we already have in effect, but it is helpful for the reader to orient them with all of our zones in one location. This section clarifies that the historic district zone, the Lincoln Park Neighborhood Conservation District Zone, and the cluster development layer are overlay zones. Currently, these are either miscategorized or not identified as zones at all. So this is really cleanup to place them in their correct location, categorize them correctly, and then be able to apply them as such. And finally, it removes reference to our interim floating zones and associated floating zone map amendments, which were instituted, back in 2023, I believe, following our comprehensive plan.

The intent there was to bridge the gap between the recommend the recommended rezonings in the comp plan and this comprehensive map amendment that we are currently undergoing allowing a process for those zones to be applied in advance of the comprehensive map amendment. So because we are now updating our zoning ordinance and updating our zoning map, we've identified that those interim floating zones, that interim period has ended, they are no longer necessary. So with that, and before we get into any next steps, we did want to pause for questions. I know that was a fair amount of information, so we are happy to provide any additional that is necessary.

Thank you very much for the presentation. I know that there may be small nits or questions on line items. It's my understanding we will not be going through each one of those this evening, but we can email those to you all for inclusion. I just wanted to say that at the outset. There's a lot in here, and I want to thank you also for including the red line change in addition to the written piece.

I think that's really important for the public to see. Can we take this by the sections so that we can stay organized versus jumping all over? And there will be some general questions that we have as well. Okay. So we have the general provisions and definitions. I know we've heard from members of the public about just clarifying the way we include charts. I know we've seen the residential use chart and proposed by the College Garden Civic Association. How are you all taking some of that feedback from the community?

So we've introduced a number of new charts and tables into the ordinance along with graphics as well. The intention of both of those things really is to clarify our provisions, make the ordinance more user friendly, and generally just make it easier to maneuver. I do believe that the one comment that we've heard regarding kind of a comparison between what is in the ordinance and what what is in the old ordinance, what is in the new ordinance is something outside of what is actually within the text of the staff the revised staff draft of the ordinance itself.

Is that a heavy lift, or is that possible for the public to be able to track

those changes? I believe so I would say yes, it is possible. I would caveat that comparing the old use table to the new use table would be we would need to caveat it quite a bit, I believe. Something that you'll see in next week's work session is that our uses have changed quite a bit. We're updating them, we're modernizing them, so certain uses, archival records storage, duplicating surfaces, taxi cab stands, things of that nature are no longer being carried forward in our ordinance.

Other uses are re termed. And then we're also using our use permissions, which are permitted, conditional, special exception. The way that we're using them is slightly different, particularly when it comes to permitted and conditional uses. In the new ordinance, we have a number of permitted uses which have use standards associated with them, but because they're required in all zones, we've not called them conditional. And I will say also in our current ordinance, we have uses that have use standards associated with them, so our our current ordinance would technically consider them to be conditional, but they're they're contained in kind of an odd location or they're hidden a little bit, and so that's not reflected in the use table.

So all of that to say it is something that we could do, but it might not be as informative as our residents hope that it would be.

Okay. Thank you. And then the last question overarching that we got about this general piece is being able to understand differences between what is what we're introducing and what is state law. What is your thought there?

That is something that I would defer to our city attorney's office.

Sure. Happy to speak about that. So it it would depend to some extent on what the mayor and council was looking for. One of the things that's important to note about the way the land use article interacts with our zoning ordinance is that, generally speaking, the land use article sets out a framework under which we operate. But then all of the details are I shouldn't say all, but most of the details are really the local jurisdictions to flesh out.

So it's a long way of saying, you know, Planning Commission is required to approve record plats and take a role in in the development of comprehensive plans. Comprehensive plans have to contain certain information, for example. But the details of our zones, you know, where they're located and and what they include is entirely up to the local jurisdiction. So it's a long way of saying, although there are certain specific requirements that this new zoning ordinance does reflect, like, for example, the Housing Expansion and Affordability Act requirements that allow for certain bonus density, for the most part, it's safe to say that state law provides the skeleton, and you all really flesh out that skeleton. So it would be a little bit challenging to go kind of section by section and identify, you know, this comes from state law or this does not.

It all, to some extent, derives from state law, but for the most part, the details come from you. But again, I'd happy to provide more information depending on the question the mayor and council has.

Excellent. I think when we get into the map section, that will have things like the state is now allowing certain types of housing by metro. They are allowing certain types of housing by faith based institutions. So I'm not sure if people would be able to track that by reading the current draft. Or what would you suggest that they do?

Well, do think we could probably put together some amount of information that explains how we have reflected the Housing Expansion and Affordability Act into the code. Because you're right, Madame Mayor, it is integrated it's not all integrated in one section. There's not a Housing Expansion and Affordability Act section. It's done in a variety of ways. We could provide more information on that, certainly.

That might be helpful. The Engage Rockville has a page with a list of links just to say state law expansions or something like that, just so the public is aware. I'm going to see before we go into these charts, we're going to go down the line. Does anyone else have any broad questions before we go through these sections? Okay. Doctor. Myles, would you like to

speak I have no questions at the current moment.

Thank you. Councilwoman Fulton. Also no questions right now. Thanks. Councilwoman Valery.

Yes, hi. So I had just a question because it kind of connected. I'm just wondering if we were kind of coordinated in our approach in changing the annexation process. I did notice that the fee changed. So were there significant barriers previously that we were trying to correct for? Because I I kinda wanted to get a little better sense if if that's what what's holding us back previously, that we really needed to make those changes.

I think I know the answer, but I'm gonna try it and then see. We did not significantly change the way we're going to do the annexation process to where we had it before. I think we've added some clarity in the zoning ordinance rewrite, but those clarity changes didn't involve additional work, which would result in higher fees as if I'm if I'm understanding your train of thought. Mhmm. I just think it's been cleaned up. I think it's easier to understand our annexation process, but it didn't generate additional work additional requirements would which would relate a higher fee.

Yeah. And, actually, the fee was significantly reduced. So previously, the fee was, like, 10 k plus, and now it's about $400 $500 I was just trying to see if there was a direct connection. We are correcting for things that were previously hurdles to the annexation process. That was my only question.

Thank you. Question, just if you could expand on the removing regulations pertaining to vesting. I know that you mentioned that was because state law covers that. How would I'm just sensitive to people who say, have got to look at like a million documents to figure out what I need to do. How do we make this easy for people to understand what they need to do?

So I'll start, and I believe Mr. Dume will clean up after me. I would say this is likely so this is likely an area that folks are not going to need to look at frequently for to to, like, understand our processes or something of that nature. It's really dealing with, your ability to develop with your current approvals. And this is something currently state law addresses.

I believe our ordinance right now is a little bit inconsistent with it. We've also seen additional changes, even since we began rewriting our zoning ordinance. So understanding that this is something that really state law does govern, and they govern it comprehensively, we did want to just remove it from our ordinance to ensure that there is consistency there. And, mister Dumay, I'm assuming you may have things to add, so please feel free.

I do not. You described that very well. I'm happy to answer any questions, but I think that's a good description.

Thank you. And can you just share more information about the transitional provisions?

Certainly. So the transitional provisions, we looked at in some detail on April 13. These are the provisions that would govern our current applications, which are in process now. If you have a project plan, a site plan, it's under review. It's headed toward approval, but it's not there yet.

This would allow for the applicant to proceed under our current ordinance even after the adoption of the new ordinance. So, certainly, anyone who wanted to transition over to the new ordinance, we would enable that as well. I think we do anticipate that some applications may want to go that direction. Perhaps the process is more favorable to them, the standards that we have in the ordinance. So but if there are applicants that want to proceed under the current ordinance, which we we may have some of those as well, it would enable them to do so.

Thank you. And I know last time we met, we talked about, I think it was a two year period. Is that relate to this section?

Yes. That is correct.

Okay. If you also I'm fine with it, and I appreciate the changes in the Planning Commission's recommendations. The only thing that that gives me pause is our economy is in such a state of flux with issues related to increased cost pressures on everything from gas to figuring out tariffs. And there are some people who are in a state of, I'm not sure yet. And so that's the only thing that's given me pause. It's like, how do we recognize where we are in our society in terms of people being able to move on projects? Because mostly, all those things affect financing and their ability to get things done. So that's something I was just trying to figure out. How are you considering that issue?

I I might take a swing at that one. It I think we are in some unprecedented times. Other places like them, when we've done an update like this, a two year period seemed perfectly reasonable and actually maybe even generous. But with our economy the way it is, I think once we get up to that two year period, we should report back and just see if that needs to be extended even more.

And just because we there may be changes, how do we send a note to ourself to make sure that we check back? Because I do think it's worth it. I think that there are people who maybe there are projects that are shifting timelines because of I was listening to The Wall Street Journal and other projects and also talking to some folks even focused on affordable housing. And the cost of everything is really impacting the bigger picture of what what they can get done. So Yeah.

I think we've been pretty good when we're making these types of big changes to programs, policies, etcetera, over the past couple years to say, you know, we're gonna come back in a year, come back in two years, and let you know how it's working. We can do that. If if this is indeed adopted on June 29, then we'll make a note. Two years actually, before that, probably a year and a half, we'll come back and let you know how it's working.

Okay. That will be very helpful. Thank you for flagging that. And then I know we're revising the ZTA process, and it makes sense that we'll come to mayor and council. You are clarifying a petition process. Correct? So people know how to ask us.

That is something we certainly can do.

Is that something we can put as a follow-up? I think just so that we know the process is clear as to how to it's not just pulling us over at an event. Yes. Understood. Process that everyone knows how to follow. I think that would be very helpful. Okay. Thank you. Councilman Jackson.

No. No questions.

Councilman Bershaw. No questions. Councilman Van Graig.

Thank you. Just a couple of general questions with regard to the annexation process. So first, I noticed that we're putting it here at the front as opposed to into some of the other sections where we're essentially assigning zoning. Is there a rationale to have it at this earlier part as opposed to coordinating with some of the other sections?

I I would be almost embarrassed to say perhaps how long we spend reorganizing this ordinance. So there certainly there certainly is a rationale there. We went through pretty much every section, subsections within sections, reorganizing them to get get us from twenty one twenty one articles down to 13 where we think that things are in, locations where you would really look for them, whereas some things now are a little bit hidden. I don't remember the specific rationale for this. Perhaps Mr. Doumet does, and if not, I will say that there was one.

Yeah, I think I'm also digging deep into my memory to try to remember why we did that. I think generally we considered, you know, Division I was intended or Article I, excuse me, was intended to include kind of the basic information, the general information about the zoning ordinance, and also things that were sort of outside of the normal course, whether it was a change to the text of the zoning ordinance or addition of new new elements to the city. You know, there is a need for for a map amendment and and the placement of annexed property within a particular zone, which would occur as part of the zoning map amendment process later. But I think, honestly, it was probably this is this was sort of our catchall article.

Okay. Great. So the next question I have is, first of all, fantastic job. I think this really lays it out significantly smoother than what is previously. But one question I did have with regard to some of the mechanics.

I mean, it lays it out pretty clearly some of the and using the codes musts and shalls with regard to the process because there are certain requirements. Was there any thought to actually putting because there are some time limits within here and in other parts. And there's specifically a time limit when we're talking about thirty days before the public hearing with the notification. Was there any thought to putting some time limits to some of the other preliminary requirements or musts to the point where an annexation might get bogged down and could be just sitting in an area or on the planning commission's desk or somewhere else that could allow someone to essentially halt the process if they disagreed with it knowing that there's a requirement of a must or shall in that step.

So councilmember Van Grak, I think that's actually a a good point and something we could certainly look at. For example, the decision to have the planning commission craft an annexation plan is something that isn't specifically required by state law and, of course, also could result in a situation where there is a is a delay. I think that would be a good opportunity or a good place to to put in a time limit of some sort. And I think we just have to look at the provisions to see if there are other places. But I think that that would probably be a good change that we could make.

Gotcha. That was only a substantive issue I had with the first article. So thanks.

Article one down. Let's go to Article two. Councilmember Fulton.

I again don't have anything to start with. Thanks.

Councilmember Villarreal.

So thank you. And I guess I'll do my thank you all. You're all absolutely awesome for trying to organize all of this, and this is very clear to me. And thank you for the red line draft as well. I looked at that quite a bit, mostly because I don't have a good memory.

So I think I brought this up in a previous work session, but none of the residential high density zones allow for mixed use, correct? Because this was in regards to when we were talking about the area around Montrose and whether or not making developments like that even more attractive by allowing even a limited first level retail option.

That is generally correct regarding the residential high density zone. I can check to confirm my suspicion. I believe there is an incredibly limited amount of retail which is allowed in the residential high density zone, but I don't believe it is permitted to have access from the exterior of the building.

Okay. Because that would be my only issue to raise, just generally, in any of these residential high density areas. Again, you could limit the amount of retail, right? And I'm saying this because you all know I love coffee wouldn't it be cool to have your own little local coffee shop? Because if you have a building that has a high level of residence, or you are surrounded by a broader neighborhood, I think it does something for community cohesion as well as giving an opportunity for residents to come together in a way that is not very prescriptive.

That would be my only not a quibble, my only feedback really is that maybe we need to think a little bit as a body more creatively around while we do have that specific reason for these high density zones, I think that having that kind of flexibility for something that is practical in a way, right? I think that that makes sense. So thank you for that. My last question is on if there are any sort of definitions that are ambiguous, not by the drafting of it, but just as people have identified, who resolves those ambiguous definitions? Would that be the Chief of Zoning?

Would that be the Board of Appeals? Who? Is it all of the above?

So we're talking about once the ordinance is adopted, if there's a yes, it would be at this point in time the Chief of Zoning, and that is included in the interpretations section.

No. That's great. Thank you so much.

Thank you. I have a question about champion projects that's in the definitions. It's limited to South Pike, and I was just curious what if we were to have more champion projects in the city? Have you given any thought to that? Is that something that we should encourage? It's very, very limited, and I just you know, there may be amalgamation given what we're trying to do in town center. I just wanted to call that out specifically because it hasn't it was described in the in the, you know, 2016 Rockville Pike neighborhood Neighborhood Plan, it was essential for the Twinbrook Quarter project. So I just wanted to raise that specifically.

So you're absolutely correct. Champion projects are something that derive directly from the 16 Rockville Rockville Pike neighborhood plan, and were applied from there to the South Pike area. I don't believe that there's anything that would prohibit us from expanding them further throughout the city. However, if there are considerations there that I am not thinking of in this moment, would certainly defer to my colleagues, mister Wozilek and mister Dumay, for further thoughts.

I wonder if we could talk to your team and Ready between Planning and Ready to come together to talk about this issue. I know we're talking about Rockville Pike as a broader area in terms of our efforts to try to do that, but also specifically looking at Rockville Town Center as well. I think it's worth a refresh on this to see how we might be more inclusive and get our goals done. But I think it's important not to just leave that section as is.

I think that's a point really well taken. And I would say the my only thought there is just considering whether I think we probably would need a little bit more time to understand whether this is something that could be accomplished through the zoning ordinance rewrite, particularly in our timeline, or if this is something that should be considered more fully through the update to the Rockville Pike neighborhood plan. But I think it's you know, the point is well taken.

Yeah. I would also look at it could be town center. Right? Think about what's going at Wamada and surrounding properties. So I I do think that I it's a very good point that the Rockville pipeline is somewhere we can look at it, but I also think that we need to look at Rockville Town Center.

So I don't want to I want you guys to put your minds together to figure out what you think is best and how you can advise us on this because I don't wanna put you on the spot right now. But just to note that this is something we should look at and consider how do we not tackle, but how do we consider and strategize around this, if that's okay. Okay. The other piece for this article, there were discussions on density in section 25 on the initial draft. And I was just curious to see, again, things that are going on on a macro level that impact us.

FEMA came in and did floodplain maps back in February 2025. How is that impacting Rockville and and in terms of how you're looking at density where where you can build?

So when it comes to density, and this is this is a little bit this maybe a little bit too much detail, but our in the original staff draft, we retained the way that we conceptualized density in terms of, like, the the defined terms, and we actually didn't define density. Instead, we defined usable lot area, which based on some of the comments of our development community, we looked at it and we thought, you know what? This actually is density. What we're describing here is density. So in the revised staff draft, we did change that a bit, eliminating the usable lot area term to be density.

And in that section, in density, it does specifically deduct out the gross area of the site that is 100 flood plains. So that is that is rather typical, and it is something that we did not propose to change. Certainly, it would impact the area of a site and density calculations if there are flood plains on the site.

I raise it because and thank you. That was a fantastic explanation. I raise it because I know that there's some projects where we've been looking at housing and just hearing what's going on in the county where people have a plan and they're like, oh, shoot. Now we're in the floodplain map. And it's like there's so many things that we can and can't do, and it's like the project is scrapped or we have to revision the whole thing.

And there were just so many rules on other areas that we had that were like, okay. Can we get around the floodplain and make sure that we're keeping people safe and not building on it? But we might have to make adjustments in other areas. I'm just thinking about how do we make sure that that we are operating with a new reality so that we're making sure that homes are safe and not a situation where we're putting people at risk and adjusting so that we can make sure that housing can happen in a safe way. So that if that makes any sense.

I just that's something I think that we need to look at because because this is new for us. And I'm thinking of some specific things that I've heard in the community that has been, we can't build here because of this flood plain, but now we can't do anything over here because of this other role. So have we looked in totality of the impact on Rockville and how we may need to adjust our definitions and our other zoning requirements?

So I think it's I'm glad you're asking this follow-up question because I think there are two things at play. One is the calculation of density, and the other is where development can be located on a lot. So if I am not mistaken, we would not permit development within a nontidal floodplain. However, that density, any density actually, I guess you wouldn't you wouldn't calculate the density off of that either, But the dwellings would not be allowed in the flood plain. So I I don't know if that

Yeah.

We don't want

we don't want houses in places that are gonna caught that are gonna get flooded. We've seen that happen in other parts of the country. But I'm thinking of, like, some areas along Research Boulevard, for example, that, you know, have now come into the flood plain map. Do we have are we adaptable enough to think about, you know, how do we get projects projects done given that we have more floodplains in the community? And maybe we can come back to that.

But I just it's something I'm thinking about holistically is how we're thinking big picture given that we need to take extra precaution for safety. Okay. Would this section also cover the signage pieces I saw in your we had a little bit of discussion about that, but I think it's section 25 exempt certain uses and signage types. Where did you guys net out on that? Is something you're gonna bring back to us later to discuss more fully?

Yes. That will be covered in the work session on May 18. Okay. Yeah. Sounds good.

Council member Jackson.

No questions.

Council member Shah. Councilmember Van Prak.

So my only substantive comment here, deals a little bit with what the mayor said, and that's because, section 25, I think it's two two five on the e definitions, talks about electronic signage. And just I think that we were a little bit broader than what you have there, so just something to go back to the previous discussion. So I mean, we don't need to go over it again, but just take a look. I think we're a little bit broader. That's it.

Thank you very much. So now we're moving on to article three. Councilman Valeri. Article three.

I love article three. Sorry, I was also reviewing my map. Okay. So I really like the inclusion of more detail on how to appeal the administrative decisions. I think any clarification there is just a net positive for accountability, so I really like that part.

I'm curious and absolutely zero shade on the current chief of zoning. But I was looking at the draft proposal basically that the chief of zoning could extend most development approvals up to two times by two years each time. For, quote, good cause shown, I'm always concerned about that phrase and kind what is the Gakkam standard. Maybe this is for Mr. Demet as well.

And I guess the other point attached to that is then is there any public notification when an extension is granted.

Just to speak to the first part of the question, I do understand kind of the general concern about good cause, good cause shown, other good cause. It is quite squishy, but I think in this instance, that's something that we really were looking to have, a certain amount of flexibility there, just understanding kind of to the mayor's point earlier that we don't necessarily know, what market conditions are going to be, whether projects are moving forward. So if there is some form of good cause without over defining or predetermining what that might be, we thought that it would make sense to extend approvals that have already been granted. When it comes to notice, I actually I don't know offhand exactly how that would play out for extensions. Perhaps mister Dumay can recall.

I also would need to to check the code to see whether notice would be required. But just maybe I can provide a little bit more context on good cause while Ms. Simmons takes a quick look at it and see if she can find it. Just to give you additional clarity, I agree with everything Ms. Simmons said.

But in addition, I mean, from a legal perspective, we purposely put good cause in there as effectively, like, the standard immediately above no reason at all. And so what the good cause standard means is that there needs to be sort of a written justification and a decision that is rendered. It can't be for no reason at all. But if it were to go to court, for example, any justification that was in writing that would be reasonable, that a reasonable person could rely sufficient. I think, you know, from a legal perspective, that's certainly adequate, and I think it accomplishes the goal that staff wanted, which is to make this as expedited a process as possible.

Yeah. That that makes sense, and thank you for that. And, you know, if maybe we don't have that notification process, maybe it's just even something as simple as making it accessible or post it on our website, we might not have the requirement. But I think any sort of engaging people more and being as transparent as possible I think could do a lot of good to engendering goodwill. And thank you, Mr.

Domingue. That is by far the best explanation of that term that I have gotten to date. Thank you. That makes a lot more sense in this circumstance. Thank you.

Apologize. I had one other question about solar canopies in the previous section. Is it okay if I ask a question? Just to note that solar canopies, there's a lot of rules around permanent canopies. And I think you put at forty and fifty feet.

I don't know what the right number is, but I just want to make sure that we are not being so restrictive that we're not going to get what a typical parking lot would allow for. So I'm concerned about some of the 50 feet pieces if we're starting to see people wanting to do that within their businesses. So and even the city as well. So I I I would I just would like some information about that distance and what is appropriate, what is best practice in other places. With going green in mind, given electricity costs, I just want to be mindful of that.

I apologize for going back to that. In terms of this article, broad questions on I know we as a body had a very thorough discussion about the approval processes and what goes where. But in general, the changes we've made, how much faster is it going to make multifamily or new biotech business? What are we talking about here in terms of what are we gaining? We're moving from x time to x time, generally speaking. I know this is project dependent, but what have we achieved here?

I would say, general it seems like we might have shifted into article four territory a

little bit.

Okay. Alright. That's

perfectly fine with me. I would defer to mister Foreman who's

on the line.

Mhmm.

Working in deed on article four.

Thank you, miss Simmons. Would you like me to answer that now?

I'm gonna hold. I'm gonna follow the rules. The other piece is the extension on permits. So this makes a lot of sense given the market conditions. The other thing is that we've also seen residential as well as commercial commercial residential where projects are just taking way longer.

They're sitting there unfinished. How do we reconcile that with this? Because I feel like you can't have a building that, you know, the the public right of way is not has been closed for way longer than it should be. And or I've seen in the past, like, a roof that had a tarp on it for two and three years in some parts of the city. So can you help us reconcile how do we be understanding and and consider market conditions, but also, like, not just allow people to leave projects half finished?

This is another one where I will probably start the answer and then defer to colleagues. I think when we're talking about the project approvals that would be subject to these extensions, we're really talking about things that have been approved but are not yet under construction, things where we have an approval in place, it's set to expire. So I wanna set that to one side. Then for projects that are under construction, I actually think and this is this is something that we have on our list of things to go back and assess their impact to the city and our development processes. The Maryland Certainty Act, was passed, in this legislative session, may have some impact on that.

And, mister Dumay, I don't know if that is if that is accurate to reference at this point in time or if you have any thoughts there.

No. I'll just say, you know, putting aside the legislation that was adopted this session because we do wanna spend a little bit more time digging into that and understanding the way it would affect our zoning ordinance. Madam Mayor, you did raise a good second point to the explanation I gave about good cause. Another benefit of having that standard is, to your concern about, you know, what if you have a tarp on a property and it's derelict and it's clearly not moving forward. The chief of zoning is not, as this is written, ever obligated to grant an extension.

And so just because the applicant believes that good cause has been demonstrated for an extension does not mean that the chief of zoning is obligated to grant the extension. The chief of zoning would just need some sort of a substantial reason for denying it, one of which might be, for example, the fact that the project clearly is not moving forward, the extension is not likely to result in the project reaching completion.

Thank you very much. And we have to also think about what is how can we get someone to move that's not moving? And I don't know if that's covered here, but that may be another section to consider. The Section twenty five three dash one five eight one memorialized chief of zoning to update duty to update the development review manual. Who's currently charged with doing that? That is currently the chief of zoning.

It is just not memorialized within our city code. So that is something it's not a process change. It's not an approval change. It's just stating it clearly in code that that is one of his authorities that he already has.

And what does it say in the current code of who does that?

Currently, it's silent.

It's silent. Okay. Thank you for thinking that through and adding that. And then section division three two general general application provisions. It says eliminate notification procedures. Can you just give some background on that? I think you may is it because it's covered in another section?

I actually I need to pull this is in the revisions revisions document that we're talking about right now.

Is that correct? At article three administration division three two general application provisions section twenty five three two one.

So that is something I will have to look up and come back.

No problem. No problem at all. And for the notice requirements for Division 3.3, where you put make sign inspection and repair replacement requirements explicit versus implied, can you provide more background background on on that? That?

I am so sorry. I need to pull up that document.

No worries. I will let you come back. No. I don't wanna put you on the spot. I appreciate. I know there's a lot of elements to this. Council member Jackson.

No questions.

Okay. Councilmember Shah. No questions. Councilmember Van Graig.

So just one question with regard to kind of the appeal section, which significantly more clear than the previous version. So fantastic job. But I have one question that I wanna kind of juxtapose the way the appeals are here with article four, which I'll get to when we get to article four because it's more appropriate. But the one question I had here is dealing with the timing and the notices. Because correct me if I'm wrong, under this section, we're putting the timing upon the letter and the date of the letter.

Yet the question is, how are we sending it? Because if we're sending it by mail, we could preclude the ability. I know in title seven, when we're talking about the appeals to the court with an administrative agency, which I think this couches at, it would be based on the sending of the letter and some of the other actions. So I guess that last the last point on the appellate section, we're just saying the date of the letter without any necessarily insurance that it's being sent or upon receipt when we're talking about timing. Is that did was there a discussion of that?

Is there something we can essentially maybe amend that to give more ability? Because I can tell you personally, there have been significant situations where things one, I know that sometimes if a decision is made, like Friday at five, it might not go in the mail till Monday or Tuesday. Similarly, we've got issues with the mail where sometimes it takes a week or two. And if it's taking two weeks and there's a thirty day time limit, we've just precluded two weeks of it. So is that something that was thought of or something we might be able to amend to be able to clarify, one, to make it more closely aligned with Title VII they're going to court, but two, internally, to make sure that we're not precluding someone's rights?

Sure. So when it comes to our internal appeal deadline, the mayor and council can certainly modify that. It could make it from the date of transmittal. It could make it from the date of receipt. One concern that I would have would be with extending the or or rather beginning the thirty day appeal period from the date of receipt.

As I'm I'm sure the mayor and council can appreciate, you know, the date of receipt may vary for a variety of individuals. Unless we're doing certified mailing, it's very difficult for us to determine that period of time. I think the intention was to make sure that it was in compliance with with the Maryland rules. And so I'm looking at the Maryland rules right now because I want to make sure I'm I'm remembering this correctly.

Because it's in Title VII when they're talking about the like, are you talking about a 7203A2? Correct. When we're talking about sending of the notice? Correct. Exactly.

Yeah. And so I think that we could very easily make that change. I'm sure that staff generally wants to send it more or less as soon as it's dated. But I think, again, accounts members made a very good point. Sometimes there's a delay. So I think we could very easily make that change.

Yeah. I think mirroring it to 7.2030.02 is exact it strikes the balance that not makes it too onerous, but ensures that we're making sure and there's a record of it because there's a date stamp, there's a record of it as opposed to whether it's sitting on someone's desk or, alternatively, with receipt, when was it received? Because I'm assuming these are probably going first class mail.

That's correct.

Perfect. And also, I think that aligns because in that last section where we're talking about appeals, we're talking about the administrating the I want to get the exact phrasing right. When we're talking about the approving authority, that could be the final one that triggers Title VII, in which case we got to make sure that we're tracking with the rules in Title VII, which is talking about A2. Yes,

Perfect. We can make that Thanks.

Going back down the line, council members, I see you're good? Council Member Fulton.

I do have one question. Thanks. And I apologize for not raising this probably at some point earlier. When I was going back through and reading just the very beginning, when we're setting out the different approving authorities, I noticed a difference between so for the Planning Commission, the qualification is resident. For the Board of Appeals, the only qualification is resident. For the historic district commission, there's, like, education requirements and expertise determinations. Is there a you guys are nodding. There's a reason for that, where there's such a difference between the three?

Yes, councilmember. There are education requirements in state law. If you give me just a second, I can find those for you. But I believe that and, again, this has been a little while, but I believe that all of the educational requirements that we include in our code are mandated by state law. We can double check that and make sure that that's the case, but I don't believe we're adding anything extraneous.

I would have assumed it derived from state. It it does make me wonder, like so the state concluded that there's also rules on planning commissions and the like. Like, so there's a state determination that there's specific requirements for historic district commission. I guess we just follow the state and decide that they're the only seems to me that the Planning Commission and the Board of Appeals have equally significant and important roles, and it's odd to have a different requirement for one by it than the other three. But I I'm not advocating that we do. It's just an odd difference. Did you have

I just had something to add to that. The Planning Commission and Board of Appeals are required to pass an education course that the state of Maryland puts out. So everyone who is appointed to those positions has kind of a base level of knowledge. So the HDC does not have such a requirement.

That's incredibly helpful. Is that here? Like, where is that requirement? That's state two? But but but it's not reflected here.

Correct.

Okay. That's helpful. Thank you. Probably.

To council member Fulton's point, should it be? If it's a state requirement and we're putting it in one section, why not just be consistent?

We don't have the OMA stuff in there, though.

Just think about it and let us know what you think.

Yeah. We'll take a

look. I have one small question in this article about sheds. Is that appropriate to raise now? There's a discussion on small sheds.

So we will so the substance of accessory buildings and structures is something we will address in next week's Okay.

Work session. Just to give you a preview, I was confirmed with my colleagues. I recall when back around 2023, we were told that we were reducing our requirements for small sheds to be more reasonable because people were having to produce ridiculous amounts of burdensome documentation for, like, a manufactured shed that they bought on Amazon or Home Depot. So but I I can't tell that we've made those changes here. So I just wanted to see if I know that some folks are newer from when that happened, and I just wanted to see, are we being consistent with what we intended in 2023? And if you could circle back with us.

I would say yes because the building code does not require I mean, building permit is not required for those types of structures. They are reviewed only for zoning compliance, make sure it worked with them in the correct location. But in terms of documenting what might be required structurally for those types of permits, that's not required anymore.

Okay. I was just speaking to the create new permit categories for fences in small sheds and wanting to better understand that, making sure we're not going back to the more onerous process.

Right. So that's correct. We're not. Really, what we're doing is filling a gap here. We currently, as Mr. Foreman mentioned, require a permit for a shed and for a fence, but there's no, there's nothing codified in our ordinance now that actually has kind of, like, lays out the framework and the requirement. So, it's really just a hole that we need to fill. I will say if we're looking back at 2023, it's possible that we're talking about a zoning text amendment, that was passed. Didn't we update the setbacks for accessory structures in 2023?

We did, but I think the issue is kind of the permitting aspect of

Yeah. Making that Exactly. And I'll I'll just say I did hear from a resident in the past two weeks, like, what is why does it take so much work to get a permit for my shed? So something's not quite fixed, but I'd like to learn more later. Thank you. Okay. Any other questions on this article?

If I may add in reference to your questions earlier, madam mayor, so about section twenty five three two one where our revisions document says that we've corrected the general application requirements division applicability to accurately reflect the contents of the division. I think that's what you were referencing We're we eliminated notification procedures. That is literally just deleting the words and notification procedures because it incorrectly identified that that division addressed notification procedures. It's actually addressed in the next division. So we said, okay.

We need to clean this up because it actually doesn't pertain to notification pro procedures at all. So we're not deleting the notification procedures from the ordinance, just those words from that

Okay. And in other places in the old version, we have, like, sent something out with a bird in the paper. Like, I just I'm being facetious, but, like, are have we updated our times with, like, our notification procedures? The time oh, I'm sorry. Not time specifically, but, like, our processes. Like, we're not saying, like, it must be in a printed newspaper. I just wanna make sure that we look at that in totality to update with the times of electronic media and other things that go beyond to put something in one paper.

I'm sorry.

And I would say we've we've updated them to the degree that we can. One thing about the newspaper advertising, that's actually a state requirement. So so they changed that. And that's only for public hearings, formal public hearings in front of the mayor and council. We don't require newspaper notice for site plans that go to the Planning Commission, etcetera. But we have added some things in terms of electronic notice and how we can accomplish that.

Right. I think it's just like where we only say you have to do a newspaper, are we thinking about the more expansive ways we communicate in our world today? And just taking a look at that beyond the basic requirements of did you put an eight font ad in that newspaper?

I think we can probably add some things into the development review manual as well that may not necessarily be a requirement, but certainly would be recommended.

Yeah. I I just wanna make sure that we're updating for our times. That was something that's come through in a couple sections all over our city legal documents in terms of what were required for notification. I think the body has been really trying to be much more robust in our communications. All right.

So Section four, I know I started to ask some questions about this. Do you wanna answer now?

Is Madame, would you mind Mhmm.

You know, would you mind just repeating the question for me so I I'm making sure to answer it correctly?

It's the same as I mentioned before. Not no no addition. He just need

So if

you can hear me, can you all hear me okay?

Yes. Mhmm.

Okay. Great. So I understood correctly. I think the question was to give an estimate of the time savings for the the streamlining, how much time would that save a project for, like, a multifamily project, for example, something along those lines.

Yeah. So we've made some changes to, you know, streamline processes. What I'm trying to understand is what are we achieving in terms of total time? Because time is money. Time impacts small businesses, large businesses, residents. What are we achieving in terms of the streamlining? Is it that we've moved from a project taking two years to one year, a project taking eighteen months to six? Just if you can give us a sense of what we're achieving.

Yes. Absolutely. Thank you for the question. As you said earlier, the it's very project dependent, and so, you know, it can really vary from project to project. What we have done is looked at historical averages for certain types of, projects.

And so we've looked at, for example, a level two site plan approved by the planning commission generally takes on average around seven months. We don't actually do enough level ones to really look at them as a comparable. But for site plans that are subject to staff approval like minor amendments, those take on average under four. So it's a difference of about three months between staff approving a site plan and the planning commission approving a site plan. That's, again, not to say that every project's gonna realize that or, you know, have almost a 50% reduction in time, but that's an example of the the type of reduction that we're looking for.

We also looked at overall approval time frames, and we're finding that for the project plan, it was taking a year and a half on average for projects to be approved, which is way too long. Honestly, it's too long for a project like that. So we looked at the project overall and and evaluated how fast could somebody approve get approved. So how fast could this be approved? Not to say that an applicant will be able to to do that or would be would do that, but in theory, it could be done in six months.

It's a it's an achievable thing now where it wasn't before because of the steps that were identified and the meetings that were required where now we streamline that. So, again, these are these are hypotheticals, but they are meaningful time differences, and these things really do add up.

Thank you. And as you're making these changes to our zone zoning code, you're are you adjusting or maintaining review times? So do you think because staff has taken on more that you're gonna increase your review times, or we're really gonna be able to stick with our current times or better?

We are always looking at our review time frames in terms of how are we doing with meeting them and what are our staffing levels relative to that. Are we able to meet the review time frames? I'll say we have no intention right now of raising any review time frames because of these changes. That would really be counterproductive to have administrative approvals. But a longer review time frame, you end up in more or less the same place.

That's that's not the intention. So what I would say is that we're currently not looking at expanding extending the staff review time frames. We're actually focusing on how we can what we can do internally to further streamline and and to meet the time frames at a higher percentage. So so to answer your question, no. We're not looking at extending the staff review time frames.

Okay. That is very helpful. I think the intent of all this with mayor and council is to try to streamline and make things more effective and efficient. And then my final two questions is we also want to make sure that we are protecting our residents. And so if you could speak to the PAM process and how we're still gonna make sure we collect resident feedback, and I say PAM pre application process, and how we collect community feedback. Can you just explain that to the listening public?

Yes. I can speak to that. So the same notification that's currently required will continue to be required. So the mailed notification will go out. There was a question about this this earlier. We already do a variety of electronic notification above and beyond the code requirement or even anything in the development review manual. We will continue those processes and actually expand those both posting things online, in terms of meetings, requiring developers to post signs. All those things will be maintained in the new code. I'll actually be speaking with you in a little more detail in a future meeting on the fast two initiative to go into some depth on some of these things, but there's a variety of electronic notifications. Some of them even implemented fairly recently.

So those will all still occur. We will also still have a post application area meeting, which is at the very beginning of the process. When we receive an application before we review and issue comments on it, the area meeting has to occur, and the applicant has to hold that meeting after all those notifications have gone out. So the the community will still have that early heads up about the project and ability to provide feedback both directly to the applicant right there at that meeting, with staff listening. So all those things still exist.

It just happens once instead of twice because, as I said, we were finding that there was only repeat, repeat, visitors to these meetings, and they the the two meetings just weren't necessary. But we're basically feel like we're still accomplishing all the intents of the meeting, which is the one meeting.

Thank you. And I did find the section article for division 4.1, section two two five four one one that speaks to the newspaper notice. It does just say newspaper notice. And so that's the section I'm speaking of is can we be a little bit more clear that that is not really up to date. I know it's a state law requirement, but I think we require more of ourselves in terms of notice. And I wonder if we can update that section to be more expansive.

Madam Mayor, if I could just speak to that for one second, just from a legal perspective. Mr. Waselek's suggestion about putting additional noticing requirements in the development review manual is a really good one because it encourages staff to do that without actually imposing a legal obligation on the city to do it. One of the concerns that I would have in exceeding the state mandated notice requirements in our own code is that it could and I'm just advising you of this, of course, you could decide It to do makes sense. It could result in decisions being rendered invalid if we meet state requirements but we fail to meet our own internal noticing requirements.

And because the state requirements typically apply to some of the legislative actions on the part of the mayor and council, as your attorney, I would just want to make sure you're aware that imposing these additional requirements could moderately, anyway, raise the legal risk that you could invalidate the decision if, for example, additional email notification didn't go out. So it's a long way of saying I think there's a way for staff to do it without actually making it a legal obligation.

That's fair. Where can Marion Council access a development review manual?

I believe it's available online, and I know staff can give you more information on that.

And that's the old one. You haven't updated it. You haven't made any updates yet.

That's correct. Yeah, we wouldn't want to update the development review manual until after the zoning ordinance was adopted.

Okay. But will you be able to flag to us when it's updated so that we can look at it? Okay. Because I know we take a lens from equity and looking at underrepresented audiences, and just we wanna make sure. Know we've weighed in on communication before, so I just that's something that's of interest. And then the last piece is increases the number of projects eligible eligible for level one site plan approval instead of level two site plan. Can you just provide a little bit more context on that for the listening public?

I can. There is a list in the code now that or in the Zohr, the draft zoning ordinance now that outlines a few specific project types that would be eligible for level one site plan, which is staff approval regardless of the number of points. So even if they were to be a level two by points, they would be eligible for a level one site plan, and I can just list those off. Those are research and development uses in the MXE zone. The the conversion of nonresidential uses to residential use were recommended by the plan. Residential developments proposing 20% or greater moderately priced dwelling units, housing for senior adults and persons with disabilities, and residential developments with 19 or few fewer units.

Thank you. And so you say there's no change to the mayor and council authority, but if there isn't, but some of those kinds of projects would have previously been coming to the mayor and council. Is that right

or not?