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Board meetings are generally held at the Rockville Presbyterian Church on the third Thursday of the month. Meetings begin at 7:00 p.m. and are open to the public. West End residents are encouraged to attend and participate. Minutes of past meetings are available.
The Governor supports building the new District courthouse at the Giant site, and he has pledged to protect the project's funding and priority. READ MORE...
The next WECA General Meeting will be on Thursday, June 12, 2008, at 7:00 pm at the Rockville Presbyterian Church on West Montgomery Avenue. The main agenda items are:
All residents are welcome and encouraged to attend. If you have any questions, please call Patricia Woodward, president, at 301-762-3376.
The Governor supports building the new District courthouse at the Giant site, and he has pledged to protect the project's funding and priority. For the past two years, Town Center Action Team (TCAT) - a volunteer committee - has been focused on the issue of the District Court and moving the proposed location from the old library site at Maryland and Rt. 28 to a new home somewhere closer to the Town Center and public parking. TCAT has struggled in this attempt to get traction with both our local leaders and our elected District 17 representatives. Moving the location would enable the court to be built to address their needs rather than what can be fit into a small footprint. It would also permit those using the facility to park in public parking within close proximity rather than having to walk several blocks and cross Rt. 28, and there would be a critical mass to patronize the new shops and restaurants in Town Square. The proposed location would put the court next to one of Rockville's Historic Districts, a church and primary school as well as a neighborhood where parking is already scarce.
TCAT now has a strong group of supporters among the City staff and Mayor and Council. TCAT needs help in convincing the District 17 representatives. City Manager Scott Ullery and former Mayor Larry Giammo have put together a plan that would address many of these issues. The city would buy the old Giant site along North Washington Street and trade a portion of that site to the State for the old library site. According to Mr. Ullery, the cost to the city would be approximately the same as it would be to retrofit the Old Post Office for use by the police department; the cost to the state would be about $1 million to tweek the design for the now larger site for the court house; and it would take approximately 12 additional months.
The following Letter to the Editor of the Gazette, written by Frank Anastasi, presents the TCAT position well:
January 15, 2008
To The Gazette:
Thank you for a good summary of the debate over where to build a new District Courthouse in Rockville last week. So now we see we can build a great courthouse in a prime location and in the process improve the City, County and State.
A January 10 Washington Post article on the issue was less informative, but it contained a quote your readers will be interested in hearing. The Post quoted Montgomery Bar President Mary Ellen Flynn saying our opposition to building on the former library site is "classic NIMBY". What an insult to Rockville residents and elected officials alike -- this shows just how disconnected she is from the community. But the NIMBY-card is always raised when one side can't be bothered by the basic facts, which in this case are clear:
The reasons not to build the courthouse at the former library site are enough to sink any construction project other than one so politically motivated. The site is too small. The proposed building, scaled down as it is, doesn't meet the zoning code. There'll be no parking. Traffic will overwhelm the narrow streets in the adjacent historic neighborhood.
The question on everyone's mind is, "What is up with Senator Forehand, our elected official who is supposed to represent her constituents?" She has said that she wants people to be able to find the new courthouse. Wouldn't a parking lot with "Courthouse Parking" signs, do that?
Frank Anastasi
Rockville
Questions: email Bridget Newton, Chair Town Center Action Team
Duball Rockville recognized that a hotel in the downtown has long been on the City's wish list since the Visioning Rockville 2000 project and is highlighted as very desirable in the Town Center Master Plan. The Mayor and Council included in the PDP Approvals for the Duball site specifically that a hotel was a permitted use that could be included in addition to the other approvals on the site.
Therefore, although Duball Rockville has City approvals in hand for their two residential buildings in front of the Regal Theatre, they believed the aloft Hotel was an important and unique opportunity for Rockville and worked hard to incorporate the hotel with their existing approvals.
The hotel has been incorporated into the west building between Maryland Avenue and Renaissance Street. No changes were made to the height, massing, setback, streetscape, and landscaping of the approved building. The size of the residential dwelling units was modified to accommodate the space for the hotel. Here is the view of the hotel from Renaissance Street.
The hotel guest rooms are located in the base of the building and one of the original residential lobbies that fronted on Renaissance Street was converted to the hotel lobby. Since the aloft Hotel is a limited service hotel it provides a great accessible hotel lounge at street level on Renaissance Street, a fitness center, business center, and two board rooms (800 sf total) for business guests. An additional parking level has been designed below the west building to provide the parking for the hotel.
Note: Due to the adoption of the Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance, the Montgomery Housing Partnership is reconsidering their plans for this site.
At the September 21, 2006 WECA board meeting, the Montgomery Housing Partnership presented plans for their proposal to build affordable housing units at the northwest corner of the intersection of Beall Avenue and North Washington Street. The Montgomery Housing Partnership is a private, non-profit organization that builds, rehabilitates and manages affordable housing in multiple locations throughout Montgomery County. In addition to providing traditional management services, this organization provides training opportunities for adults, as well as clubs for children.
The site for this proposed building is situated just south of the Beall's Grant apartment building. Currently, this complex is composed of the sixty unit Beall's Grant, an unoccupied fourteen unit building, a large concrete pad where the Trading Post once stood and a small park. The Montgomery Housing Partnership proposes to tear down the fourteen unit apartment building and construct a 109 unit four and a half story building. There would be parking underneath the building. The playground would be relocated to the front of Beall's grant and the intersection in front of Beall's Grant would be improved and converted into a right angle intersection.
The units would be priced as work force units, for households earning in the range of $20,000-$50,000.
Images of partial concept are courtesy of Douglas Campbell, The Preston Partnership, LLC - A Multidisciplinary Design Firm
The August 9th Rockville Planning Commission hearing included a discussion of the phasing of the demolition of some of the buildings on the Chestnut Lodge property.
In brief, construction vehicles will access the Chestnut Lodge property via the existing access road at the corner of Laird Street and West Montgomery Ave. Thomas Street will only be used for construction workers' personal vehicles to access their parking lot on the site.
Demolition of the non-historic buildings and the non-historic additions to the lodge building will take place first. The historic buildings on the site that have been approved for demolition will not be demolished until the Planning Commission approves the Site Plan development. The demolition could take several months.
At the May WECA board meeting, KSI presented their plans for redeveloping the Bank of America Building at the northeast corner of Beall and North Washington. The preliminary development plan (PDP) was approved in 2004. The PDP included 325 dwelling units and 5,000+ square feet of commercial space.
KSI has now provided further details. The current plan is a U-shaped building with the following heights:
91 feet is approximately ten stories.
By comparison, Town Center heights will be in the range of 65 to 85 feet and the current Bank of America Building is approximately 60 feet in height.
The number of dwelling units has been reduced to 290 units.
Parking for the entire building will be underground, with two entrances. The main entrance will be from a new road to be built to the north of the building. A second entrance for visitors and retail shoppers will be off of Beall.
KSI has agreed to provide $73,000 to the City for traffic calming and studies in the West End neighborhood, plus an additional five projects or $110,000 to discourage cut-through traffic.
The proposed traffic calming currently under consideration are:
The Planning Commission has approved the KSI use permit.
Note: Due to the adoption of the Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance and due to concerns by the Mayor and Council over the proposed density, Montgomery County is reconsidering its options for this site.
Montgomery County has proposed a housing development of forty-four townhouse units for the county-owned property on Fleet Street, between Maryland Avenue and Monroe Street. Click here for more information on the Fleet Street Redevelopment Plan.
Note: This plan has been put on hold due to both a new law prohibiting pipe-stem development and the adoption of the Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance.
On May 17, 2007, the Historic District Commission held a hearing to determine whether to recommmend historic designation for 406 Great Falls Road. Staff Kebba presented a summary of the staff report, noting that the applicant is considering Substantial Alteration of such a scale, that it actually constitutes Demolition of the existing house. Staff is recommending against historic designation on the basis of loss of integrity and lack of significance to the City. While associated with the well-known local families, Trail and Nicholson, this property is associated with later generations, two brothers specifically, who built the homes in the 1940s and are not noted specifically for their public contributions. The HDC not to recommend historic designation.
A developer has submitted plans for a proposed six home development to replace the two existing homes at 406 Great Falls Road and 408 Great Falls Road. These houses, on the southeast corner of the intersection of Great Falls Road and Monument Street, were built around the 1930's and occupy two large lots, typical of the Rockville Heights neighborhood, By city law, all demolition permits for buildings over fifty years old require an evaluation by the Rockville Historic District Commission (HDC) to determine whether the building(s) are historically significant. HDC staff has recommended that these homes be preserved, but the developer has requested an extension in order to refile the application. This matter will come before the HDC shortly and WECA and the HDC would like your input on this important issue.
For further information, you can check the HDC website for the site histories of 406 Great Falls Road and 408 Great Falls Road . In addition, you can view the staff report on these two sites can be viewed at this link.
President: Patricia Woodward
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Last Updated: May 25, 2008