March 19, 2011

Montgomery Council Committees to Discuss County’s Facility Consolidation Plan

ROCKVILLE, Md., March 16, 2011—The Montgomery County Council’s Public Safety Committee and its Transportation, Infrastructure, Energy and Environment (T and E) Committee on Thursday, March 17, will be updated on County Executive Isiah Leggett’s “Smart Growth Initiative” that seeks to consolidate numerous County facilities into fewer, more efficient sites.

The Public Safety Committee, which is chaired by Phil Andrews and includes Roger Berliner and Marc Elrich, and the T and E Committee, which is chaired by Councilmember Berliner and includes Councilmembers Nancy Floreen and Hans Riemer, will meet at 2 p.m. in the Seventh Floor Hearing Room of the Council Office Building at 100 Maryland Ave. in Rockville.

Representatives of the County’s Department of General Services, Department of Transportation, Office of Management and Budget, Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) and the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission (M-NCPPC) will attend the worksession.

The consolidation plan calls for the establishment of a Multi-Agency Service Park on a property along Snouffer School Road (adjacent to Montgomery Village) that is formerly known as the Webb Tract. It will be the future home of the County’s Public Safety Training Academy, the Montgomery County Public Schools food distribution facility and the MCPS and M-NCPPC maintenance facilities. Another part of plan calls for the Equipment Maintenance and Operations Center, which provides service areas and parking for 200 buses, to be relocated on the west side of Crabbs Branch Way in Rockville. It is currently on another site along Crabbs Branch Way.

The Smart Growth Initiative also included purchase of the former GE Tech Park property along Route 28 in Gaithersburg. The County’s Department of Liquor Warehouse and its Public Safety Headquarters will be moved to that location.

The initiative intends to move operations into more centralized locations and to sell some of their current locations to developers.

At 10 a.m. Thursday in the Seventh Floor Hearing Room, the Council’s Government Operations and Fiscal Policy Committee, which is chaired by Nancy Navarro and includes Councilmembers Riemer and Valerie Ervin, will discuss recommendations made recently by the County’s Organizational Reform Commission in regard to Regional Services Centers.

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