West Germantown Development District,City of Rockville’s Plan for Pike to be Looked At by Council Committees on Mon., March 28

Release ID: 11-077
Release Date: 3/25/2011
Contact: Neil Greenberger 240-777-7939 or Delphine Harriston240-777-7931
From: Council Office

ROCKVILLE, Md., March 25, 2011—The Montgomery County Council’s Transportation, Infrastructure, Energy and Environment (T and E) Committee and its Government Operations and Fiscal Policy (GO) Committee will meet jointly at 2 p.m. on Monday, March 28, to review the final interim report of the County’s inspector general regarding the West Germantown Development District. On Monday morning, the Planning, Housing and Economic Development (PHED) Committee will hold a worksession on the City of Rockville’s master plan for Rockville Pike.

The worksession on the West Germantown Development District will be held in the Seventh Floor Hearing Room of the Council Office Building at 100 Maryland Ave. in Rockville. The meeting will be televised live by County Cable Montgomery (CCM—Cable Channel 6 on Comcast and RCN, Channel 30 on Verizon) and also will be available via streaming through the County Web site at www.montgomerycountymd.gov. The GO Committee meeting, which begins at 9:30 a.m. in the Third Floor Conference Room, also will be televised.

On March 11, Inspector General Thomas Dagley and Deputy Inspector General Chris Giusti submitted a report to the Council and County Executive Isiah Leggett regarding allegations of questionable payments in the West Germantown Development District. The report looked into allegations of whether the County and the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission each made payments to a project developer for infrastructure improvements.

The worksession will explore lessons that can be learned from the West Germantown Development District experience as the County likely will use the development district structure to help finance infrastructure improvements in future new development projects.

The PHED Committee will review the City of Rockville’s updated plans for Rockville Pike (Route 355) just north of its border with the County. The city’s boundaries on Rockville Pike begin near Twinbrook Parkway.

Recently, the County adopted the White Flint Sector Plan that will revamp the Rockville Pike area just south of the city’s borders. The County’s plan will transform the area into a more dense community that depends on the nearby Metrorail system to serve the greatly increased number of residents, retail establishments and businesses that will evolve from the sector plan. Many low-rise buildings will be replaced with multi-use structures as high as 30 stories. At 3 p.m., The T and E Committee will continue its discussions on changes to the County’s noise control regulations regarding arts and entertainment activities.