Rockville Mayor and Council Meeting - February 10, 2025
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Rockville Mayor and Council Meeting - February 10, 2025
The Rockville Mayor and Council held Meeting 5-25 on February 10, 2025, at 11:45 AM. The meeting included a city manager’s report, reappointments to boards and commissions, a community forum, consent agenda approvals, a mid-year report from Rockville Economic Development Inc. (REDI), a market overview from Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL), and discussion of the city’s legislative testimony process.
Consent Calendar
- Unanimously approved: (A) award and authorize the city manager to execute a contract for mowing services to Lorenz; (B) ratify the city manager’s execution of a grant agreement with the State of Maryland to upgrade the city’s exposure management system; (C) approval of minutes.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Erin Adams, representing the Huntington Tenant Association, urged the council to place rent stabilization back on the agenda. She expressed frustration that the council had stonewalled the request and noted that the association is thinking about the 2027 elections and candidates who will listen to renters. She also highlighted the precarious position of federal workers facing job uncertainty and emphasized that rent is a primary concern for them.
Discussion Items
- City Manager’s Report: The city manager reported monitoring a winter storm, the ongoing recruitment for a new chief of police (with a public survey online), and several state bills under review: HB 343 (speed camera violation efficiencies), HB 232 (Maryland’s bottle bill), HB 1032 (stop sign monitoring in Montgomery County), HB 84 (Transportation and Climate Act), and SB 609 (algorithmic device use by landlords to determine rent).
- Boards and Commissions Reappointments: The council unanimously approved reappointments to the Board of Appeals (Roy Dochman, term until Nov. 1, 2027), Historic District Commission (Michael Goldfinger, term until Feb. 1, 2028), Retirement Board (Paulo Perez, term until July 1, 2026), and Senior Citizens Commission (Ellen Wicker, term until Feb. 1, 2028).
- REDI Mid-Year Report (Work Session Item 12): Cindy Rivard (CEO), Rochelle Wilson (Deputy Director), Amanda Bosland (Marketing Director), and Rhonda Devan (CFO) presented. Key points:
- REDI’s FY25 city funding allocation: $1.4M from the city (60% of total budget), plus $90,000 from Montgomery County for placemaking grants, and additional funds for the Maryland Women’s Business Center (MWBC).
- As of December 2024, REDI had distributed $153,796 in incentives to 16 businesses, leveraging $1.4M in capital investment, 19,807 sq. ft. of leased space, and 34 full-time jobs.
- Life science branding project: logo adopted, campaign being finalized; photo shoot may be needed; launch planned at Bio 2025 in Boston.
- Small-scale manufacturing cohort completed; a second cohort for scaling businesses is planned using county placemaking grants.
- Clean tech industry: REDI presented findings to its board and is partnering with Maryland Energy Innovation Accelerator.
- Rockville’s retail vacancy rate is 4.9% (vs. county 6%); Rockville Town Center at 5.1%.
- Marketing reached 150,312 individuals via 5 websites and 20 social media accounts. Global Bytes Fest generated over $200,000 economic impact.
- Hotel occupancy in Rockville was 60.9% vs. Montgomery County’s 64.7%.
- Councilmembers praised the data and transparency, asked about diversification of grants, inclusion of Twinbrook on Explore Rockville, and ways to support federal workers. Mayor suggested a dedicated webpage for resources.
- JLL Market Overview (Work Session Item 13): Morgan Sullivan, Michael Hartnett, and Tommy Lanaway presented on commercial real estate trends:
- National office leasing activity has returned to pre-pandemic levels, but tenants are downsizing (7.8% space giveback) and seeking trophy/Class A space (“flight to quality”).
- Metro DC vacancy is 23.1%, but trophy buildings downtown have only 9% vacancy.
- Suburban Maryland office market: Rockville municipality has 31.8% vacancy across 70 assets (8.5M sq. ft.), with 270,000 sq. ft. of occupancy loss in 2024. Rents flat to slightly down.
- Life science conversions previously saved the market but have slowed; 30.7% vacancy in life science sector due to recent deliveries and easing demand.
- Venture capital funding is off pandemic highs but still significant; DC region ranks #2 in AI job postings.
- Population growth projections for Rockville are flat (based on census data), but new housing developments (e.g., Twinbrook Quarter) could boost numbers.
- Councilmembers discussed the need to focus on life sciences and AI, the impact of tariffs on construction, and tools for office-to-residential conversions.
- Legislative Testimony Process: Councilmember Valeri called for confirming the current process for testifying in Annapolis (which he deemed sufficient). Councilmember Shaw advocated for formalizing the process in writing to make it more inclusive of resident and staff voices. Councilmember Jackson and Mayor supported the current process. No formal vote was taken; the mayor noted staff would continue to share upcoming hearings with deadlines.
Key Outcomes
- Unanimous approval of all four board/commission reappointments.
- Unanimous approval of consent agenda items (contract, grant agreement, minutes).
- REDI and JLL presentations were received and discussed; no formal votes taken.
- Staff will submit testimony on HB 84 (Transportation and Climate Act) and SB 609 (algorithmic rent-setting) by deadlines of 11:00 AM and 10:00 AM, respectively, on February 11.
- Council will continue to explore ways to support federal workers and promote economic development resources.
- Discussion on legislative testimony process will continue; no change adopted.
Meeting Transcript
Good evening, Rockville. Today is February 10th, 2025, and we'll begin meeting 5-25. Please join me as you're able in the Pledge of Allegiance. Thank you. Now I want to turn over to our city clerk, Sarah Taylor Farrell. Will you please do a agenda review? Madam Mayor and Council members, there are no changes to the agenda for this evening. Thank you. Welcome, Mr. Mahalic, City Manager's report. Mayor Ashton, members of City Council, ladies and gentlemen, good evening. Just a few things. We are carefully monitoring the uh winter storm. It is not winter storm warning, so we know we're gonna get quite a bit of precipitation, but depending on the range in temperatures, it could be rain, then ice then snow, and then back to ice and rain. So we're gonna carefully monitor that. Um, if there are going to be any closure of city facilities or cancellations, we'll try to make those decisions prior to noon tomorrow in order to allow people to make plans. So just know we're very carefully monitoring that. We'll provide plenty of people with notice if things have to be canceled. Um, secondarily, please to tell you that we continue to be actively recruiting for our new chief of police, and we want people to get involved and share their thoughts. So we do have a survey online on the city's website where residents could chime in and share their hopes and dreams for a new uh chief of police and provide their comments, and I'll use those comments when we are considering finalists that'll come to the city within the next several months. Then lastly, we continue to monitor the activities of the state legislature. I do want to describe just a couple of bills that we're looking at right now. One is House Bill 343, which is speed camera violation efficiencies. Second is House Bill 232. It's really Maryland's version of a bottle bill, House Bill 1032, which is really having Montgomery County have stop sign monitoring, and then House Bill 84, which is a Transportation and Climate Act, which would require the state of Maryland to implement multimodal systems that reduce greenhouse gases. That's all I have, Mayor. Thank you. Thank you very much. And I just wanted to note SB 609, which we taught you mentioned last time. Uh there is a hearing tomorrow at one o'clock if in case anyone wants to go, and it's related to use of algorithmic device by landlord determined rent. So does anyone have any questions for the city manager? All right, thank you very much. We'll now move on to boards and commissions. We have several uh folks who have stepped up to volunteer for reappointments for Board of Appeals, Historic District Commission, Senior Citizens Commission and Retirement Board. We need uh some motions to move forward. Dr. Miles. Thank you, Madam Mayor. I move the nomination to reappoint Roy Dochman. I apologize if I mispronounced the last name. It's a reappointment to serve a full three-year term on the board of appeals. Uh full until November 1st, 2027. Do we have a second? Oh second. Councilman Valerie seconds. All those in favor, please raise your hand and say aye. Aye. All right, thank you very much. Next, we have historic district commission. Councilman Valeri.
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