Good evening, Rockwell.

Today is Wednesday, July 23rd, 2025.

This is meeting number 09 25 of the City of Rockville Planning Commission.

I am Jamie Espinosa, Chair of the Planning Commission.

I am joined in chambers by Commissioner Susan Pittman, Commissioner Eric Fulton, Commissioner Mong Sun.

Commissioner Shayant Saoudin is currently not here.

He may be joining us tonight later.

Tonight's meeting is being conducted in person and virtually by WebEx.

Tonight's agenda includes one recommendation to Mayor and Council, which is Project Plan 2025-00020.

Then this will be followed by regularly scheduled commission items.

Now to that first agenda item.

That is, as I mentioned, Project Plan 2025-00020, a recommendation to the mayor and council of an amendment to an approved project plan to permit conversion of 13,001 square feet of previously approved street level retail into 13 residential units at 198 East Montgomery Avenue.

Over to Mr.

Waselec for any staff presentation.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair and members of the commission.

As you stated, this is a project plan application to amend a plan development.

And you have seen this proposal at a briefing at a prior meeting.

And your role this evening is for a recommendation to the mayor council on the project plan application.

And with me tonight is senior planner Chris Davis to make the staff presentation.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair, members of the commission.

As Mr.

Welsh like indicated, this is a project plan amendment PJT 2025 00020 for the Boulevard Zaloffs project at 198 East Montgomery Avenue.

So the project site is outlined in red on the screen.

The site is approximately 1.41 acres, and the land use designation for the site is commercial and residential mix.

The zoning for the property is Plan Development Rockville Center Incorporated and has an equivalent zone of MXTD.

The proposed site plan is shown here on the screen.

As you can see, see highlighted on the screen, the proposed 13 residential units will uh abut the surrounding streets, particularly along Helen Hennigan Way to the west, East Middle Lane to the north, and Monroe Street to the east.

So for some general background on the Rockville Center Inc.

plan development.

The PD was first approved by the mayor and council in the 1990s and has gone through subsequent uh amendments and approvals since that time.

And so the current approval for the site includes uh the approval of 400 multifamily dwelling units as well as just over 22,000 square feet of commercial space.

Uh with the proposed amendment before you this evening, uh, the applicant proposes to amend that uh mixture of uses to allow the additional 13 dwelling units on the ground floor with 6,500 square feet of commercial space remaining.

Uh the majority of that will be along East Montgomery Avenue to the south of the site.

Um, as you see on the screen here, the proposed uh unit layout is uh shown with the different colors.

As you can see, the majority of the units will be two bedrooms with uh one bedroom unit at the corner of East Middle Lane and Helen Hennigan Way, and one three-bedroom unit along Monroe Street.

So staff has reviewed the proposed request and has found that the project meets the required findings for approval of this project plan amendment.

Specifically, uh staff has found that there uh that there is no conformance issues with the master plan, uh specifically our 2040 comprehensive plan and recently adopted town center master plan promotes additional housing in the town center, which this project would provide.

In addition, the project proposes to activate street level uses uh uh in lieu of the current vacant uses at the site, which is also uh supported by those plans.

Furthermore, staff has not found any compliance issues with our zoning ordinance.

In particular, the proposal for conversion to the residential use would also be accompanied by adequate parking for such uses.

Additionally, in reviewing adequate public facilities for the proposal, staff has not found any issue with adequacy, including with schools.

Uh, this project would be located in the Richard Montgomery cluster, and no adequacy issues with the surrounding schools at all three levels have been found.

Furthermore, uh with the change in use, um, the project would actually generate less vehicle trips to the site than the previously approved commercial uses.

And with that, staff has found that there will be no adverse impacts to the existing transportation transportation network or access to the site.

In regards to public works requirements, uh the applicant will has also received approval of a water and sewer authorization to proceed with the converse uh conversion into the residential units, as well as the project will provide or will address stormwater management in accordance with the city's requirements.

In accordance with the zoning ordinance, uh the required notifications for the project have been made, and in addition, the applicant has fulfilled their uh community outreach requirements, including a pre-application area meeting, which was held back in December of 2021, uh, as well as a required post-application area meeting, which was held back in February of this year.

Um, the applicant also held the required briefings, as you will recall before the planning commission back in March, as well as with the mayor and council in April.

So, should the uh mayor and council approve the project, um the the project would come back to you for a plan planning commission consideration of a level two site plan.

But before proceeding, the mayor and council has scheduled a public hearing and will consider approval of the project plan at their September 15th, 2025 meeting.

So uh the findings and staff uh conditions, proposed conditions for this project were detailed in staff's report.

Um, in addition to those conditions, staff would like to propose an additional condition, um, which is shown here on the screen.

Uh this condition basically allows flexibility uh for the applicant to consider conversion back to a commercial use at our future time and uh allow that review through a level two site plan application rather than going through the extended process of another plan development amendment.

Um so that would pretty much streamline the process just in consideration of a conversion back to commercial in the future.

And with that, uh staff does recommend that the planning commission forward to the mayor and council a recommendation to approve project plan PJT 2025 00020, which is an amendment to the Rockville Center Inc.

Plan Development to permit 13,000 uh 11 and square feet of previously approved street level retail into 13 residential units at 198 East Wancomney Avenue based on staff's findings and conditions in the staff report as well as this additional condition presented during staff's presentation.

And with that, Mr.

Chair, that concludes staff's presentation.

Thank you, Mr.