Good evening, Rockville.

Today is Wednesday, December 10th, 2025.

And this is meeting number 1625 of the City of Rockville Planning Commission.

My name is Cheyenne Salah Dean.

I am a commissioner, but subbing in today is chair because Jamie Espinosa, Chairman Jamie Espinoza is out today.

I'm joined in chamber today by Commissioners Susan Pittman and Eric Fulton.

We are joined online by Commissioner Meng Sun.

And uh and that makes up all of us because, like I said, Jamie's out.

Um, today we are as always.

This meeting is being held both in person here and uh on WebEx and I guess on Rockville Channel 11 as well.

So tune in if you if you care to.

Um today we've got two action items.

Um final record plat PLT 2025-00642 and a level two site plan uh application STP 2024-00482.

Um, followed by a briefing on the zoning text amendment um for the zoning ordinance rewrite and the comprehensive map amendment.

Um that will be followed followed as always by our regular set of commission related items.

Um, and that is what our agenda looks like today.

So with that, I'm gonna turn this over to uh Mr.

Wazlack for our very first review and action item, and that is final record plat application PLT 2025-000642 to resubdivide parcel A of the Halpine Baptist Church subdivision into lots one, two, and parcel A1 uh to allow for redevelopment and dedication of a public right of way located in the RFFZ, that is residential flexible floating zone uh at 5906 Halpine Road.

Mr.

Wazilec.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair and members of the commission.

Um this application before you is a final record plat for a property that you have seen the floating zone project plan and site plan applications previously.

This is kind of the final action uh before the permitting phase for this particular project.

And we have uh senior planner Chris Davis uh to make the staff presentation after I swear him in.

And will you identify yourself for the record?

Uh Christopher Davis.

And will you provide truthful testimony?

I will.

Thank you.

Thank you, and good evening, uh Planning Commissioners.

As Mr.

Waselect indicated, this is the final record plat for 5906 Halpine Road.

Uh this is a record plat to proceed with redevelopment of the property as was previously uh approved by this body and the mayor and council.

Um the subject property is shown here on the screen.

Uh it is outlined in blue, located at 5906 Halpine Road.

It's at the corner of Halpine and Ardennes Avenue.

Um, it has a land use, oh, excuse me.

It has a land use designation of residential flexible, and it has a zoning classification of residential flexible floating zone.

Um, as Mr.

Rosselak indicated, this was the first floating zone to be implemented uh pursuant to the recommendations of the comprehensive plan.

Uh the property is 1.5 acres.

And as you can see, the property is improved with an existing church and surrounding surface parking lot.

So to briefly recall, the uh uh project uh for redevelopment was approved um firstly by the mayor and council back in September of last year.

Um, both um a map amendment to rezone the property and a project plan to allow for redevelopment of the property was approved.

Um, that included this proposal to allow 362 over two units.

Um, as you can see from the site plan, they are arranged parallel um with frontage uh from both Halpine and Ark Dens Avenue and vehicular access from Halpine Road.

Uh again, this body also approved the final design project at the site plan level in October of 2025.

So to facilitate the the development, this proposed record plat proposes two record lots.

As you can see outlined in red, the two rectangular tangle areas will allow for the development of the residential units.

And uh the subdivision will also include open space area uh that will be provided in parcel A1, which is outlined in blue.

This record plant will also allow for dedication of right-of-way along our Dent's Avenue, which is shown in pink, and will also facilitate improvements through access and infrastructure easements that will also be provided.

So as the body knows, there are no specific findings that need to be made as part of a review of a final record plat.

Staff has reviewed the application and finds that it meets all the necessary requirements and therefore recommends approval with conditions of this final record plat PLT 2025 00642 subject to the conditions in the staff report.

And we have this recommended motion should the board or the commission decide to move forward.

With that, that concludes staff's presentation.

All right, thank you, Mr.

Davis.

Um do we have any questions of staff from the commissioners?

Okay, I'm seeing Commissioner Song saying no questions.

Um do we have a presentation by the applicant?

Good evening, Pat Harris with Lurter Land on behalf of Pulte, but the answer is no.

We're just happy to be at this stage of the process and be able to then proceed to the permitting stage.

Perfect.

Thank you.

Perfect.

Um so with that, if we don't have any questions or any uh further discussion necessary, anyone care to make a motion.

Uh pardon me, Mr.

Chair.

Uh if you could ask if there's anyone member of the public who might at this time, is there anyone uh any member of the public that would care to provide testimony on this matter?

On this matter specifically.

Uh I'm seeing no one in chamber.

Anyone online if you are here to um to provide testimony on this matter, uh, please use the raise hand button on your um on your screen.

I'm not seeing any.

Is that correct?

Okay, that is correct.

So we'll go back to what I just said.

Anyone care to make a motion?

Mr.

Chair would care to make a motion.

Uh I move that we approve final record plat PLT 2025-00642 to resubdivide parcel A of the Halp Time Halpine Baptist Church Subdivision into lots one, two, and parcel A-1 to provide dedication to public right of way at uh 5906 Halpine Road, subjects to the conditions in the staff report.

Second.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Uh noting that uh Commissioner Sun said aye, none in so that this passes unanimously, and uh good to go.

And then we can move on.

Sorry, uh, and that brings us to our second uh action item that is level two site plan application STP 2024-00482 to permit construction of three new research and development buildings with 645,000 square feet of total gross floor area and a new structured parking facility at 2097, 2099, and 2101 Gaither Road.

Park Plaza Property Owner LLC is the applicant in this case.

Mr.

Wazilec.

Uh thank you, Mr.

Chair and members of the commission.

Uh this is a site plan application for which you are the approving authority uh for property at the corner of Gaither Road and Shady Grove Road.

And uh we have principal planner Kimia Zofegarian to make the staff presentation after I swear her in.

Could you identify yourself for the record?

Kimias Olfigurion.

And will you provide truthful testimony?

Yes, I will.

Thank you.

This is level two site plan application stp 2024-00482 at 2097, 2099, and 2021 Gaither Road.

The subject property is located at the intersection of Shady Grove Road and Gaither Road on the eastern quadrant of that intersection.

The land use designation is O office.

The zoning district is MXE, which stands for mixed use employment.

The site area is approximately 11.78 acres, and the existing use is two office buildings, an existing parking garage, and a surface parking lot surrounding the existing office buildings.

And a new structured parking facility to support the project.

The three proposed research and development building heights will range between 108 to 11 feet.

The new parking structure will provide additional 692 parking spaces.

That would be in addition to the existing parking structure and the surface lots.

And associated site improvements will be made with this proposed site plan.

The image on the screen is showing the proposed phasing plan for the project.

The green color shows phase one.

The color in blue area in blue shows phase two.

And phase three is the area in orange with the existing parking structure as white.

And that concludes the staff presentation.

Staff recommends the planning commission approve this level two site plan, STP 2024-00482 based on staff findings and subject to the conditions of approval in the staff report.

That concludes the presentation.

Thank you.

Great, thank you.

Any commissioners have questions of staff in this regard.

Okay.

None do we have a presentation for the applicant good evening again.

I'm still Pat Harris with Lurch Early and Brewer on behalf of the applicant, Monday Properties.

With me is Frank Craighoe, who's senior vice president of Monday Properties, and then we have Mike Bukoski, our transportation consultant, and then we have our engineers from Soltez and our architect from Gensler on the line.

Ms.

Harris, I need to swear you in.

Yes.

If you could uh identify yourself again for the record.

Patricia Harris with Lurch Early and Brewer.

And will you provide truthful testimony this evening?

Thank you.

Thank you.

We're pleased, very pleased to be at this point, and I want to thank staff for all their hard work and real careful analysis of this project, and we do accept all the conditions of approval.

A lot of what I'm going to say is was re what staff has already said, so I will go through parts of my presentation fairly quickly.

And if staff can put up the great.

So very quickly, location.

You can go to the next one because I was already identified.

And then this is an aerial of the two buildings.

The one building was built in 1990, and the other one in 2001.

They're currently experiencing vacancies of 18% and 31%.

So as we've heard for many months now or years that the office market is a challenge.

Next slide, please.

This is a plan of the overall build out.

You see the three new buildings, and then you can go to the next slide.

So it's a three-phase development.

The first phase will be the first office building that you can see as well as the parking structure.

We will also be improving the Gaither streetscape.

And also in connection with phase one, there'll be dedication along Shady Grove Road of approximately seven just over 17 feet.

Next slide is the second phase.

That phase will first of all demolish one of the existing buildings.

We will be reconstructing the center drive in connection with the second phase.

And then the final phase will provide the hard scape plaza in between buildings two and three and construct the third building.

The next slide will you saw staff presented, just indicates the phases, three phases as indicated.

And then the next two slides are just the architecture that you've already seen.

Thank you.

And as I indicated at the beginning, we do have generous amount of open space here, 37% of the site when only 20% is required, and 13% public use space when only 5% is required.

And then the final slide is well, there's the green space.

And then you can go to the next slide.

Great.

Thank you.

Anyone on the game I shouldn't have any questions for the applicant?

Shirka.

This seems like a lot of parking.

So you're keeping both garages and surface parking.

And I'm assuming you've got data to back up the need for all of the to keep that much surface parking and add another garage with almost 700 spots in it.

Yes.

And actually, if you look at strictly RD parking per the code, we do exceed that, but if you look at office parking, we're considerably below what the office parking is and the market.

Um we base the amount of parking we needed on what the market for life sciences and RD was was telling us in terms of how much how many spaces are needed.

So it's really sort of a hybrid combination between office and then what the RD says in the code.

Okay, thank you.

Commissioner Sun, do you have any questions for the applicant?

Okay.

Any further discussion necessary, or would someone like to make a motion here?

Oh, sorry.

Before we go that way, um if there's anyone in chamber that would like to provide public testimony on this matter in particular, would you like to uh raise your hand now or come up to the podium seeing nothing?

Anyone online care to provide public testimony today?

No.

All right, seeing nothing.

I move that we approve the level two site plan application, STP 2024-00482 based on the findings and subject to conditions of approval contained in this report.

I second the motion.

All right.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

All right.

Uh none opposed.

So that passes unanimously.

Thank you very much.

And moving on to our final agenda item today.

Um briefing on zoning text amendment for the zoning ordinance rewrite and comprehensive map amendment.

Um turn it over to Mr.

Wazlock for the presentation.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair and members of the commission.

Uh, we are pleased to uh provide a briefing to you on the draft zoning ordinance and draft comprehensive zoning map uh that has been authorized for filing by the mayor and council uh as of their December 1st meeting.

Um so you can have a comprehensive review uh in advance of your uh public hearings and work sessions uh starting in January on this topic.

Uh we're gonna make a presentation similar to the one that we've made to the mayor and council and then uh provide you an opportunity to um let us know if you have any particular areas that you would like us to cover in the work sessions.

Uh we've gotten a preliminary list uh from the mayor and council.

We've been receiving public comment.

Uh so we would expect that uh those that will provide a good uh portion of the work session items.

But there if there are other things uh that you'd like us to cover, please do let us know either this evening or uh in the coming weeks uh so that we can prepare uh for those meetings coming in January.

Uh the adoption uh schedule, as you will see, is quite ambitious, and so we need to be very efficient about how we uh process this text amendment and map amendment.

So we'll go ahead and get into the uh presentation.

Uh just to uh remind you the adoption process uh will be will follow like any uh zoning text amendment, uh, because that is actually what this is.

It's just a zoning text amendment for the entire zoning ordinance and a map amendment for uh an update to the zoning map for the entire city, which is a comprehensive map amendment.

Uh you will recall from your past work sessions that this project started in fall of 2023, and uh we moved through uh the various phases that were established uh by the work plan uh and our consultant team for how this project was going to proceed.

And uh the major milestone was the authorization to file on December 1st, uh, which occurred.

Uh the mayor and council did not make any changes to the draft ordinance or the draft zoning map as it was presented to them.

Uh they did, however, as I said, let us know what issues they would like to discuss uh on both the ordinance and the zoning map.

So as of December 4th, uh that version of the zoning map and ordinance are posted online, uh essentially accomplishing the public release of those drafts.

Um that brings us to this evening, which is kind of the first uh step in the review process for both of these documents.

Um tonight we'll accomplish the briefing and then the adoption process, uh, which started with authorization to file and will continue with planning commission review and recommendation, and then we'll go back to the mayor and council for their public hearings and work sessions.

So uh you'll have a series of work sessions uh and public hearings, and we will talk about and hopefully you'll have some feedback on uh whether you what you think about that process for you in particular.

Uh engagement will also be included, including with other boards and commissions, uh, in addition to the commission's review.

Um as you know, through for the ZTA process, a uh commission review is required, and you'll be providing a recommendation to the mayor and council uh for their public hearing, which is tentatively scheduled for April.

This really will be an opportunity for the commission to make recommended changes to the draft text amendment, in other words, the Zoor and the zoning map.

Um I will note that I I just happened to have handy the uh the errata sheet from the last time that we uh rewrote the zoning ordinance in 2008.

The planning commission made over 100 text changes to the code.

Um I'm hoping we can beat that, but but we'll see.

Uh time will tell.

But as just kind of wanted to give you a sense of the the scope of uh you know what your review can entail.

So this is the adoption schedule and uh beginning in January.

We have one more public uh session.

We had one in December on December 4th.

We have one coming on January 7th, essentially uh repeating what we were doing this evening, which is an orientation to the process and to the documents.

So January 14th, which is your next regularly scheduled meeting.

Uh, we are planning for a public hearing and also starting work sessions and the same thing on the 28th of January.

So uh we had set out that there should be two evenings of work session, or I'm sorry, public hearings, just so that if someone cannot make uh one of those meetings, then they perhaps can attend the second meeting and vice versa.

So that is entirely up to you.

If you're comfortable with that, that's how we will proceed.

We anticipate a need for at least three work sessions.

And I think it's ambitious.

So if we could get to a recommendation by the end of February for the mayor and council, that would be outstanding.

But that is our goal.

But there's a little bit of flex time between February and then getting to the mayor and council at their public hearing on April 13th.

And then of course there will be public hearings and work sessions with the mayor and council.

So the as I uh emailed to you last week, the best source of documents associated with the zoning ordinance is engage Rockville.

There are a multitude of things that are available, including the drafts of the zoning ordinance and comprehensive map amendment.

And I did want to note that there is a orientation meeting that I mentioned for the public.

So with that, I'm going to turn it over to my colleague Holly Simmons to discuss the draft zoning ordinance.

Thank you, Mr.

Wazleck, and good evening members of the Planning Commission.

So diving into the resources related to the staff draft of the zoning ordinance, we do have a number of documents that are available to you all and to the public to assist in reviewing the nearly 300 page staff draft of the zoning ordinance.

Before I get into those, I do want to emphasize that the draft that mayor and council authorized for filing really is a staff recommendation at the end of the day.

So it is not something that the mayor and council has concurred with or approved of.

So when it comes to the staff draft of the zoning ordinance, one of the main documents that I would direct folks to is our highlights city of Rockville staff draft zoning ordinance document.

This is really a high-level overview of that draft of the zoning ordinance.

It includes synopses of draft articles, breakouts of major changes by each article.

It also includes synopses of mayor and council direction.

As you all are aware, there were five pre-release work sessions, both with mayor and council with you all as a body.

And then also we followed those up with kind of carbon copy community meetings that covered the same material.

And in the mayor and council meetings, we were provided with guidance and preliminary direction that helped guide the drafting of the staff draft of the zoning ordinance.

So in that document, we have included brief overviews of each one of those work sessions, really focusing on the guidance that we were provided.

Something that I will note has been added since this was included in Mayor and Council's brief book last Monday is that Mayor and Council requested we add some notes to reflect updates or additional info relevant information following those work sessions.

So the version of the highlights document that we have on Engage Rockville does include at the bottom of each of those synopses in italics, a post-work session staff update with relevant information and calling out specific sections of the zoning ordinance where you would find the relevant information that direction was provided on.

So it also highlights the key changes from our current ordinance to the staff draft.

It does that at a high level and then also broken out by each of the articles.

Anything that was a change related directly to direction that was provided by mayor and council is shown in bold red italics.

Anything that is maybe more glanced at, we didn't receive direction on, but maybe discussed or anything that was not discussed is shown in plain text.

So I will emphasize before moving on to the next material that this does not include full details of the staff draft of the zoning ordinance.

We really tried to make sure that it covered the highlights, but it's not going to give you the full information on the zoning ordinance.

I like to think of it as a nice jumping off point to give you information on what is included in the zoning ordinance, some direction on where you can go to find different information.

It also includes a page where it describes each one of the articles.

We have 13 articles in this draft compared to 21 in our current ordinance, and really we really worked to bucket like information in each article.

So it's a little bit more user-friendly, is the goal.

So you have your article at the top, divisions within the article, and then sections within those divisions.

And all of that restructuring was really aimed at making the ordinance easier to navigate, more user-friendly, and more organized.

So moving on to the next piece of information, we also have a table of contents.

This is provided separately from the text of the zoning ordinance.

We did that purposefully because that table of contents is not going to be adopted as part of the zoning text amendment.

But we did think it was useful to help folks get a higher level overview of the materials again included in the zoning ordinance itself.

Importantly, we also provided the staff draft of the zoning ordinance.

This is the version that was authorized for filing again on last Monday, December 1st.

And there is a community engagement summary also posted to engage Rockville.

This is a document that you all would have seen back in April.

And at that point in time, we said we would update this in the fall when we were heading toward the authorization to file work uh meeting, and we did just that.

So the current version of that community engagement summary is posted to engage Rockville.

A lot of the information in there was retained with just minor updates to address additional community meetings that we've had, etc.

So we did want to provide a brief overview of the work session topics that mayor and council identified on Monday that they're interested in seeing come back to them.

These include rezonings in the Montrose and Newmark Commons neighborhoods, discussion of fencing, perhaps with a particular focus on deer mesh, discussion of nonconformities and solar canopies, notification requirements, as well as locational requirements for adult-oriented establishments and for shooting galleries, how close can they be to schools, churches, things of that nature.

Use-based gross floor area restrictions.

You'll note in our uses and use standards, draft article six that a number of the uses have specific gross floor area limitations in certain zones.

And that is something that we have carried forward from the current zoning ordinance, but we did have our consultants do a full review of those restrictions to call out any that they thought were really unnecessary, to update them where it made sense based on best practices, but we did not feel comfortable without direction from planning commission or mayor and council to remove them wholesale.

So that is something the mayor and council did flag, certainly up for discussion and would be interested to hear recommendations.

They were also interested to discuss more the ADU requirements.

We've worked to align both our detached and attached accessory dwelling unit requirements.

As I'm sure you're aware, those are not consistent in the current ordinance.

They were adopted under two different zoning text amendments.

We did work to make those consistent, but they are hoping to explore them further.

And then the length of time for submitting appeals.

Finally, before moving on to the staff draft of the zoning map, I wanted to note that we do have feedback forms on Engage Rockville for both the staff draft of the zoning ordinance and the staff draft of the zoning map.

So this is something that we went over in addition to a little bit more dynamic, in-depth information related to all of the materials I've addressed so far, some of the materials that Mr.

Wazilak will go over.

We addressed all of this in our orientation meeting last uh December 4th, was that Thursday, Thursday, last Thursday.

Um I would encourage anyone who wants a more in-depth orientation to these materials to really go and watch that recording.

It is posted to engage Rockville.

Um I think the presentation itself was probably about 30 minutes, and then we had a little bit of QA.

Um, but that gives a good primer on these materials as well.

But for the purposes of this slide, if folks do have comments, we have a few different questions to walk through in these feedback forms, um, strengths, areas for improvement, general feedback, things of that nature.

And with that, I will hand it over to Mr.

Wazilak to go over the staff draft of the zoning map.

Thank you.

So the companion document uh to the zoning ordinance is of course the zoning map.

Uh the map uh illustrates what zone all the properties in the city of Rockville are located in at its very basic level.

So the comprehensive map amendment essentially is uh showing the city divided up into uh our previous tax map uh panels, if you will.

Um the entire county is divided up into tax maps, and uh we have continued that as a way to show a zoomed-in kind of version of the uh map, the zoning map, so it's very clear which properties are zoned and what.

So we have this shows kind of the overall city uh and the various colors of the zones for all the properties in the city, and you can see overlaid on that uh the grid uh that uh comes from the tax map grid.

And this is uh one of those grids.

This is the town center area, and it kind of clearly shows the streets and uh the various properties and the zones that they are located in.

So one thing that we have developed with uh the able help of our uh research team is an interactive version of the zoning map, and uh that allows users to see and compare the current zoning map to the recommended zoning map or proposed.

And uh if you toggle uh kind of side to side on the interactive map, you can uh see which properties uh are proposed for rezoning.

And uh hopefully we'll be able to bring that up here for you in just a moment.

So this is uh available uh on Engage Rockville uh for uh anyone to see and compare what the uh current zoning map looks like compared to the proposed zoning map.

A couple of things uh you can zoom in to the zoning map and and see more detail if that's what's desired, and you can click on individual properties uh and that'll give you information on the particular property and then the uh proposed zone uh zone that the property is recommended to be.

So you can see the uh particularly in the town center, uh you can see how the the zones change uh as you move from current to proposed uh as a result of the zoning changes recommended by the town center master plan.

So just to review a little bit about what the uh comprehensive map amendment entails in terms of changes to the zoning map.

Uh most of the uh zoning map is being retained uh with the present zones, but based on the comprehensive plan, there are properties that are proposed for rezoning, uh, and we work through those uh with the mayor and council and yourselves uh in prior work sessions.

So generally, properties that are proposed for rezoning uh provide opportunities for increased housing in the city, which is a need and uh a primary recommendation of the comprehensive plan.

Um many of those are adjacent to transit resources, including the metro stations and uh future BRT uh stations that are coming to the city, and uh also other areas where it was decided that uh there were opportunities for additional uh housing units to be constructed.

I will say that there were uh several areas that were not recommended for rezoning by the mayor and council, and those have also been incorporated into the draft zoning map.

Uh and mayor and council did not want to down zone any properties uh that were uh recommended for that uh in the comp plan, so those are not included, and then with the Lincoln Park neighborhood, because the uh conservation district had had a recent amendment since the comprehensive plan had been adopted.

It was thought that the uh those recommendations were in conflict with an upzoning in the Lincoln Park neighborhood.

The um community was very much opposed to the upzoning, and so the staff draft came has come forward without that recommended rezoning.

So I will say that uh we are uh soliciting feedback uh for on the comprehensive uh zoning map.

And uh like the zoning text, there is a way to do that on Engage Rockville with our feedback form that is just for the comprehensive map amendment.

Um so we actually have two, one for the zoning map, the zoning ordinance and one for the zoning map.

And I turn it back over to my colleague uh for some acknowledgments.

Thank you, Mr.

Rosalak.

I'll keep this brief.

Um we did just want to say thank you.

Um thank you to you all for your assistance in developing this staff draft.

Thank you also to the mayor and council, certainly members of the public who have engaged over the past year, and then just quite a number of staff members in um multiple different departments across the city.

It really would not have been possible without um the assistance and the hard work, the diligence of many, many different um staff and community members.

And with that, um I know that Mr.

Boslack mentioned we are really interested to hear input from you all regarding what topics you'd like to cover during the work sessions, and also happy to answer any questions at this time.

Thank you so much for that briefing.

Uh it was I know a Herculean task, and this has been a long time in the uh in the making, and so to have it so close to fruition is uh it's pretty exciting, I'm sure, for you guys more than us.

But uh yeah, that's uh it's a big deal.

So um, with that, can I turn this over to my fellow commissioners?

Any questions, thoughts, comments.

Um I'll echo uh what uh commissioner Teludine said.

Um this is yeah, Herculean work to get to this point.

Um, you know, thank you.

And your names and the acknowledgments should be should be big and bold, to be sure.

Um I did sort of skim the highlights.

I have watched a little bit of the mayor and council.

Some of my thoughts were encapsulated in things that'll be coming to us regardless.

Um I myself want to take a deeper dive into some of the changes with parking minimums and maximums.

Um I I didn't deep dive into the draft code before this meeting, but I did see that in the highlights.

So that's something I'll be looking at in between now and the next meeting.

Um and uh taking a closer look at.

Um, and the same with the the new revised pedestrian and bicycle kind of consolidated chapter.

Um, I don't know necessarily if I have a take or a bent on it, but I know that that's a new feature putting consolidating all of those things.

So I'll be taking a good look at that.

Uh, and I hope that uh the R back and the RPAC will be considered for review as well.

Um for that section in particular, but also the others uh as part of the board and commission review.

So that those are my initial thoughts just off the top of my head.

Okay.

Um I I want to concur with my colleagues.

This is a huge undertaking.

Thank you very much to all of you for all the work that's gone into this.

Um I want to um tag on to Commissioner Fulton's topics.

I agree, parking, I would like to talk about um and pedestrian and bicycle facilities.

I would like to take a look closer look at that.

And I would like to add amenity space.

Um I am cogitating on historic preservation.

I will narrow that down for you before the next time we meet before the end of the year.

Um I think I'm I'm good for now.

Thank you.

So I want to acknowledge that cogitating is a pretty great word.

So I'm gonna look at it.

And I would like to reserve my comments on what I'd like to uh you know delve more deeply into specifically until I get a chance to do that.

I think maybe uh you know, let's give Jamie the benefit of the doubt and say that he maybe he wants to think about this more as well.

Um but uh if I do have uh feedback or specific things that I'd like to take a look at, is it okay for me to communicate that via email?

Because I know we've got a you know a time crunch here, and that we're gonna hit the ground running in in uh in Jan.

So um that's okay.

Um so commissioner, it's it would be fine for you to communicate that directly with either Mr.

Waslick uh or probably directly with Mr.

Waslick as the as the liaison.

Um I think it would be better not to CC the rest of the body.

Um, but communication with staff is entirely appropriate.

Thank you for that clarification.

Um, do you have any uh thoughts you'd like to provide?

Sure, yeah.

Uh and first I want to concur with my fellow commissioners and uh thank the staff for the all those hard work.

And I think uh it takes a little bit to get to this point.

And I'm really uh uh like I really uh like to see that the interaction map between the prior zoning and current zoning, I think is a very useful tool for the public to understand what has been changed.

And so I I have glanced at the highlight of the the document, and I think um I concur with um uh the the parking topic.

I'm interested, especially the what is the biorite parking adjustment, and uh what also I I think I I read something about the loot and the maximum parking requirements, so like I like to get some clarification on that.

And also I support the uh introducing the compact parking.

And um another thing I want to understand more is I see in some in fields.

There were some like a bonus density uh proposed in this new zone.

So I like to understand how to achieve those bonus densities.

And uh another uh one is the public outreach uh procedures for the administrative decision.

Um so I I know that uh so the we have uh authorized the staff to approve some of the staff level um projects.

I just want to understand and make sure that the public uh uh still uh sufficiently informed and doing those procedures too.

And um, that's my interest of topic for now.

Thank you.

Great, thank you.

Um I know this is a briefing and not a hearing of any sort, so it I know we don't necessarily have to take public testimony, but I think we've got some folks here that would like to provide public testimony, and we're always open to having it.

So um is it okay that we do that now?

Yeah, entirely up to the commission.

All right.

Well, in that case, the commission says yes, we do that now.

Um so anybody in uh chambers, if you would like to testify.

Um, I think we got a sign-up sheet.

Do we have a sign-up sheet?

We have a sign-up sheet at the back, so if you wouldn't mind signing on them, we have we'll have an uh an order in which we can call you guys.

Um just by way of some background.

Um if you are so you're welcome to provide public testimony when you come up here.

Uh remember, this is um recorded and televised and being held for posterity.

Um, so we ask that you please uh very uh like enunciate uh and speak loudly into the microphone.

Uh state your name and your address for the record uh prior to providing your testimony.

Make sure that you give yourself a beat to get sworn in um by Mr.

Wazlack.

Um and then if you are providing testimony on your own behalf, then we will give you three minutes.

There is a timer right down here.

Please take note of that timer.

It will be enforced.

If you are here testifying on behalf of a organization like an HOA, um, then you'll can you can have up to five minutes.

Um but again, please respect the timer.

Um with that, I will uh turn it over to the folks in chamber first, and then we will move on and see if there's anybody online that would like to also provide public testimony.

Uh Mr.

Chair, just a quick note.

Um, no need to swear in witnesses for this particular item.

It's not a quasi-judicial item.

So, great.

So ignore that part.

But the rest of it still applies, especially the time limits.

Yeah, I got Mr.

Chair.

The first speaker is Alex Belita.

Thank you very much, Commissioners.

My name is Alex Bolita.

I live at 705 Newmark Esplanade.

Um, we've been a homeowner in Newmark Commons since 1985.

Um, frankly, weren't expecting to be able to speak to you directly tonight, but here I am.

As you know, and as your colleagues and staff have pointed out at their December 1st meeting, the mayor and council did make some observations about the staff report.

And one of them that was highlighted on the screen tonight was revisiting rezoning issues in the neighborhood of Newmark Commons and Montrose.

Um, it's not exactly Newmark Commons that's being rezoned, it's a plot that's in Area 12, right adjacent to our community.

Um it's a 9.75-acre plot, which has been in the staff report rezoned RMD 25, which would allow for rather dense occupancy and potential high-rise buildings, totally out of character to the neighborhood when the mayor's own 2040 comprehensive report uh says rezoning should be compatible with the adjacent neighborhoods.

Um we support more housing in Rockville, especially affordable housing.

Um, but we don't think that means that every vacant lot has to be filled with high-rise buildings, and that's why we uh oppose the rezoning of this plot, which is called Z O R ID 17 to RMD 25.

Frankly, we would prefer it remain its current designation, R90, which is similar to our neighborhood.

Um more than 600 people uh in our neighborhood, representing over two-thirds of the units in Newmark Commons have signed a petition asking for this uh change in the plan.

Um if you've ever visited Newmark, you're familiar with this very unusual part of land, which has a stormwater facility, uh, wetlands and wildlife, and a heavy tree canopy, which is of course one of the hallmarks of Newmark Commons.

So the the 2040 plan said that um that the comprehensive plan stated that Newmarks new development should be designed to protect and enhance existing forest stands and the tree canopy to the greatest extent possible.

And it said the kind of development that was preferable was again quoting development that retains the stormwater management facility and is compatible with the adjacent neighborhood.

And so that's what we're asking to you and your work sessions ahead.

Consider rezoning that's compatible with our neighborhood.

Thanks very much for listening.

Thank you.

Um our next person.

Uh the next speaker is Sandra.

I can't quite read the last name.

Thank you.

If you could identify yourself, but no need to stop and get sworn in.

Okay, it's Sandra Crow, and I live at 882 Newmark Esplanade.

Thank you all for the opportunity to say something here.

We weren't expecting to be able to let you know our concerns.

I want to echo everything that Alex said.

And also, if you haven't been to Newmark, it's um it's in the historic address places, and it's a wonderful, really um very peaceful, sweet community.

And what is being proposed is really out of alignment with the energy of Newmark and how we how we like to live, which is in a very slow pace.

It's kind of like going back into the 1970s.

And so the proposal to go through Newmark, and as Alex said, this is actually at Tower Oaks, not Newmark.

But the proposal would be for the for the road to actually go through Newmark, which would interrupt our the energy of the neighborhood and also the safety aspect.

There's children that walk to the bus stop.

There's people that walk their dogs, and really the energy of the neighborhood would be very interrupted by this proposal.

So we'd love you to come.

Susan's gonna invite you to come.

Mayor and council have already been.

They were gracious enough to come visit and really get a sense of that.

So wanted to make this invitation to everyone here.

Please come and we'd love to give you a little tour of the proposed area.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Next up, Mr.

Walzlock.

The next speaker is Susan Knowles.

Hi, my name is Susan Knowles and I live at Eight Farsta Court.

My house borders the property that that's part of the Tower Oaks in Newmark Commons.

I could repeat everything that they said.

I didn't bring my notes because we didn't think we were going to be able to speak.

But we we got a late start because we're in planning zone three.

That property is in planning zone 12, even though they're right next to one another.

So even with a late start, we used about three weeks to get our petition going.

And we got over about two-thirds of the homes in Newmark to sign on to the petition that were just as concerned as we were about the compatibility between what was proposed and our neighborhood.

And what I wanted to do is really invite you the same way the mayor and council came to the property.

We would love for you to come and really take a look at it because from the map, you can't really see how it exists.

And there's a lot of history behind this property going back all the way to the 1700s.

And it and I think you would be very interested to find out about the property.

At one point, it was part of it was part of a poor house where the indigent lived and died and were buried there.

So it has a little bit of an interesting um uh community feel to it.

And we're we're um we we are concerned about the use of the property too.

But please come out.

I mean, we'll send you an email, and then you can find dates or times that work for you.

And a big group of our community will meet you there to talk to you about how lovely our community is and better, you know, uses that we think would be better for the property.

So thank you very much for letting us speak today.

We appreciate it.

Thanks.

Uh next up, Mr.

Walzlock.

The next speaker speaker is Martin Rees.

Good evening.

I've appreciated the opportunity to talk to you.

I too appreciate the tremendous amount of work that the staff has done in putting this comprehensive plan the zoning amendment and the zoning map together.

As Susan just said, there's an interesting history to this whole area.

In the late 1700s, it was a set up right after the country was set up as an alms house and then a poor house to house indicate people.

After that, in this that went on from about the late 1700s to 1950.

In 1960, in the 60s, Montgomery County had set this aside for a school board site.

When the county accessed the land was later bought by uh Tower Oaks.

Uh primarily want to say that it's we just haven't seen any strategic rationale for why they jumped from an R90 zoning level, which is about four units per acre, to an RMD 25 of 25 units per acre.

If one wants to increase housing, there's a number of different zones of zoning levels available that are a lot less severe.

And as is recommended in the comprehensive plan, the 2040 comprehensive plan that the development of that acreage won't happen unless it's done compatible with the existing neighborhood, which is basically new more commons.

Thank you very much for your time.

Thank you.

Is there anyone else that we have signed up in chamber to give testimony?

There's no one else signed up that's in chambers.

I'm not sure if there's anyone uh online.

Okay.

If you are online and care to give uh public testimony, please uh raise your hand or unmute yourself.

And I see no activity online.

Is that correct?

That is correct.

Okay, perfect.

Well, thank you all for um the presentation from staff.

Thank you for providing your public testimony, members of the public.

Um, and that is uh that's all we got for our um agenda items today.

Um before we leave this item, I just wanted to confirm with the commission that you're comfortable with uh two public hearings in January and potentially uh combining that with work sessions uh for the remainder of the session and uh proceeding from there.

Uh does anybody on the commission have a problem with that?

Commissioner Sun, do you have a problem with that schedule?

Okay, I think we're good.

Yeah.

Seems seems ambitious but reasonable.

Yes, okay.

Okay, perfect.

Um, so with that, we can move on to our regularly scheduled commission items, starting with um our staff liaison report, Mr.

Wazleck.

Uh thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Um, my report will be very brief, um, because you already know what your next meeting is going to be.

And there are no other items uh that are scheduled uh for that meeting or the following meeting at this point.

Uh so you have plenty of time to take testimony and conduct work sessions.

So we look forward to that.

And uh other than you've received some uh correspondence relating to the Zor and the CMA, and other than that, I don't have anything else to report.

All right, perfect.

Hopefully, we do get a lot of compute community engagement and and public testimony in those uh meetings.

It'll be uh it'll be nice.

It's a big deal.

Uh it's a lot of work that went into it, and we want to get it right.

Um, so that's great.

How about uh old business?

Do we have any old business to discuss?

Hearing nothing, do we have any new business?

No new business.

Um approval of minutes.

I didn't see any minutes.

There were no minutes.

Uh unfortunately, uh all the meeting videos are not on the new website.

So have to resolve that issue, and then you will get minutes.

Okay, perfect.

So nothing to talk about in terms of minutes.

Um we did get some correspondence this week, uh, which you've already mentioned around the ZOR and the um the CMA.

Um, anything else that you'd like to point out to us?

No.

No?

Okay, well, I think that does it for us for today.

Um make a motion to adjourn.

So moved.

Second.

Second.

All right.

Uh all those in favor say aye.

Aye.

And we're out.

Thank you very much.

Good night.