The Rockville Planning Commission met virtually on Wednesday, September 9, 2026, at 12:15 PM. Chair Monson presided, joined by Commissioners Jeff Zang, Eric Futen, Jamie F. Notsa, Susan Pitma, and Shane Salah Hadin. The meeting covered an alley name assignment, a recommendation on residential unit allocation and density shift at the King Farm Sheraton Hotel, and new business regarding street naming guidelines.
Good evening, Rockville. Today is Wednesday, September 9th, 2026. This is meeting number 10-26 of the City of Rockview Planning Commission. I am Monson, Chair of the Planning Commission. Tonight's meeting is being conducted virtually only by WebEx. I'm joined online by Commissioners Jeff Zang, Eric Futen, and Jamie F. Notsa. Commissioner Susan Pitma and Shane Salah Hadin can now join us tonight. Tonight's agenda includes one consent agenda, one review and recommendation to the mayor and council, and then we'll be followed by our regular scheduled commission items. Before we proceed, does any commissioners have any questions or thoughts? Okay, here's proceed. Today's first agenda item is the consent agenda request for private any name assignment associated with approved redevelopment at 5906 Halpine Road. So a consent agenda doesn't have a discussion. Prior to this meeting, after the agenda is posted, the applicant has suggested an alternative name as a second option. Therefore, the commission needs to discuss and make a decision. Based on the rules and procedure, one member of the commission needs to make a request to remove this item from consent agenda so we can proceed as a regular agenda. Can any fellow commissioners make this request? I requested being removed from the regular agenda. Okay, I think now this agenda is regular agenda number one. So Mr. Westlake, can we proceed as a regular agenda now? Oh yes, thanks, madam chair, members of the commission. We do have uh principal planner Christopher Davis to make a very brief presentation to you regarding this item. Thank you. Good evening, Madam Chair and members of the commission. Um just want to verify is everyone able to see my screen. Yes. Okay, great. All right. Um, as Mr. Wasserek indicated, this is a um a little bit of a unique agenda item. Uh this is the alley name assignment associated with the project located at 5906 Halpine Road. And for some brief background, um, the commission may recall that this site went through uh a number of various approvals associated with redevelopment dating back to uh the fall of 2024, where the mayor and council rezoned the property and approved uh preliminary approval of the development, um, followed immediately by the planning commission in October of 2024, which allowed uh demolition of the existing church on the subject property and uh residential redevelopment, including 36 uh two over two condo units. Um the project has since proceeded and is uh preparing to go through final permitting uh before uh completing construction. So as we have gotten to this point, um staff has uh coordinated with the applicant for uh kind of our final procedures, including addressing for the site. Um through that process, uh staff has found that um addressing uh through the kind of more conventionally uh methods of uh addressing to the adjacent streets is not feasible. Um so uh staff has considered uh naming the private alley associated with this development uh uh to facilitate addressing for the site. Um as you can see, the new development will include residential units bisected by this private alley, which would give vehicular access to Halpine Road. Um again, uh through our research and uh uh procedures. We found that um addressing this private alley will be uh the most beneficial in terms of functionality and operations for services like um emergency uh responders and um normal services like postal and delivery services. Um as Mr. Wasleck indicated, we previously uh recommended a name for this alley as Mellet Drive. Um that was uh determined through coordination with the applicant um but through further coordination with uh uh our public agencies, um including Montgomery County uh staff now suggest and recommend to the plan commission that the private alley be named Valor Lane. Uh this will eliminate any sources of confusion with similar sounding names that may occur in the county um as well as provide clear uh direction for emergency services. Um so with that, that concludes staff's presentation. Uh happy to answer any questions uh commission may have a thank you. Uh so commissioners, now we have uh staff recommended name uh lane, and uh there's an alternative meta drive. So do you have a pattern for any discussion on this item? I have no problem with vowel drive as long as it was cleared with uh regul other county agencies and parking planning. Okay, how about other commissioners?