Flats at Shady Grove apartments now leasing in Rockville (Photos)

The new Flats at Shady Grove apartments at 1380 Piccard Drive have begun leasing. Converted from a former hotel, the apartments are located right off of I-270 near the Shady Grove exit. More than 200 units are being offered at rents developer Kettler says undercut market prices in the surrounding area.

Amenities include two courtyards, a large outdoor pool, a clubhouse with free WiFi, 24-hour emergency maintenance, pet salon, billiard and movie rooms, and complimentary coffee or tea.

Signs are inviting drivers to visit the building's leasing office, as the finishing touches are put on the renovated building.

" Potentially catastrophic " changes wrought by Rockville APFS vote

Unintended consequences, or a "shell game"? How some changes slipped through along with Rockville's adoption of Montgomery County's school capacity standards, was a question on the minds of several Planning Commissioners at last night's meeting.

Commissioner Jack Leiderman questioned city planning staff regarding a little-noticed change in traffic standards, which mysteriously accompanied the relaxing of school standards, in the City Council resolution.

The change now exempts age-restricted senior housing projects from traffic impact standards. As senior housing has little to do with school capacity, Leiderman wanted to know why such a change was made, and how it was done without alerting the commission or the council. "I'm a little bit troubled by the process involved," Leiderman said.

Under the new standard, Leiderman argued, if Redgate Golf Course were redeveloped as a Leisure World-style community - minus facilities that would subject it to traffic penalties - the resulting major automobile generator would be entirely exempt. Leiderman said the new policy "could be potentially catastrophic."

Staff Liaison Andrew Gunning and Chief of Planning Jim Wasilak said the change likely slipped through when staff tried to match the subdivision staging policy with that of the county's.

Leiderman noted that Mayor Bridget Newton brought the traffic policy change up twice during council discussion of the APFS changes. Commission Chair Don Hadley recalled that he mentioned it specifically during his Annual Report briefing to the Mayor and Council.

A suggestion of drafting a text amendment to correct the unintended change was proposed by Leiderman. Commissioner David Hill preferred to limit action to a letter alerting the Mayor and Council to the problem. Hadley offered a compromise: a letter that would outline how the Mayor and Council might consider correcting the language. Leiderman moved to adopt Hadley's suggestion; his motion was seconded by Hill.

The motion passed unanimously.

Acting on a question of senior housing had some additional impetus with word that the developer behind the Quality Suites project by I-270 may be rethinking the project. Once planned as "multi-family housing," the hotel conversion had been switched to senior housing, and had obtained a school capacity waiver from the commission under that guise. If the project is reconsidered, the developer technically still has approval for multi-family housing, Wasilak said, having not yet acted on the senior housing plan. The project could now go forward as multi-family housing, now that the moratorium has been lifted by the APFS vote.

Rockville Planning Commission grants schools waiver to hotel converting to senior housing

The Rockville Planning Commission granted a schools waiver from the city's Adequate Public Facilities Standards to the Quality Suites hotel that is converting into senior housing. Located at 1380 Piccard Drive, the 219-room hotel will become a 203-unit senior housing development. No exterior changes are planned for the building.

Commissioner Charles Littlefield expressed concern that the development, while limited to seniors, would impact the city's most overcrowded school, College Gardens ES, if it somehow ever generated any students. Erica Leatham of Ballard Spahr, LLP, the applicant's attorney, said that the only residents under 62 who could live in the building would be caregivers.

One related question to that was, what if sneaky parents try to use the former hotel's address to enroll their kids at College Gardens? Commissioner Jack Leiderman asked if the city could communicate to Montgomery County Public Schools that anyone applying from the address of 1380 Piccard Drive should be rejected by the school system. Staff Liaison Andrew Gunning affirmed that could be done.

Littlefield asked if the applicant intended to operate the housing once it opens. Leatham said it does for the immediate future, but added that it is impossible to speculate about a future transaction a decade down the road.

Commissioner David Hill questioned the demand for senior housing at that location. Leatham said that her own parents had recently applied to the Ingleside senior residence at King Farm, and were told it would be a 5-6 year wait. "There's clearly a pent-up demand," she said. Commissioner Anne Goodman noted that a friend of hers was accepted at Ingleside in only 7 months. Leatham jokingly said she would have to take that up that apparent discrepancy with Ingleside.

Thoughts on the hotel's current parking lot were mixed. Hill felt the opportunity exists to reduce parking in favor of more green space around the building. But Leiderman said that would not be advisable. It turns out there are only 216 parking spaces for the 203 units. That could easily be filled if only 13 residents had two cars. And that does not begin to include parking for caregivers and visitors. If anything, it appears parking would be at a premium.

"I don’t see a lot of seniors who are going to give up driving to live out by 270," Leiderman said, citing the poor access to rapid transit at the site alongside Interstate 270.

Otherwise, commissioners were in agreement on the main points of the waiver request Wednesday night. They voted unanimously to approve the waiver, which required a supermajority for approval. The motion was made by Commissioner John Tyner, and seconded by Goodman.

Rockville hotel switching to senior housing requests APFS waiver (Photo)

The Quality Suites at 1380 Piccard Drive wants to convert its building into senior housing, and has requested a waiver from Rockville's Adequate Public Facilities Standards requirements. Under their plan, the 219 room hotel would become a 203-unit seniors-only (age 62+) apartment building.

Their development application was approved by the city's planning chief, Jim Wasilak, on January 10. Because no exterior changes are being made to the building, the Chief of Planning was the approving authority in that case.

However, the applicant must obtain a minimum of 5 approving votes from the Planning Commission to receive the APFS waiver. Based on the current APFS standards, city planner Nicole Walters says the applicant is eligible for the waiver. The rules allow exemptions for "age-restricted residential uses."

The commission will take up the waiver request at its April 8 meeting, at 7:00 PM in City Hall.

ASSAULT AT ROCKVILLE HOTEL, DRUG ARREST AT WOOTON HIGH SCHOOL - NIGHTS WATCH: ROCKVILLE CRIME REPORT

According to recent crime data, an assault was reported at the Quality Suites Hotel in Rockville, and a drug arrest was made at Wooton High School, both last Friday.  Disorderly conduct was reported at the Twinbrook Recreation Center last Sunday.

Here's a list of incidents around Rockville between March 1-4:

Friday, March 1:

Assault. Quality Suites Hotel, Piccard Drive.

Drug arrest. Wooton HS.

Theft. 400 block College Parkway.

Theft from vehicle. 400 N. Washington Street.

Saturday, March 2:

Robbery. XX block Congressional Lane.

Theft from vehicle. 200 block N. Adams Street.

Sunday, March 3:

Disorder. Twinbrook Recreation Center.

Theft from vehicle. 1900 block Henry Road.

Monday, March 4:

Assault. 400 block Redland Boulevard.

Theft. 500 block Elmcroft Boulevard.

Drug arrest. 12600 block Twinbrook Parkway.

Theft from vehicle. 14500 block Southlawn Lane.

Drug arrest. 1600 block E. Gude Drive.

Burglary. 300 block Crabb Avenue.

Theft from vehicle. 600 block Hungerford Drive.