Rockville Chase Bank branch project moving forward on Meixin Supermarket site

J.P. Morgan Chase is moving forward with its proposed Chase Bank branch on the site of the vacant Meixin Supermarket at 460 Hungerford Drive in Rockville. The Mayor and Council last month voted to deny historic status to the Jack Sullivan-designed retail structure, which will now be demolished. 

A Level 2 site plan for the branch will be reviewed by the Planning Commission at its virtual meeting this week on Wednesday, December 8, 2021, at 7:00 PM. Planning staff are recommending approval of the plan, but with a whopping 28 conditions, ranging from lighting that does not cause glare for drivers to compliance with master plan requirements for a shared-use path and future extension of Dawson Avenue.

Photo by Robert Dyer; rendering via City of Rockville

Rockville Historic District Commission to review proposed demolition of two Chapman Avenue buildings

1800 Chapman Avenue

Two more midcentury modern buildings will be considered for historic designation by the Rockville Historic District Commission at its virtual meeting this Thursday night, October 21, 2021 at 7:00 PM. A developer is seeking to tear down 1800 Chapman Avenue and 1818 Chapman Avenue, in order to construct a new apartment building.

1800 Chapman Avenue

1800 Chapman Avenue was built around 1954, planning staff found, but documents pinpointing the exact date and architect have been lost. It was built for Bowen & Company, a manufacturer of medical instruments. The building has been vacant since the firm went out of business.

1800 Chapman Avenue

1818 Chapman Avenue was designed by modernist architect Donald N. Coupard, a graduate of Rockville High School, Montgomery College and Catholic University. It was built for Dermot A. Nee, whose father founded the P.J. Nee Furniture Company across the street. Initially a garage and warehouse used to store Dairy Dan Ice Cream trucks when they weren't roaming the streets, it was most recently Tony's Body Shop, and is now vacant. Coupard incorporated design touches into the building from the furniture store, such as its stone pillars and distinctive windows and double doors.

1818 Chapman Avenue

Both buildings have unique designs and represent their time period well. But neither qualifies for historic designation under the existing criteria, planning staff argues in its report. Staff suggests there are "numerous examples of these types of structures within Rockville." Commissioners will consider this, and any other viewpoints from preservation organizations and the public, at Thursday's meeting. They will then make a recommendation to the Mayor and Council. 

1818 Chapman Avenue

1818 Chapman Avenue

Photos via City of Rockville

Historic status of former Chinese supermarket to be decided in Rockville tonight

There are several significant resolutions on the agenda of the Rockville Mayor and Council tonight. Votes tonight will determine if all City employees must be vaccinated, and if Rockville will expand to take the King Buick GMC dealership property into its boundaries. Also on the agenda: a vote to decide whether the former Meixin Supermarket at 460 Hungerford Drive merits historic designation.

The distinctive Mansard roof-topped structure is one of many Rockville landmarks designed by the architecture firm of the late John "Jack" Sullivan. Sullivan was also responsible for the Aspen Hill Library, the Rockville Swim Center, and the Humble Car Care Center (R.I.P.). The Mayor and Council will have to weigh how many buildings in the Sullivan portfolio must be preserved versus the desire of J.P. Morgan Chase to open a bank branch on the site. 

City staff is recommending against historic designation, arguing the structure does not meet the established criteria. Preservation organization Peerless Rockville contends otherwise. "Peerless contends that the growth of the City in the Mid-Century is truly significant to the development of the city itself and deserved to be fully surveyed, researched, documented and evaluated before the [Historic District] Commission can adequately render judgement on any particular building's significance," wrote Nancy Pickard, Executive Director of Peerless Rockville. Matthew McCool, a Vice-President at J.P. Morgan Chase Bank, N.A. says that if the building is designated historic, the bank branch plan will be canceled.

Rockville police chief to address Asian community safety Thursday night

Rockville Police Chief Victor Brito will address the safety of the city's large Asian-American community in a virtual forum this Thursday night, July 15, 2021 at 7:00 PM. You can register online in advance to participate in the meeting, which will also include representatives of the Asian and Pacific Islander community. The forum is being organized by the City of Rockville's Asian Pacific American Task Force.

Rockville Mayor & Council to review recommendations for Wootton Parkway, Woodley Gardens, College Gardens in 2040 plan

Rockville's Mayor and Council will discuss sections of the draft Rockville 2040 comprehensive master plan at their Tuesday, July 6, 2021 meeting related to Wootton Parkway, Woodley Gardens, and College Gardens. In response to public testimony discouraging widening or other methods of increasing vehicular capacity on Wootton Parkway, The City planning staff report is recommending limiting such improvements to "creative solutions" at intersections.

The staff report is also recommending designating the property of the Woodley Gardens Swim Club at 850 Nelson Street as "Open Space Private." While sale of the property is under consideration, the staff report notes, one or more potential new owners have indicated they wish to maintain the existing pool operation. 

In regard to the College Gardens area, the report is supporting public testimony that called for reopening the walking/biking connection between Princeton Place and the Montgomery College - Rockville campus, leaving out any mention of a planned new roadway between W. Gude Drive and Yale Place, construction of a pedestrian path between College Gardens and Woodley Gardens, and for a new sound barrier along I-270 on the western side of Woodley Gardens.

However, the report does not support entirely eliminating a proposed new I-270 interchange with W. Gude Drive. The report recommends the Mayor and Council retain the draft's proposal for studying such an interchange, but to amend the language that would only endorse an interchange "that has minimal or no impact on the Woodley Gardens and College Gardens neighborhoods." A new interchange had support from residents in Fallsgrove and the West End who participated in listening sessions, and from businesses in the Southlawn industrial area, the report states.

Rockville Mayor & Council to receive presentation on proposed "Great Seneca" transit improvements

Elected officials at the Montgomery County and state levels have failed to deliver the Corridor Cities Transitway they assured us would make the Science City sector plan a "smart growth" success. The developers built, but the transitway never materialized. Now, Montgomery County will deliver its proposal for old-fashioned bus service additions to what was rebranded as the "Great Seneca" sector plan to Rockville's Mayor and Council this coming Monday night, February 1, 2021 at 7:00 PM.

Two new bus lines would pass through the City of Rockville as part of the proposal. The County Department of Transportation is including options for dedicated bus lanes, queue jumping, and priority for buses at traffic signals in the plan. They will seek feedback from the Mayor and Council on the proposed bus lines, which are being brought before city officials for the first time next week.

Rockville Planning Commission to discuss Open Meetings Act violations

Rockville's Planning Commission will discuss Open Meetings Act violations at its next (open) meeting on Wednesday, January 27, 2021 at 7:00 PM. Commissioners will specifically address requesting an independent, outside review of OMA violations. No details are provided in the meeting agenda.

Rockville Mayor & Council to discuss City Manager in closed session

Rockville City Manager
Rob DiSpirito

Rockville's Mayor and Council will go into closed session at their Monday, January 27, 2020 meeting to discuss the City Manager. The session will be closed to the public. According to the meeting agenda, the subjects of the discussion may include one or more of the following:  the appointment, employment, assignment, promotion, discipline, demotion, compensation, removal, resignation, or performance evaluation of the City Manager."

City Manager Rob DiSpirito has served in that role since November 2016. Note that Monday's meeting will begin at 5:45 PM instead of the usual 7:00 PM start. It will begin in open, public session at 5:45 with a vote to adjourn to the closed session. The meeting is scheduled to reconvene back into open session around 6:30, pending completion of the closed session.

Photo via City of Rockville

355 Bus Rapid Transit open houses June 26 & 27

What's a $10 billion boondoggle with branding that brings to mind a creepy man wearing a trenchcoat? Montgomery County's proposed $10 billion Bus Rapid Transit network, devised with consulting help from Communist Chinese officials, and branded as "Flash," despite moving only one mile every four minutes. The public will have an opportunity to learn more about the MD 355 BRT route proposed to run between Clarksburg and the Bethesda Metro station at two open houses next week.

Open House #1 will be held Wednesday, June 26, 2019 from 6:00-8:00 PM at the Activity Center at Bohrer Park, located at 506 S. Frederick Avenue in Gaithersburg. The second Open House will be held the next evening, Thursday, June 27 from 6:00-8:00 PM in the Wisconsin Multipurpose Room at the B-CC Regional Services Center, located at 4805 Edgemoor Lane in downtown Bethesda.

You'll notice several key factoids are not emphasized to the public about this particular BRT proposal.

First, if dedicated lanes are utilized, the vehicle capacity of already-jammed MD 355 will be slashed by 33%. If you know that BRT advocates' most-optimistic number for the percent of people who will "get out of their cars" (as the globalists like to say) is only 16% in the best-case scenario, in a "flash" you can quickly calculate that the BRT will have the effect of severely-worsening rush hour traffic - and increasing exhaust emissions from additional idling in traffic jams.

Second, speaking of fumes, these buses run on diesel fuel. Unlike the futuristic subways on wheels depicted in glossy promotional materials you paid for, the buses look just like Metrobuses. That was exposed in one of the most cringeworthy PR disasters of the BRT push, when the actual bus was displayed at the County Fair, and it looked like a junky Metrobus.

Third, the 355 route - like Route 29 and Georgia Avenue BRT lines - will require demolition of thousands of residential and commercial properties between Clarksburg and Bethesda. Watch this very closely, and keep track if all of the same activists who are raging against 37 potential home demolitions for Beltway Express Lanes yell and scream about thousands of demolitions for BRT. I expect to see heartfelt columns from John Kelly denouncing the greedy developers and their puppets on the County Council and Planning Board, and extensive local news coverage of anti-highway folks jumping up and down and lighting their hair on fire to stop BRT! And like the anti-Express Lane and anti-M83-Highway campaigns, shadow-funded by the Rockefeller Foundation, of course.

In the fine print, you'll notice the County is "still studying" the "property impacts" of BRT. LOL.

Fourth, the only thing the Flash does fast is eat up taxpayer money. 355 "Flash" will take a turtle-like 87.2 minutes to travel the 21.8 miles from Clarksburg to the Bethesda Metro station. And then you're not even at work, because you still have to transfer to Metro to reach where the actual jobs are in the District or Northern Virginia. Better pack a Red Bull, my friend.

It's a simple fact that only transit projects that can beat automobile travel times will get ridership, meaning "Flash" is dead-on-arrival. This, of course, is why the War-On-Cars County Council is trying everything to increase auto commuting times, proposing nuclear options ranging from changing the speed limit to 25 MPH along 355, reducing the width of lanes to 10' and seizing one lane in each direction for the bus.

But that still won't create ridership, or "get people out of their cars." Why? Because increasing your auto commute by another 34 minutes still won't take as long as the average one-way transit commute of two hours. So you'll just end up with empty buses running past heavier traffic congestion and thicker clouds of exhaust from idling vehicles. Heckuva job, Brownie!

Why would County officials press ahead anyway, knowing all this? Because BRT isn't meant to improve travel or be a success. It's simply meant to allow urban-density development along all the routes it travels, by magically qualifying them for "transit-oriented development" by being on a "rapid transit line." The Council's developer sugar daddies couldn't be more pleased.

Finally, there's no demand for bus service on 355. I'm the only journalist to conduct spot checks on the $1 million Ride On Extra service between Shady Grove and Medical Center Metro stations. I've yet to find any significant ridership even during rush hour on this line. During peak evening rush hour, I counted one person riding the Ride On Extra in each direction on 355 at Edmonston Drive. During another peak evening rush hour, a Ride On Extra departed Shady Grove Metro station with no passengers on board.

This is a boondoggle of astronomical proportions. For a fraction of the cost of BRT, we could build the M-83 Highway, the long-delayed new Potomac River crossing, the Rockville Freeway between Montrose Road and the ICC, and the equally-long-delayed Georgia Avenue-Norbeck Road interchange. Each one of the aforementioned highways would carry more commuters each day than the entire $10 billion BRT network. And the Potomac River crossing, like I-270 and Beltway Express Lanes, could be built at virtually no cost to taxpayers by private firms that would earn back their investment through tolls on those new lanes and roadways.

In an economically-moribund county where the government's debt - if it were a government department - would be the third-largest department in the County government, highways make the most sense: moving the most people for the lowest cost of any mode of transportation.

Rockville pedestrian advocacy committee to hold first meeting Thursday

The topic of pedestrian safety is front-and-center in the region these days. It seems that the more restrictions and obstacles that are put in the way of motorists, the higher the pedestrian death toll continues to rise. A Pedestrian Advocacy Committee formed by the Mayor & Council on May 20 will hold its first meeting tomorrow night, Thursday, June 13, 2019 at 7:00 PM in the Red Maple Room on the second floor of City Hall. All city residents are welcome to attend and are invited to "take part in the committee."

City Manager Rob DiSpirito has recommended the committee first develop a workplan on its own, and then report back to the Mayor & Council so they can coordinate strategies and expectations. To that end, Thursday night's agenda includes an overview of how the committee was created, a review of existing pedestrian safety initiatives in the city, and how residents can help advocate for pedestrian concerns and Vision Zero goals to be more fully considered in planning decisions.

Rockville Planning Commission to review consolidation of 3 N. Stonestreet Ave. lots

Self-storage building

planned for combined site

Poverni Sheikh Group has applied to the City of Rockville to consolidate three plats on N. Stonestreet Avenue into one final plat for redevelopment purposes. The applicant proposes to construct a self-storage facility, with 2800 SF of ground-floor retail, on the combined lot at 204 N. Stonestreet Avenue. 204 N. Stonestreet is bordered to the west by the CSX railroad and Metro trackage.

City staff are recommending approval of the final plat, with conditions. The Planning Commission will take up the application at its Wednesday, June 12, 2019 meeting at 7:00 PM at Rockville City Hall.

Proposed Rockville sign regulations update before Planning Commission Wednesday

Businesses getting the attention of potential customers driving through Rockville might become even more challenging under changes proposed for the city's sign regulations. Those changes will be considered for final recommendations to the Mayor and Council by the Planning Commission Wednesday, April 24, 2019 at 7:00 PM at City Hall.

City staff have suggested outlawing pole signs in favor of ground-level "monument signs." Staff has also suggested the Commission declare existing pole signs as "nonconforming," and require them to be removed in eight years. You may notice that without such signs out at the property edge on Rockville Pike, for example, it's very hard to notice businesses set back from the road while driving.

The proposed changes would also eliminate the Sign Review Board, and have its primary functions reassigned to the Board of Appeals. To see changes that might affect your business or neighborhood sales and activities, review the staff report online before tomorrow night's meeting.

More Montgomery County headlines:

Kate Spade closes at Bethesda Row as rich flee MoCo

Michael's Noodles owner to open Wang Dynasty in Bethesda

Man shoots out car window at Silver Spring 7-Eleven

Suburban News Network - MoCo's leading local news source

Rockville chosen for microtransit pilot program

The Montgomery County Department of Transportation is launching a pilot program to test microtransit in Rockville, Wheaton, and Glenmont. Riders would be able to request a small shuttle bus from designated pickup and drop-off points using an app on their phones. They would receive an estimated time of arrival for the bus.

A public hearing on the pilot will be held on Thursday, April 25, 2019, at 6:30 PM at A. Mario Loiederman Middle School, which is located at 12701 Goodhill Road off Weller Road in Silver Spring. Attendees will have the opportunity to speak, and to learn more about the pilot program.

MCDOT has released these two (very blurry) maps showing the zones for the pilot. In Rockville, the pilot zone appears to include Rockville Town Center, Hungerford and part of Rockville Pike near those areas.

Rockville seeks input on future of parks at public meetings tonight

Weigh in on the future of Rockville's parks and recreation programs and facilities at two public meetings being held tonight, Thursday, March 28, 2019 by the city's Department of Recreation and Parks. The first meeting will be held at 6:00 PM in the social hall at the F. Scott Fitzgerald Theatre, located at 603 Edmonston Drive. Tonight's second meeting will begin at 7:30 PM, and will be held at the Rockville Senior Center, located at 1150 Carnation Drive.

If you cannot attend tonight, you can also submit comments online.

Explosive Rockville Town Square public meeting - it's even worse then we thought

"I was crying like

hell when we 

received the letters

that they were going

to evict us"

A public meeting on the future of Rockville Town Square exceeded the fire code-allowed capacity of the Buchanan Room at VisArts last night, forcing overflow attendees to listen from out in the hallway. Emotiional testimonies by business owners were only topped by bombshell announcements of additional business closures at the Square, and another Federal Realty property in Town Center.

Takeaways from the night include two clear problems - the widely-despised parking policies at RTS, and that "the rent is too damn high" at that property and nearby Courthouse Center. Last night we learned the latter is about to lose one of its most-popular and beloved tenants, when the owner of the Apollo Restaurant announced it will close at the end of this month, citing an inability to pay the high rent Federal Realty is asking for.

Mayor Bridget Donnell Newton
addresses the crowd

A member of the family that owns Samovar, a restaurant that has been closed for almost two months after water leaked in from the apartments above it, detailed her struggles with brokers and Federal Realty from the beginning. She said a property manager at RTS repeatedly stalled in giving her a key to their leased space, leaving owners and contractors unable to immediately access the restaurant as they began construction.

"I was crying, asking and begging them," she recalled. "Please, we need to start." Her architect charged them overtime as a result, she added. "He was standing there, next to the door," as she had no key or passcode to let him in. She said her father had opened and operated a successful restaurant in New York City with seating for one-thousand people, one in Denver, and another in Portland, Oregon, and assumed he would find similar success in Rockville.

But, "we cannot survive here," she said. "I was crying like hell...when we received the letters that they were going to evict us," she recounted. She segued into one of the banes of RTS tenants - parking. "Nobody wants to come here because of the parking," She noted correctly that two hours of validated parking is not enough for many people. Samovar hosts entertainment and events at which people may stay for more than two hours. She said Samovar wants to continue, but "I don't know," receiving a round of applause at the end of her remarks from the crowd.

Attendees file into the Buchanan Room,
which eventually reached fire code capacity

A tearful owner of Pandora Seafood House and Bar said Federal Realty is evicting her restaurant later this month, after only one year (it was still operating last night). She said she was fooled about the full cost of renting the space by her agent, who she is now suing, and about what she would have to pay during the construction phase - which lasted quite a while, if you remember.

One retail tenant at the Square pointed to the larger business climate beyond Rockville as a cause of her trouble."I can no longer afford to do business in Montgomery County, or the state of Maryland," she said, announcing that she currently does not plan to renew her lease when it ends. "I'm telling you, Rockville, you are losing the heart of your city. Please do not make the mistake of letting all of your small, independent businesses go."

Former Rockville Mayor Larry Giammo, widely credited for his leadership in delivering the city's redeveloped Town Center, was clearly concerned about the fate of one of his legacy projects. Giammo honed in on the question of high rents. "What are the lease rates that Federal Realty is charging tenants here, and how do those compare" with competing developments, he asked to an eruption of applause. "It's obviously the key to understanding what's going on here."

Giammo said he was "heartbroken" to find out that Dawson's Market will be closing this month. "My family and I shop there a good three, four, five times a week. It's really a part of our lives now." He noted that the number of cars filling the reserved Dawson's Market spaces in the N. Washington Street surface lot at RTS often exceed the number of customers actually shopping inside the store. Despite repeated pleas from Dawson's to Federal Realty and parking contractor Colonial Parking, "neither has ever done anything" to assist the store. "So my question is, 'Why not?' If Federal Realty wanted it to succeed, why did they ignore such obvious issues?" Giammo concluded to applause.

Another former elected official, City Councilman Tom Moore, called the decision to cut the planned height of the development's residential buildings in half a "fatal flaw." He said the reduced density deprived Town Center business owners of many more potential customers.

Resident Joe Jordan recommended that Federal Realty and the city conduct a form of exit interview with businesses that close, to determine if the cause was rent, their business model, or another issue.

Other suggestions made by attendees included more investment in arts and entertainment, turning Dawson's into a co-op market, adding a dog park, making a better connection to the Metro station, allowing up to 5 hours of free parking, and operating a shuttle bus.

There was no shortage of complaints and concerns, but one element missing from the meeting was hearing from businesses that are doing well at Rockville Town Square. What are they doing right, what is drawing traffic to them, and how might those insights assist tenants who are struggling, or Federal Realty in better targeting local demographics? There was also frustration at the lack of feedback from City officials and Federal Realty representatives. One attendee said that he had expected more of a dialogue.

Officials said they wanted to allow the maximum time for the public and business owners to speak, rather than have a back-and-forth conversation. Mayor Bridget Donnell Newton, who called for the meeting, said the goal was to hear from all of the stakeholders involved to determine how the development can be succcessful. Rockville Chamber of Commerce CEO Marji Graf said all of those stakeholders do share one goal. "We all want the same thing - a thriving Rockville."

Rockville mayor schedules public meeting on future of Rockville Town Square

Rockville City Hall is in crisis mode after the announcement that Rockville Town Square retail anchor Dawson's Market will close at the end of this month. The bad news followed the exit of another major restaurant tenant, Mellow Mushroom, the previous week. Dawson's failure has given at least the public perception that the property is taking on water in a big way at this point - fair or not. Mayor Bridget Donnell Newton has now scheduled a public meeting on the future of the Federal Realty development, which was the keystone of the city's revitalized town center when it opened a decade ago.

In her announcement of the meeting, Newton said Dawson's Market was "an incredible community partner, and I am very sad to see them close. It came as a shock to me as well.” The meeting will be held next Tuesday, October 9, 2018 at 7:00 PM in the Buchanan Room at VisArts at Rockville Town Square.

The city has had many discussions over the years about the high turnover of tenants at the property, and a parking system that has infuriated patrons and tenants alike. With many high profile closures, including original tenant Toy Kingdom last year, action may finally have to be taken to stop the bleeding.

First Baptist Church seeks to add addition in Rockville

The First Baptist Church at 55 Adclare Road has submitted plans to the City of Rockville for a 4800 multi-purpose addition to its existing church structure. It is needed to better serve the church's congregation, according to documents filed with the city. A public meeting on the project is scheduled for Tuesday, September 18, 2018 at the church. Strangely, no time is given in the announcement. Until I hear further, I can only advise that these meetings are usually held at 6:30 or 7:00 PM in the evening.

Fireside Park improvements to be review by Development Review Committee August 16

Proposed renovations and improvements to the Fireside Park Apartments will be reviewed this Thursday, August 16, 2018, by the Rockville Development Review Committee. The meeting will be held at 10:00 AM in the Black Eyed Susan Conference Room at City Hall. Improvements proposed include interior renovations, landscaping and ADA-compliance upgrades. The meeting is open to the public, but there is no opportunity for public comment.

Rockville Audi to add 2 more surface parking lots

Rockville Audi is preparing to submit a plan to the City of Rockville for the addition of two lots west of the current dealership building at 1125 Rockville Pike. It will improve those lots for surface parking. From the Google satellite image of the G-shaped dealership property, it's not immediately clear where those lots will be carved out.

The existing lot and dealership, with its
current G-shaped layout (it abuts apartments
behind, and Woodmont Country Club to the south

A required public meeting will be held by the dealership on Thursday, June 28, 2018 at 7:00 PM in the Black Eyed Susan Conference Room at City Hall, which is located at 111 Maryland Avenue.

More townhomes proposed for King Farm

A developer is proposing to build 65 more townhomes in King Farm, on lots at 1503 Piccard Drive and 801 King Farm Boulevard. No filing has been made yet with the city, but a required public meeting for the project will be held this Thursday, April 26, 2018 at the King Farm Saddle Ridge Community Center at 300 Saddle Ridge Circle at 7:30 PM.