Maryvale Elementary School students' art livens up N. Washington St. in Rockville (Photos)

A graffiti-style painting that appeared in a pedestrian covered walkway on N. Washington Street may have been a premonition of things to come. CBG Building Company, which is constructing the Brightview Rockville Town Center senior apartment project at 285 N. Washington Street, has an art program that puts works by local students on display at their construction sites.

Here in Rockville, CBG asked third, fourth and fifth graders at Maryvale Elementary School what they do for fun in their neighborhood. The resulting artworks have now been installed at the site's covered sidewalk area. In addition, CBG posted a couple of renderings of the project, which is expected to deliver in May of 2017.

Senior housing proposed for former site of IBM building in Rockville

Developer IDI 50 Monroe, LLC, is proposing to build an apartment building for independent seniors at 50 Monroe Place in Rockville. This is the former site of the IBM Building, which was demolished in 2006, right behind the Americana Center. The site has sat vacant since.

A 13-story, 120' tall building with 175 seniors-only apartment units is proposed, along with 47 garage parking spaces, a 15' sidewalk area along Monroe Place, and new public-use space adjacent to James Monroe Park, which is directly behind the property. No retail space is mentioned.

A public meeting is being held by the applicant on Monday, July 18, 2016, at 7:00 PM, in the 1st Floor meeting room at the Rockville Memorial Library at 21 Maryland Avenue. The applicant hopes to receive approval from the City by the end of next year, break ground in early 2018, and anticipates delivery in the summer of 2019.

In addition to the July meeting, a Development Review Committee meeting has already been tentatively scheduled for August 18 at 10:00 AM at City Hall.

The IDI Companies is not new to senior housing developments in Montgomery County. The Arlington-based firm has developed 7 multifamily senior housing projects at Leisure World in Silver Spring.

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.

" HORSEWHIPPED " APPLICANT RETURNS TO ROCKVILLE PLANNING COMMISSION TO SEEK PARKING REDUCTION

A car wash, senior housing and a controversial parking reduction request for Rockville Town Center Phase II are among the items on the agenda at Wednesday night's meeting of the Rockville Planning Commission.

Enterprise Rent-A-Car is seeking permission to construct a car wash behind its current facility.

A 7-story multifamily building for seniors and the disabled is proposed by Shelter Development, LLC. The developer is asking for several waivers - to allow the rooftop deck to extend beyond the wall of the building, to add 2 above-ground electrical transformers, and an exemption from the city's Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance for school requirements. That latter request is due to the planned demographics of the residents. However, projects built as "senior housing" have been known to later shift to being all-ages apartments.

Item #2, the parking reduction request by Hungerford Retail II, LLC, could prove the most interesting of the meeting. The town center project's waiver request imploded during its initial presentation to commissioners this spring, and left the applicant subject to what the body's chairman later described as a "horsewhipping."

The meeting begins at 7:00 PM in the Mayor and Council chambers at City Hall, and will be broadcast live on Channel 11.