HISTORIC DESIGNATION ZONING TEXT AMENDMENT ON ROCKVILLE PLANNING COMMISSION AGENDA TONIGHT

The Rockville Planning Commission tonight will take up a Zoning Text Amendment requested by the Mayor and Council that would streamline the process by which a Sectional Map Amendment could be filed for a historic property. Instead of having the Historic District Commission forward a recommendation to the Mayor and Council for approval, the HDC could file it directly. A public hearing would still be held by the Mayor and Council before a final decision would be made.

Tonight's meeting will also continue the discussion of the Rockville Master Plan scope of work. It will be held at 7:00 PM in the Mayor and Council chambers at City Hall. The meeting will also be broadcast live on Rockville Channel 11, and streamed on the city website.

ROCKVILLE CITIZENS BEAT BACK APFO SCHOOL STANDARDS CHANGES

The effort to replace Rockville's current school capacity standards with the weaker Montgomery County standards failed at last night's Mayor and Council meeting. In the face of overwhelming resident opposition and mobilization, Councilmember Tom Moore withdrew his proposal before it went to a vote. Councilmembers Virginia Onley and Beryl Feinberg declined to support the measure, despite having been members of the Team Rockville slate with Moore and Councilmember Julie Palakovich Carr. Carr had seconded Moore's motion to adopt the new standard prior to its withdrawal.

Residents turned the meeting's Community Forum into an impromptu public hearing prior to the decision. Susan Prince presented a petition opposing the changes which had 362 signatures, and she and others read comments from residents who could not attend. "Rockville is a family town, not a megacity," one wrote. Resident Jack Gelin, testifying in person, said such a change "poorly serves our children, and violates the civic compact."

Several Rockville Planning Commissioners testified against the changes, including Chair Don Hadley, and Commissioners Anne Goodman and Jack Leiderman. Citizens from the West End, East Rockville and Twinbrook turned out in force, and via petition. Some developers and development attorneys who would benefit from the changes were present in the chambers during last night's meeting, signaling the urgency behind the proposed weakening of the APFO. Even the county Gazette newspaper editorial board had elbowed its way into the city's debate, endorsing Moore's proposal to adopt County standards.

Mayor Bridget Newton, who had opposed the changes, said it was time to "stop this conversation, and start a new conversation" at the countywide level, as opposed to arbitrary action by the city. Rockville is expected to take part in a March 7 event hosted by Montgomery County Councilmember Roger Berliner, which will bring stakeholders together for a dialogue on infrastructure, including school capacity.

Feinberg and Onley agreed with Newton that is would be best to wait until that new process plays out before the city takes any action on school standards. Moore expressed concern that the possible changes would be tabled permanently, and sought to have the matter placed on a future agenda. First he suggested March 16, and - after colleagues noted jam-packed agendas in the spring - then amended that to the soonest possible time for staff. His motion failed 3-2, supported only by Palakovich Carr.

Moore said the issue could be lost without placing it on an agenda. Onley replied incredulously, "this is absolutely not going to get lost." Newton concurred, recalling that the APFO has been a hot topic during every term she has served as Mayor or councilmember.

Feinberg said she was swayed by residents' testimony, and conversations with former city leaders to oppose the changes. Former Mayor Larry Giammo and former Councilmember John Hall were among those who opposed the effort to adopt the county's 120% over-capacity standard, and its measurement of crowding by cluster rather than individual school. Both were in office when the measure was passed a decade ago.

Team Rockville has not always been the monolith many residents feared when the slate was entirely elected, minus Mark Pierzchala, who was defeated in the mayor's race by Newton. Onley and Feinberg have often broken with their slate and voted with Newton on a variety of issues.

The inevitable question now is, when will the APFO issue be raised once more, forcing residents to mobilize yet again, despite clear public opposition to changing the standards?

RED HUE CLOSING AT ROCKVILLE TOWN SQUARE, RADIO SHACK CONFIRMS CLOSING IN ROCKVILLE (PHOTOS)

Red Hue is closing its Rockville Town Square boutique on February 15. The owners say their apparel will still be available online, and through other retail outlets in the area. This is the most recent of many closings at the Federal Realty property, which some say is the result of the parking setup there. Residents and city officials alike have expressed concern that Rockville's flagship retail destination could lose business to new competitors Pike & Rose and Downtown Crown, as well as RIO/Washingtonian Center, all of which offer limited (2 hours at Pike & Rose) or unlimited free parking.

Meanwhile, Rockville's venerable Radio Shack store at 1600 Rockville Pike is now confirmed to be on the bankrupt company's closure list. The store has gone into "Everything Must Go!!!" mode, with savings of 30-50% off.

IS ROCKVILLE'S RADIO SHACK ON THE LIST OF STORES TO CLOSE?

The bankruptcy filing of Radio Shack has coincided with an agreement the struggling company reached with General Wireless, which will acquire up to 2400 of the electronics retailer's stores. According to a Radio Shack press release, Sprint will operate a "store within a store" inside up to 1750 of the stores GW takes over.

But what about the rest of Radio Shack's 4000 company-owned bricks-and-mortar outlets, including the one in Rockville?

The company says the Rockville store is indeed on the chopping block at the moment, and that is the Radio Shack at 1600 Rockville Pike.

Radio Shack says the Rockville location is one of the 1600 stores it will "potentially" close, but they are not saying when. What they have confirmed is that stores closing will have to sell off their remaining inventory.

ROCKVILLE CONSTRUCTION UPDATE: THE UPTON/CAMBRIA SUITES HOTEL (PHOTOS)

Here is the latest progress at the Duball construction site in Rockville Town Center, in front of the Regal Cinemas. This two-in-one project contains The Upton luxury apartments and Cambria Suites hotel.

MORE APFS SCHOOL CAPACITY STANDARDS DEBATE AHEAD OF FEB. 9 VOTE

A Monday night discussion about proposed changes to Rockville's Adequate Public Facilities Standards, which would align the city's school capacity standards with Montgomery County's weaker ones, did not appear to change the mind of any councilmember. Councilman Tom Moore remains the strongest proponent of the changes, which would raise the school overcrowding limit to 120% of capacity from today's 110% under the city's APFS. They would also measure overcrowding by cluster averaging (like the County), rather than the city's measurement by individual school.

The current standards, Moore said, have been an "epic fail." "The evidence is in, it was an interesting experiment," he said, but they have not prevented overcrowding, in his view.

Mayor Bridget Newton disagreed. "We would be in a crisis situation as other schools [in the county] are" without the APFS, she argued. Newton remains the one certain vote to oppose the change. "I haven’t yet seen from you all what moving to 120, and cluster averaging, what that is going to solve?" she asked her colleagues. "What is the reason for making that change? What is driving that?"

Councilmember Virginia Onley said she does not favor the approach of having the city change its own standards, but did say she is concerned about lack of growth in the city. Suggesting that Rockville Town Square is underperforming, Onley said Rockville's competitors, Downtown Crown, Pike & Rose, and RIO/Washingtonian Center are a threat. Pike & Rose offers 2 hours of free parking, and the others don't charge anything for parking. Several retailers and restaurants have closed in Rockville Town Square in recent months.

"I don’t think Rockville is moving forward," Onley said. "And if we don’t do something, we’re going to be a ghost town." She added she didn't want Rockville residents to have to get in their cars and drive to other places "where people are enjoying life."

Newton disputed Onley's characterization of growth and the town center, noting that projects including the Duball towers and KSI have pushed the number of units past the totals provided for in the 2001 Master Plan. Kettler, JBG and Shelter are currently building retail, restaurant and housing projects north of Rockville Town Square, as well. "We’ve got growth happening in the town center," Newton said. "It is not stagnant, it is not dying, and it is not going to be a wasteland. [But] changing standards, we will no longer have any constraints in place to control that" growth.

One likely outcome of increased development in the city will be more portable classrooms on school sites. In an interesting twist from the widespread complaints about portable classrooms in Montgomery County, Moore and Councilmember Beryl Feinberg had praise for the humble "learning cottages." Portables are not "hell on earth," Moore said, noting that 4 of his 6 children have been in portables. Trailer classrooms are "a way to kind of even [growth] out in the short term, so that you don’t have to construct another school," Feinberg said. "I don’t think we should wholesale condemn them."

Newton was somewhat incredulous at these assertions. She said "learning cottages" was a term designed to avoid the fact that these classrooms are trailers, and that they take children "out of the learning environment," and pose serious safety and security concerns. "Do we want to put children in trailers?" she asked. "Let’s have a countywide discussion with the stakeholders they are talking about bringing forward," she said, referring to a dialogue being set up by County Councilmember Roger Berliner.  "Let’s help the county solve our problem."

The Mayor and Council will vote on the proposal this coming Monday, February 9; the meeting begins at 7:00 PM at City Hall.

ROCKVILLE RESIDENTS MISSING HOWARD, " THE WORLD'S BEST CASHIER " AT TWINBROOK SAFEWAY (VIDEO)

Shoppers at the Twinbrook Safeway are wondering why their favorite cashier was apparently let go by the store. Howard, an energetic and affable employee who brought game show enthusiasm to the checkout line, has been named "The World's Best Cashier" by one fan. You can see him in action in this video.

One shopper has written to the company asking for Howard to be rehired, and expressing concern about the decline of the store. "Many of us still shop there ONLY because the cashiers are wonderful people whom we appreciate and like, Howard and Ophelia especially," she wrote.

Given the preponderance of glitchy self-checkout machines and unmanned (and un(wo)manned) checkout lines in grocery stores these days, you'd think stores would want to hold on to popular and energetic employees.