Rockville stormwater fee squeezing non-profits

Rockville non-profits who own their properties are being hurt by the City's stormwater management fee. Churches and other organizations have faced a similar issue statewide, under Maryland's "rain tax." Large church parking lots can draw a big charge, sometimes more than a congregation can afford to pay.

Mary Caroline Colletti said her church, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Rockville, is one of them. The congregation received a $4000 stormwater fee bill from the City last year alone, Colletti told the Mayor and Council at their Monday night meeting. 

"We’re being charged just like a business," Colletti said. "It’s not a business. We can’t charge to come to our services.” And, unlike a business, a church cannot write off expenses or raise prices. Colletti said the congregation's main revenue source is the collection plate during services.

Colletti noted that the church provides many services within the City, including donating thousands of dollars a year to the Mansfield Kaseman Health Clinic. She said the church is also helping the environment by adding solar panels. The current situation is not fair to non-profits who own property, Colletti said, and “I’d just like that to be reviewed.”

City manager takes oversight role in Rockville purchasing

Rockville City Manager Barbara Matthews has now added oversight of purchasing by the City to her long list of responsibilities, after the Mayor and Council adopted a change recommended by a consulting firm. This was one of the more significant adjustments the report by Calyptus Consulting suggested. The City Council voted last October to delay implementation of the report's recommendations 90 days, in part to give Matthews the opportunity to get her staff up to speed to take on the new authority.

“I want to commend the city manager for her decision to accept the consultant’s recommendations that the purchasing division report directly to her," said Jack Kelly, chair of the City's Financial Advisory Board at Monday night's meeting. "I believe that this was the correct decision.” Mayor Bridget Donnell Newton also thanked Matthews, adding, "you have helped the Mayor and Council greatly."

After a recap of the report and discussion, the Mayor and Council voted unanimously to move purchasing oversight to the City Manager's office. Kelly called the move "a great start," but he had some concerns that two other recommendations - the creation of service level agreements and targeted improvement plans - were not getting enough attention.

“It’s not been easy, but it has been well worthwhile,” Newton said of the delayed reform.

Photo courtesy City of Rockville

Mellow Mushroom adds Coming Shroom signage at Rockville Town Square (Photos)

After a long wait, construction is going full steam ahead inside the future Mellow Mushroom at Rockville Town Square. The results of the work are still hidden behind a wall, of course. But some new Coming Soon - or as they call it, "Coming Shroom" - signage has been added outside. They're also still hiring, for all of you aspiring pizza chefs in Rockville.

Meanwhile, over at Finnegan's Wake (remember that?) the activity hasn't been quite as frantic, but I can confirm construction is actually underway now. Place your bets as to whether or not they can open before the biggest day on the Irish pub calendar - St. Patrick's Day.

Rockville construction update: Mosaic Cuisine and Cafe (Photos)

Mosaic Cuisine and Cafe is in the midst of a complete renovation at 186 Halpine Road in Rockville. The restaurant expects to reopen as soon as March 1.

Mayor and Council to discuss pending Siena Corporation litigation in closed session Monday

Before Rockville banned self-storage facilities within 250' of schools last year, Siena Corporation's attorney threatened the City with legal action should it do so. The move by the Mayor and Council foiled construction of a Siena facility near Maryvale Elementary School in East Rockville, where residents organized to stop the project. Rockville's Planning Commission had previously concluded that there were no legal grounds upon which they could deny the EZ Storage application.

Now the Mayor and Council will receive legal advice on the matter in a closed Executive Session at 6:00 PM Monday night, February 1. The regular meeting schedule will follow at 7:00.

Also on the agenda, is a critical purchasing study report by an outside consulting firm that raised serious questions about procurement practices by the City last fall. The Calyptus consultant also outlined how implementation of his recommendations could potentially save the City up to $4.6 million.

But the report became controversial in the contentious run-up to last November's election, resulting in a split vote to delay implementation of the report, and a recommendation that the same presentation be delivered again to the newly-elected Mayor and Council. City Manager Barbara Matthews also indicated that she would need time to prepare herself and her staff to assume the oversight role over purchasing that the report suggests she take on.

A separate executive session at the end of Monday night's meeting will discuss the King Farm Farmstead.

Photo courtesy City of Rockville

Rockville planning commissioners want more historic designation options

Planning Commission Chair
Charles Littlefield

Members of the Rockville Planning Commission would like the City to take a more varied approach to historic preservation, as planners and commissioners consider a report on the past and future of such efforts. Rockville's Chief of Long Range Planning David Levy told commissioners that one of the main objectives of the report is to get feedback from the public on historic preservation during the Master Plan process currently underway. Levy and planner Cindy Kebba said the topic has not really come up in the many public listening sessions the City has hosted so far.

While communities such as Lincoln Park have welcomed preservation efforts, other neighborhoods like Twinbrook have been wary of what historic designation would mean for property values and redevelopment options for the small homes there.

Commissioner Don Hadley said sometimes the current designation process goes too far. Not every historic building is of the same importance or value, and some restrictions on properties are cumbersome while adding little value to preservation efforts. Hadley gave the example of a homeowner who can't easily obtain a particular siding material for a small outbuilding being forced to pay for custom manufacturing.

The City needs "a more nuanced set of tools," Commissioner Jack Leiderman concurred. He suggested having several gradations of preservation that could be more flexible, and put the property in question into the right context. When it comes to historic designation in the City today, he said, "people are a little bit scared what that means."

Commission Chair Charles Littlefield asked staff why the thresholds to start and complete the designation process are so high. It currently takes 40% of residents to agree to start the process, and 85% to apply the designation. Littlefield said that is much higher than the simple majority (51%) or two-thirds majority more often applied to legislative decisions. Zoning Chief Jim Wasilak said the City intentionally set a "high bar" for designation, to ensure that such decisions wouldn't be rammed through easily by a minority of residents. The current system requires clear buy-in by the community in question, Wasilak said.

Assessing MoCo's snow response + Rockville transit schedule update

A Montgomery County voter
is asked if he remembers voting
for the County Council and Executive
who presided over the blizzard fiasco

Here's an update on the current status of transit services, snow plowing, and pedestrian/cycling facilities in Montgomery County. Before scrolling down, let's assess the County's blizzard fiasco and what can be changed to avoid another one. The experience of the last few days has shown there are several areas in which the County needs to improve its storm response capabilities.

One telling sign is that DC had over 600 pieces of equipment to move and clear snow. Montgomery began with over 700, and was up to 800 pieces in the last couple of days. Should a jurisdiction as large as MoCo have not much more equipment than the smaller District of Columbia? That's a clear indication, along with the results and many complaints, that MoCo did not have sufficient assets and personnel in place. Snow operations personnel have been working hard around the clock; there simply weren't enough of them.

Second, we've been told 311 will "get it done". Several residents around the County told me they could not get an answer from that County service line yesterday. Later, the County acknowledged that a record number of calls to 311 were received, and that many did not go through. 311 had more calls in one half-hour period Tuesday than it usually receives in an entire day. This was largely due to the number of unplowed streets residents were calling to complain about.

Third, despite Councilmember Hans Riemer's claims of being an open data guru, the storm fiasco helped bring to light that - five years after Riemer took office - the County's online Plow Tracker map isn't actually a real-time app, and isn't being instantly updated from GPS systems on trucks as we were led to believe. The map should be updated to provide that. Of course, a fancy map won't mean much if the County doesn't have enough personnel and trucks on hand to get the job done.

Fourth, Riemer's sidewalk-clearing law has been a complete bust. It's not being enforced, and we're getting the same dangerous results this time as pedestrians are forced to enter the roadway into oncoming traffic. Riemer took an unwarranted election year victory lap after passage of his law, as local media sycophants cheered him on. According to a Gazette (much missed - not!) report at the time, "the legislation seeks to ensure sidewalks are passable after storms and should improve how the county fulfills the intent of its law requiring snow removal, bill sponsor Councilman Hans Riemer said. 'The goal of this bill is to make our county more walkable in every season,' Riemer (D-At Large) of Takoma Park said."

Are you finding sidewalks around the County "walkable" today? I thought he said "every season." Cost of Riemer's law, the public education component that would magically move property owners to obey it, and the County implementation of it? $6,458,000, according to the Gazette.

We are being governed by some very incompetent people, folks.

UPDATES

Metro has announced that the Silver Line is back in service as of this morning, meaning the entire Metrorail system is now operational 82 hours after the snow stopped falling in the DC-area. Metrobus is operating under a Moderate Snow Schedule. The T2 is back in service today (Friendship Heights-Rockville via River Road). Many of the J routes remain out of service.

MetroAccess will operate on regular hours today.

All Ride On routes will have service on the S-Plan schedule.

Free parking in County public garages and lots has been extended through 9:00 AM tomorrow, January 28.

The Capital Crescent Trail has been plowed, is open, and still slick in spots; caution is advised.

The Bethesda Circulator bus will not operate again today.

A tractor-trailer jacknifed in the southbound lanes of I-270, leaving the local lanes temporarily blocked as rush hour got underway this morning.

Montgomery County's plow tracker map indicates that all streets that hadn't been reached yesterday in Springfield, Green Acres, Wood Acres, Spring Hill, Mohican Hills, Randolph Hills, Rock Creek Palisades, Stoneybrook Estates, and Aspen Hill have now been completed.

Most residents' assessment of Montgomery County's response to the storm is decidedly less positive than that expressed by County Executive Ike Leggett yesterday at a press conference. Leggett was not pressed to apologize by media, unlike DC Mayor Muriel Bowser, who did issue an apology.

Leggett promised every street in the County would have at least one lane cleared by 7:00 AM this morning. I've located only one complaint so far after the deadline passed, from a service road resident on Connecticut Avenue in Silver Spring. If your street has not been plowed yet, send me an email at robert [at] robertdyer [dot] net and call 311 to report it.

Bobcat loaders and plows worked all through the night to remove and move snow in downtown Bethesda and in neighborhoods along the River Road corridor.

In the Springfield neighborhood, one resident with an unplowed street flagged down a passing pickup truck with a snowplow attached to the front. After some negotiations, the pickup's driver began to plow part of the street for a cash payment. The private sector had provided service before the taxpayer-funded public sector in a classic free-market exchange.

Sidewalks remain snowdrifts in many places, including along River Road in Bethesda, and in front of the Columbia Country Club in Chevy Chase. Leggett acknowledged the widespread problem for pedestrians at his news conference, but has not yet produced a plan of action to address it.