Smashburger now open at Galvan in Rockville

Smashburger has opened at JBG's new Galvan at Twinbrook development in Rockville. The restaurant opened yesterday, after postponing the original April 6 opening. Galvan is located at 1800 Rockville Pike. Smashburger has several other area locations, including Bethesda and Downtown Crown.

Botanero to take over Dough Roller space in Rockville

It was sad news indeed to hear that Dough Roller closed in the King Farm Village Center in Rockville. There were high hopes that the pizzeria's fanatic Ocean City tourist following would translate to the parts of the state where those vacationers actually live.

The good news is that a new tenant has been found. Botanero, a small plates-centric restaurant and wine bar will be coming soon to 800 Pleasant Drive.

BRRRito returns to Ben & Jerry's in Rockville today

An ice cream burrito? Not an impossible idea to conceive of if you've had Good Humor's Choco Taco, but the BRRRito at Ben & Jerry's replaces the burrito's tortilla wrap with a waffle shell. The menu item returns today to their Rockvillle Town Center store.

Ben & Jerry's 

199 E. Montgomery Avenue

Mayor & Council approve letter asking County Council to halt Carver school bus parking decision

A letter to the Montgomery County Board of Education and County Council regarding a proposed school bus depot at the Carver Educational Services Center was unanimously approved by Rockville's Mayor and Council last night. It asks the County Council to delay a declaration of "no further need" for the site as a bus parking lot until all concerns have been addressed, and all other options exhausted.

"I don't think the Board of Education is aware of the full impacts to the City," Councilmember Mark Pierzchala said before the vote. Concerns include traffic and safety in the surrounding neighborhood, additional congestion of roads in the area, and the negative impact the use would have on the Carver historic district. The bus parking is theoretically a violation of the requirement that any future uses of the Carver site respect the historic viewshed and 150' buffer area the City established in the past.

The County Council is poised to declare the County has "no further need" for its existing school bus parking facility in Shady Grove, which a developer has acquired for a residential community near Metro. As part of Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett's "Smart Growth Initiative," as outlined in the RFDP, a viable new parking site (or sites) for the buses and maintenance facilities was to have been identified before the existing Jeremiah Park site was turned over to the developer. That did not happen for the usual "mysterious" reasons under the Montgomery County political cartel.

Rockville elected officials expedited the drafting of a letter, in the belief that the Board of Education would be voting on the matter this morning. But later in the discussion, Maryvale ES PTA VP of Advocacy Melissa McKenna reported that no BOE vote was expected today. In a historic moment, McKenna - who had been at the meeting earlier Monday evening - informed the Mayor and Council of this via Facetime on an iPad held up by Paul Geller, a PTA official from the Sherwood cluster in Olney. 

This was the most interesting use of technology at a Rockville meeting since a developer used a Blackberry to jam the microphone, while delivering news that wasn't expected to be well-received by the public years ago. This time the technological breakthrough was actually of help to officials, but Pierzchala couldn't help but wonder about "the propriety of having a tablet speaking to us."

The letter was largely drafted by Pierzchala, who said he did extensive research on the issue. Mayor Bridget Donnell Newton added additional points earlier Monday evening, including new remarks from Nancy Piccard of historic preservation organization Peerless Rockville. Moving the buses to Carver would be "detrimental on many levels," notes the letter, which supports an existing letter from BOE member Phil Kauffman, who is running for reelection this year.

"This gets us on the record," Pierzchala told his colleagues. "This to me is something we're saying that really needs to be evaluated." Noting that Montgomery County Public Schools had declined an invitation to address the Mayor and Council earlier this year, Pierzchala said, "There is a whole lot wrong, in my opinion, with this process at the County level." He added that dispersing buses to numerous sites would be counterproductive, as many buses need help getting started in cold weather. If mechanics are not on the same site as the parking, he warned, kids could end up stranded at bus stops.

McKenna said she thought James Song of MCPS "would have been willing to come," but he had no information to present. No study has yet been done, and no funds have been appropriated in that direction, she said.

"I don't buy that they didn't know what to do," Pierzchala said. "[MCPS] could have suggested they would come to the city, as well," Newton argued.

Councilmember Beryl Feinberg was not happy with the process on the Carver debate up to this point. "What disturbs me about this is that we have not had a session to discuss this issue," she said. "It would have been a more open and transparent [process] if we had had a hearing and staff report. It feels like it's being a rush. All the facts have not been right out here." 

Newton acknowledged that, but said the apparent rush to judgement by County officials required them to act expeditiously, particularly when it was thought a vote was imminent today. "That's kind of what happens on some of these issues. We need to take a stand," Newton said.

"There has never been a presentation here," Feinberg responded. "It has never been presented to us as an elected body. This process is not something we should be proud of." Councilmember Julie Palakovich Carr said all members knew the letter would be coming before them Monday night. "I see no reason to not vote on this tonight," she said.

Pierzchala moved to approve the letter after the Mayor and Council refined the final paragraphs. His motion was seconded by Councilmember Virginia Onley. Acting City Manager Craig Simoneau said the letter would be sent out Tuesday morning.

Suspicious death at Rockville hotel

Montgomery County Police detectives from the Major Crimes Division are investigating a suspicious death at the Red Roof Inn in Rockville, at 16001 Shady Grove Road. Police and fire/rescue personnel were summoned to the hotel at 11:49 AM Saturday by an undisclosed caller. Upon arrival, they found a deceased adult in a room at the hotel. The gender and age of the victim have not been disclosed as of press time.

Detectives say there appeared to be trauma to the body of the victim, and are now investigating the case as a suspicious death. The next step is to have an autopsy completed by the Maryland Chief Medical Examiner's office in Baltimore, to determine the cause of death and other details.

Police are asking anyone with information regarding this case to contact the Major Crimes Division at 240.773.5700.

Save the date: Super Hero Day at Krispy Kreme in Rockville April 28

Krispy Kreme in the Fallsgrove Village Center will be hosting Super Hero Day on Thursday, April 28.

Buy 1 dozen donuts that day, and get a second dozen Original Glazed Donuts free.

EYA Tower Oaks project recommended by Rockville Planning Commission (Photos)

Montgomery County took one more slouch towards becoming the world's largest bedroom community last night, with the Rockville Planning Commission's recommendation to the Mayor and Council that land designated for office space in Tower Oaks be converted to residential. Commissioners voted 4-2 to approve developer EYA's project plan amendment that would allow 375 housing units, including four multifamily buildings, townhomes and single-family homes, on the east side of Preserve Parkway. The project plan will now go the Mayor and Council for approval.

Staff presented the commission with 9 binding elements required for approval, and commissioners voted unanimously to add 2 more - a shuttle to take residents to Metro and nearby shopping centers, and to make a proposed market a binding agreement.

Aakash Thakkar, Senior VP of Acquisition and Development for EYA, described the market as being a "general store," where residents and their guests could purchase items like wine, cheese or a loaf of bread. Commissioner David Hill suggested making it a binding element, due to the absence of any grocery stores within easy walking distance of the site. EYA readily agreed to the addition, as well as the shuttle.

The project would wipe out two-thirds of the forested property, and preserve one-third. Thakkar said EYA plans to leave that forest in its natural state, and perhaps add a wood-chip path that would meander through it. He said EYA would be willing to sign an agreement that would ensure the remaining forest was never developed. The development will also include a clubhouse with swimming pool and patio, several pocket parks, and a nature trail with exercise circuit.

Commissioners expressed many misgivings about the proposal, but ultimately seemed to side with short-term real estate market realities over long-term ideals.

Thakkar said the development would target a similar demographic to that of the nearby Park Potomac, empty nesters. There would certainly be children, he said, but the lack of transit, dining and nightlife on-site would not appeal as much to millennials. He suggested that up to 20% of future residents might be current employees in the nearby office developments. The project was also supported by several adjacent office park owners.

Chair Charles Littlefield was among the most skeptical of the project, although he stressed that it had many strong points. "This is not smart growth," he concluded, based on the distance of the site from Metro and the proposed density. Thakkar noted that the density is lower than that of the developer's other projects, such as Park Potomac.

The trendy thinking in the County is that the office market is weak away from Metro, and will be in perpetuity. This is not accurate, however. Wheaton has a Metro station, and its office market is terrible. 4500 East-West Highway and 7550 Wisconsin, both a short walk from the Bethesda Metro, have had to lower expectations and lease to smaller tenants than expected. 4500 lost the bidding for Intelsat headquarters to Tysons.

How bad is it? One of the largest office buildings within walking distance of the Wheaton Metro station was just demolished to make way for - guess what? - housing.

In reality, the office market is weak because Montgomery County's private sector economy is moribund, and its business climate is one of the worst in the region. The County hasn't attracted a single major corporate headquarters in nearly two decades. Not a single County Council member was endorsed by any Chamber of Commerce in the County in the 2014 election, a damning indictment of the anti-business record of the Council.

As long as we continue to ignore that elephant in the room, we will never restore the office market. And you know what? Developers and landowners are largely fine with that. That's because the profits that can be realized from residential are far bigger than they will ever be from any office park or building.

So while there may be crocodile tears and renting of garments publicly over the weak office market, behind the scenes, developers are rubbing their hands together at the prospect of every office building and office park in Montgomery County being converted to residential.

Of course, that assumes that developers can continue to fill multifamily mid/high-rises with less-than-traditional suburban residents: heavily-subsidized millennials, contract and military housing, student housing, and the poor and homeless. That will not be so much the case in this Tower Oaks development, and several commissioners said they liked the home ownership and MPDU ownership opportunities the EYA project would provide.

But Littlefield was right on the money when he argued that "residential demand is not infinite." And equally so when he noted that "it's supposed to be the 'I-270 Tech Corridor,' not the I-270 residential corridor."

Whiile this project alone will not hurt much by itself, the flipping of office-to-residential is going to damage the City and County in the long-term. The loss of jobs and potential jobs, the incomes they provide compared to the retail/restaurant positions that replace them, and the impact on schools and roads are mounting by the day.

What happens if we one day have a pro-business County Council, and large corporate headquarters and government agencies like the FBI were being considered here? Where would they go? The land space would be gone.