Crown Dental is first retail tenant at Escher in Rockville

Escher, the new apartment building that opened last June, has finally gotten a retail tenant for its ground floor. Crown Dental will be the first business to lease space at the building, located at 1900 Chapman Avenue in Rockville.

More Montgomery County headlines:

Poke Dojo closer to opening at Bethesda Row

Gaithersburg leaders discuss potential bikeshare stations, dockless e-bikes

Carter's to open store at Wheaton Plaza

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Construction underway at Cooper's Hawk Winery & Restaurant in Rockville

Cooper's Hawk Winery & Restaurant is now under construction at the Research Row shopping center in Rockville. Part of the parking lot in front of the future restaurant's space has been closed off for construction vehicles.

While a substantial amount of work has been done inside, it is still in the earliest phase of construction. This will be a nice sit-down dining addition to Research Row, and the second Cooper's Hawk location in Maryland. Cooper's Hawk is expected to open this summer.

Windsor posts Coming Soon signage at Montgomery Mall

Windsor, a women's fashion boutique, has posted some "Coming Soon" signage on their future space at Westfield Montgomery Mall. The company began in 1937 as a lingerie and hosiery store owned by two brothers. Now best known for their special occasion dress line, Windsor boasts 200 stores nationwide.

The company is now hiring staff for the new Montgomery Mall store. Their space is located on Level 1 by GNC. Windsor will open this spring.

Olio Nails & Spa opens in Rockville

Olio Nails & Spa is now open at the Research Row shopping center in Rockville at 1403 Research Boulevard, Unit 102. They are easiest to find if you enter the shopping center from the W. Montgomery Avenue entrance, as they are on the back side of the building that Robeks Juice will be in, a side you can't see from the center's most-popular businesses Chick-fil-A and Onelife Fitness.

Sign installed at Robeks Juice in Rockville

The permanent sign has been installed at Robeks Juice at 1403 Research Boulevard, Unit A-7 at the Research Row shopping center. Construction inside looks like they are getting close to opening day. There's a lighted sign inside already lit up that reads, "Robeks Rockville."

Public hearings set for Rockville 2040 Comprehensive Master Plan

A three-year public process to update and revise a comprehensive master plan for the entire City of Rockville is coming to a close as the public will now have a chance to weigh in the document, which will then be voted on by the Mayor and Council. Public hearings on the Rockville 2040 plan will be held at City Hall on Wednesday, May 15, 2019; Wednesday, May 22, 2019; and Tuesday, June 4, 2019, all beginning at 7:00 PM.

You can review the Rockville 2040 draft plan online before preparing your testimony. There will also be public information sessions on the plan at City Hall on Tuesday, April 30, 2019 from 6:30-9:00 PM, and on Saturday, May 11, 2019 from 9:30 AM to noon.

More Montgomery County headlines:

Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams to open at Bethesda Row

Indian grocery store to open in Bethesda

Have you seen this missing White Oak woman?

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Montgomery County Council unanimously approves Veirs Mill sector plan

Pro-developer plan will increase

commuting time, destroy affordable 

housing, demolish homes & businesses

The "new" members of the "new" 2018 Montgomery County Council faced their first test of loyalties Tuesday, as they voted on the controversial and unpopular Veirs Mill sector plan. Well, as I warned everyone during last year's election, the "new" Council proved to be just like the old Council, but worse. Without Marc Elrich on the body, all nine councilmembers voted for the pro-developer plan.

Gabe Albornoz, Evan Glass, Will Jawando and Hans Riemer all received thousands of dollars in developer contribution in 2018. And their "Yes!" votes yesterday were a thank-you to their developer sugar daddies for the hefty election help.

The plan will allow demolition of single-family homes and businesses along the Veirs Mill corridor between Wheaton and Rockville. Changes to the layout of Veirs Mill Road, reduced speed limits, reduction of left-turn lanes, and longer stoplights are estimated to extend travel times for commuters up to 35 additional minutes on the already-congested road. Single-family home and public recreation properties are rezoned for mixed-use, "town-center" urban-style development in the plan.

The developer-driven plan will allow
clearcutting of this wonderful green space...

...and demolition of several homes behind it on
Robindale Drive, Adrian Street and Weiss Street,
replacing them with a steel-and-concrete urban
town center development

A fake "no net loss" program devised by Riemer's staff will allow demolition of naturally-occurring affordable housing such as Halpine View. While it purports to create just as many new MPDUs, most people who will lose their homes in Halpine View and other properties make too much in salary to qualify for MPDUs, creating a net-loss in affordable housing in the plan area. And even the MPDUs soon expire and revert to market-rate housing permanently.

This is the same thing the Council is allowing to happen on Battery Lane and Bradley Boulevard in Bethesda, where many people who can't afford market-rate single-family homes and newer apartments - but who make too much to qualify for MPDUs - currently live. They've already done it in Glenmont, where many residents of apartments like the wonderful Privacy World were forced out never to return to Glenmont.

The Council-approved plan allows this
tree-lined green Montgomery County-owned
property at 4010 Randolph Road to be redeveloped
as a steel-and-concrete urban town center - and
you can bet the Council will sell it to one of their
developer sugar daddies at a sweetheart price!

Halpine View, Rock Creek Woods, Halpine Hamlet, Parkway Woods and other apartment complexes are now rezoned to encourage demolition, and replacement with urban-style, luxury apartment "town centers."

Even while failing to defend the interests of current homeowners, business owners and commuters who are paying record high taxes, the Council bizarrely found time to add a racially-charged political diatribe to the plan. To score political points, and create division among residents, the Council added a section that falsely claims racial covenants ensured the communities around Veirs Mill Road were white-only. In fact, enforcement of such covenants was banned by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1948.

The Veirs Mill sector plan as passed will displace thousands of residents, greatly increase traffic congestion, and radically transform the existing green, suburban character of Veirs Mill Road to a stifling corridor of vehicle exhaust and boxy steel-and-concrete Soviet apartment blocs. It was hard to believe that even some civic groups were fooled that the "new" Council would bring back residents' role in planning decisions, and not vote for this kind of pro-developer sector plan. Now it's just plan laughable.

You got steamrolled again.

You can't say I didn't warn you. And while media outlets like the Washington Post colluded with the Montgomery County cartel to prevent candidates like me from getting our message out, I certainly did notice the sheepish smiles of some "woke" voters who knew it was morally wrong to vote for Albornoz, Glass, Jawando and Riemer, who clearly did not represent the change they were claiming to seek in the planning process. Voting simply to ensure a sweep of all nine Council seats by one monopoly party was a really bad idea, now with tragic results for yet another Montgomery County community with this sector plan.

Next up: Aspen Hill. Fasten your seatbelts, folks.