Committee: Despite overcrowding, Rockville development law is effective

Gazette:  Growth policy recommendations focus on implementing standards

As Rockville residents struggle with traffic congestion and overcrowded schools, a committee tasked with reviewing the city’s growth and development law says the ordinance is effective as-is.  Only one of 24 committee recommendations addresses changing the Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance and Standards, which establishes standards for public facilities such as transportation, schools and fire protection to protect them from becoming overburdened.  The other 23 apply to the standards that implement the law, said Julie Palakovich Carr, chairwoman of the nine-member Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance Committee that has reviewed the document since December.  The group presented recommendations to the Rockville Planning Commission on Oct. 26...

Standards recommendations 

Rockville needs to receive more accurate school enrollment projection numbers from Montgomery County Public Schools, said committee member Tom Gibney.  Rockville should create a commission to advise the mayor and council on education in the city limits and monitor enrollment in schools, the group recommends.  And this commission should monitor student enrollment and student generation rates by housing type to identify inaccuracies in school system enrollment projections.  The committee found the school system’s projections to be flawed, Gibney said.

And the city should work more closely with the school system, Gibney said. “There appears to be some sort of animosity between the two groups that needs to be fixed,” he said...