Planning Commission Blunder Results in Project Approval

Twinbrook Safeway in Jeopardy
JBG's latest project for the redevelopment on 1800 Rockville Pike (the Safeway project) has been working through the City of Rockville Planning Commission process for approval.

On Wednesday, April 11, we learned that the City of Rockville Planning Commission inadvertently approved the development in toto on March 28 without knowing that they did, and effectively gave the developer eveything they asked for.
During discussion on the project, the Commission voted 3 approval, 2 denial, and 1 abstention to approve the project. The Commission then continued to take votes, ask for testimony, and issue instructions to city staff, concluding the discussion with a 5-1 vote to table the project while further information was gathered. No commissioners protested the 3-2-1 vote or questioned its validity. The City staff, including the Commission's City attorney, continued to participate in the discussion. The Commission was clearly concerned about the APFO impacts, including the traffic congestion and school overcrowding generated by this proposal, especially since JBG was requesting a parking waiver and was pressing its view that residents of its new apartment building could share parking and use Metro parking.

There are at least 5 developments we know that may be coming to the area around the Twinbrook Metro. The Mayor and Council is looking at a development requiring approximately 2000 parking spaces to be built under current City guidelines. That developer, at the strip mall that includes the Fuddruckers and the Pier One, also asked to be exempted from building some of the mandated parking and be allowed to build 3 extra floors (15 stories total). The Planning Commission did NOT approve that request, but because of its size, it went to the Mayor and Council. It appears at this point that the Mayor and Council will may well grant that parking waiver, as well as all of the developer's other requests.

In the context of all these projects going concurrently through City process, the Planning Commission (after the 3-2-1 vote) asked Staff to re-evaluate the school numbers not only for JBG's projects but for all the planned projects. We are unsure at this time if Staff is actually going to perform the evaluation since the request occured after the botched vote as part of the deliberations that the City attorney says cannot be part of the public record on the project.

The project that the Planning Commission inadvertantly approved on March 28 includes a Safeway that will directly face the Twinbrook Metro entrance on the Chapman Avenue side of the Metro. Numerous employees of Safeway have expressed concerns that the Twinbrook Safeway is in the process of being shut down.

We have told the Planning Commission that shutting our Twinbrook Safeway will be a hardship not only to some residents of the Twinbrook community but also deprives many people who come to the Safeway by bus from other neighborhoods along Veirs Mill of a convenient mainstream grocery. Going north, the next grocery store is Giant in Hungerford, going south you have to get to the shops at Randolph and Veirs Mill for food, and the next major grocery store is in Wheaton. Otherwise, traffic from Twinbrook to grocery stores such as Giant and Target on Rockville Pike must cross the Metro tracks on Twinbrook Parkway. JBG also plans to build another residential tower with a Walmart close to that intersection.

The TCA was pleased that the Planning Commission had tabled the 1800 Rockville Pike project on March 28, wisely seeking additional information and public comment on the project, and planning to continue discussion on April 11. Commissioners Trahan, Hadley, Hill, and Cook expressed concerns that were to be addressed on April 11.

Therefore, on April 11, the TCA was surprised when Planning Commission Chair David Hill opened the meeting with a discussion about a problem with votes taken at the March 28 meeting. The City attorney concurred with JBG's attorney that a 3-2-1 vote on March 28 had actually approved the project and that all the additional votes taken by the Commission were moot. The project could go forward even though the Planning Commission did not understand the consequences of their actions and none of the pertinent issues expressed by commissioners were addressed. Chairman Hill expressed reservations about the city attorney’s interpretation of the legalities surrounding the vote. (TCA will review the Planning Commission tape and check into the decision)
The TCA is dismayed that a major project appears to be have been inadvertantly approved without any major problems being addressed by the responsible body. The neighborhood will bear the brunt of this slip-up while the developer will get everything they wanted.

Unfortunately, this does not appear to be an isolated incident in Rockville concerning problems with procedures, policies, and effective governance. Recently, the City has faced several lawsuits about the APFO and complaints/concerns about employee relations, open meetings requirements, appointments to boards and commissions, etc.

The TCA will continue to stay on top of this situation and hopes the City will work to improve its knowledge of and adherence to rules and regulations to better serve our community.

Sincerely,

Christina Y. Ginsberg
President, Twinbrook Citizens Association