Gaithersburg Leaders to Meet Behind Closed Doors to Discuss Small Cell Facilities

UPDATE, April 15, 2:50 p.m.
After receiving numerous complaints in opposition of a proposed plan to install small cell facilities in local communities, the Mayor and City Council of Gaithersburg plan to convene a closed executive session on Monday night to further discuss the issue.
The closed door meeting will take place following the Council’s regular meeting, which is scheduled to start at 7:30 p.m. on April 18.
Earlier this week, the city held a work session on the topic at City Hall. That meeting attracted dozens of residents who voiced their opposition to the idea of installation of small cell facilities in their neighborhoods.

 http://www.mymcmedia.org/gaithersburg-residents-voice-opposition-to-proposed-plan-for-small-cell-facilities-photos/

Responding to the Heroin Epidemic

Trending Topics- Responding to The Heroin Epidemic 4/18 6:45pm at Twinbrook Library. Guest Speaker: Robert A. Hill pic.twitter.com/MLuZ4xmtS3

— LWV MoCo MD (@MoCoMDLWV) April 13, 2016

Gang members younger in Montgomery Co.

...The county saw a spike in gang-related murders late last year. There were eight gang-related deaths in Montgomery County last year, up from one in 2014. One victim was just 15.
“We’re seeing younger and younger recruitment,” Liquorie said.
“Social media plays a big role in this, whether it’s identification or recruitment.”
A video police recently found online shows a group of young people who claim to be gang members showing off weapons for the camera.
The weapons included a stolen .308 rifle, and a semi-automatic handgun with an extended magazine that could hold 30 rounds of ammunition.
It was filmed during the daytime in a pedestrian tunnel under Shady Grove Road...

 http://wtop.com/montgomery-county/2016/04/montgomery-co-police-talk-ongoing-gang-problem/

mymcmedia: Tobytown Residents in Need of Bus Service

http://www.mymcmedia.org/tobytown-residents-in-need-of-bus-service-video/

Tobytown: No RideOn Bus or Access to Computers Yet, But Service Fair with Refreshments

http://parentscoalitionmc.blogspot.com/2015/11/apple-ballot-keeps-historically-black.html

Community Group Opposing School Bus Parking on Rockville Lot Gains Momentum

Community Group Opposing School Bus Parking on Rockville Lot Gains Momentum:

...The county, which is selling the Shady Grove bus depot land and other nearby county facilities to developers LCOR and NVR, wants those facilities to move by January 2017 to make way for 345 townhomes, 344 apartment units, a park and a new school. The Shady Grove depot has space for 410 buses.
But a group of residents called the Carver School Coalition says parking 100 of the buses at the Carver lot, even on an interim basis, would bring too much traffic to the intersection of Hungerford Drive and Mannakee Street and that the process behind the move hasn’t been transparent enough...

#TBT

http://parentscoalitionmc.blogspot.com/2014/02/sen-raskin-on-22-yr-old-teachercoach.html

Berliner: "colleagues and I will do right by Tobytown and provide them with more bus service"

Tobytown resident James Martin testified at the Council’s April 6th budget hearing about the need for Ride On bus service to his community in Potomac.
According to Martin, it is about a 45-minute walk to the nearest bus stop on Travilah Road.
“It’s a pretty dangerous walk,” he said, noting there is no sidewalk and the shoulder along the roadway is small. Martin told the Council that a lot of people in his community don’t have a car.
“We would like access for Ride On to come out so we can be able to get out of Tobytown and get jobs; our kids can go to after school programs, and medical appointments and quality leisure activities,” Martin said.
He is asking for a bus stop at River Road and Travilah Road, and noted how nice it would be to have a ride to the C & O Canal. He stressed how important it is to have work/life balance.
“Tobytown needs a ride to get out to the world and that brings the C & O Canal closer to the Ride On stop,” Martin said, and his testimony was followed by applause from the crowd in the room.

Residents Respond with Resounding NO to City Plan to Put Cell Towers in Front Yards #gaithersburg

From the City of Gaithersburg website: 

Small cell facilities are becoming increasingly popular as a way of expanding coverage and increasing network capacity. With mobile data traffic expected to double annually, providers have indicated that small cell facilities are necessary to expand the capacity of wireless networks.
Agenda item continues at this link: 

http://www.gaithersburgmd.gov/government/city-projects/small-cell-facilities

This video shows the public comment in response to the above proposal by the City of Gaithersburg.

The residents of the City of Gaithersburg apparently do not agree with the statement above that small cell facilities (DAS Antenna) are "becoming increasingly popular."  This video shows the public comment portion of the April 11, 2016, City of Gaithersburg Mayor and Council meeting.  The video shows 1 1/2 hours of residents strongly opposed to the placement of small cell towers/DAS Antenna in their front yards.  No one spoke in favor of this proposal. 

BOE Member Wants Hold on Moving Buses Until Permanent Plans are Set

MCPS Shady Grove Transportation Depot by Parents' Coalition of Montgomery County, Maryland

Complaint alleges Maryland child-abuse task force violated open-meetings law

A Greenbelt resident has filed a complaint alleging that a Prince George’s County task force created to examine the handling of child-abuse issues in schools violated the state’s open-meetings law by closing a March session to the public.

The task force was created in the aftermath of the widely publicized child-pornography case involving Deonte Carraway, 22, a school volunteer arrested in early February on suspicion of directing children as young as 9 to perform sex acts and video-recording them.

Kevin Maxwell, chief executive of the Prince George’s school system, said in an interview in March that meetings of the task force are closed to the public to allow members to “get a lot done in a very short period of time” and that the panel’s recommendations would be released publicly.

 “We don’t want folks to have distraction to their conversations and to their work,” he said. “We want to make sure that they can get the work done and that they can get the work done well, with robust conversation and lots of time studying.”...

 https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/complaint-alleges-maryland-child-abuse-task-force-violated-open-meeting-law/2016/04/07/84b5e140-f9e0-11e5-9140-e61d062438bb_story.html?wprss=rss_local-montgomery-social&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Future residents will "pay a million dollars for a home, and their kids will go to school in a trailer," one resident said.

Toll Bros. unveils plan for WMAL site; residents want data on traffic, schools (Photos)

...A resident of Brixton Lane termed his children's schools "ridiculously-overcrowded already. How many kids" will the Toll Brothers project generate, he asked.

Leatham said Montgomery County Public Schools calculates those projections, and they have concluded 152 students will be generated. That number was met with laughter in the room. "Can we get realistic numbers?" someone asked. "Isn't this the same MCPS that allowed overcrowding" in the past with lowball projections, another asked. "I can't argue with you," Leatham replied. "These are numbers that have been vetted. These are the numbers we have to use." 

Future residents will "pay a million dollars for a home, and their kids will go to school in a trailer," one resident said...

...Several residents asked about the environmental impact of developing such a large green space. Toll Brothers assured them that stormwater management after the completion of the project will be "better than it is now, better for the Cheasapeake Bay." Resident Nancy Neff was skeptical. "I am offended by you patting yourselves on the back" for the bioswale plan to manage stormwater. "The best natural drainage is there
right now," she said. She cited the "appalling" drainage systems in King Farm in Rockville, which cause some homes in that community to flood regularly...

 http://robertdyer.blogspot.com/2016/04/toll-bros-unveils-plan-for-wmal-site.html

Gaithersburg Residents Voice Opposition to Proposed Plan for “Small” Cell Facilities

Residents in Gaithersburg turned out in force for a City Council meeting on Monday night to discuss a proposed plan to build “small” cell facilities.  The towers would be built or added to existing structures along roadsides in residential and commercial areas...

...Several residents at the meeting stated that they were not made aware of the proposed plans until four days before the public meeting. Residents also voiced opposition to the proposed placement of the towers and expressed concerns about lower property values and health risks associated with exposure to electromagnetic radiation...

http://www.mymcmedia.org/gaithersburg-residents-voice-opposition-to-proposed-plan-for-small-cell-facilities-photos/

Developer of WMAL Radio Towers Site Unveils Latest Plans to Skeptical Public

Developer of WMAL Radio Towers Site Unveils Latest Plans to Skeptical Public: More than 150 residents near the site expressed concerns about traffic, school capacity

...The neighborhood is also projected to be home to about 150 students that would be assigned to the Walter Johnson High School cluster...

Tobytown residents would like a Ride On stop at the corner of River Road and Travilah Rd.

Tobytown residents would like a Ride On stop at the corner of River Road and Travilah Rd. pic.twitter.com/S8R5OzRByu

— Maureen Chowdhury (@MediaMaureen) April 8, 2016

Video: Board of Education Candidates Forum - February 2016

Presented by the Montgomery County League of Women Voters

Watch video!

Cell Towers will be Every 400 to 500 Feet. Huge Impact on Roads. #CityofGaithersburg #DASAntenna #CrownCastle

This evening the City of Gaithersburg will be deciding what type of DAS Antennas to install on residential streets.  The City Council seems to have skipped the step where they actually evaluated the overall picture of what they were doing long term to their residential neighborhoods. 

For background on this issue, listen to the comment from George Brown, City of Jackson, Mississippi at a Conference on DAS Antennas/Small Cells in the video clip below. 

Mr. Brown comments that people have not looked at these proposals holistically to realize what all of these small cell towers will look like to a municipality.  Mr. Brown notes that small cells need to be deployed every 400 - 500 feet within a city by each vendor, and every vendor wants to be able to do the same thing, thus blanketing a city with DAS Antennas.

Between Sec. 704 (http://wireless.fcc.gov/fact1.pdf ), which requires local governments to not discriminate among all of the various providers of “personal wireless services, such as cellular, wide-area SMR and broadband PCS” such as in granting access to transmission locations, and the City of Gaithersburg likely hunger for revenue there will be a huge, unsightly and dangerous proliferation of roadside transmission poles and equipment if the City Council and Mayor do not take a step back now and understand the door that they are opening. 

Once a DAS Antenna is installed by one vendor, other vendors will follow.  Once in place, a DAS Antenna can get taller without any further review by the Council.  

As noted in this video, each time a vendor wants to install a DAS Antenna it requires that the road be dug up to install the underground cables necessary to connect the DAS Antennas.

In a previous post we noted that the City staff were recommending that stop signs be converted into cell towers.  Such a plan flies in the face of known road safety policy that has all stop signs made of material that will break away when hit by a car or truck. 

There are long term implications to opening up City of Gaithersburg residential streets to all cell vendors.  



City of Gaithersburg Zoning Ordinance section on Small Cells

Resident Tells City to "Resist" Cell Towers on Neighborhood Streets

   Comments in Strong Opposition to Small Cell Facility Installations by Ronald M Powell PhD by Parents' Coalition of Montgomery County, Maryland

And Again, Senator Bobby Zirkin Holding Up Noah's Law

Last-minute punitive damages amendment could jeopardize Noah’s Law

...Advocates, including Leotta’s parents, are worried that the legislation could be derailed over a plan by Sen. Robert A. Zirkin (D-Baltimore County) to amend the bill to include a separate Senate measure that would allow punitive damages in civil lawsuits involving drunk drivers...

 https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/md-politics/last-minute-punitive-damages-amenment-could-jeopardize-noahs-law/2016/04/10/3e5fb59e-ff4f-11e5-9203-7b8670959b88_story.html

Maryland Drivers Alliance: Rockville Falsely Accuses MCPS School Bus of Speeding

Maryland Drivers Alliance: Rockville Falsely Accuses School Bus of Speeding: The City of Rockville voided a speed camera citation issued to a school bus after a request by the Montgomery County Board of Education....