A Preview of the County Council’s Oct. 7 Agenda

The Montgomery County Council is scheduled to appoint a new member to the County Planning Board at 10 a.m. on Oct. 7. The Council received 25 applications for the position and interviewed four of those applicants.

The scheduled appointment will be part of the Council’s regular weekly session, which will begin at 9:30 a.m. in the Third Floor Hearing Room of the Council Office Building at 100 Maryland Avenue in Rockville. The Council’s morning and afternoon sessions, and five public hearings scheduled to begin at 1:30 p.m., will be televised live by County Cable Montgomery (CCM—Cable Channel 6 on Comcast and RCN, Channel 30 on Verizon). The broadcast also will be streamed at:
www.montgomerycountymd.gov/council/ondemand/index.html.

The applicants the Council interviewed for the Planning Board position are Natali Fani-Gonzalez, Dennis Kamber, Charles Kauffman and Victor Weissberg.

The morning session also will include a demonstration by the Office of Management and Budget on the capabilities of a new online operating budget book and BudgetMontgomery. The tools continue the County’s expanding efforts as part of its open data initiatives. Residents will be able to use these tools to digitally navigate budget documents and customize charts and graphs. They will be able to use the tools on multiple platforms (mobile, tablet or desktop) and the application can translate the budget into more than 90 languages. Residents may also be able to experience the budget in new ways, including using maps and videos.

At 2 p.m. on Oct. 7, the Council will receive the semi-annual report of the County Planning Board. It is an opportunity for the Planning Board to present its proposed work program and brief the Council on major planning and parks issues before the board.

Over the next year, the Planning Board expects to work on revisions of master plans for the Sandy Spring Rural Village, the Aspen Hill-Vitro area, the Bethesda Central Business District, the Greater Lyttonsville area and the Westbard section of Bethesda. Included among the areas that will be the subject of subdivision staging is Montgomery Village.

At 3 p.m., the Council will hold a worksession on the County deer management program. The briefing will include an overview of the program, including the challenges to increase management efforts. It also will include an update on the impact of deer in the agricultural community and information on restrictions related to the discharge of weapons related to the program.

This is the 20th year of the County’s deer management program. Nearly 30,000 acres of publicly owned land is now being managed for deer. Deer management has been initiated in most of the larger parcels of parkland in the County owned by the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, State parkland, WSSC-owned land and several publicly owned properties.

On average, deer populations have been reduced by more than 59 percent where management is occurring. The average number of deer-vehicle collisions within one-quarter of a mile of parkland is 10.9 for parks with no deer management compared to 3.4 for parks where management is being conducted.

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