County Council Meets on Jan. 15

The Montgomery County Council on Tuesday, Jan. 15, will introduce a resolution that offers its support of state and federal legislation regulating the sale of guns and ammunition. The Council is scheduled to take action on the resolution on Jan. 22.

 The Council’s regular session will begin at 9:30 a.m. in the Third Floor Council Hearing Room of the Council Office Building at 100 Maryland Ave. in Rockville. The meeting will be televised live by County Cable Montgomery (CCM—Cable Channel 6 on Comcast and RCN, Channel 30 on Verizon). The broadcast will be available via streaming through the County Web site at www.montgomerycountymd.gov. It will be rebroadcast on Friday, Jan. 18, starting at 9 p.m.

 The Council’s morning session will begin with the presentation of a proclamation recognizing Korean American Day. Councilmember Valerie Ervin is the lead sponsor of proclamation.

 The resolution to support regulation of guns and ammunition states, in part, “There are many legitimate, law-abiding reasons to own a firearm. However, assault weapons, armor piercing bullets and large capacity magazines have the ability to kill and maim large numbers of human beings, but have limited usefulness for hunters and other law-abiding citizens.”

 The resolution goes on to say: “The Council believes that regulating access to firearms and ammunition to ensure that only individuals who intend to use their weapons for law-abiding purposes are able to purchase them is essential to the safety of our children and families.”

 Also during the morning session, there will be introduction of a supplemental appropriation to the Montgomery County Public Schools’ Fiscal Year 2013 capital budget and an amendment to the FY 2013-18 Capital Improvements Program for $364,000 that would accelerate plans to install Access Control security systems in  26 County elementary schools that do not already have them. The funding would allow the systems to be installed by June 30, 2013.

 On Jan. 7, Council President Nancy Navarro and Councilmember Ervin, who chairs the Council’s Education Committee, sent a memorandum to the Board of Education urging consideration of accelerating plans to install security systems in all schools. The Board of Education requested the special appropriation one day later.

 The Council will spend considerable time on Tuesday on a worksession devoted to proposed Zoning Text Amendment 12-11 that would revise County regulations regarding accessory apartments. The ZTA would allow accessory apartments under certain conditions without a special exception. It would still require a special exception whenever all of those circumstances are not present. The ZTA would establish the standards for approval of accessory apartments and would require new licensing procedures for all accessory apartments.

 The Council worksession on the issue is scheduled to begin at 10:45 a.m. Tuesday. After a lunch break and six public hearings, the worksession is scheduled to continue at 2:15 p.m.

 During the morning session, Bill 2-13 will be introduced that would require the county to adopt a five-year schedule of reconstruction, rehabilitation and resurfacing for county sidewalks, streets and roads. The bill would direct the Department of Transportation to take all feasible steps to coordinate the county’s construction with other entities—hopefully eliminating some situations where recently completed road projects are disturbed by other projects that need access to underground utilities. Councilmember George Leventhal is the chief sponsor of the bill.