Council’s Agenda Includes Chevy Chase & Glenmont Plans

The Montgomery County Council meets for its weekly session on July 30 beginning at 9:30 a.m. in the Third Floor Hearing Room of the Council Office Building at 100 Maryland Avenue in Rockville.

At approximately 10 a.m., the Council is scheduled to take action on the Chevy Chase Lake Sector Plan.

Prior to voting on the Chevy Chase Lake Sector Plan, it is expected the Council will have a discussion on “staging” for the plan–or actions that must take place before the next part of the plan would be allowed to proceed. There are two specific staging items that must be addressed. The community of Chevy Chase Lake is located along Connecticut Avenue near Jones Bridge Road.

The first issue is when the staging trigger would occur relative to the funding or construction of the Purple Line (the east-west transportation line that would connect the Bethesda and New Carrollton Metrorail stations). The second issue relates to the criteria that would determine whether a property would be in the first or second stage.

Several Councilmembers indicated a goal to create a trigger that would match the timing of the occupancy of new development with the start of operations for the Purple Line. Council staff is assuming that the Purple Line will take four-to-five years to build, and that a development would also take approximately four-to-five years (approximately two years to gain its necessary approvals, followed by two-to-three years to build). The Council discussed two potential staging triggers and deferred a final decision pending additional information.

During the morning session, the Council will receive a report from the Office of Legislative Oversight (OLO) reviewing the County’s policies and procedures regarding the design and construction of public facilities. The report compares the County’s policies with those of 13 other jurisdictions and agencies. It was requested by Council President Nancy Navarro and Roger Berliner, chair of the Council’s Transportation, Infrastructure, Energy and Environment Committee, in light of the problems encountered in the construction of the Silver Spring Transit Center.

At 2:15 p.m., the Council’s Planning, Housing and Economic Development Committee will convene in the Seventh Floor Hearing Room to continue its discussions on proposed revisions to the County zoning ordinance.

At 7:30 p.m., the Council will hold a public hearing on the proposed Glenmont Sector Plan.

The vision of the Glenmont Sector Plan includes a predominantly residential neighborhood with new transit-oriented, mixed-use development concentrated in and around the Glenmont Shopping Center and Metro Station and a walkable, diverse and sustainable community with services and amenities primarily for local residents and workers. The Glenmont Shopping Center site is proposed to serve as the focus of community-oriented activities and services with a central open space for events and casual interaction.

The Planning Board Draft Glenmont Sector Plan can be viewed by clicking on the Plan name at: http://wVv’W.montgomeryplanning.org/communitv/glenmont/.

The Planning, Housing and Economic Development Committee is tentatively scheduled to begin reviewing the plan in September.

The morning and afternoon sessions, three public hearings scheduled to begin at 1:30 p.m. and the evening Glenmont public hearing 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 through the County Web site at www.montgomerycountymd.gov. It will be repeated starting at 9 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 2.

The entire broadcast will be closed captioned in English. The Glenmont Sector Plan public hearing also will be closed captioned in Spanish.

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