Montgomery Council Update for Dec. 5

The Montgomery County Council’s Public Safety Committee will hold a worksession at 9:30 a.m. on Dec. 5, to discuss the the County’s Compliance Check Program regarding establishments that sell alcohol.

A report shows that in Fiscal Year 2013, 72-percent of the establishments turned away youth under the age of 21, marking a slight increase in illegal sales over FY12.

The Public Safety Committee, which is chaired by Phil Andrews and includes Councilmembers Roger Berliner and Marc Elrich, will meet in the Seventh Floor Hearing Room of the Council Office Building at 100 Maryland Ave. in Rockville.

The Alcohol Compliance Check Program, which is operated in collaboration between the Department of Liquor Control and County Police, has a goal to check at least 400 businesses a year. There are approximately 1,000 establishments in the County that are licensed to sell alcohol.

At 9:30 a.m. in the Third Floor Conference Room, the Health and Human Services (HHS) Committee, which is chaired by George Leventhal and includes Councilmembers Nancy Navarro and Craig Rice, will receive an overview of the County’s responsibilities regarding complaints about rats. The presentation will discuss how the County responds to complaints about rat problems, how it works with property owners and communities if a problem is identified and the responsibilities of property owners and businesses.

The County Code provides rules regarding rat control and assigns inspections and enforcement to the Department of Health and Human Services. The law says, “It shall be unlawful for any owner to allow his property to be infested with rats or to be in such condition as to contribute to existing or potential rat infestations.”

The meeting of the HHS Committee 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.

At 2 p.m. in the Seventh Floor Hearing Room, a rare triple joint committee meeting will continue discussions on the proposal to exchange three contiguous parcels of County-owned property at Ripley Street and Colonial Lane in Silver Spring with a developer for the developer’s agreement to construct a new Progress Place to provide services and housing for very low income and homeless residents. The developer also would make a cash payment of approximately $3.2 million to the County’s Parking Lot District.

The committees meeting on the issue will be the HHS Committee; the Planning, Housing and Economic Development (PHED) Committee, which is chaired by Nancy Floreen and includes Councilmembers Elrich and Leventhal; and the Government Operations and Fiscal Policy Committee, which is chaired by Councilmember Navarro and includes Councilmembers Valerie Ervin and Hans Riemer.

At a September joint committee session, an option was discussed on the Progress Place construction that would create a three-story building in Silver Spring with two stories for Progress Place services and one story for 21 Personal Living Quarters for people with very low incomes. County Executive Isiah Leggett has since said he supported building an additional story to the structure that could provide additional services, such as an emergency shelter, a medical clinic and a dining room. The County would pay the cost of adding a fourth story.

At 2:30 p.m. in the Seventh Floor Hearing Room, the HHS and the PHED committees will hold a joint worksession on a proposed special appropriation of $649,000 from the Fiscal Year 2014 operating budget to provide permanent supportive housing to 15 homeless individuals prioritized as most medically vulnerable. The funding helps support the County’s participation in the national 100,000 Homes Campaign.

At 7:30 p.m. in the Third Floor Hearing Room, the full Council will continue a public hearing on a limited amendment to the Clarksburg Master Plan and the Hyattstown Special Study Area that concerns the Ten Mile Creek area of Clarksburg. The amendment would lead to the creation of a well-defined corridor town that provides jobs, homes and commercial activities and the preservation of natural resources critical to the County’s well-being.

On Dec. 2, the first day of the public hearing included the testimony of approximately 40 speakers. About the same number of speakers is expected Thursday evening.

The amendment’s recommendations are designed to further the completion of Clarksburg, following the tenets of the 1994 plan, while taking advantage of increased knowledge about environmental protection, innovations in environmental mitigation techniques and new zones created since approval of the 1994 plan.

More information on the limited amendment can be found at:
http://www.montgomeryplanning.org/community/plan_areas/I270_corridor/clarksburg/documents/tenMilePHfinal8-7-13.pdf .

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