RM Cluster Overcrowding?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Isn’t there also a large development project planned for the Stonestreet area? I remember hearing about it, but would have to look up details. Will that be additional housing units feeding into JW and RM?

https://www.rockvillemd.gov/DocumentCenter/View/28548/Stonestreet-Corridor-Study---Final---May-11-2018

They plan to rezone some of the area from Single Family Residential (R-60) to Mixed Use Neighborhood Commercial (MXNC) and Residential Medium Density (RMD-15), which will allow duplexes, quads, townhouses and stacked flats.

There is nothing planned. The rezoning is in hope of getting some development there. It's not going to happen in the SFH areas without City using eminent domain, which is not going to happen. Plus, this area is zoned for Rockville, not RM.

If the zoning allows duplexes, triplexes, quads, townhouses, and stacked flats, then they will get built if builders think the demand is there. No need for eminent domain.

I think this is a good thing. The City of Minneapolis just voted to eliminate single-family-detached as a zoning category. Residential structures with up to 3 units will now be allowed in every neighborhood.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/13/us/minneapolis-single-family-zoning.html

Two things.

Minneapolis is a CITY. A large, urban area. Rockville is NOT. People move to Rockville to live in the suburbs. If people want to live in a high density area, there are tons of options around here - DC anyone? Tysons Corner? Crystal City? Bethesda?

Also, how do they plan to handle parking? My MIL's neighbor in Silver Spring turned a SFH into an illegal duplex and there are 6 cars parked there daily. Not enough space for them, and it's become somewhat of a safety issue, with cars parked everywhere, and blocking access to driveways, etc.

And what...no places should change? Rockville should look like this in 100 years. In 1,000 years even. No changes say the MIMBYS!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
And what...no places should change? Rockville should look like this in 100 years. In 1,000 years even. No changes say the MIMBYS!

Changes in Rockville are fine as long as it doesn't hurt what's most important to the community, and that is the schools. In the suburbs, there are two things that will drive house prices and desirability -- schools and quality of life. Adding tons of new residential development without taking into account school capacity will hurt the quality of the schools.

Town Center is great, but it's only as good as the shops and restaurants there, and given that a lot of the shops can't seem to stay open due to lack of customers, well, that means that those shops are not desirable and bring no quality of life to the residents because the majority of residents are still driving some place else to shop and eat.

Giving those shops tax money to stay afloat isn't going to change the desirability of those shops just because new people move into the area.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How does It’s Sugar stay in business?

All the kids that skate or use the fountains...popular with them.

RMHS also has open campus, but I don't know if they patronize It Sugar. You know they aren't shopping at boutique stores.

CVS and 7-Eleven make a killing from RMHS students at lunch. Just go watch the stream of kids going that way. Going to RTC? not so much ...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Isn’t there also a large development project planned for the Stonestreet area? I remember hearing about it, but would have to look up details. Will that be additional housing units feeding into JW and RM?

https://www.rockvillemd.gov/DocumentCenter/View/28548/Stonestreet-Corridor-Study---Final---May-11-2018

They plan to rezone some of the area from Single Family Residential (R-60) to Mixed Use Neighborhood Commercial (MXNC) and Residential Medium Density (RMD-15), which will allow duplexes, quads, townhouses and stacked flats.

There is nothing planned. The rezoning is in hope of getting some development there. It's not going to happen in the SFH areas without City using eminent domain, which is not going to happen. Plus, this area is zoned for Rockville, not RM.

If the zoning allows duplexes, triplexes, quads, townhouses, and stacked flats, then they will get built if builders think the demand is there. No need for eminent domain.

I think this is a good thing. The City of Minneapolis just voted to eliminate single-family-detached as a zoning category. Residential structures with up to 3 units will now be allowed in every neighborhood.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/13/us/minneapolis-single-family-zoning.html

Two things.

Minneapolis is a CITY. A large, urban area. Rockville is NOT. People move to Rockville to live in the suburbs. If people want to live in a high density area, there are tons of options around here - DC anyone? Tysons Corner? Crystal City? Bethesda?

Also, how do they plan to handle parking? My MIL's neighbor in Silver Spring turned a SFH into an illegal duplex and there are 6 cars parked there daily. Not enough space for them, and it's become somewhat of a safety issue, with cars parked everywhere, and blocking access to driveways, etc.

Rockville is a city too. In the middle of a large, urban area.

How Minneapolis plans to handle parking issues: https://www.minnpost.com/politics-policy/2018/03/more-density-less-parking-and-freyplexes-what-minneapolis-comprehensive-plan/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
And what...no places should change? Rockville should look like this in 100 years. In 1,000 years even. No changes say the MIMBYS!

Changes in Rockville are fine as long as it doesn't hurt what's most important to the community, and that is the schools. In the suburbs, there are two things that will drive house prices and desirability -- schools and quality of life. Adding tons of new residential development without taking into account school capacity will hurt the quality of the schools.

Town Center is great, but it's only as good as the shops and restaurants there, and given that a lot of the shops can't seem to stay open due to lack of customers, well, that means that those shops are not desirable and bring no quality of life to the residents because the majority of residents are still driving some place else to shop and eat.

Giving those shops tax money to stay afloat isn't going to change the desirability of those shops just because new people move into the area.

Could we please stop mixing two separate issues?

Issue 1: whether or not to give public subsidies to Federal Realty tenants at Rockville Town Center
Issue 2: whether or not additional housing at Rockville Town Center helps support retail in the area.

There is no scenario under which the proposed additional housing at Rockville Town Center hurts retail in the area.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know when exactly the building moratorium would go into effect?

Why hasn’t anyone watched the council meeting I linked earlier in the thread? They literally answer this question. It goes into effect next year. That’s why they’re raising the threshold now.

Could you repost the link please?

http://rockvillemd.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=2&clip_id=3919

My question is, why is Bethesda allowed to continue to build? We are only talking about small areas in Rockville and there is huge outrage. The county is doing it for all Bethesda and no one says a thing. The article didn’t even get a single comment and there was no discussion here. I’m convinced people in Bethesda see a successful Rockville as detrimental to them.

https://bethesdamagazine.com/bethesda-beat/schools/county-council-looks-to-avert-bethesda-building-moratorium-due-to-school-crowding/

Which part of the 11/13 meeting was the moratorium discussed? I assume it was item 3 - strengthen the vitality of town center. I watched much of it at home that night on tv and do not recall hearing "change the APFO to 150%"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know when exactly the building moratorium would go into effect?

Why hasn’t anyone watched the council meeting I linked earlier in the thread? They literally answer this question. It goes into effect next year. That’s why they’re raising the threshold now.

Could you repost the link please?

http://rockvillemd.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=2&clip_id=3919

My question is, why is Bethesda allowed to continue to build? We are only talking about small areas in Rockville and there is huge outrage. The county is doing it for all Bethesda and no one says a thing. The article didn’t even get a single comment and there was no discussion here. I’m convinced people in Bethesda see a successful Rockville as detrimental to them.

https://bethesdamagazine.com/bethesda-beat/schools/county-council-looks-to-avert-bethesda-building-moratorium-due-to-school-crowding/

Which part of the 11/13 meeting was the moratorium discussed? I assume it was item 3 - strengthen the vitality of town center. I watched much of it at home that night on tv and do not recall hearing "change the APFO to 150%"

The 150% was from a different meeting. You didn’t ask about that. You asked when the moratorium would go into effect and they say it in the meeting linked.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know when exactly the building moratorium would go into effect?

Why hasn’t anyone watched the council meeting I linked earlier in the thread? They literally answer this question. It goes into effect next year. That’s why they’re raising the threshold now.

Could you repost the link please?

http://rockvillemd.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=2&clip_id=3919

My question is, why is Bethesda allowed to continue to build? We are only talking about small areas in Rockville and there is huge outrage. The county is doing it for all Bethesda and no one says a thing. The article didn’t even get a single comment and there was no discussion here. I’m convinced people in Bethesda see a successful Rockville as detrimental to them.

https://bethesdamagazine.com/bethesda-beat/schools/county-council-looks-to-avert-bethesda-building-moratorium-due-to-school-crowding/

Which part of the 11/13 meeting was the moratorium discussed? I assume it was item 3 - strengthen the vitality of town center. I watched much of it at home that night on tv and do not recall hearing "change the APFO to 150%"

The 150% was from a different meeting. You didn’t ask about that. You asked when the moratorium would go into effect and they say it in the meeting linked.

Actually, I was a different poster asking about the 11/13 meeting. The way you acted, it was all in the same meeting. Geez. I try to stay on top of these issues, but admit I don't watch every meeting. So where the heck was the 150% first discussed?

[Anonymous]

Driving to Metro this morning. There is also a 200 unit housing development proposed for the corner of Twinbrook Pkwy and Ardennes. Not completely sure, but that must also feed into JW and RM.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
If it’s so bad, why do you stay here with the kids in overcrowded schools? You chose Rockville and you continue to choose to live in Rockville. We don’t need new schools before development. We need more housing for the growing population. Schools can come later. I don’t want people commuting from Frederick because there is no housing here.

DP.. stop being an a$$. People who live here have a right to voice their opinion and fight over development. If you love development so much why don't you move to Tysons where there is an over abundance of high rises and development.

I want the city to be successful. If you think having a failed town center will help the school then you are dead wrong. It will drop the home values and bring in more FARMS students that have 10 people living in each bedroom and score badly on tests. Low home values will thus bring in many hundreds of new poor students without new building. Allowing the city to continue building in a three block area is hardly going to destroy the schools. You need to get a grip. The town center area discussed is a very small part of the RM cluster.

Some of us have been here awhile... when the Town Center had exactly one successful business: Regal. Don't worry, my home values have done just fine because we also have something that a lot of places don't have: the Red Line. Schools are a much bigger consideration when people choose where to buy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Driving to Metro this morning. There is also a 200 unit housing development proposed for the corner of Twinbrook Pkwy and Ardennes. Not completely sure, but that must also feed into JW and RM.

That's not City of Rockville, it's Montgomery County.

http://www.mcatlas.org/Development_Info/Default.aspx?apno=320180200

Since it's garden apartments, it would be expected to generate 17 middle-schoolers and 22 high-schoolers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Some of us have been here awhile... when the Town Center had exactly one successful business: Regal. Don't worry, my home values have done just fine because we also have something that a lot of places don't have: the Red Line. Schools are a much bigger consideration when people choose where to buy.

Which is exactly there should be more housing at Rockville Town Center and Twinbrook. So that more people can do as you do and live near the Metro.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Driving to Metro this morning. There is also a 200 unit housing development proposed for the corner of Twinbrook Pkwy and Ardennes. Not completely sure, but that must also feed into JW and RM.

That's not City of Rockville, it's Montgomery County.

http://www.mcatlas.org/Development_Info/Default.aspx?apno=320180200

Since it's garden apartments, it would be expected to generate 17 middle-schoolers and 22 high-schoolers.

^^^No, sorry, they're proposed as high-rise apartments (7 stories). So 6 middle-schoolers and 8 high-schoolers.

[Anonymous]

Rezone Town Center to Rockville Cluster and Maryvale Elementary. Maryvale will be under capacity once the new school is built. Even by 2033, Rockville High is still projected to be well under 120%. The middle school has a while to go to get to 120% as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
If it’s so bad, why do you stay here with the kids in overcrowded schools? You chose Rockville and you continue to choose to live in Rockville. We don’t need new schools before development. We need more housing for the growing population. Schools can come later. I don’t want people commuting from Frederick because there is no housing here.

DP.. stop being an a$$. People who live here have a right to voice their opinion and fight over development. If you love development so much why don't you move to Tysons where there is an over abundance of high rises and development.

I want the city to be successful. If you think having a failed town center will help the school then you are dead wrong. It will drop the home values and bring in more FARMS students that have 10 people living in each bedroom and score badly on tests. Low home values will thus bring in many hundreds of new poor students without new building. Allowing the city to continue building in a three block area is hardly going to destroy the schools. You need to get a grip. The town center area discussed is a very small part of the RM cluster.

Not the PP.

Guess what, having an additional high rise in the area is not going to save RTC either. You sound as if this new development will be what RTC needs to keep it afloat. Not likely.

And, maybe it is a small part of the rM cluster, but these ‘small’ parts add up to dozens of new students over time. Which the already overcrowded school system cannot handle.