gaithersblog.net

According to this announcement,

Gaithersburg is now using B20 biodiesel, which is 20% vegetable oil and 80% diesel fuel. In this area, that vegetable oil comes primarily from soy beans. There are currently 98 vehicles in the City’s diesel fleet, including trucks, buses and other heavy equipment. Those vehicles consumed just over 50,000 gallons of diesel fuel last year. Under the new initiative, diesel fuel consumption will be reduced by 10,000 gallons.

The switch to biodiesel did not require any modifications to the vehicles. However, the City’s fuel storage tank was cleaned and improved filters were installed on the pumps prior to changing to biodiesel. In addition to reducing reliance on diesel fuel, the City is also helping with ongoing plans to reduce overall fuel consumption and emissions by including two hybrid passenger vehicles in its fleet, with plans to add more in the future.

It’s unclear if they’re getting it from Willie Nelson, and if the vegetable oil is post-consumer recycled oil or virgin oil manufactured just for this purpose.

The City has an announcement up for the Kentlands Oktoberfest.

The City of Gaithersburg and the Kentlands Citizens Assembly present the 15 th Annual Oktoberfest at the Kentlands, Sunday, October 8, 2006 , from noon to 4 p.m. at Kentlands Village Green. Admission and parking are free. Wheelchair accessible shuttle service will be available from the Global Exchange Services (GXS) Building at the corner of Main Street and Route 28.

Amidst horse-drawn hayrides and scarecrow making, festival goers can enjoy authentic Bavarian fare and lively performances by Alte Kameraden German Band and the Alt-Washingtonia Bavarian dancers. Lederhosen is optional as Alt-Washingtonia instructs and encourages participation in some of their dances. Throughout the festival you’ll find booths representing local merchants, organizations, artists and craftspersons. The Arts Barn Museum Shop adjacent to the Village Green will showcase one-of-a-kind pieces by more than 100 local artists.

The outdoor Family Stage will feature delightful children’s musician Uncle Pete’s “Up With Kids” and the slapstick silliness of MR Jones. “Upbeat Unlimited,” an energetic musical youth theater group, and Ballet Petite will perform indoors at the Arts Barn. Magician Marc Phillips will be performing his amazing magic outside the Art Barn.

Kids will also enjoy a full day of pony rides, moonbounces, face painting and many other activities. Note that a small fee will be charged for some activities.

The announcment doesn’t say anything one way or another about beer, but this page on about.com does say “family friendly,” which usually is a euphemism for “no beer”.

As reported in the Examiner,

O’Malley, the Democrat who hopes to unseat Maryland Republican Gov. Robert Ehrlich in November, visited a Latino community center with his running mate, Del. Anthony Brown, and Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico. The leaders urged Latino residents gathered at Casa de Maryland to register to vote and to vote for candidates who will represent their concerns for better, affordable health care and more access to education.

Richardson told the audience O’Malley’s record showed his support for Latinos and other ethnic communities.

[…]

But the initiative that garnered the most applause by far was O’Malley’s promise to make the buses run on time.

I’m all for more reliable buses.

As reported in the Albuquerque Tribune,

Richardson, who has criticized the Bush administration for not deploying more Border Patrol agents in New Mexico, commented on the fence plan after speaking at a get-out-the-Latino-vote rally for Maryland’s Democratic candidate for governor, Baltimore Mayor Martin O’Malley.

About 200 people, many of them newly registered voters, attended the rally at a CASA of Maryland services center in a Washington suburb.

“He cares about our people,” Richardson, who is Hispanic, said of O’Malley. “He cares about a sensible immigration policy, a policy that recognizes protecting our laws and border security, but also to make America a melting pot for all people.”

About 2 percent of Maryland’s voters are estimated to be Hispanic. In the Washington area, more Hispanics come from El Salvador than Mexico.

As reported in the Washington Times,

The event was sponsored by CASA of Maryland, an immigrant advocacy group, to encourage foreign-born voters to go to the polls in November.

Chief Viverette of the Gaithersburg Police Department is quoted in the Washington Post:

“In the Montgomery County area, we’ve taken more the track that we celebrate diversity,” said Gaithersburg Police Chief Mary Ann Viverette, who is also the president of the International Association of Chiefs of Police. Immigration is “not an issue we want to enforce.”

Given my personal experiences with the Post, I’m not going to immediately assume that this reflects the meaning of her full, original statement. However, I would very much like to know what she thought that she was saying, and how she feels about the selective enforcement of laws. Are all Federal crimes off limits for the Gaithersburg Police?

The New MoCo Progressive has some thoughts on Ms. Viverette’s statement.

Update: The City has posted notice of this hearing, along with a draft of the amendment. By my reading, it does pretty much just what I said below, which is to add a parallel exception process for the residential district. Personally, I’d think they’d just add a one- or two-story exception option for the commercial district as well and get it over with.

At the September 5th Council meeting, at the very end of the meeting when virtually everyone had left the room, a zoning text amendment was introduced. This text amendment was to enable changes to height restrictions in the CD zone, apparently to enable the redevelopment of the Broadstone Apartments. As I wrote at the time, this would seem to be an echo of a similar amendment requested by Jody Kline and discussed in an early January Council meeting. Also, following the September 18th Council meeting, I speculated that this text amendment could be related to an odd clause in the draft redevelopment deferral ordinance.

As of this writing, the City still has not posted notice or background on their website, however notice was printed in today’s Gaithersburg Gazette. I cannot find a copy of this notice on the Gazette’s website to link to, but their facility for searching legal notices doesn’t work very well so it could be there and I’m just not finding it. Anyway, from the printed notice, it appears that the request is not as egregious as what was proposed in January; it states (transcribed):

[…] so as to amend the waiver standards so that the City Council may, by resolution, waive the building and structure height requirements in the Corridor Development Zone (CD Zone) as follows: for a residential district to allow a height not to exceed four (4) stories, or forty-eight (48) feet.

The current CD zone, by my reading, appears to allow buildings in the residential district to be at most three stories, or 35 feet in height. There also appears to be no explicit process for granting an exception. There is a process for exception in the employment district, where the routine limit is six stories, or 65 feet. The exception process allows for buildings up to eight stories, or 90 feet, if a number of requirements are met and Council approves. This proposed text amendment appears to request that there be a parallel exception process for the residential district, with a special-exception hight of up to four stories allowed. If I recall correctly, in January the request was for removal of the restriction of the special exception height to the employment district, which would have resulted in a special-exception height of eight stories in the residential and commercial districts as well, and brought fears that a developer was planning on building an eight-story apartment building on South Frederick Avenue.

I will post more information as it becomes available.

The City has posted notice and tentative agenda for the October 4, 2006 meeting of the Planning Commission. On the agenda:

APPROVAL EXTENSIONS

SP-05-0001 — Washingtonian North
MXD Zone
10000 Washingtonian Boulevard
Infrastructure Plan
EXTENSION OF FINAL PLAN APPROVAL
TBA - Background Material (pdf format)
SP-05-0008 — Washingtonian North
MXD Zone
10000 Washingtonian Boulevard
220,116 Sq.Ft. Office, Garage & Improvements
EXTENSION OF FINAL PLAN APPROVAL
TBA - Background Material (pdf format)

SITE PLANS

AFP-06-030 — Bethany Presbyterian Church
E-1 Zone
1200 Quince Orchard Boulevard
Reuse from Office to Church Educational Use
AMENDMENT TO FINAL PLAN REVIEW
TBA - Background Material (pdf format)

AFP-06-043 — 16 Pavilion Drive
R-90 Cluster
156-Sq.Ft. Front Porch
AMENDMENT TO FINAL PLAN REVIEW
TBA - Background Material (pdf format)

I’ll update this with links to the background materials when they become available.