Update: The City has published an Outcomes document for this meeting, as well as the Video, two parts: Part 1, Part 2.

The agenda for Monday Night’s Council meeting is extensive — more than two dozen items in seventeen segments — so I’ll just hit a few highlights here. Refer to the agenda as posted on the City’s website for complete details.

  • The City Manager’s Day Laborer Report. As this is the first meeting since the failure of the Festival site, I have no idea what Mr. Humpton might have to say here.
  • Joint public hearing on SDP-06-005 for Crown Farm. I’ve discussed this previously.
  • The draft anti-solicitation ordinance.
  • T-379, affordable housing ordinance. Note that the latest background materials reflect the planning commission’s recommendation for alternative 2 of the ordinance, which treats Olde Towne as a special case. The planning commission also suggested that the ordinance “require affordable housing as Olde Towne approaches the same levels of vitality as the remainder of the City”, although this would happen automatically if my suggestion — that the ordinance merely be sensitive to the amount of affordable housing near any proposed project — were implemented.
  • The 120-day deferral ordinance, which in my estimation is probably dead in the water, given the progress on T-379. One interesting aspect of this, however, is the list given in the background materials of all the redevelopment projects currently under consideration. This is yet another bit-mapped PDF, so what follows is OCR’d, and the original document should be consulted before commenting. I’m more or less familiar with almost all of the projects listed here except for the last one, for “redeveloping several blocks of North Frederick Avenue”. I find this quite interesting, because the entirety of North Frederick Ave is not much more than “several” blocks long in the first place. Such a project could have a major impact on what many people see as “Gaithersburg”.

    But my primary reaction to this is that it really is a sad state of affairs; it is a litany of failure, uncertainty and stalemate. Money continues to flow into greenfield developments such as Crown Farm and Watkins Mill Town Center as if it were water over the Niagara. But when it comes to Olde Towne revitalization, we see at best a slow drip from a leaky faucet, most of it evaporating before it can serve any useful purpose. At this rate, I don’t think that the Planning Commission really has to worry all that much about Olde Towne “[approaching] the same levels of vitality as the remainder of the City” any time soon.

    West Deer Park Apartments (198 units)-RST Development has indicated they can not move forward with this redevelopment due to adjustments in the housing market and high costs of materials.

    Executive Garden Apartments (85 units)-Property was recently purchased, and developer has showed staff a concept plan for redevelopment. Concept plan shows 78 townhouse units. Staff has told the developer that we believe the plan is too dense, lacking green space, and is severely under parked. Developer maintains that this project will only be economically viable if he can build 78 units. To date, formal application has not been submitted.

    Water Street (52 units)-The same developer that purchased Executive Gardens has 52 units on Water Street under contract. While he has not yet produced a concept plan, he recently indicated that he would not move forward with purchasing the properties unless the City was supportive of the density he was proposing for Executive Gardens.

    Stratford Place Apartments (350 units)-Property owner has requested that the Mayor and City Council approve a text amendment that would allow a waiver for four stories in the residential portion of the CD zone. This text amendment is scheduled for policy discussion on December 4, 2006. If the text amendment is approved, the property owner has indicated he will be filing a request for rezoning and a schematic development plan requesting approval of a mixed-use residential development including townhouses, apartments, and two-over-two condominiums.

    East Diamond Avenue consolidation (73 units)-Staff is still working with a developer and the property owners of three small apartment complexes who would like to redevelop this area with fairly high density apartments. During a work session on May 30, 2006, the City Council indicated general support for the project but expressed concern about the scale and density of the project. To date, no application has been submitted.

    Frederick Avenue consolidation (75 units)-Several months ago, staff met with a group of developers that expressed an interest in redeveloping several blocks of North Frederick Avenue that included several commercial buildings and 75 apartments. To the best of staffs knowledge, the developer does not have the apartments under contract and has not prepared a plan.

  • Proposed Legislative Priorities for the 2007 General Assembly Legislative Session. Most of what is listed in the background document seems pretty straightforward, and I’m happy to see a couple of items in there about increasing funding for public safety. However, I’m quite curious about the first listed item:

    A bond bill for City Capital project(s).

    What could this possibly mean? The City is not especially given to borrowing money for capital projects, and in fact they have frequently been criticized for not doing this. Does this item indicate a change? Or am I completely missing their intent here?

  • Financial incentives for the Bozzuto project on North Summit. That project is currently languishing, with nothing but bulldozed dirt and a sales office at the corner of Park & Summit (as of this writing the local.live.com image shows the corner before the houses were torn down). It’s being proposed that the City would provide such incentives as down payment assistance to prospective buyers of homes in this new project. Will we ever see an unsubsidized redevelopment project in Olde Towne again?