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The City has posted the agenda for the November 2, 2006 meeting of the Historic Preservation Advisory Committe.

I. APPROVAL OF MINUTES

II. PUBLIC HEARINGS

HAWP-13B
Applicant: Glen Todd
7 Brookes Avenue
Tree Removal
Background Material

HAWP-48D
Applicant: Joseph LaVoie
5 Walker Avenue
Tree Removal
Background Material

HAWP-78E
Applicants: Warren and Liz Johnson
104 Chestnut Street
Driveway removal/replacement
Background Material

III. HISTORIC PRESERVATION MASTER PLAN ELEMENT

Discussion with Greg Ossont, Director, Planning and Code Administration, and Long Range Planning Team Members Rob Robinson and Kirk Eby [See this previous Gaithersblog Post]

IV. UPDATES

V. ADJOURNMENT

Update 5: The Gazette now has an article about this incident:

An unidentified man reportedly told Federal Express representatives Friday morning that bomb materials were being carried in a package on one of the company’s delivery trucks, said Gaithersburg police spokesman Cpl. Rudy Wagner.

Officials relocated the truck to a more secure location nearby where the truck and package were investigated, Wagner said.

The package did not contain an explosive device, Wagner said. He did not provide other details about the package.

Update 4: Muddy Branch back open at 11:23

Update 2: If any readers know someone inside NIST, tell them to call their internal security and get them to shut down the traffic near Muddy Branch. Supposedly the FedEx van is near the gate and the Police can’t get NIST to stop vehicles from driving near it.

Update 3: from Alert Gaithersburg, at 10:59 AM:

Muddy Branch Road closed in both directions between School Drive and Clifftop Drive fo investigation of a bomb threat. Notification will be made when the road is again open for travel.

Also note that the earlier report was incorrect. The FedEx van is not at Festival itself; School & Cliftop drives are well South of Festival.

I’ve received an email from a reader stating that the Fire Department is responding to a possible package bomb at Festival at Muddy Branch in Gaithersburg. I as yet have no confirmation on this, but if any readers have anymore information about this, please post a comment or send me an email. Thanks!

Update: I’m hearing that someone claimed a bomb was sent via FedEX. The FedEX driver pulled the package from the truck at the Festival shopping center. Fire & Police are responding, and roads are closed in the area.

As I previously posted about in some detail here and, more briefly here, there will be a joint public hearing of the Mayor and Council and the Planning Commission on Monday, November 6 2006 at 7:30pm, to discuss the recently-published schematic development plan for Crown Farm, SDP-06-005. The City has published a legal notice here, and the SDP documents can be found here. The remainder of that night’s agenda remains unpublished except for the advance notice described here.

Melissa Harris writes in the Baltimore Sun,

Diebold Election Systems shipped Maryland flawed electronic voting machines that were used in the 2004 election, then quietly replaced the malfunctioning components last year, documents and interviews show.

Gilles W. Burger, chairman of the State Board of Elections, said this week that he and fellow members were initially told that Diebold was performing a “technical refresher” of the voting machines during July and August last year. He later learned that the refresher was really the repair of a flaw discovered by Diebold about three years earlier but not disclosed to him and other board members. The “motherboard” of each unit - the main circuit board that holds all of the machine’s critical parts - had a glitch that could cause the machines to freeze.

According to an internal Diebold e-mail, the company stopped production of the voting machines on March 11, 2002, after reports that the units - the same kind that were delivered to Maryland that year for use in four counties - were malfunctioning.

“Our preliminary assessment is that this may be caused by motherboard-related issues, such as machine freezing up, start-up error that yields machine lockup, and machine self-rebooting,” wrote Cindy Hartzell, a Diebold employee.

In response, another employee wrote: “What about the units that have already been shipped to customers?” referring specifically to counties in Tennessee and Kansas.

Mike Morrill, a spokesman for Diebold in Maryland, said the company stopped production to fix the problem, then tested every motherboard when assembly was restarted. Maryland, however, was not notified at the time.

In my mind, this also brings up questions about accountability, and control over the equipment that is used in an election. How can we trust this equipment if we don’t even know what is being put in it and why?

And of course, who knows whether the equipment will work properly this year. Avi Rubin reports that the current equipment exhibits problems even during training:

Maryland is providing additional training to chief judges for the November 7 election. Here is an excerpt from an email I received yesterday from one of the two chief judges from my precinct during the primary, and who will serve as chief judge again in the general election (posting this with her permission).

“I wish you could have been with [us] on Saturday when we ‘retrained’. There was a Diebold representative there demonstrating the machine and guess what. It malfunctioned! Nothing too bad though. She was trying to cancel the ballot and the machine said it had been inactive and started to shut down.”

Why is anyone still using Diebold’s stuff?

The Washington Post also has a story on the 2004 problem, for what that’s worth.

Historic Preservation Advisory Committee, November 2, 2006:

• 7 Brookes Avenue, tree removal
• 104 Chestnut Street, replacement of the front driveway pad
• 5 Walker Avenue, tree removal

Board of Appeals, November 9, 2006

• 789 KIMBERLY COURT WEST
  

  The application requests two variances: 1) a six (6) foot variance of the thirty (30) foot front yard; and 2) a six (6) foot variance of the ten (10) foot side yard both required for structures by Section 24-32(c) of the Zoning Ordinance. This variance is being requested for a garage addition to the house in the R-90 (Medium Density Residential) Zone at 789 Kimberly Court West, Lot 48, Block A, Diamond Courts, Gaithersburg, Maryland.

Stories this week, continued.

• Council gives warm reception to new height limitations, by Chris Robinson
  
  

  A developer seeking to exceed the city’s height limits on Frederick Avenue has revised its request and lowered its planned buildings.

  A developer for Broadstone Apartments, formerly Stratford Place, in January sought to boost the maximum building height permitted on Frederick Avenue from three to eight stories. After a public outcry, partially related to confusion over where the request for a zoning-text change came from, the request was withdrawn.

  I’ve discussed this story before.

• City sees spike in gang-related crime, by Jaime Ciavarra
  
  

  Two alleged Gaithersburg gang members are charged with attempted murder after police say they stabbed a man on city streets last month.

  It is the most violent incident in a string of increased gang-related crime that has plagued the Gaithersburg area over the past six weeks, including robberies and property thefts, said Det. Patrick Word of Gaithersburg Police.

• State money to bring I-270 repaving, brick sidewalks, by Chris Robinson
  
  

  A $16 million State Highway Administration project will provide resurfacing for more than four miles of Interstate 270 from Falls Road in Rockville to Muddy Branch Road in Gaithersburg.

  Meanwhile, a $75,000 grant from the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development’s Community Legacy program will fund adding a brick sidewalk from East Diamond Avenue to Chestnut Street at the entrance to Olde Towne.

Several items in this week’s Gaithersburg Gazette:

• Push is on for light rail along upcounty transitway, by Melissa A. Chadwick
  
  

  ‘‘It ought to be a light-rail project, which will attract more riders,” said Congressman Albert R. Wynn (D-Dist. 4) of Mitchellville.

  Other officials agreed.

  ‘‘I have never seen economic development around a bus stop,” said State Sen. Robert J. Garagiola (D-Dist. 15) of Germantown. ‘‘It needs to be rail.”

  Thirty-one elected officials, community activists and candidates for state and county office signed a petition of support for a light-rail CCT.

  The group also unveiled a marketing campaign for the project, declaring the CCT is ‘‘Good to Go.”

  Maryland’s Secretary of Transportation Robert L. Flanagan said in a telephone interview on Monday that the Department of Transportation is reviewing both the light-rail and bus options and will choose the better mode of transit sometime next year.

  ‘‘It is our responsibility to develop the best light-rail alternative and the best bus-route alternative,” he said.

  It is too early to know which will be best, he said.

  This was the event I blogged about earlier.

• Developer asks to re-lease West Deer Park apartments, by Jaime Ciavarra
  
  

  ‘‘[T]he redevelopment of this property for townhomes … is simply not feasible and cannot be financed,” Scott Copeland, principal of RST Development, wrote in an Oct. 18 letter to Mayor Sidney A. Katz. ‘‘On the other hand, by retaining it for rental units … we will address a market where there is a housing shortage.”

  The shift is a first in city history, and planners are researching how and when returning the buildings to rental units could be approved, said Greg Ossont, the city’s planning and code director.

  The city already authorized a new site plan for the construction of luxury townhouses in January 2005. To return to rental units, RST will have to go back before the Planning Commission and may need to add measures — such as more parking spaces — to bring the buildings up to current code.

  ‘‘It’s not as simple as tearing the fence down and renting them out,” Ossont said. ‘‘The city needs to go through the legal planning process again. We’ve got a lot of question marks at this point.”

  This is an ongoing story.

• Spanish Catholic Center moves again, this time to Olde Towne, by Sebastian Montes
  
  

  The Spanish Catholic Center first opened its Gaithersburg branch in 1986, most recently operating out of cramped offices on East Deer Park Drive. After the move to Olde Towne, the center plans to be up and running today.

  The new building is at 415 East Diamond Ave. In July, the City Council rejected the site as the site for a day-laborer center.

  In its job placement program, the SCC sees 60 to 70 workers from across the upcounty four days a week, last year providing more than 8,000 employment leads. At two informational sessions each morning — the first for men, the second for women — the SCC does not ask a worker their immigration status.

  I don’t know where to begin on this one. The whole day laborer thing started when the SCC was at 117 N Frederick. Also, is there a reason why the SCC would not consider contracting to run the proposed day labor center in Festival?

Today in the Post, Nancy Trejos writes,

For Edgardo Garcia, an immigrant from El Salvador, an affordable housing proposal under consideration by Gaithersburg officials could give him the opportunity to buy a home after six years of renting an apartment.

For Bob Drzyzgula, a homeowner and 17-year city resident, the proposal could mean more “slums” for a downtown that many say sorely needs upscale businesses and homes.

These opposing views underscore the culture clash dividing Gaithersburg, a city of about 60,000 residents whose suburban comforts have given way to the urban challenges of an economically and racially diverse community.

First of all, I don’t understand why these are “opposing views”. By my recollection of the affordable housing hearing she references in the article, very few speakers — even among the developers — opposed having an affordable housing policy at all. The entire debate, I thought, surrounded the question of whether redevelopment in Olde Towne had to include affordable units, given that Olde Towne is now almost exclusively “affordable”. Even if Olde Towne were exempt, the proposal called for the developers to make a contribution to an affordable housing fund.

As the City Council considers a proposal to require developers to set aside affordable housing for moderate-income and middle-class families, it is also struggling to find a location for an employment center for day laborers, many of them immigrants.

“It’s not this little city anymore,” said Grace Rivera-Oven, who has a local cable show and has been a vocal supporter of the day-laborer center. “I think [there’s] a socioeconomic division, and you add . . . different people from different places, and I guess it’s kind of a little bit of a ‘not in my back yard’ kind of thing. People are threatened by it.”

“What they’re looking at is doing something that will potentially act as a disincentive in an area that is having a great deal of difficulty attracting development at all,” said Drzyzgula, who is critical of the day-laborer center but does not think that the center is related to the affordable housing debate.

Unless I’m in error, these are the only two references to the day laborer center in the entire article. Ms. Trejos seems to be struggling here to connect the labor center with the affordable housing issue, but failing miserably. Why are these references even in the article?

I think, again from my recollection of the meeting, that the people on the the two “sides” of this debate are much closer together than what is represented here. Virtually everyone is supportive of affordable housing. The only question is how geographically concentrated this housing should be, and how to encourage reinvestement in older properties so that they don’t decay into slums. Ms. Trejos seems to miss this point entirely. What is the Post’s goal here?

Update/correction: Rereading what I wrote here I thought I should add that it is true that there was a bit more to the debate — the affordable housing advocates thought that the proportion of MPDUs called for should be higher than what was proposed. The sum of the MPDU and Workforce requirements in the City proposal is the same as the MPDU requirement for the County — 15% — but the County, if I recall correctly, does not presently have a Workforce housing requirement. Someone correct me if I’m wrong, but the advocates would prefer that the MPDU requirement be set at 15% or higher just like the County, and any Workforce requirements be put on top of that. However, I didn’t sense much traction for that suggestion on the Council — I think that the Council was primarilly concerned with the Olde Towne/No Olde Towne question.

The video of that meeting is available on the City’s website.

Update: Note this comment on BeyondDC:

Gaithersburg has been a slum as long as I have been alive. HOC, under the directive of down-county politicians has long worked to make the upcounty an affordable housing mecca despite the lack of transit and healthcare infrastructure so that the County could go about city building in Bethesda and Silver Spring…

Update 2: There was a letter in the 11/05/06 Washington Post responding to this article:

Why did this article seem to try so hard to connect the day-laborer issue with the issue of affordable housing? The day laborers in the Olde Towne area of Gaithersburg number — as evidenced by the size of the crowd at the street corner — only in the dozens, while the affordable housing units in that area number in the hundreds. This is a diverse community, ethnically and socioeconomically. We are trying hard to work together to find solutions that work for everyone.

In reading various news sites over the past few days, I’ve encountered a few interesting articles I’d like to highlight:

• Poll watchers split on Hispanic turnout, By Keyonna Summers, The Washington Times

  Hispanic rights activists and immigration-policy researchers disagree on how many Hispanics will turn out to vote on Nov. 7.

  Advocates say Hispanics are encouraged by rallies last spring and motivated by local government efforts to limit day-laborer practices and housing of illegal aliens. Researchers argue that the rallies had little effect.

  Wilma Linares, of the immigrant advocacy group CASA of Maryland, said local politicians have ignored immigrants’ concerns about affordable housing, health care, education and immigration reform, and that Hispanics will respond on Election Day.

  “We want our politicians to understand that … we have 90,000 Latinos who are capable of voting in Maryland alone and we are going to do everything we can for them to get out and vote for those candidates who are really looking to improve their response to the issues that we’re interested in,” Miss Linares said last week at “Your Vote Is Your Voice,” a nonpartisan campaign to rally immigrant and black voters.

• Latinos’ power in numbers, By Tom Dunkel, Sun Reporter
  

  Democrat Thomas Perez, the Montgomery County councilman who was forced out of the state attorney general’s race when a court ruled that he did not have sufficient legal experience in Maryland, is involved in voter registration efforts on behalf of Baltimore Mayor Martin O’Malley, who hopes to unseat Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.

  Both of Perez’s parents emigrated from the Dominican Republic. His father became an American citizen almost immediately. His mother waited about 60 years. The reason for her change of heart was the momentum shift toward stricter immigration policies that started in the late 1990s.

  Perez contends that thousands of Marylanders like his mother have awakened politically. That might be a partisan opinion, but what’s certain is that the Latino community traditionally has been less predictable in its voting allegiances than other ethnic groups: About 53 percent are registered Democrats, with Republicans and independents about evenly split.

  What if that math changes? In a statewide contest for governor or U.S. senator, that pool of fluid votes - now about 95,000 strong - could be decisive if it coalesces in larger-than-normal numbers behind a particular candidate.

  But the specter of Herndon, Va., hangs over Gaithersburg. In May three of that town’s councilmen were bounced from office for being too day-labor friendly.

  Census figures from 2000 showed that Gaithersburg is 20 percent Latino, but some estimates run twice that high. There’s a substantial visual presence, from strip malls with purely Spanish-speaking clientele to the large numbers of Latinos walking and riding bicycles downtown. Non-Latinos seem to be on a step quota: They glide by in cars, but infrequently stroll downtown streets.

  Stephen Schreiman, who belongs to an anti-immigration citizens watchdog group, is the most vocal Gaithersburgian critic. He wants nothing to do with any politician perceived as immigration-friendly or amenable to day-labor sites.

  “It’s very personal,” says Schreiman. “It’s directly affecting my way of life.”

  Roy Passin says uncontrolled immigration adversely affects his business. He owns Roy’s Place, a saloon-like restaurant decorated with vintage campaign posters, movie memorabilia and beer signs that has been a fixture on the edge of Olde Towne for more than 35 years.

  Latino men with too much free time to kill, he says, illegally park in his lot, loiter near the property, get drunk, smash his security lights and basically spoil the ambience.

  “In certain ways,” says Passin, 84, the influx has changed Gaithersburg “a hell of a lot.” And, to his mind, generally not for the better.

• Panel Aims to Blunt Problems Brought on by Rise in Immigration, By David J. Silverman, Capital News Service
  

  Local officials from Maryland’s smaller towns suggested on Friday that more Spanish language resources are needed to cope with the increasing number of immigrants in their communities.

  “The debate about English-only really is irrelevant here,” said Mayor Adam Ortiz of Edmonston, a town in Prince George’s County. “We have got to communicate key information, particularly about public safety and particularly about the health, safety and welfare of this community.”

  Kim Propeack, director of community organizing and political action at CASA of Maryland, an advocacy group for the state’s Latino community, recommended using Spanish language translators at public hearings and similar events to boost civic activism among immigrants.

  She said translators are one of many options for dealing with immigrants that achieve optimal results without “demonizing” people.

  Some in attendance weren’t convinced.

  “To say that we all need to learn Spanish is a bunch of bologna,” Anna Marie Angolia, vice chairman of the Cottage City Town Commission, said after the meeting.

  John A. Schaffer, a councilman from New Carrollton, said that the biggest problem stemming from immigration in his community is overcrowding in homes.

  “We need to stop single family homes from having 31 people in them,” he said, noting that additions to many of the single family homes in his community were destroying the city’s ambiance. The panel agreed that more information was needed to inform city and town legislators on how they can enforce building codes.

Update 2: All the background materials, except for the 10/18 minutes, have now been posted, and the City has removed the "tentative" label on the agenda.

Update: a few of the background materials have been posted. I’ve linked them below. Also, the 348 Tschiffely Square Road item has been removed from the agenda.

The City has put up a tentative agenda for the November 1, 2006 meeting of the Planning Commission. Note that the APFO and the Affordable Housing Requirements are both on the agenda. No background materials are yet available.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES

October 18, 2006 , Planning Commission Meeting
TBA - Background Material (pdf format)

RECORD PLATS CONSENT

AFP-06-045 — Kentlands 348 Tschiffely Square Road
MXD Zone
(Tertandi Residence)
2-Story Addition
AMENDMENT TO FINAL PLAN REVIEW
Removed from agenda

AFP-06-046 — Pheasant Run 242 Perrywinkle Lane
R-90 Cluster
(Stang Residence)
192-Sq.Ft. Sunroom Addition
AMENDMENT TO FINAL PLAN REVIEW
Background Material (pdf format)

RECOMMENDATIONS TO MAYOR AND COUNCIL

T-377 — Ordinance to amend Chapter 24 of the City Code, entitled, "Zoning," so as to create a new Article XV, entitled, "Adequate Public Facilities," so as to require that public facilities be deemed adequate to serve development which is subject to various land use and development approvals and to set forth applicable procedures and standards for the determination thereof and a regulation establishing traffic impact study standards
Background Material (pdf format)

T-379 — Two alternate ordinances to amend Chapter 24 of the City Code, entitled, Zoning," so as to create a new Article XVI, entitled, " Affordable Housing Requirements," so as to require the inclusion of Moderately Priced Dwelling Units and Work Force Housing Units in new residential developments
Background Material (pdf format)

SITE PLANS

SP-06-0010 — 17 Walker Avenue
R-90 Zone (Ryan Residence)
Alteration to Nonconforming Structure
FINAL PLAN REVIEW
Background Material (pdf format)

SP-06-0007 — Washingtonian South Seven
MXD Zone
9711 Washingtonian Boulevard
Two Office Buildings and Garage
FINAL PLAN REVIEW
Background Material (pdf format)

AFP-06-036– Kentlands General Store
MXD Zone
4 Kent Gardens Circle
6,000-Sq.Ft. General Store and Office and 3-Story Residential Unit
AMENDMENT TO FINAL PLAN REVIEW
Background Material (pdf format)

AFP-06-034 — 102 N. Summit Avenue
CBD Zone
(Coffee and Ice Cream Shop)
Furniture and Fixture Layout
AMENDMENT TO FINAL PLAN REVIEW
Background Material (pdf format)

AFP-06-048 — Sustaining Word Ministry
CBD Zone
620 East Diamond Avenue
Reuse from Office to Congregational
AMENDMENT TO FINAL PLAN REVIEW
Background Material (pdf format)