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From the City’s website:

City of Gaithersburg
31 South Summit Avenue
Gaithersburg, Maryland 20877

Telephone: 301-258-6330

PLANNING COMMISSION AGENDA*
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
7:30 P.M.
City Hall Council Chambers

 

APPROVAL OF MINUTES

February 7, 2007, Planning Commission Meeting
Background Material (pdf format)

CONSENT

AFP-06-050 – Lakelands – 415 Lakelands Drive

MXD Zone
(Staley Residence)
One-Story Addition and Covered Porch
AMENDMENT TO FINAL PLAN REVIEW
Background Material (pdf format)

FROM THE COMMISSION

FROM STAFF

SDP–04-001 – The Vistas at Quince Orchard Park 

MXD Zone
Winter Walk Drive - Parcel A
13 Single-Family Detached Units,

32 Two/Two Condos, 38 Townhouses
Announcement of Closing of Record
Background I (pdf format)
Background II (pdf format)
Background III (pdf format)

Background IV (pdf format)

SDP-06-005 – Crown Farm Property 

MXD Zone
Fields Road/Sam Eig Hwy/Omega Drive

Mixed Use Development
Announcement of Closing of Record
Background I
Background II (pdf format)

ADJOURNMENT

District 6 this week reports (PDF format) two robberies, one aggravated assault, three commercial burglaries, six residential burglaries, eleven thefts from vehicles, and eight stolen vehicles. A few incidents of note:

• A car-jacking occurred at the loading dock of the Rio Grande, 231 Rio Boulevard, on Wednesday 2/7 at 2117 hours. The victim was loading her vehicle when the suspects approached and told her to get in her vehicle. The victim believed they were intoxicated and thought they were kidding until they displayed knives. They attempted to push her inside her vehicle and the victim told them to just take it.

  Suspect: Possibly Middle -Eastern M, 21-23 yrs. old, 5’8”-5’9”, black hat, black bandana, grey pullover shirt

  Suspect: Possibly Middle -Eastern M, black bandana, cream colored shirt, jeans

• Two Honda Civics were taken from parking lots on Medical Center Drive. Additionally, there was another Honda taken on Washingtonian Boulevard. [See detail in original PDF]

• An aggravated assault occurred in the woods near 18500 N. Frederick Avenue on Wednesday 2/7 at 1835 hours. Both the suspect and the victim are homeless and they were sitting around a fire that they had built. They got into an argument and the suspect pushed the victim to the ground. When the victim fell, she struck a large tree branch, which caused a severe laceration to her neck. The suspect was arrested on the scene.

  Defendant: Timothy Keith, 2/M, 40 yrs. old, 5’11”/245 lbs., goatee, has priors for robbery, burglary, theft, assaulting police and concealed weapon

18500 N Frederick would be on the west side of MD355, just opposite where Watkins Mill Road intersects — Great Beginnings Furniture (where the Hechinger’s use to be) is at 18501 N. Frederick.

• Two Brown Station Elementary students were chased by subjects in two different events.

  • 2/6 1515 hrs. 800 block of Quince Orchard Boulevard The 10-year-old victim was walking home from school when the suspects chased him for a short distance. The suspects never said anything nor did they catch up to the suspect. He fled home and told his mother, but she did not call the police until 2/12.

  • 2/9 (?) Rabbit Road & Quince Orchard Boulevard The 11-year-old victim was walking home from school when the suspects chased him for a short distance. The victim said one suspect took an unknown object from his pocket and described the object as having a black handle and a silver part, possibly a knife. Again, nothing was said and the suspects did not catch up to the victim. This event is believed to have occurred on 2/9, when this victim’s mother told the first victim’s mother, but the report was not clear.

    Suspects: two B/M’s, 12-17 yrs. old, both with black ski masks and black puffy jackets

• A strong-armed robbery occurred in the food court at Lakeforest Mall on Wednesday 2/7 at 1844 hours. The suspects took the victim’s cell phone and fled on a Metrobus. The victim went home before calling the police.

  Suspects: five B/M’s, in their 20’s, all in dark jackets, one wearing a hat

• A distraction-type theft occurred at the Bloom Grocery Store, 833 Russell Avenue, on Thursday 2/8 at 0000 hours. The suspects stopped the victim in the store and distracted her while one of the suspects took $85 from her purse. While the call was being dispatched, an officer found the suspects in the vehicle at Montgomery Village Avenue and Route 355, where they had run out of gas. The victim identified the first two suspects as being in thestore. A second stolen purse was also in the vehicle. Marijuana was also found in the vehicle.

  Defendant: Rodney Cotton, AKA Deandre Wilson, B/M, 21 yrs. old, 6’5”/205 lbs., has priors for armed robbery, burglary, theft, CDS and carrying a gun

  Defendant: George Picket, B/M, 19 yrs. old, 6’/180 lbs.

  Defendant: T. (IO) Martin, B/M, 19 yrs. old, 6’1”/200 lbs., has priors for stolen vehicle

  Vehicle: red Jeep Cherokee, MD/tags

• A theft from a vehicle occurred at the McDonalds at Goshen Road and Rothbury Drive on Wednesday 2/1. The victim had given the suspect a ride earlier in the day and did not realize he had taken her purse. The victim’s purse was recovered after arrests were made in another theft.

  Defendant: Rodney Cotton, AKA Deandre Wilson, BM, 21 yrs. old, 6’5”/205 lb.s, has priors for armed robbery, burglary, theft, CDS and carrying a gun

• There were several thefts in and around Lost Knife Circle. In all of the thefts a window was broken; the stereo was taken in all but one theft. [See detail in original PDF]

• There were three thefts on Portside Court on the night of Thursday 2/8 to Friday 2/9; two were from Toyota Corollas. Two of them had the window broken and all had the stereo taken. [See PDF for detail]

• All three stolen vehicles were taken while the victims had left them running unattended. Two of them occurred on Topfield Drive, although at different times, and an arrest was made in one of them. One of the suspects in the secon theft was arrested again in the third theft. [See PDF for details]

Daquan Rodney Jackson	Stephon Allen Bush	Carlos Alberto Nieves

Update: Meghan Tierney has a story on this in the Gazette.

From the County’s Press Release:

Montgomery County Police Major Crimes Division – Robbery Section detectives arrested three Montgomery County men for a home invasion robbery that occurred yesterday evening in Gaithersburg. Arrested were Daquan Rodney Jackson, age 34, of the 2500 block of Angela Court in Damascus; Stephon Allen Bush, age 39, of the 700 block of Quince Orchard Road in Gaithersburg; and Carlos Alberto Nieves, age 27, of the unit block of Russell Avenue in Gaithersburg.

According to court records, it appears that Mr. Nieves was out on probation, having plea bargained charges of robbery, theft, assault, and attempted carjacking down to a two-year sentence — six months of which was suspended [*] — for conspiracy to commit robbery. Mr. Jackson was due to appear in about two weeks (2/27) in District Court in Rockville for a charge of theft of less than $500.

But read on… this is quite a remarkable story:

On February 13 at approximately 11:04 p.m., 6th District officers and Gaithersburg City officers responded to the 17100 block of King James Way, to “check the welfare” of two men who reside in the Londonderry Apartments in Gaithersburg. The preliminary investigation revealed that a female friend who lives in South Carolina was on the telephone with one of the men, who is legally blind, when her call was abruptly interrupted, and she heard what sounded like a scuffle on the other end. Concerned about the welfare of her friend and his roommate, she was able to locate the non-emergency telephone number for Montgomery County Police. Her call reached the police Emergency Communications Center (ECC) at 11:04 p.m. ECC calltakers, realizing that this was a serious call, immediately placed the call in emergency status. The call was dispatched to officers at 11:05 p.m., and police arrived on the scene at 11:07 p.m.

Upon arrival, police, not knowing that they were interrupting a home invasion in progress, rang the doorbell. Other responding officers observed three suspects running from the rear of the apartment, and were then alerted that a crime was in progress. Officers were chasing the suspects on foot, when one suspect suddenly turned towards the officers with a shotgun. One officer fired at the suspect, but missed. The suspect dropped the shotgun and fled. Officers set up a perimeter and with the assistance of three K-9 units were able to apprehend all three suspects.

Through the course of the investigation, it was learned that one of the victims of the home invasion had opened the door to the knock of an unknown suspect. The suspect, along with two additional suspects, then forced their way into the apartment. One suspect held a shotgun and a second suspect was armed with a handgun. Money was demanded from the victims, who complied. The suspects obtained cash and other items, but fled after being interrupted by police ringing the doorbell.

Jackson, Bush, and Nieves were each charged with two counts of armed robbery, two counts of first-degree assault, use of a handgun in the commission of a felony/crime of violence, theft under $500, two counts of reckless endangerment, breaking and entering with the intent to commit a crime of violence, and two counts of conspiracy to commit armed robbery. Bond has been set at $1 million each, and the three are being held at the Montgomery County Detention Center.

The officer who fired his service weapon in the incident is identified as Officer A. Yokley of the 6th District. As is standard procedure with any police-involved shooting, the officer has been placed on administrative leave. The Montgomery County Police Major Crimes Division and Office of Internal Affairs will investigate this incident.

# # #

Contact: Media Services Division Phone: 240.773.5030

[*]The record is somewhat confusing. The case, which stemmed from an incident on November 23, 2005 (search the text on that page for Mr. Nieves’ name) at the intersection of Brink & Goshen, was forwarded to Circuit Court in January of 2006. The plea bargain was entered in mid-March 2006, when Judge Paul H. Weinstein entered this into the record (the all-upper-case text is in the original):

DEFENDANT WAS ASKED IF HE HAD ANYTHING TO SAY BEFORE SENTENCING. COURT (WEINSTEIN, J.) SENTENCES THE DEFENDANT TO TWO (2) YEARS INCARCERATION, SUSPENDS EXECUTION OF ALL BUT EIGHTEEN (18) MONTHS TO BE SERVED AT THE MONTGOMERY COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTION AND REHABILITATION COMMENCING DECEMBER 10, 2005 WITH A RECOMMENDATION FOR THE PRE-RELEASE CENTER. UPON RELEASE, DEFENDANT IS PLACED ON TWO (2) YEARS SUPERVISED PROBATION SUBJECT TO CONDITIONS AS SET FORTH IN THE PROBATION CONTRACT. COURT COSTS WAIVED. STATE ENTERS A NOLLE PROS TO THE REMAINING COUNTS OF THE INDICTMENT.

On 10/23/06, this was entered:

ORDER OF COURT (WEINSTEIN, J.) APPROVING DEFENDANT’S TRANSFER TO THE WORK RELEASE/PRE-RELEASE CENTER TO PARTICIPATE IN THE CORRECTIONAL PROGRAM, ENTERED. (COPIES MAILED)

While on 01/11/07 we see this, from Judge DeLawrence Beard:

ORDER FOR PROBATION AND CONSENT, ENTERED.

Five weeks later — fifteen months after the incident, and eleven months after receiving eighteen months of a two year sentence — he’s arrested for participating in a home invasion.

[An earlier version of this had a couple of mistyped dates; this has been corrected –G]

Some of my readers may have noticed Mocoprogressive’s mention of the withdrawal by the sole sponsor — Delegate Ronald A. George (R), Anne Arundel — of House Bill 11, which was written to bring Maryland into complience with the federal Real ID act, as described in this article in the Washington Times. The Senate version is SB 184, submitted by Senator Janet Greenip, also a Republican of Anne Arundel County.

As Moco emailed me to mention that he was going to be preoccupied for a couple of days, I called Del. George’s office and asked them to comment. It turns out that HB 11 was pulled only for technical reasons — it had been submitted before the session started, without any co-sponsors. Apparently the committee chairman did not want to amend co-sponsors onto the bill, so Del. George pulled the bill and resubmitted it — this time with 49 co-sponsors — as HB 537.

Thus, while the ultimate fate of this bill remains uncertain — there is some sympathy in the legislature to follow Maine’s lead and push back on the Federal government — it is not quite dead yet.

A couple of weeks ago, shortly after the arrest of two dozen day laborers in Baltimore, I mentioned that it had been a year since funding had been approved for a day laborer center in Baltimore. In today’s Baltimore Sun, Kelly Brewington writes about how the arrests seem to have refocused efforts on getting this center started:

The arrest of two dozen men waiting for work in a convenience store parking lot on charges of being illegal immigrants renews the urgency to establish an indoor employment center in Southeast Baltimore, say city officials and advocates.

Because indoor employment centers shield illegal migrants from ICE agents? I don’t get it.

Despite last month’s arrests, a throng of mostly immigrant day laborers continue congregating outside the 7-Eleven at Broadway and Lombard Street, seeking to earn their living each day as part of the area’s thriving underground economy.

But immigrant advocates say the system desperately needs to be changed. They say some workers are exploited by unscrupulous employers who prey on Latino immigrants who have little knowledge of English and of American workplace rights. And some area residents complain that the crowded street corner - where workers can often be found on sidewalks and medians - has become a neighborhood eyesore.

CASA employees say they have spent the better part of a year researching potential sites and reaching out to Southeast Baltimore neighborhood groups, merchants, residents and religious leaders to build support for a center. They say Baltimore has been more welcoming to immigrant workers than other cities and that many community residents in Southeast Baltimore have voiced support for a center.

But last spring, the first site CASA proposed at East Lombard and South Eden streets was rejected by parents at City Springs Elementary School, adjacent to the proposed site.

“I’m not against anyone having a job and feeding their families, everyone has the right to seek employment,” said Sharone Henderson, president of the school’s parent teacher organization and mother of a second-grader. “But not close to the school.”

Henderson said female students have complained about being harassed by men at the 7-Eleven, which is around the corner from the school.

“One of them said something to me, by the way,” said Henderson. “This is a K-8 school. And frankly, these kids see a lot of stuff in the community as it is. They don’t need to see that.”

CASA eventually gave up on that location. Although the new location is also claimed to have supporters in the community,

Dennis Sherman, president of CARE, said he is worried about increased traffic along Fayette Street and a possible decrease in property values in this small residential neighborhood, bounded by Washington, Fayette and McElderry streets and Patterson Park Avenue.

“People are starting to rehab their homes, and their property values are going up,” said Sherman, who has lived in the neighborhood for 20 years. “We don’t think this is going to help.”

From the City’s website

Master Plan Items Currently Under Review:

UPDATED 2/2/2007: The City is requesting feedback on the Historic Preservation Element from citizens and interested parties, with comments to be directed to the Planning and Code Office. Printed copies of the Element are also available for review at City Hall during regular business hours.

• Historic Preservation Element - Draft (2.5M)

The City is inviting the public to

Community Invited to Preview Initial Concept Plans for New Aquatic, Recreation Center
Posted 2/6/2007

The City of Gaithersburg will host a Community Workshop on Monday, February 26, 2007 at Lakelands Park Middle School to give the public an opportunity to review initial concept plans for the new Gaithersburg Indoor Aquatic and Recreation Center at Edison Park Drive.

Display boards will be available for viewing beginning at 6:30 p.m. City Staff and the design firm, SORG Architects, will make a presentation at 7:30 p.m., followed by ample opportunity for questions and answers.

It is envisioned that the new center will include an indoor pool with lap lanes and recreational areas, a gymnasium with basketball courts, a fitness area, and rooms for meetings and social gatherings.

The City anticipates receiving more detailed renderings of the concept plans from SORG this spring. These plans are the precursor to the development of a site plan.

Lakelands Park Middle School is located at 1200 Main Street. For more information please contact the City’s Department of Parks, Recreation and Culture at 301-258-6350 or parksrec@gaithersburgmd.gov.

District 6 has released its weekly crime report. It was, thankfully, a slow week for crime. The summary table reports two robberies, no aggravated assaults or rapes, three commercial and five residential burglaries, twenty thefts from cars, and five stolen vehicles. Here’s a few of the more serious and, well, interesting incidents:

[incident description removed pursuant to expungement order.]

An armed robbery occurred at Girard Road and N. Summit Avenue on Sunday 2/4 at 2230 hours. The suspect came from behind, displayed a knife and demanded the victim’s wallet, or he would ‘kill the victim’. The victim took out an unknown amount of money and gave it to him. The suspect told the victim to run and again threatened to kill the victim. The victim did not report the incident until the next day.

Suspect: B/M, black ski mask, NFD

A vehicle was taken from the parking lot of Bloom Foods, 833 Russell Avenue on Saturday 2/3 between 1800 hours and midnight. The employee had put her keys in a jacket pocket and hung the jacket on a hook in a common area. The video showed the suspects standing by the coat and then reaching in the pocket, presumably to take the keys. The vehicle, a blue ’06 Honda Civic 4D, MD/tags was stolen.

Suspect: B/M, white plaid shirt, blue jeans

Suspect: B/M, black hooded shirt, black pants

On Tuesday 1/30 at 0145, officers saw a vehicle speeding and weaving in and out of traffic and made at vehicle stop at N. Frederick Avenue and Odend’hal Avenue. The suspect immediately admitted to the officers he had a numerous handguns in the vehicle. The victim suffers from manic-depression and according to his family was in a manic mode. The family is making arrangements to have the suspect committed in Virginia.

Defendant: Richard Shurock, W/M, 61 yrs. old, 5’11”/200 lbs., of Harrisburg, PA

Vehicle: red ’03 GMC SUV, PA/tags

Ann E. Marimow writes in the Post, Panel Supports Montgomery’s Plan for Third Laborer Center

Montgomery County’s planning advisers yesterday endorsed County Executive Isiah Leggett’s proposal to open a third county-funded day-laborer center between Rockville and Gaithersburg.

The unanimous decision by the Planning Board moves Leggett a step closer to bringing an end to a contentious chapter in the local debate on immigration.

Gaithersburg’s elected officials rejected more than 25 sites because of opposition from business owners and residents. Leggett’s plan to open a center in a double-wide trailer on industrial public land beyond the Gaithersburg border gives the county the flexibility to act quickly.

Their sister publication, the Gazette, finally started getting this right recently. I guess the Post is never going to give up on it. Gaithersburg’s elected officials did not reject more than 25 sites. In all but a handful of cases, the property owners refused to lease those locations. In two cases, David Rocha, a day laborer advocate, opposed them.

But the location — bound by Shady Grove Road and Interstate 370 on Crabbs Branch Way — is not without critics. One by one, opponents directed much of their criticism at Leggett, whom they accused of trying to circumvent public scrutiny. The Planning Board’s review yesterday was advisory, and the site is not subject to approval by the County Council.

CASA de Maryland Inc., which runs the county’s two other centers, in Silver Spring and Wheaton, would also run the new center. In addition to providing an organized place to assemble and bathroom facilities, the center would offer English-language classes, legal services, worker ID cards and technical advice for workers who want to start businesses. The county anticipates spending $24,000 a year, in addition to $45,000 in start-up costs.

The Planning Board’s endorsement came with advice. Chairman Royce Hanson urged the county to prevent a nearby shopping center from becoming an alternative pickup spot for employers. Commissioner Meredith Wellington asked the county to report back with a timeline for the center, which Leggett has said he does not consider a permanent solution.

“There’s a difference between temporary and indefinite,” she said.

I missed this one in the Gazette the other day:

Sebastian Montes writes, Knapp: Upcounty immigrants need more:

When the idea of opening a day-laborer center upcounty first started being discussed more than two years ago, Knapp, (D-Dist. 2) of Germantown, hoped the idea might be expanded to inspire a new range of non-profit groups to meet the needs of the upcounty’s growing — and increasingly diverse — immigrant population.

City of Gaithersburg and county officials had agreed to call the center the Gaithersburg Upcounty Regional Employment Center.

But that plan crumbled under the weight of public outcry. In the heat of the ensuing controversy, Knapp said, many of the long-term human service issues the center was supposed to address got lost in the mix.

In this article, Mr. Knapp is quoted as stating that:

• CASA de Maryland was expected to run the day laborer center, but he’s now thinking that creating opportunities for new “non-profit groups specific to the upcounty” might be a better idea.
• He had hoped that the day labor placement would have been only one of many services for immigrants at the new center.
• He’s concerned that the temporary-trailers-and-porta-johns approach may not convey the “the kind of dignity and respect we think [day laborers] deserve”, and that he sees this as only delaying a permanent site.

First, I want to say that I really believe that for the day laborers, there is no loss in dignity in a trailer and some porta-johns. To my knowledge, and to the extent that they actually get jobs, they are typically working in construction and other outdoor work. More than likely, where they wind up working, everyone — from the foreman on down — is working out of trailers and using porta-johns. These sorts of facilities are a fact of life for people doing that sort of work (or at least, it was when I was doing it) and there is a strong likelihood that they would actually prefer these surroundings over whatever Mr. Knapp has in mind as conveying “dignity”. Imposing a white-collar, air-conditioned office mindset on this employment sector can actually be kind of insulting; not everyone wants to be coddled.

While I applaud his having come to the realization that there may be better options than using CASA de Maryland to run these centers, I’m concerned that he still hasn’t figured out a lot of the other problems associated with what appears to be his vision for a grand facility offering an immigrant-services smorgasbord. Among other things, I would prefer that he would be up front about the fact that many of the people he hopes to serve — the day laborers in particular — are not “immigrants” in the legal sense of the word. It occurs to me that many of the services needed by illegal migrants are somewhat different than those needed by immigrants. For example, illegal migrants often need help finding employers willing to break the law to hire them, while immigrants generally do not. Also, if the facility is a day laborer center first and a social service agency second, then there is the risk of the services being tied to the immigrant’s status as a day laborer. Would immigrants — especially legal immigrants with jobs — be happy about having to go to the day laborer center to get assistance?

I’m also curious as to why the locations he seems to prefer for providing these services are never in his district, which is even more “up-county” than Gaithersburg.

If Mr. Knapp wants there to be an up-county immigrant services agency, then fine, go ahead and propose that one be built. But go through the process, calling it an immigrant services agency, instead of trying to go through the back door to tack one on to a day-laborer center.