Planning Commission Memo
MEETING DATE: September 11, 2024
REPORT DATE: September 4, 2024
RESPONSIBLE STAFF: Katie Gerbes, Comprehensive Planning Manager
SUBJECT:
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Recommendation to the Mayor and Council, Including Adoption of an Ordinance to Approve the Draft Town Center Master Plan
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BACKGROUND:
The 2024 Town Center Master Plan (“Plan”) is an update of a document by the same name that was adopted by the Mayor and Council in 2001. The Plan builds on the visions, goals and policies noted in the Planning Area 1 chapter of the Rockville 2040 Comprehensive Plan (“Comprehensive Plan”), recent studies and reports compiled on Town Center, and an extensive community outreach effort to create an updated vision for Town Center that meets the needs of Rockville’s residents, business community and the market. This Plan will serve as an amendment to the Rockville 2040 Comprehensive Plan, superseding the recommendations outlined within Planning Area 1 of the original Comprehensive Plan document, as published in August 2021.
The resounding themes found throughout the Plan are to create a flexible regulatory environment that allows Town Center to thrive by enabling by-right development and allowing the market to dictate the “highest and best” land uses over the next two decades. The Plan also prioritizes the development of additional residential housing units with a particular emphasis on affordable and attainable housing units. The final theme throughout the document is for Town Center to become a vibrant local and regional destination where people can live, work, and play for years to come.
DISCUSSION:
At the August 14 work session, the Planning Commission directed staff to make several changes to the draft Plan. These changes include:
• Creating a mechanism to allow for increased height above 75 feet but below 200 feet for the properties on the west side of North Washington Street, south of Beall Avenue and north of West Jefferson Street.
• Modifying the bonus height program to include community gathering space as an eligible community benefit that can receive a height bonus.
• Highlighting 400 North Washington Street as a parcel that can be used to expand North Street Park.
• Eliminating parking minimums throughout the entirety of the planning area.
• Adding language within the housing chapter encouraging the development of more diverse unit types.
• Replacing the term “competitor” with “comparable” when describing other lifestyle centers to Town Center.
• Referring to Town Center primarily as a neighborhood, rather than a shopping center.
• Bolstering references to and support for public art within the Plan.
• Modifying language of Action 12.2.3 to be more directive about modifying the built environment in response to climate change impacts.
• Incorporating all staff proposed changes as outlined in Attachment C of the agenda packet for the August 14 meeting.
These changes have been made in the draft Plan per Planning Commission directives. A “clean” version of the Plan incorporating these changes is provided as Attachment A. A “redline” version of the Plan showing what edits were made as a result of the August work session is provided as Attachment B. Due to the nature of redlined documents, there are some formatting issues present within Attachment B that have been addressed and refined within Attachment A. Attachment B is provided simply so the Planning Commission can easily see where language was modified.
At the work session, the Planning Commission requested additional discussion on three topics at their next meeting, prior to approval of the Plan and a resolution to transmit the Plan to the Mayor and Council. These discussion topics are provided below.
Height Limits
Commissioner Fulton proposed, and the rest of the Commission concurred, that the parcels of land west of North Washington Street, south of Beall Avenue and north of West Jefferson Street be granted a maximum height of more than 75 feet, but less than 200 feet as this is the area along the “edge” character area that is most likely to see redevelopment. The Commission discussed a maximum height of 100 feet in this area.
The latest draft of the Plan proposes the creation of a third character area, called the “transition character area.” The latest draft calls for a 100-foot height limit on properties within this character area with the possibility of an additional 20 feet of height granted through the bonus height program.
Character Areas Map
Bonus Height Program
At the August work session, the Planning Commission expressed their desire to see the bonus height program amended to incorporate a bonus for other desired amenities beyond affordable housing. Specifically, the Commission was interested in seeing community gathering space incorporated into the bonus height program. Staff have incorporated the language below into the revised draft.
“Create a bonus height program that provides additional height for any development project with a residential component that includes 20% or more moderately priced dwelling units or other deed-restricted affordable housing, or provides public use or open space that is at least 5% more than the current requirement. Properties within the core character area may receive a bonus of up to 50 additional feet of permitted height. Properties within the edge character area may receive a bonus of up to 20 additional feet of permitted height.”
When reviewing this edit internally, staff noted that there is a pretty big difference between the financial impact associated with adding 5% more MPDUs to a project when compared to the impact of adding 5% more public use or open space to a project. As a result, it is very likely that developers will elect to incorporate the cheaper of the two options in order to get the height bonus, which in most cases would likely be providing additional public use/open space. As a result, it is likely that this edit to the bonus height program may result in no additional MPDUs being developed. Given this, the Planning Commission should discuss if they’d like to retain this modification or return to the original language.
400 North Washington Street
The Planning Commission instructed staff to incorporate a vision for 400 North Washington Street into the draft Plan. As such, staff have identified 400 N. Washington Street as a focus area parcel with a site-specific vision on page 36. Map 10 and Map 16 have been revised to include this parcel, and a written description of the vision for the property is outlined on page 38. The updated vision described is as follows:
“Redevelopment of these sites should incorporate pedestrian-scale urban design features along both N. Washington Street and Martins Lane frontages. For 400 North Washington Street, any redevelopment should incorporate green space on the southern edge of the parcel to serve as an expansion of North Street Park. For 500 North Washington Street, any vehicular entrances should be on the southern edge of the property.”
PUBLIC OUTREACH:
Since the draft Plan was released in April, staff have been utilizing Rockville Reports, City social media channels, emails blasts and newsletters to inform the community about the opportunity to review and provide comments on the draft Plan. The city continues to collect feedback on the Plan through a feedback form posted on the project page at www.engagerockville.com/towncenter <http://www.engagerockville.com/towncenter>. As of the date of this staff report, 23 individuals have completed the feedback form. The Engage Rockville page also has a feedback form specific to the Rockville Metro Station Concept. As of the date of this staff report, that form has five responses. All survey responses submitted on Engage Rockville are provided as Attachment D.
Additionally, staff hosted two public meetings focused on Town Center. These meetings took place on June 18 and June 24. At these meetings, approximately 40 people learned more about the draft Plan and provided their commentary to staff.
Per the Maryland Land Use Article, which governs the process by which comprehensive plans and their amendments may be drafted and adopted, notice of the public hearing before the Planning Commission to be provided in a newspaper of record. Advertisement of the July 10 public hearing was provided in The Washington Post on June 27, 2024. Four individuals testified at the public hearing and one individual provided written testimony in advance of the public hearing. The Planning Commission elected to keep the record open for feedback on the Plan until their September 11 meeting.
Attachment D contains the most up to date list of public comment on the draft Plan, as of the date of this staff report. This attachment includes one new piece of commentary since the packet was released for the August 14 Planning Commission work session.
BOARDS AND COMMISSIONS:
The draft Plan was introduced to the Planning Commission on June 26, 2024, a public hearing was held before the Commission on July 10, 2024, and a work session was held on August 14, 2024.
RECOMMENDATION:
Staff recommend that the Planning Commission approve the draft Town Center Master Plan and adopt a resolution (Attachment C) to transmit the draft Plan to the Mayor and Council.
NEXT STEPS:
If approved and transmitted to the Mayor and Council at the Planning Commission’s September 11 meeting, the Plan is anticipated to adhere to the following schedule before the Mayor and Council:
• October 7, 2024 - Public Hearing
• November 4, 2024 - Work session
• December 9, 2024 - Adoption