This evening, Rockville today is March 3, 2025, and we'll begin meeting 7-25. Let's begin with the Pledge of Allegiance. Join us, you're able. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands. One nation under God, individual with liberty and justice for all. All right. Okay, so we have some exciting announcements this part, and I just wanted to flag. This is one of our newer meetings where we're doing proclamations and recognitions at 530 will break and reconvene our meeting at 630. My colleagues would be joining me to recognize the Rockful Montgomery Swim Club Achieving 2024 Gold Medal Stadalyst status as well as the RM High School 2024 Girl Individuals Cross Country State Champion. And then we have several proclamations including MS Awareness Week, Harriet Tubman Day and National Vietnam Wars Veteran Day. Please join me colleagues. Dr. Miles, you're up first. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Thanks for the opportunity to read this certificate of recognition on behalf of the residents and of Rockville, the Mayor and Council, pleased to present this certificate to the athletes and coaches of the Rockville Montgomery Swim Club. This is in recognition of its many achievements, whereas Rockville Montgomery Swim Club has been named by USA Swimming as the number nine swimming team in the United States for 2024 out of 2800 registered clubs and awarded a gold medal status. Gold medal status recognizes the top 1% of more than 2000 swim teams across the United States. These honors show that heartwork and dedication pay off. Celebrate your past, present, and future success. And I think here to accept the certificate of recognition, I think we have coaches here. I think Coach Green, Coach Gondy, and Swimmers, Jayton, Alissa, Chizelle, Megan, Vincent, Ethan, and Tyler. If they're here. Please come forward to be recognized. Thanks a lot, guys. You guys are on the same team. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. All right, this is for you. Come on in. Let's move up. Yeah. You guys were just kidding. We got to angle this way guys. So you guys got to come out a little bit. Go that way. So you got full shot. Full shot. I'm here. I'm here. Oh, you got good. I'm going to go shopping. Thank you guys X, Q. Thank you. Very much. Great. Great. Great. Great. Great. Great. Great of applause. Emma Colovito is one of the greatest, one of the best runners not only in the Missouri, but in the United States. Emma Colovito was not only one of the best runners in the county, one of the most amazing runners in the state. Now, last year in the cross-country state championships, now if you don't know about athletics, it's cross-country is one of the most attended by all athletes across the county. There is thousands and thousands of athletes across the state who compete. And in the state championships, M-O-1 by five seconds. Now for those you don't know, you've got hundreds of athletes going through the area to win by five seconds is incredible. One of the largest win ratios of the entire state championships across the state. Well, if that isn't enough, just a few weeks ago, they had the indoor track state championships. Now, five seconds is pretty good, but ammo won the indoor championships in the 3200 meters by 11 seconds. That is a dramatic victory. I've fortunately been in some races that I've won nothing close to a state championships. I've never won by 11 seconds. She was literally resting up and stretching before the second place got there. It was an incredible achievement and as a Richard Montgomery alum, I'm proud to read this proclamation. So this is a certificate of recognition on behalf of the residents of Rockville. The Mayor and Council are pleased to present this certificate to Emma Colovito in honor of her 2024 girls' cost country individual title. And we also have a second certificate of recognition on behalf of the residents of Rockville. The Mayor and Council are pleased to prevent this additional certificate of recognition to Amacola Vido in honor of her 2025 girls indoor track individual title. Congratulations. I really think that's the first time we've had two certificates at the same time. I'm very honored to read this proclamation about multiple sclerosis awareness week. My father, a man, wore a era veteran. He had chronic progressive multiple sclerosis. It was diagnosed in 1985 and passed away about five years ago. We were very blessed for the entire time that he was with us. But it is a mysterious syndrome and it can affect, it affects women, more than men. It affects black women, more than white women. There's a lot that we don't know about it and there's still a lot of research that needs to be done. I'm hopeful that at the end of whatever happens on the federal level, we will continue to do research into the cause of MS. I know that it affects many people's lives here in the city, city, staff, residents, but I can tell you that it really does not prevent you from living your life to the fullest as my dad taught me very much. Whereas multiple sclerosis is a neurological disease of the central nervous system affecting nearly 1 million people in the United States alone. And whereas, multiple sclerosis generally strikes people in the prime of life between ages 20 through 50. And the cause and course of the often debilitating symptoms of multiple sclerosis remain unknown and no cure currently exists. Now therefore the mayor and council do hereby proclaim and recognize March 9th through 15th 2025 as multiple sclerosis awareness week and we encourage all Rockville residents to learn more about MS and what they can do to support individuals with MS and their families. I know it'll mean a lot to their families. Madam Mayor, I move the proclamation. Please raise your hand. I. Thank you. So I know we just concluded Black History Month, but it's important that we celebrate our diverse history all year long. And today we're going to be recognizing Harriet Tubman Day. And Harriet Tubman is someone who means a lot to me growing up and still serves as an inspiration. Before my other past, she gave me a painting of Harriet Tubman. And I didn't know exactly what she meant at the time, but it has served as a reminder for me throughout my life. Harriet Tubman is someone who exemplifies courage, who never gave up, and even when her own life was on the line, she sought to act in service of others. I think that the State of Maryland is very fortunate to be able to call Harriet Tubman daughter. And there is a wonderful tribute to her on the Eastern Shore. I had a chance to visit it twice. I would encourage everyone to do so. She has led many people to freedom. She also was a key role player in supporting the U.S. government in of the Union Army and helping free many enslaved people as well as helping soldiers. So with that, I'll meet the proclamation. Whereas Harriet Tubman was born, Araminta Ross, around 1822 on a plantation in Dorchester County, Maryland, she had eight brothers and sisters, but the realities of slavery eventually forced the family apart. And whereas while enslaved in Dorchester County, Maryland, Harriet was beaten and whipped by various masters as a child and suffered emotional and physical scars that carried the effects throughout her life. In 1849, she escaped to Philadelphia and then returned to Maryland to rescue her family soon after slowly one group at a time. She brought relatives out of the state and eventually guided other enslaved people to freedom utilizing the underground railroad. Traveling by night and secrecy, Tubman, also known as Moses, never lost a passenger. And as a fugitive, after the fugitive slave act of 1850 was passed, she helped guide people farther north into Canada and help newly freed enslaved people to find work. Harriet Tubman met John Brown in 1858 and helped him plan and recruit supporters for his 1859 raid on Harper's Ferry. When the Civil War began, she worked for the Union Army as a cook, a nurse, and as an armed scout and a spy, as well as being the first woman to lead an armed expedition in war. Harriet Tubman became an icon of courage, resilience, determination and freedom. And on March 9, 1990, President George Bush Senior proclaimed March 10 as a national holiday to honor her birthday. Now therefore, the mayor and council of the City of Rockville, Maryland, do hereby proclaim March 10th as Harriet Tubman Day. And call upon the people of Rockville to observe this day, to help our families, friends, neighbors, co-workers, and leaders understand the value and courage of Harriet Tubman's service and her life to Maryland and to America. Do we have a move? Thank you, councilmember Schatz, moving. Second, Councilmember Van Grack, all those in favor please raise your hand and say aye. Yes. And welcome Sheila Bershiri. Would you like to say a few words? No comments. Okay. You said everything that I would have said. She is a historian. Sheila Bershiri and she could probably tell us some fantastic stories to us. So thank you for all you do to recognize the history in the city of Rockville. Thank you. All right. I'm honored to have the destination to present the Vietnam War Veterans Day, more than March 29th, 2025, on behalf of my mayor and colleagues. And I would just go ahead and read, whereas the Vietnam War was one of the most brutal, over 3 million people were killed during the 20 years that went on. And, National Vietnam War Veterans Day was created to honor all the men and women who fought during its time. And whereas, the Vietnam War has a long history. It was one of the longest wars in Wallach America. Starting in 1955, the war went on until 1975. And whereas, understanding that it wasn't the sort of choice to go to war, US Senators Pat Tumey, Republican and Pennsylvania, and Joe Donald Lady, Democrat of Indiana, introduced the legislation proposing the anniversary of the withdrawal of military units for South Vietnam as a date. And now, therefore, the mayor and council of the city of Rockville, Maryland, do hereby proclaim March 29, 2025, as Vietnam War Veterans Day in the city and encourage city of the city of the city of the city in the city of the city of the city in the city of the city of the city in the city of the city of the city in the city of the city of the city in the city of the city of the city in the city of the city of the city in the city of the city of the city in the city of the city of the city in the city of the city of theclamation is Randy Philip, the commander of the American Legion post, and LeBelle Perel, US Army veteran, and James Crampton is also a US Army veteran, Viratnam era. Thank you, Mayor and Council. This is very special for us here at the American League in post-86. My name is Randy Phillips. I am Commander of post-86. And we're just pleased that you're able to do this for us. My veterans that I have my family at the post are very active and we're trying to keep it going. So thank you again very much. Appreciate it. Come red. And I can introduce Salabal Farrell. He's my chaplain and also being on veteran. He's got a few words to say, please. Thank you very much. First of all, who is a Vietnam veteran and what qualifies you to be a Vietnam veteran? To describe that, those who served duty in the US Armed Forces at any time during the period of November 1st, 1955 to May 15, 1975, regardless of duty location, we do not use the phrase Vietnam era when commemorating and celebrating Vietnam veterans. Now, in some places, in some dark-and- some documents, you see Vietnam era, that would be me. I joined, I was not drafted during that tumultuous time. I felt compelled to join, to serve my country. So I joined the Army in October 1974. But at that time, the war was winding down, and they would not deploy in people to the country of Vietnam. But I still stand in that era of as a Vietnam veteran. And we continue to serve. And just because I joined, there should be no distinction between those who was drafted. They should be honored just as much as I was. Lastly, this is very emotional for me. This is why my fellow veterans now are so grateful for after so many years that we would disparage car baby killers. It was not accepted. That over the past few years we've been getting it on. For popular nations, they're such like this. And that's why we are so grateful to the City of Rockville and we continue to serve in American Legion our motto is still in service and we have joined the City of Rockville on many many occasions over the years such as on Veterans Day the 11-day the 11 hours 11 months each year for years and years. The annual memorial parade we participated in, always. So on behalf of our fellow Vietnam veterans and legioners who are here and those who for what a risk could not be here, we are so proud to be able to personally thank our Rockville Mayor and Rockville City government officials for allowing us to be participants with so many of these momentous occasions over the years. And that's what we say for God in country. Thank you. Thank you. I'm sorry, I lost. I didn't have a hole with it. Come on guys, let's go. Here you go. You're holding on, we're gonna face this way. There you go. You're holding on. We're gonna face this way. There you go. Thank you. All right, Jimmy. Thanks for having me. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. I you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And I have the honor of reading the last proclamation for today, which is for women's history month. Whereas women of various backgrounds have been leaders in movements that include the fight for emancipation, women's suffrage, civil rights, and overall peace. And whereas women have played and continue to play a critical economic, cultural, and social role in every sphere of life locally, nationally, and worldwide. And the 2025 theme for Women's History Month is moving forward together, women educating and inspiring generations. And whereas women impact the United States of America, the state of Maryland, and the city of Rockville, holding leadership roles in government, nonprofit organizations, and private industry. And whereas women continue to work to break barriers and stereotypes that keep them from successfully rising to the top. Now therefore, the Mayor and Council of the City of Rockville do hereby proclaim March 2025 as women's history month and urge everyone to celebrate the women in their lives. Madam Mayor, I move the proclamation. Thank you. Thank you for your second. Councilor Jackson, seconds. All those in favor, please raise your hand and evening and to accept this proclamation. And I believe we have our own important and impactful woman, former council member Virginia only to come say a few words. I just want to thank the mayor and council for the honor and the privilege to be here this evening and to accept this proclamation. Women's history month is so important to me and it's just warms my heart that our city takes the time to honor those women who have made a difference and who we are lucky to have had in history. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I'll follow up. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I can't you a hug. I'll give you a hug. Thank you. No, thank you. Great. Thank you. Thank you, Rockville, for participating in these proclamations and recognitions, delighted to honor women's history month. Think about those who are impacted by MS to honor our veterans, as well as to celebrate some of our young achievers who are setting new records and creating a new history. We are so proud of you, swim fast and run fast. So we'll be back at 6.30 and we look forward to seeing you then. Take care. you you you Thank you. . . . . Good evening Rockwell. Welcome back. Today is still March 3rd, 2025. We are reconvening meeting number 7-25. We're going to begin with a gender review. Sarah Taylor-Forell, will you please let us know if there are any changes? Madam Mayor and Council members, was a change to this evening's agenda. 12B, the retitle is work session on zoning ordinance rewrite. Focusing on development review process improvements, fast 2. And then under agenda item 14, old new business, we have a topic of 2025 state legislation. and that has been updated online and on the legislature as well. Thank you very much. Welcome Mr. Mahalek, City Manager's report. Mayor Ashton, members of City Council, good evening. We have a long meeting tonight, so I'll just have one item, but it's really good news. And it's about our Rockville Police Department. This past week, the National Fertrional Order of Police showcased the Rockville Police Department for their community engagement activity. The order said that the Rockville Police Department community engagement program has, quote, set the standard for other police departments to follow and is second to none. That is indeed very high praise. But I just want to call that out that our police department is getting national recognition and sharing their work with all of their peers. That's all I have mayor. Thank you so much. Thank you Wal-Dezard. Thank you so much. Well now we move Councilman Van Greck. Just really briefly in my continuing effort to highlight youth championships. I'd at least like to note over the past two weeks, Rockville High School has had five different state championships. This past weekend there were three individual state championships for Rockville High School wrestlers. And two weeks ago there were two state championships for Rockville High School swimmers. So I think the we're going to probably have some additional recognition coming in and I also heard thank you to Katherine Riffleton that the Richard Montgomery debate team has won their second consecutive county championship. So great job for my old team from Richard Montgomery debate team. Thank you, Councilmember Fulton. I just wanted to make sure we recognize the Richard Montgomery debates, him and you already did it for me. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Let's do those under-recognitions so that we can really recognize all of our young people. And if anyone who has not heard your name and you've had a state or a national where the academic response, please let us know. And arts as well. Yes. all the things. Okay, so we're now going to move over to community. please let us know. And arts as well, yes. All the things. Okay, so we're now gonna move over to Community Forum. And I wanna just note that we also have a public hearing. So those will be two separate calls. Community Forum is general and then we'll have a public hearing on a zoning tax amendment. So with that, let us begin with Community Forum. Please address the mayor and council, speak in a civil and courteous manner. Each person will be allowed three minutes. You'll see a stop-clop up front and you can track your time. They will be a beep at the end of your three minutes. Please state your name and whether you live in the city of Rockville. And we look forward to hearing your feedback. Is there anyone who would like to speak as part of community forum? Seeing most people here for the public hearing. All right. Hearing none, we'll move to the public hearing. I'm going to ask Sarah Taylor-Farrell, City Clerk, has this public hearing been properly noticed? Madam Mayor and council members, it was properly noticed in the Washington Post on February the 14th and February the 20th and also on the city's website online. Thank you. With that, we're going to open up a public hearing on zoning text amendments to modify parking requirements for certain residential dwellings, mayor and council of rockville applicants, and welcome Jim Wastelick. Thank you, Madam Mayor and members of the council. The public hearing before you tonight is on zoning text amendment that will modify parking requirements for certain types of residential dwellings. This is the text amendment that you authorized for filing on January 13th. Just to briefly recap, this CTA is a proposed solution to a situation that arose in the reserve at Tower Oak's community where 35 of the 51 MPDU townhouse units were built with a parking space within their two car garage that did not meet zoning requirements. More specifically, the width of the parking space did not meet our minimum nine foot with for any parking space in the city. And unfortunately, several units, owners of units began unpermitted construction within those non-compliant spaces when they could not be used for parking. The city has worked with the community, including the HOA and the builder and the MPDU owners to develop a solution which resulted in this as CTA. This CTA will allow for revised parking requirements for MPDU townhouses within plan developments. It will reduce the parking requirement from two spaces to one. The other criteria are that there must be on-street parking spaces provided at a rate of 0.5 spaces per townhouse unit, and also that there is pedestrian access from the unit's development. If's within seven-tenths of a mile of a transit station entrance or a bus stop or a public parking facility. I point out that the seven-tenths of a mile distance is from the transit station entrance only. The expected results of this ETA is to allow that the non-complete garage space will not be no longer be considered as such, potentially allowing for permitted construction in that area. Whoever does not change the minimum citywide requirement for two spaces per townhouse unit. it does allow for the reduction in the amount of required parking for a townhouse MPDU within a site plan area that has already been approved. And so the chief of zoning can certify that a MPDU townhouse unit meets current requirements. There has been public testimony in front of the Planning Commission and you have received written testimony as well, indicating general support for the ZTA as a solution for the parking issue. There are a couple of other issues that have been raised as well, including the potential for bioswale parkings, bioswale crossings, excuse me, that will be addressed and is currently being addressed by the Department of Public Works and the community. And we did hear testimony reserve at Tower XH away that they would like to see a 20-foot-long parking space requirements I Note that the planning commission did recommend approval of this ETA They felt that Developing a solution for the new and the new and the new and the new and the new and the new and the new and the new and the new and the new and the new and the new and the new and the new and the new and the new and the new standard. And with that, again, staff recommends approval of these ETA as authorized. And be happy to answer any questions if there are any. We'll have a discussion later, but do you have any questions to start? Okay. All right. So we'll now move to the public hearing and I did want to note, Ms. Sarah Taylor for all I asked a question about, another is a potential representative who we may be able to ask questions of. So I just want to know my colleagues that we may be able to ask questions. Once we hear comments from her. Thank you. With that, welcome, Kimberly M. Ola Hurran-Beres, legal counsel, Tower of Oaks, H.O.A. Thank you very much. I am here on behalf of Reesprune PC, which is a law firm in Bethesda, Maryland, and our firm serves as legal counsel for the Reserve of Tower Oaks, Homeowners Association. I am very pleased to hear that the planning commission took our comments too hard and that they acknowledged the zoning text amendment should consider that one area of the parking garage that is compliant should be used for parking purposes. We are generally supportive of the zoning text amendment 2025268 and we particularly do support that the zoning text amendment does still require 20 feet of the parking garage to be used for parking purposes. I would like to highlight that there are members of the HOA Board here with me tonight, in particular that they only learned of these issues after the Board had transitioned from developer control. All along, the HOA board has worked hard with the city to advocate on behalf of the affected owners and EYA did provide a no cost option to several of the owners to retrofit their lots to be able to make them compliant. However, the city decided to proceed with the zoning text amendment, and it is worth noting that all of the affected town homes do have the space within their existing garage to allow for one city code compliant parking space. Additionally, we would like to highlight as the staff did that a number of these Ellen model townhomes were modified without permits and without approval. And the H-O-A board continues to have significant concerns because these modifications were made to attached dwellings. Roughly half, almost half of the affected dwellings have unpermitted, uncode, inspected work in them, and they are attached to other dwelling units. So that is of significant concern. I'd like to highlight for the equitable issues that all of the 247 lots within the reserve at Tower Oaks were required to use their garage as two parking spaces. That's consistent with common city zoning requirements. However, for 196 of... or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or that the city council has been doing for the past years. And I'm not going to be appropriate given that a number of the homeowners still have to use their garage as two parking spaces, whereas these homes have one parking space. In addition, we would like to highlight again that there 36 foot long garages in this community, some of which Council to approve the zoning text amendment with the requirement that 20 feet of the garage be used for parking spur purposes so that we can resolve these code compliance issues which have been of urgent concern to the HOA. Thank you very much for your consideration and thank you. We support the version as presented by the Planning Commission this evening. Thank you. Thank you. Welcome, Carla Galfano. Good evening, Mayor Ashgin and Council members. My name is Carla Galalfan. I am an owner of one of the MPDs with a garage is too small. Thank you for the opportunity to say a few words regarding the ZTA. I submitted more extensive written comments with documentation, but in my three minutes here, I want to highlight a few things. One, I support the ZTA as the best of the solutions presented. It will bring our homes into compliance without disfiguring construction and it will allow us, excuse me, to convert the X parking space into much needed living area. 2. As much as I'm looking forward to the passage of the ZTA, it does not make us whole. We will now have homes with just one garage and to convert the space legally to habitable square footage will come at great cost. I asked the city of Rockville, Wave-All-Fees, associated with permitting inspection and construction for impacted homeowners for a period of two years from the passage of the ZTA. As for EYA, who, despite contributing to the situation, Hawks away, Scott free, I asked what the City of Rockville, as this homeowners in obtaining compensation from EYA in the amount that EYA was planning to spend for the modifications. Perhaps the City could achieve this by firing EYA and distributing the funds. I trust this has been mildly uncomfortable for EIA, but there is nothing like having to pay for your mistake to make you think twice about doing it again. Third, although the ZTA resolves the compliance issue for the city, we are still governed by RHAA covenants. The current language references garages, which are to be used only for parking, since the ZTA reduces the number of required parking spaces to one for the MPD units, does it mean that the remaining area is no longer a garage? If clarified language is necessary, we would ask assistance from the city in drafting it. Fourth, I am thankful for the city's continuous support of affordable housing as demonstrated by actions like the recent reduction in the number of units which affordable housing is required from 50 to 20. I ask, though, that you stop allowing builders so much latitude and specifications of MPD use. Consider minimum dimensions for townhouses such as 16 feet with 38th foot length and 1200 square feet. Encourage builders to design thoughtful smaller homes, not inadequate shrunken versions of big homes. I appreciate a smaller home easier to clean, less expensive to heat and cool, but I do ask that it be functional. As for this 20 foot thing, that is not in my written comments because I find it quite upsetting since the market rate homes are 18 feet and 18 and a half feet and significantly wider. So it's to say that they are still being inconvenienced by the parking of two cars when our house is only 14 feet wide at the exterior dimensions. It's a little bit upsetting to me from counsel that supposedly is representative of my interest. And finally, this is clearly out of scope, but including I want to mention that for some time, I've been noticing a red stain on the floor of entryway in my home. I thought it might have been something spilled by the kids, but I just realized that it's writing reading Lot 314A, which is my lot number. In other words, when EYI was building my home, they wrote the lot number in red on the plywood to which the sheet final is adhered, and now the numbers are leaching through. I mentioned this here because for me it is indicative of the general lack of care they gave to my home. And yet another mess I have to clean up at cost to me. Thank you for your time and consideration. I mentioned this here because for me it is indicative of the general lack of care they gave to my home. And yet another mess I have to clean up at cost to me. Thank you for your time and consideration. Thank you. Welcome Irene Bowen. I'm testing on the on behalf of the Stormwater Management Committee of the Tower of Oaksham Owners Association. I'm with David Safen, committee chair. We support the ZTA, but we'll focus on a related issue the planning commission acknowledged. The need to consider marked street parking at Tower of Oaks and to provide crossings over our hazardous bioswales. It's clear that fixing those hazards will decrease parking below even the lower ratio in the ZTA unless some mitigating measures are implemented. As illustrated in our written comments, the bioswales installed for storm utter management make it difficult and unsafe to reach our homes. These are ditches, a foot deep, between the street and many homes. Many people have fallen in them and been injured and crossing them as impossible for people with mobility or vision disabilities or strollers. So we must make long detours. We have a grass crossing in front of our house, but a car is usually parked there, so no one can cross. Without a paved, ramped crossing, our friends with mobility devices can never go directly from the street to the sidewalk. What should be a short walk about 15 feet becomes 500 feet in one direction and a quarter mile in the other half of those routes is in the street. For four years our HOA has pushed for paved crossings, some with curb ramps. Last May the HOA made major concessions and EOA submitted a preliminary plan to the city. Now the city says we won't even get half the proposed accessible crossings. Sighting significant. major concessions and EOIA submitted a preliminary plan to the city. Now the city says we won't even get half the proposed accessible crossings citing significant impacts on parking. We already have a parking squeeze and the ZTA allows for more parked cars than planned. We suggested striping or marking spaces to fit in more cars but we're told that isn't done in Rockville. The city also insists that curb curb ramps can only be at intersections for safety reasons, but when there's no access from parking to sidewalks, people are forced into the street. That's unsafe, particularly for people with disabilities. We understand the city required EYA to install this system. It's the only one like it in Rockville and there won't be another again. But Rockville residents should not bear the burden of this mistake. As someone who enforced disability rights laws at the Department of Justice for 30 years, I want to alert you that as the city assumes responsibility for the streets and sidewalks, the Americans of Disabilities Act requires it to provide program access. Apart from new construction requirements, including this pro, part for new construction requirements, the ADA mandate safe and convenient access to its programs, including this program of pedestrian access. The city will bear responsibility if individuals with disabilities are, in the words of the law, denied the benefit of a program because a public entities facilities are inaccessible. Staff Sales says they'll review why his plans and tell us their decision. We say nothing about us without us. We urge the city to include us in discussions, consider marked parking and show flexibility in exploring other solutions. I thank you for your time. Thank you. Is there anyone else who would like to speak? Okay. There are several written comments. I know my colleagues and I have been reviewing all the feedback that were received. And I just wanted to see if there are any council members who have questions for any of the speakers, Dr. Miles. Thank you Madam Mayor. I also thank the people who came out to speak during this period for your information as well. I did have a couple questions and then a recommendation. The question is to the Legal Council for the HLA Association. What is the rationale for the 20-foot parking requirement? Thank you, Council member. The rationale is because the parking requirements for the development were intended to have each garage be two parking spaces. The 20-foot requirement is so that there would be at least one standard-sized parking space available in each of the Allen model or multi-family dwelling units so that there would still be space for one parking space, which would not impact the available parking as much as if the entire garage were allowed to be converted to living purposes. We thought that that was an accommodation that would be reasonable, consistent with the fact that the garage was designed and always intended in the legal documents of the plans to be used for parking purposes. I also want to highlight that it was put also extensively in all of the legal documents and the purchased documents for all of the lots in the community, not just the multifamily dwelling lots, that accessing these garages for parking may not always fit a standard-sized vehicle, may be hard to access, and it was highlighted that navigating these spaces is not always simple. So all of the people buying into the development were put on notice about these spaces being not necessarily the easiest to get into and get out of for all of the dwelling units. Thank you for that. Thank you Madam Mayor. I'm just going to ask what for just a point of clarification for those watching. The initial plans had nine foot garage throughout the whole thing. There was a modification of the plans where a portion of it then essentially prompted the discussion we're having now, whereas we made it a little more narrow than nine feet. The follow-up question for you, ma'am, and thank you for the answer, is what is the of the garage for the non Allen style time homes, the non it is. It's 36 feet for the Allen model homes. I don't know if one of the board members knows off the top of their head what the standard size is. I don't have the standard size measurements. So, I'm trying to mean, but they're 36 feet long. The Allen model homes are 36 feet long. Yeah, I do recognize that the Allen model is 36 but for the nine Allen model homes. Is it 20 feet or is it less than 20 feet? They have they have more than 20 feet available for parking spaces, but for two vehicles. I just want to be highlighting that every lot in the community was designed to have the garage park two vehicles. And so we're asking for an exception for these moderately placed dwelling units that they still use part of their garage for one parking space. For clarification. So you said is it you say 36 for the other models? 36 for the Allen models. So it's 36 feet long. So we're saying that the first 16 feet of the Allen model townhomes can be used for the purposes that are consistent with the city code requirements. Right, but then you were saying 20. So 30s, 36, how do you get the 20? Is the total length of the Allen model parking garages and the part that we are asking be available for parking again to accommodate the Desire to have a standard size parking space is the first 20 feet measured from the garage door Is there a reason why it's not 18 proposed? There's a reason why it's 20 because there had been concerns raised in prior meetings that it was hard to navigate the garages being that they are narrow and so the idea of 20 feet is that it would be easier to fit a standard size vehicle in there. So you're doing that for the benefit of the MPDU owners? That's the intent. But if they want to only be required 18, then why ask them to do more? We again thought that that would fit even the large SUV. And we know that a number of them, the moderately priced dwelling people have large families and they had spoken to the fact that they needed vehicles that could accommodate that sort of size. That's why the 20 feet. Dr. Mouse, would you have any other questions? Well, I think you were trying to get that to essence. It's my understanding that I don't have data to back itself. that the non-Allen or the so-called standard townhomes have garage links that are less than 20 feet long and that this seems to be a different requirement for the MPD or Allen style townhomes. And that's discrepancy. I'm in favor of allowing people to meet whatever requirement is consistent with the non-Allen or standards town homes that I think making a 20-foot requirement seems to be, I would say caprices but I think it's, I understand the reaction now as articulated I think I would leave it up to the to the owner to make that call. The final point I would like to make, we're final two points. One, through regards to permit fees for any conversions. As it post to waving them, I think one proposal, now leave this up to my colleagues for discussion. It's that UI A cover the permit fees. I don't know why the city should necessarily be on a hook for that, nor the people who are residing in the Allen style MPD units. The final point was something that was just raised during testimony and I certainly would consider it. The last person to test if I've mentioned I believe she does live in one of the Allen style town homes proposed that whatever money EYA was going to spend on modifications be made available to the homeowner. I would support that to the extent that has been used for a modification but again it would be something for us to discuss. That's all I have. Thank you. Thank you and I did see a sub-mother folks come in. I have a question for you but I did want to note that we are in the public hearing. I see some additional folks came in if you would like to speak. I will call you in a minute. I just had a question about the covenants. Have you all discussed updating the covenants? If this is approved. We have discussed the zoning text amendment in conjunction with the covenants and our understanding is that if the zoning text amendment says that there is one parking space in each of these garages, then we have to reflect in our covenants that it is one parking space in each of these garages. Okay, and I know that we'll have an opportunity to discuss with staff the broader policy, so I'm going to hold on any of that discussion and really focus on questions for you all. I should also add that EYA still has for a period of time since they finished development, the unilateral authority to amend the covenants. And so I believe that the staff has been talking with them about if an amendment was necessary. I know EYA's official position was that an amendment would not be necessary, that the ZTA would take priority for those first 20 feet. Thank you. And I had one last question for you. You made a comment that said that the HWA was not made aware about this issue of the garage as being too narrow and not on the alignment with with Rockville Code until after the owner gave control to the HOA. Correct. I can't do you recall what that timing is? I believe it was about, as the transition occurred, I believe two years ago, the transition occurred from the developer and we became aware after the transition of the control of the HOA. So as you may know, during the initial development phase, the HOA is controlled by the developer. It was not until after that transition occurred that we were made aware of these issues. Okay. I will ask questions later about when we staff knew about this. Councilman Van Greck. So I have a question for you because I know you're here representing the positions of the HOA. Okay. And you represented that. So the question I have is, was there a difference with regard to the HOA's position regarding this zoning tax amendment among those members who had a moderately priced dwelling unit versus those who are not members owners of the moderately priced dwelling units? So I believe the moderately priced dwelling units, we've been to a number of hearings and the majority of the moderately priced dwelling units have always favored a zoning text amendment. The prior meeting that I attended had to do with the effort of EIA to offer the retrofit and that was largely rejected by the MPDU owners, the HOA supports the zoning text amendment, we also want there to be one parking space that there is space designated for that one parking space. And I guess along those lines, has there been a split of the voters that have been unanimous with the votes? There has been, I can't speak to all of the MPDU group, have their own group, I can't speak to all of their meetings internally, but not every one person, I signed on for the retrofit. Okay. And I, there was another question you had about the, when did the city catch it? The city caught it somewhere during the construction process because 16 of the 51 Allen model town homes were corrected and built correctly to the city code versus the Montgomery County code for the parking space. Thank you very much for clarifying. Yeah, thank you. Okay, so I see some other folks have joined. We have reviewed the comments and writing and a few folks have spoken. Is there anyone else who would like to speak as part of this public hearing? All right, welcome. Please state your name and with you live in the city of Raqq. Hello everyone. My name is Muhammad Lethif Tothachel. I live, Blulu, Beliaway, Rockwell, Maryland 20852. So, thank you so much, Jim, Ashwin and member of the Rockwell City Council. I'm here also to represent myself in the interest of my new video home owners. We strongly support the ZTA. We think that it's the only solution to the problems that we have in our narrowed garages and also the small size houses. And at the same time, we oppose the proposal given by the HUA you know, Council or the HUA legal council. Actually, it was a proposal that was never shared with us. We are not aware of the proposal. We, the MPD, homeowners were never part of a discussion. And we think that the cities standard, you zoning for all the houses, including the market on houses and also the impede should have a standard requirement, which is 9 by 18. So it came as a surprise to us, the impede home owners, that the legal council is having such a requirements. We believe it's unjustified, and it's not representing the interest of the impudu home owners. Thank you so much. Thank you. I just want to say to everyone, thank you for coming out to share your story. This has obviously been happening way too long, and you bought something that you thought you would get, and it's different than what you bought. So I just, I want to acknowledge this process has not been easy for you all and I hope that we can move the path forward tonight. So I appreciate everyone coming out. Thank you. Councilman Valeri. Thank you for your remarks. I actually have a question to go back to the legal council for the So you're off the hook for now. Sorry, well I was just... Sorry, my question is for the legal counsel. Okay. Okay, thank you. Yeah, no problem, thank you for coming out. Sorry, I was trying to jump in. So just for my own clarity and purposes, their MPDU owners are also members of the HOA, correct? Correct. Okay. So, when you present the opinion of the HOA, you're speaking on behalf of the entire HOA. I'm speaking on behalf. The board is the executive organ and the executive organ is the one that gave me the direction that's who I report to. Gotcha. So that makes sense to me. Has there been any active work that you know of within the HOA to, it seems like there's a little bit of an other inoccurring where it's not one HOA but rather two factions within an HOA. Is there, can you share with me anything that perhaps the executive board has done to bridge the gap and to be one community rather than to a number of things. of things. There are so many social activities. I would urge you to go on their website. They have so many activities that are aimed at everyone in the community who has family members, young and old. We encourage all sorts of social activities. We have a newsletter, the newsletter again encourages everyone to come together at the community. They have yoga, they have drinks you can get in the core. It's a very diverse community. It's a very welcoming community on this particular issue is where we've had diverging paths, I think in large part also because we have people that are attached to dwellings that have made unpermitted modifications. Significant electrical plumbing, that sort of thing and I think that has created somewhat of a divide. We do feel that the multi-family dwelling units were treated inappropriately by EYA, which is why we pushed EYA to come up with the retrofit option. It was not something that the owners chose to sign on to. Instead, they decided that the zoning text amendment was where they wanted to go. I did want to speak briefly to the standard market units, the board member that's in the audience clarified for me that some of the standard market units because they're a wider, they can have the parking spaces instead of being tandem parking spaces where they're front to back, they can be side by side. and so the width can be different. So I just wanted to highlight that there are some differences from that context, but I did do some research and the average size of the Allen model townhome is roughly I think a thousand square feet 1100 Square feet, whereas the standard model home the the next largest is a roughly 1800 feet so there is still they are pretty tight dwellings in general. So again we welcome everybody we have all kinds of different events in the community and there has been an ongoing effort to engage with people. And then I appreciate that and thank you for that. I think that you know it's It's difficult to compare tandem parking to side-by-side parking because you have more swing room in a two-car side-by-side versus tandem, right? I also want to note that I was taken back by your assertion that folks should have known what they were getting when they were looking at investing in this house because I'm thinking are their homes. Because I'm thinking of actually the resident who is talking about bioswales. Now if you were looking at that, well you should have known because that was there when you bought it, but that's not necessarily the right thing to do. So I appreciate your feedback, and I really hope that there continues to be work that is done to really bring you all together. Yeah, and if I may, I just wanted to add that there were, it was not that we were warning people, it was more that the documents were clear, these are for everyone involved, the parking is tight in the community Thank you Thank you. Is there anyone else who would like to speak please? Please state your name David's head from Chair of the Stillwater Management Committee. Just wanted to make some corrections if you wouldn't mind. I live at 3732 Blue Lubilia Way in the Preserve. We didn't actually know the bioswales were going to be there. And the MDPD units are as affected as everybody else. And most of them have small kids. They've all fallen in negative words. But in the ditches and a few people have had to go to a hospital. We had emergency people couldn couldn't get across the bioswales to pick up a poor guy who had a stroke. I mean, we have lots of things. But on page 96 of the buying document, is that possible bioswales. And you had to read all the way to page 96 and all the models that E-way put out, even the big picture that was at the core, there are no bioswelf. And if there are bioswelf, they're covered with bushes and stuff so you can't see them. And so most of the people had no idea. I mean, even yourself and we welcome anyone, many of many of the city people, there've been very gracious, they came out and walked the grounds with us. We came to a compromise and we were a little upset that Mr. Simino is now taking half of it back. We understood that it had to take some of it because technically you may not be able to put something here or there. And EYA was gonna, with their engineers, figure out what could be done or not, but these are just taken away because they don't like them. But most people didn't know about. I bought the house site unseen, and then when they started building, because I'm in one of the first buildings, they came, we drove up and we asked ourselves, and what is this? And literally, you know, my grandkids in the snow, you can't see where you're going. And I re-instant you all the pictures and stuff. But, you know, in the regular houses, that course, I'm paying into $1.5 million. If you know there was a ditch in front of your house, you probably wouldn't abort it. And I think he was been extremely unfair. They've been trying to come back. But the reality is, as been told is that we've had many three different companies consult and these are the bioswells. You put on the side of highways because no one sees them. Literally, there's not anybody who would have put that in front of a townhouse. I know it was COVID and there were shortages and that may have to do with this, but we're paying the price for a natural thinking fair. And we've been down for four years and the poor MDP units for three. I mean for two, thank you. Thank you very much for that clarification. Just a question for staff. There were in some of the written testimony comments about EYA compensation and potentially paying for permit fees. I don't know. Can you just clarify that Maryland Legal Aid or some sort of advice on the free legal services that are provided in state of Maryland were provided? And whether EYA has agreed to pay for any fees at all besides the widening that people didn't want to do. Thank you, Mayor. So, EYI has agreed to do the conversions of the garages to a standard conforming. Actually, I've heard the meeting tonight, no, we're just really taking them up on that offer yet. I think it would be difficult for us to require EYI to cover other fees. That's really between the propioner and the developer themselves, But there's another way to skin that cat. You could direct me to weigh the fees for improvements in that area for a set number time. Thank you. And I believe we discussed that last meeting, the proposal. Correct. OK. OK. Colleagues, any other questions? Is there anyone else who would like to speak? Okay. Madam Mayor. Madam Mayor. Madam Mayor. Madam Mayor. Thank you. I recognize this dip. What's you know, I'm scre. This is a question for staff. Oh, I did send these questions to the advanced and I appreciate staff's response. But I did want to make the answers known for the public. The one question I have for staff and anybody can answer the public's review is will this zoning text amendment as written be applied only to this property or could be applied in other circumstances in other properties or projects coming online? Although we tried to draft that the ZTA as narrowly as possible and still address the issue, it is possible that if conditions exist in other projects that it could apply in other circumstances, but we still believe that it's fairly limited in that potential. I appreciate your response. And the reason I want to make a public minimum for the colleagues, but certainly for the listening public is, as we've seen, it is a, although the county does permit different requirements, I believe it's a half foot. I, there's a lot of stress to say it lightly among those who do reside in those units. And I would hope as you have correctly pointed out Mr. Wasock that it hopefully only plots this unit. I don't want it just to set a precedent in any future development. The last point is just more from a access or accessibility perspective in terms of whether or not every owner or resident of an Allen model townhome was a part of those meetings. The response I got from SAP is not everybody was there, so I just want to make sure we're being clear about the fee that we've received thus far. And that's all I have. Thank you. Thank you. I just had one last question for the attorney. I know that there has been discussion about feeling like there's a divide between the broader HWA and the MPD owners. I just wanted to note that there is also the CCOC which helps with mediation services and I wanted to make sure that all members of the community are aware that that is available. Yes, it is sent out with the annual budget. Actually, the notification that's required by the CCOC to be sent out to every community that is registered. We make sure it's sent out its adverse realties management company and their protocol is to send it out with the annual budget so that it's in the hands of all of the community. It's also posted notably in the core. The core is what they call their clubhouse area. That again has all kinds of programming for people of all different ages and backgrounds. Okay, so I'm just going to say it again that there are mediation services available through the common ownership communities. There's also Merrill and Legal Aid if anyone needs help to speak to an attorney. The city can only go but so far. So I know we're talking about the ZTA tonight, but based on the feedback we've gotten, I just wanted to make sure that those two resources are clear. Thank you very much. Thank you. Council Member Larry, and then Council Member Jackson. This is a question for staff. I was concerned with Ms. Bowens' comment that she was told that curb ramps are not possible. Can that be clarified because it's not an intersection? And that needs to be opened up to DPW as well. I would like to have that for the record. I would ask Mr. Simano to respond to that. If you. ADA accessible ramps are allowed at not just intersections. However, if they are provided, we call them by common name, a midblock crossing. And if we do a midblock crossing, there's all sorts of requirements, including there has to be a distance from a crosswalk. That's one of the reasons why the number of parking spaces lost are a little bit in dispute. It would require 20 feet approximately on each side of that. We'd lose two more parking spaces on each side of the street where we put those. There's a significant loss of parking if we did that. The agreement that was reached was a compromise. The HOA, the city, EY, all agreed to it. And that is the solution that we are planning to follow given the engineer requirements, the ADA requirements that we're reviewing right now. Some of the suggestions being made were made and were not adopted as part of that plan that was agreed to. Gotcha. I'm struggling with, I'm actually looking at one of the pictures of the bioswales. And if we need to put a pen in this and talk about it later, I would like to, but I'm struggling to see this as a mid-block crossing, so maybe it's something that we can circle back with, because I would not want to see an accessibility condoned on this location. Thank you. I'll just let Mrs. Simino respond, and then if we could put a pen in this one and maybe direct staff to be very, very clear in the next steps as we get into the next part of our next meeting is the next meeting. The next meeting is the next meeting is the next meeting is the next meeting is the next meeting is the next meeting is the next meeting. The next meeting is the next meeting is the next meeting. The next meeting is the next meeting. The next meeting is the next meeting. The next, 2023, which changed the requirements in rights of way. And that is what would change the accessible number of parking spaces in the right away. We do comply with that now, but that was not enough fact when this took place. The development, we have asked this question, we have answered this question very carefully, and it is compliance with the American Disability Act. That's currently designed. Thank you, Council Member Jackson, and then Council Member Van Grack. Are you all you good? Okay, all right. Council Member Van Grack. I guess there's a question to staff. If we're going to adjust the zoning tax amendment to include a waiver of permit fees, How would that be applied or would it need to be a different section that we need to do a different zoning tax amendment for? Mayor Eshon, the resolution adopting the fees by the council already gives the city manager the ability to waive fees. So you really don't need to make that as part of the ZTA. You could actually make it part of a second conversation. A casual forehead nod to you guys asked me to wave the fees in that development for a certain prescribed period of time is all I need tonight. Thank you. And we're going to officially, once we close out this public hearing, move to the next part of our ZTA discussion so we can provide that feedback. Thank you, Mayor. Yeah. All right. anyone who would like to speak as part of this public hearing. Ms. Gaffana. Thank you, Mayor. Yeah. All right. This is the last call for anyone who would like to speak as part of this public hearing. Ms. Calfana. I just wanted a moment to refute some of what the lawyer has said. In the written testimony, I provided the plans for the larger units, the largest one, and then the other one, there's three. It's the Bailey of the Drake, and another name's not coming to me. But there with this 18 and 18 and a half, that is the, on the plan provided to you, that is the size of that garage. And it is true that we have, as MPDU, have never been involved in any of these discussions. The first time I saw that 20 feet was when I was reading the agenda for the planning commission meeting. ever came up, time I never came up. It feels extremely patronistic in our regard that we need to be protected from ourselves. The backstory there, I believe, and this is without proof, but that it is so that those, any of those constructions, instead of being permitted after being reviewed, will need to be completely destructive anyway. So it feels very, it feels like an attack. So it's upsetting. That's all I want to say. Thank you. I know a lot about what you've all experienced has been very upsetting and I want to acknowledge that. I will note again that there is a mediator who can help bridge because it's not the only community where sometimes there's a divide so I would encourage the use of mediation services. I also hope that anything that goes out or these kinds of major decisions, that's really on your governance, but that everyone has a chance to see what is going to be presented to Mayor and Council. Councilmember Jackson. Thank you, Mayor. I think it just needs to be said that especially to the HOA and the residents affected that we should the city take responsibility for this situation in the first place. I'm not saying everybody's blame, no, blame us, but we should acknowledge that the city did have a role. Thank you. It goes to the comments on also even when knowing before this went to control. So we'll get into a discussion on that as we close the public hearing, but I just wanted to thank all of you for coming out to share your stories. I know that we haven't been able to, because we had this decision coming before us, send a lot of individual responses, but I can assure you that my colleagues have been talking and trying to understand more what staff about what is going on, what you're experiencing, and what are the solutions to have for us. I'm hopeful that we can start a road of mending and making sure that everyone is treated fairly. All right, I will close the public hearing. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We're going to have a discussion on this topic. So if you want to see what happens, are the questions please feel free to stay and listen. Okay. We're now going to move to agenda item 11. Consider approval of an ordinance to grant the zoning Texan amendment. TXT 2025-00268 to modify parking requirements for certain residential dwellings, mayor and council applicant. Welcome back, Mr. Walsh-Ellick. Thank you, Madam Mayor and members of the council. I have no additional testimony to provide, just to let you know that the text I'm in with those before you is the very same one that you authorized back in January. And we look forward to your discussion. Thank you. Just, I know that a lot of people have experienced pieces here. It's my understanding that there are now checks in place in the comments of my colleague, Council Member Jackson, to make sure this does not happen again. Can you please just share what is being done? So we believe that this noncompliance with our code should have been discovered during the planning, plan review of the building permit that came through our system. We now have a checklist established that each plan reviewer that looks at those plans to make sure they comply with our zoning ordinance is checking off each individual item and they do that for each permit that they review. Thank you. The other question I had, I know we were talking about the fees earlier. Should we approve this? Last time we all as a body discuss trying to find ways to make the MPD owners whole and not have to pay for what is now and not fully functional garage. So what can be put in writing or at least so that communicated to the HWA and MPD owners so that we can make sure that there's a finite period of time by which they can, you know, make those modifications. There's two things really quick again. EYA has voluntarily agreed to make the conversions of the existing garages back to code. So they're still making that offer. Secondarily, if the council wants to wave permit fees for the units in the development, I simply need that direction from council. It does not need to be formal. It doesn't need to be part of the ZTA, because there's a resolution already in place that allows me to make those waivers. I just need to know for what period of time. And then I'll craft a letter and send it to all the property owners in the development that's affected by the waiver. Thank you. And if has EYA is only willing to expand the garage to fix the error, but are they also willing to allow up to a certain amount on permit fees for the back half that is no longer functional? We have, we've not had that conversation with YM. Okay. I would support, and I know my colleagues have talked about this earlier, waiving the permit fees for two years. I would also hold it in common upon the developer to try to do what they can do to help the MPD Units who bought a product with an expectation. So I look to you to make that negotiation happen so that everyone is doing what they can to make the situation better. I have a direction, Mayor. Thank you. Okay. I think I saw all my colleagues fully supportive. Okay. Are there any other questions for staff? Dr. Miles? All right, thank you, Madam Mayor. I think it's a move point at this point. Not necessarily direct to the staff, it's just for us. One of the things that proposed, but again, move point at this point is why is the city have to eat or wave at our cost? How can we put it to UI, that's not popular, then we can just keep you moving. That's all. Thank you. I think, it's good. Well, so I will just, Councilman Van Grack, go ahead. I don't know that legally. Legally, are we permitted to have one party pay the permit fees of another? Mr. Dawson. Yeah, I'm not sure how we could legally require UI 8. It's a private matter. And there is no just because it was raised earlier, is there a fee for constructing the garages incorrectly in the first place? That could help offset. Oh, I'm sorry, is there like a fine for them not built? There really isn't a fine system for that for doing it inappropriately because, can we, we should have caught that along the way and we should have permit. Exactly. Well, thank you for acknowledging. Okay. I would like to deal with the ZTA and then if we have any additional questions on bioswales and other things, let's do with that. So in the end. I'll call it. Dr. Miles. It's Madam Mayor. What does the ZTA that you said you want to deal with now? Is this just a plain ZTA or is it the ZTA with this 20 foot garage requirement? Staff, can you speak to what is currently here in terms of the size requirements? We've heard from MPD owners in HOAs just to make sure that it's a bundling clear what will be required? The city's requirement for a parking space is nine feet by 18 feet long. So a 20-foot long space would exceed the city's requirements. Yeah. For me, I feel like the MPDU owners have already been through a lot. And I just, if it's a requirement and the city's standard is 9 by 18 18 I think that we have to go by our standard Okay, thumbs up Okay, thank you Dr. Miles you have any other questions? Okay, thanks so much All right, so the current ZTA is with the 9 by 18 and so that everyone is clear. That's what would be appro approving. Councilman Vangrack. And just a note on the ZTA that we have to change the day from 2024 to 2025. In the final notation if we're going to pass it. It's corrected and I think the reference guide that we have. So, is anyone want to introduce the ZTA? Councilman Vellieri. Madam Mayor, I introduce the ordinance to grant zoning text amendment TXT 2025-00268 to modify parking requirements for certain residential dwellings. Thank you. Do we have a motion to wave the layover period? Councilmember Jackson? Yes, thank you Madam Mayor. I move to wave the layover period. Councilor Van Grekkas, are you hand up seconds? All those in favor, please raise your hand and say aye. Aye. Thank you. Next we need a motion to adopt. Councilman Revolten. I move to adopt the ordinance to grant zoning text amendment TXT 2025-00268 to modify the parking requirements for certain residential dwellings. Do we have a second? Councilmember Shaw seconds. All those in favor please raise your hand and say aye. Thank you. The ZTA passes. I want to just say thank you all for all that you have given in terms of staff's patience and I want to apologize because I think this has been, I know I've been very unsettled by this and I can only imagine when you all feel. I hope this process at least starts to turn the chapter, create a new chapter in a new day so that you can move forward and enjoy your homes. And I hope that staff will work with you and we have directed them to allow for up to two years from the time of today to be able to make the changes so that you can enjoy your home further. Thank you. So I just wanted to get back to the bioswale so that the community is clear on what the next steps will be, that there will be a timeline and you know, they know what to expect and when. I wish I could be absolutely crisp with the timeline and the bioswells because it seemed like there's still some disagreement. So I'd recommend that staff work with some members of the HWA, obviously with EIA and Supercumult with a design that meets the goals of all parties. And if we can do that, we may be able to prove that site plan modification administratively. And if that's the case, we'll just go about and do that and I'll just update the council. So we'll just have a meeting with members of the community, and then I'll circle back with you. Is it possible for us to get an update by June? I would think so, sure. Council Member of theieri. I just want to make sure that the members of the community that would be part of this that is representative of both MPDU owners as well as as market rate. I would like to see a mix because I think everybody, I think that might go a long way too toward helping bring people together. Yeah, well, I'm organizing community meeting and invite all propioners and all renters in the area to that meeting. Great. Thank you. Thank you. Colleagues, any other questions or comments? Okay. Thank you all for your time. Thank you. We appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you all for your time. We appreciate it. We'll now be moving on to agenda item 11b, which is the consider of approval for the proposed FY26 federal earmark request. Welcome Linda Moran. Good evening, Madam Mayor and members of the council. submit FY26 federal earmarks projects. A multi-departmental team of staff carefully reviewed the program guidelines for projects that meet the eligibility requirements as well as referred to the city's adopted capital improvements program. Staff has identified two projects that we believe meet the eligibility criteria and they pertain to the water and sewer services area. The first project is a lead service line inventory investigation project at a federal funding request of $500,000. The second project is a sewer project, and that's the Orangeburg Lateral Replacement Project, at a federal funding request at 2.52 million. With Mayor and Council approval, Staffel forward draft letters of recommendation to the Mayor and Council for their review and signature, and Staffel proceed to submit the applications through the portal that's jointly shared by Senator Alcerbrook's and Senator Van Hollen. Should the House come forward with a formal announcement that they will be taking FY26 federal earmarks, staff will notify the mayor and council and will proceed with submitting the projects to Congressman Raskin's office. So we look forward to the mayor and council's discussion. Congress and the Congress and the Congress and the Congress and the Congress and the Congress and the Congress and the Congress and the Congress and the Congress and the Congress and the Congress and the Congress and the Congress and the Congress and the Congress and the Congress and the Congress and the Congress and the Congress and the Congress and the Congress and the Congress and the Congress and the Congress and the Congress and the Congress and the Congress and the Congress and the of work that they have done to give us funding, has really been supportive of our infrastructure, emergency response, public safety, and it's meant real dollars and cents for the city that has supported our residents. I want to acknowledge our congressional leaders for their advocacy for helping support Rockville. I fully support the projects that you've named. I did have one question just as a matter of curiosity, was the AMI, which is the medialing system that would help to bring more efficiency and also help people to have more transparency on their water bills and prevent leaks and address leaks more timely. Was that a project that is, I guess, ready to be able to submit for. Oh, thank you, Mayor. That's a great idea, but I think you said the key word whether it's ready or not. We think AMI would have a positive impact, but it's simply not ready yet. They want these projects to be shovel ready. The two projects were recommending would have immediate impact. Thank you. I hope that we can make more progress on the AMI, but's another discussion for another day. Colleagues, are you supportive of the earmark proposals? Absolutely. Okay. So since this is action, do you need us to make a motion or are you good with proceeding? We're going with proceeding there. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Ms. Moran. Thank you very much. Great. So you'll be submitting the materials. And I know you'll be watching out for a Congressman Raskin if and when that opens. I also understand it's a lot changing at the federal level and we'll have to be nimble. Yes. Thank you very much. Ms. Prost. We're now moving on to agenda item 12-8, which is a work session on initiative called Results Rockville. And while we're getting set up here, I'll just note that this is an initiative that previous council funded a position and support for Envisio and the idea that this body has really pushed forward is finding more ways to create accountability and transparency and also to find efficiency. So I want to thank all of my colleagues for supporting and pushing this forward, but really thank you to staff for really diving in. And I know you're going to share some ideas with us on how you're going to take this project to the next level. Welcome, Dave Gottesman. Thank you very much. Madam Mayor and members of the council thank you for the opportunity to share a status update on the city's results Rockville initiative. Looking at our agenda at our agenda for this item, the purpose is a very high level introduction to what brought us here this evening on this topic. Their requested feedback are the questions we are posing for your consideration. The business case is a quick recap of why this work was initiated and the issues it addresses. The solution is the technical response to those issues and a description of the tool the city obtained it is working with. The current state describes what's functional right now in that tool and the current implementation. And the next steps are where we are heading and what is to be accomplished in the next six to 12 months. Then with that, with all that in mind, we will revisit the requested feedback and open it up for discussion. The purpose of this presentation is to give the body and the public an update on a new wide-raining initiative called Results Rockville, which is our framework for city-wide performance management and reporting on the status of city initiatives, with an emphasis on the work that you have identified as the most pressing, as well as the other high-profile work being performed by city staff for our community. At the end of the presentation, we will revisit these questions. Staff is seeking confirmation that the body supports the work that you're going to hear about, and if you have thoughts on how results rockville can most effectively permeate our community and resonate with the people that we serve. So to set the foundation, why is this work taking place? Staff are addressing dual needs that were identified in late 2023 and early 2024. First, an acute need to organize the broad range of the city's work and provide a platform for regular updates on our progress to a variety of audiences in a way that reduces or eliminates the disruptive email chains that affect productivity. And second, the bigger picture asks from this body that we continue to modernize our systems as they relate to our overall government operations and the performance of our day-to-day work. Rockville evaluated a number of products that address these needs and is now using a software tool called Invisio, as you mentioned, to provide a single platform to House, Monitor, Track, and Report on the broad array of work being performed by the city. The benefits of this new tool include the following. One, getting the most meaningful pieces of our city's various plans out of their traditional static PDF documents. These PDFs can be incredibly dense and cumbersome to navigate and are often unintentionally buried under several clicks on the city's website. We are converting them into interactive work plans that staff can both act on and use to connect their day-to-day work with our larger city goals and guiding principles, providing with some people refer to as a valuable line of sight between what we do day in and day out and the big picture. 2. Supporting accountability and transparency through the creation of useful reports and dashboards that allow for visibility into the status and progress of our collective work for a variety of audiences. 3. Facilitating collaboration within and between departments by recognizing shared responsibilities and enhancing efficiency by identifying any actions that have crossover and address or satisfy more than one plan. And 4. Supporting continuity of operations. If someone departs the city, their tasks within any given plan or project are readily accessible and can be reassigned with a few clicks. Our aim is to eventually house the entire family of city plans and projects on this one platform. Okay, so that's a lot. It's aspirational, but by no means pie in the sky, the work is underway, and now we'll take a look at where we are today. The majority of our work is currently taking place in the plans module, which just like it sounds, is designed to house and track the progress being made in any city of Rockville Plan, whether it's a broad, multifaceted plan, type of plan, or a more focused plan related to a specific type of work or outcome. The current shining star example of Rockville's use of Nizio is one you may be familiar with. It's DPW's Climate Action Plan Dashboard. It converts the kind of dense static PDF document I alluded to earlier into a more engaging, interactive webpage experience where a visitor to the site can see where we are in the plan's work plus associated metrics. The screenshots here can be the climate action plan dashboard homepage, and also the interactive drill down capability into one of the three broad goals. In this case, it's the reduced greenhouse gas goal. I believe DPW's environmental management team did an outstanding job, both mirroring and improving upon the original plan document. Other city plans and initiatives are at various stages of development right now. Vision zero currently uses Envisio to create its required semi-annual report as a document but is looking to their environmental management colleagues and DPW and the climate action plan we just saw as a model for how to build on the current report and take the next step into something more interactive and engaging. This is a sample page from the recent Vision Zero Progress report that came before you in January, produced in the Envisio tool. It's a nice presentation of some of their data and the future I expected to look even better. In addition to refining those two plans and keeping them refreshed, our current focus is on the following. Number one, we are working with our Department of Communications and Community Engagement to develop a results Rockville landing page on the city's website where all the various dashboards will be brought together and displayed on tiles or buttons so the user can select what to view and delve into. We'll create links on department home pages, the Marin Council homepage and other city web pages that will link to this landing page. Two, we have spent several months building out the city's 2040 comprehensive plan and envisio. Between the two pillars of the plan, known as the element side and the planning area side, there are more than 1200 action items that need to be structured and entered into the tool. We are about three quarters of the way complete with that work, and we expect that the next annual comp plan update that comes before you for FY26, which around September or October, will be the first one that you see that is not collected and presented in Excel, but in Invisio. Number three, we've been working closely with CPDF staff who have really taken to the new software to build a fast phase two work plan in the tool to track the city's progress towards more streamlined and efficient approval processes. And number four, similarly, HCD has been a terrific partner in converting the more than 40 strategies that emerged from your housing work sessions into a cohesive plan in the tool. All of this work involves several dozen city staff who are articulating the action items and associated milestones that go into completing these plans, as well as going through training on how to enter their periodic status updates into the system. In addition to DPW, CPDS and HCD, I'd like to recognize recreation of parks, procurement, CCDCO and CMO as departments that have really embraced the new tool to date. As we build out the work plans and envisio for each initiative, the associated reporting is beginning to take shape as well. This image is a tabular report, but as we build out the public facing dashboards, this information will be presented in a way that is similar to what you currently see on the Climate Action Plan dashboard shown earlier. We have adopted a system that employs six possible statuses denoted by color. Action items marked by purple are planned and have a start date sometime in the future. Green are items that are on track. Items with a yellow or red status are off schedule. Distinction is that yellow means that the city made a conscious decision to slow something down. And red means that the delay is out of the city's control. Completed items are blue. And if an item becomes obsolete for any reason, it will move to gray. These statuses are accompanied by narrative updates from staff to convey what has occurred in that particular update period. So now we'll walk through a real-life example of this reporting that you're looking at. Let's say our city manager, once or needs to know the latest on the home ownership program being developed by HCV, perhaps to prepare for a meeting with the department director or to respond to an inquiry from a stakeholder. He can use this report. And what you're looking at now is the full report and the next three slides are going to zoom in and walk us through the different pieces one by one. The first three columns convey the structure of the plan. In this case, we are looking at the work plan level and the six action items or major milestones that must be completed to satisfy the work plan, including the name of each item and a more detailed description of what they entail. The next set of columns display the start and end dates of the work plan as a whole and each of the individual action items that collectively make up the work plan, plus their statuses, and a progress bar. The last two columns allow for the sharing of updates from staff and when that update was entered. As mentioned earlier, when we build out the online dashboards, best practice is to display this information in a more graphical engaging manner and not in this spreadsheet-like format, which lends itself to more internal use. So, everything we've looked at so far comes out of the plans module of this system. But we are also currently using the projects module as well. And that is what we're looking at here. One of the things we heard when interviewing staff as we were looking for the right solution is that the city was lacking a truly user-friendly and flexible project management tool. The project's module and Envisio addresses this gap and can be used to manage nearly any type of city project. Projects in the system can be standalone, like the example that we're looking at now, which is what I built and used to guide the 2024 Community Survey last year, or one can be linked to a plan if a focus project supports a broader plan. It also helps to create efficiencies, such as when Rockville conducts the next Community Survey in 2026, we'll simply make a copy of this project, adjust the dates, and we have a ready-made guide for the next one. Staff are being socialized to this new module and have used and are currently using it to manage and track projects such as the city's holiday drive, a variety of facility improvement projects and other administrative projects. This list displays our next steps where we are heading with the tools we now have and what we are aiming to achieve over the course of this calendar year 2025. It's basically our current to-do list. Some of these items are already underway though. First, as mentioned earlier, staff are currently working on building out several large pieces of work in the system. The 2040 COT plan, and it's more than 1200 action items, is under construction. The larger pillar of the plan, which is the element side, has been built out, and staff are currently working on the planning area side. There have been some challenges aligning the two sides of the plan, as they are structured somewhat differently in the original document. But we are working to address that and anticipate that the first COT plan update of FY26, which will reflect work that will be completed through this upcoming summer, will be housed in and reported through Envisio. Two other large bodies of work that are moving ahead are CBDS's fast phase two plan and HCD's housing strategies. For both of these plans, the structure has been designed and created and and staff are now defining and assigning the multiple action items and milestones that must be sequenced, addressed, and achieved to realize each of these plans. Once staff completes that work, those action items will be entered into the tool and will be able to produce and meaningful reports and get their online dashboards designed and launched. There are also improvements that we plan to make that the Vision Zero reporting that was mentioned earlier. Also mentioned earlier is the landing page to be added to the city's website that will bring together all the various dashboards and cross-linking department pages to that landing page. Once all these pieces are in place, we will be adding other existing plans into the system. Some of these plans represent the growth of or extension of previous plans, such as the two listed on this slide, could also be something like the EV readiness plan that would fold into the climate action plan. And then some new plans will be standalone plans, such as the historic preservation work plan or a Jedi strategic plan once it's created and approved. Finally, we are just starting to explore the functionality of the analytics module, which is where we can enter or connect data into the system to create user-friendly charts and graphs, which in turn can be linked to related plans and their dashboards where it makes sense. We anticipate first adding the city's collection of performance measures into the system, and then exploring what other administrative data can and should be displayed and tracked at a dashboard. Over time, after bringing all of these disparate elements together into something cohesive, we expect to arrive at a clearer and more holistic picture of the work being performed on behalf of our residents, businesses, and visitors to the city. And connect the day to day week to week efforts with the guiding principles that govern what we do and allow us to share our progress with each other and the community. So now given all of that, we can revisit the questions that we are seeking feedback on from the body and open it up for any discussion. First I'll just start off and say thank you. I know this is a gargantuan effort. I know that the Climate Action Plan and Vision Zero are already in play, so if folks are watching, you can play and I was interacting with the tool as you were speaking, but it's fantastic. I think it's gonna move us forward in a whole new way. Plans that don't have implementation and accountability are just dreams. And we wanna be the council that gets things done and implements and make sure that we follow up and what we said we're gonna do. And I think this is gonna help us go forward. I also appreciate that you're meeting across departments to get folks trained up on this, but also talking together because so many of the goals are interdependent on each other. So in addition to transparency and accountability, it also has an opportunity to help to work down silos and foster more collaboration. So just so huge thank you and kudos. I have some questions coming up, but I want to open the floor for my colleagues to see if they have questions first. Councilmember Fulton. So clearly I'm very excited about this presentation and I love it, so I'll start there. And I'm, all of this makes sense, particularly like the different sort of modules and how we're using them in the way we're attacking them, sort of step by step. I'm always in favor of when bringing on these types of new things to take it in an iterative approach. Like, and build as you go or you don't need the like perfect end state at the very beginning so I like how you're doing it in that way. The question I have will will seem surprising. I've had experience with things like in Bizio and the onboarding and there's a danger in like the adoption taking away from the efficiencies like people start to spend more time on the product than they do getting the job done And I just wanted to see if I can gain some insight into how you're navigating that to make sure you're not making it more burdensome to take away from the actual work, but still make it effective Maybe I'll start and then Dave can probably get into the weeds. I mean, you're exactly right. This body and residents are routinely asking for updates, updates, updates, updates, updates. And to your point, every time we do an update, we stop doing the work to provide an update. So it's kind of, but the goal of this process and visio is to have it outward facing for residents and also all these reports. So instead of you guys sending an email where are we with this, just go online and see it. So it's a lot of work on the front end but hopefully it's going to be an interactive format that allows you guys to go in and residents and developers and other constituencies to go and look at the work themselves. So it is difficult to balance but to your point we're building this out in iterative fashion we're not going to try to get done all at the work themselves. So it is difficult to balance, but to your point, we're building this out in iterative fashion, we're not going to try to get done all at the same time. Go ahead. Thanks, Matt. I appreciate it. Yeah, I just got to know to the mayor's point, training, getting staff up to speed on how to use it, even if it's in there, like can be a challenge. One thing I wanted to ask you to just reminded me of different tools are for different audiences, right? Or different presentations are for different audiences. And I know that one of the things is yes, we here up here want a whole lot of reporting to make sure we know things are happening that we also want to be very transparent with the public. But have you thought about like the different, the right presentation for the right audience or the right level of detail for the right audience? If there's a difference, or if it's just everything for everybody. Yeah, again, I'll start, and then I'm sure Dave will want to jump into it. Outward facing on the city's website, very high level, very summer. In other words, let's just use the housing work sessions that you guys had. There's 43 strategies, right? People watch that, people are excited about it. you guys are excited about it. We want people to go in either the results rock fill landing page or the same exact thing and the housing page when people say wait in it, they have those work sessions, where are they? and to see those topics listed and then what are next steps. So quick, easy, forward. But then what we want to be also be able to do is if people want that next level of information to be able to click on it and then get into the weeds and get into the details. So Dave, do you want to talk about that piece of it? Yeah, thank you. The only thing I would add is that the tool is tremendously flexible. So there's a lot of information that gets put into it. You know, dates, date ranges, start and end dates, the details, the updates. From a presentation standpoint, every single element can be turned on and off for any particular audience, whether it's online or that kind of tabular report. So we can select the right level of detail for the right audience, and that's a perfectly fine discussion to have. Thanks, I appreciate it. Thank you. So all of my colleagues have questions and kudos. So just moving on to Council and Rishaw. So I also want to echo my colleagues. This is excellent work and I'm excited about rolling this out. So I had a question about how are you addressing where there are overlapping goals among all of the plans. Like I know that Jedi is an upcoming plan and that should overlap with everything. So how will that be presented? It is a good question. And the technical answer is that when you have an action item that satisfies two different plans or any number of three, four, five plans, in the system, it's what you call cloning it where you where the staff member, let's say that there's a pedestrian safety action item that also satisfies something in an eventual jet I plan. When the staff member is responsible for updating or closing it out does that. If we build it properly, they only have to put that information in once. It updates and closes in both places simultaneously. So that streamlines some of the work. It also does show where work overlaps and where actions can address different plans and different concerns, which absolutely happens. So from practical level, as I work with departments, where identifying, for example, where some of HCDs, items also touch CPS work and vice versa in certain areas, we're identifying that right from the get go and building the plans that they clone or they touch. The one plan where that's where it's a little sticky but we found a work around is the cop plan where there are about 45 or so action items out of the 1200 that are in both places. But because the way that they're labeled in the plan, we can't really do that but we're noting it. it. It'll be very visible that if it's a overlapping item with a touch point that it affects both. So we've just found a workaround for that, but other than that we're cloning them. Thank you, Council Member Vellari. Thank you. And kind of just let go everybody. Those of us who are data nerds are in absolute heaven right now at this item. So thank you for providing me with that outlet in this space. I just see so many opportunities, seeing these kind of tools, knowing how much of a struggle it was to stay on top of certain things as a member of the public when I really wanted to stay on top of something. I'm really excited about this. My only concerns or advice or whatever is that when we're looking at the outward facing modules or that how the dashboard will face the public. I think that we need to be super clear in very plain language. Sometimes we have a tendency to call very simple things that are, I'm like you're not in your head. So you get where I'm going with that. I think that anyway that we can make, you know, we're doing a lot of great things, but if people don't know to look for, let's just say, results for Rockville, when they just want to see a dashboard of what's going on, I'm just using it as an example. I have no problem with the name. Then it really is not accessible. And on that note, and actually to dovetail on when the jet I plan might be added in, I have some questions about accessibility. I found that sometimes tools like this tend to not be accessible to things like screen readers, or especially if you're being dependent on colors, can also be difficult for people with low vision or color blindness. So I just want to make a motion that that's included a motion. I'll make a note, sorry. So I love the idea of the administrative data for sure. Was there any plan to connect this to how somebody could track as a resident of report a concern? Because that's the other missing piece I feel as well, and I know that that is a different, although report a concern kind of covers a bunch of different departments, frankly. I feel like that might be a missing piece as well where right now you report a concern, you should be getting an email. You may or may not, sometimes I have not, because I actually still use report to concern even though I'm elected official. So that would be something that I would be interested in, if there would be a way to use this sort of system to also help people track their concerns. And then finally, I know that on a much smaller scale, many of our commissions create work plans for the year. And so that might be another opportunity to use this tool so that everybody could kind of see the Community Police and board. This is their work plan for a year. What have they done sort of thing? It'll be a lot easier than the comp plan, so you got that going for it. But anyway, I'm very excited about this. So thank you to you and to the entire team and everybody that's working on it. Thank you Dr. Miles and then Councilman Van Grack and then Councilman Jackson. Thank you Madam Mayor keep it short and associate myself with all of the congratulatory remarks of my colleagues when you're working out of staff to bring this to us look for it to its implementation. I have nothing further to add at this time. Thank you. Thank you. Councilman Van Grack. Obviously, I'll echo what my colleagues have said. This is really a good step forward, both in transparency and trying to track what we need to get done. I have a macro-crowned of question and a micro-question. First one is with regard to slide eight when we're talking about the status legend. I notice that we've got the green for on track, the yellow for on hold internal decision, and we've got the red for delayed external factors. But what about a delayed for an internal factor? I mean, I understand that obviously staff is fantastic, but there could ideally be a situation where internally because heck, it could even be the director of the mayor and council had too many things. There's an internal reason for the delay as opposed to just saying that all delays external just because as we find the city does make mistakes too, how would we note something that happened to be delayed without being specifically on hold that the city needs to kind of get it's up into gear? Sure, so that is denoted by the yellow versus red. So yellow, we decided to make yellow if something is not moving forward as quickly. It's either stalled or it's decelerating, but it's at your point. It's on us. We made a conscious decision based on something that is potentially in our control, but we're deciding to do it in red is where something happened completely that ever control. A pandemic, right? That that that stole something out. That's how we're choosing to discern, we made a decision versus we had a decision forced upon us. But the yellow, when we're saying, might not necessarily be an internal decision to put it on hold. It could also be internally, there's something that has slowed it from keeping it off track, because let's say within department, we lost two people and we couldn't get people on, that it's not like an internal decision, but hey, it's on us. There's a delay. Yeah, agreed. In other communities who reviews the summer color coding scheme, when you look at all the dashboard items and you see a bunch of yellow, that means something's going on. be like a resources it could be too much going on I mean who knows what it could be but that's a really good point if you all look at the dashboard or I look at the dashboard across the entire enterprise if we see a lot of yellow that's a challenge right that's when we get people to gather and say okay I'll remove this forward so that's that's a really good point council member thank you. Okay so so yellow is essentially there's an internal issue that we've got to correct whether it's our definitive decision to put on hold, or there's something that's just not working, it's slowing up these projects to whatever proportion it's noted in the tracking. Correct. Excellent. So, the next question, a similar to Council Member Fulton, the outward facing aspect of this to be able to hack internal within the city see what's going on in the city. I'm not sure if you're going to see what's going on in the city. I'm not sure if you're going to see what's going on in the city. I'm not sure if you're going to see what's going on in the city. I'm not sure if you're going to see what's going on in the city. I'm not sure if you're going to see what's going on in the city. haven't even been here a year. So I'm questioning from a year view of how we're applying this. Is this going to make the city staff more efficient themselves in how they're being able to track or their inputting versus any other change that we could do for this program? If I'm being candid, it's a lot of upfront work, building the dashboards, creating them, is a lot of hard work and takes a lot of time. But then moving forward, it creates significant efficiencies. Again, instead of stopping, doing research, doing emails, right now, let us be able to input an already existing dashboard, providing an update, and then everybody can see it. So on the back end, it's going to create a significant amount of efficiencies. Gotcha. So from your aspect, with the work we're putting in here, both financially, time-cumin is something that once we get this on track is going to make the whole city run Efficiency more efficient outside of in addition to putting the transparency to the public and to other departments Agreed not issues one example when we're having budget discussions, which we're right around the corner in the future You guys should be looking at the dashboards So if we're asking for some kind of resource whether whether it's consultant services, additional staff, etc. You guys should be able to zoom in on the dashboard and say, yeah, there's lots of yellow. We need to provide some resources there. Fantastic. Thank you. Thank you both for all the work you've done. Thank you. Council Member Jackson. Thank you, Mayor. First, let me say congratulations. I think this is a wonderful tool and you should be commended for taking this up. So that's one comment. I think me personally, I'm not a really a data geek. So I will probably skin the surface. And I'll leave it up to my colleagues to do the deep dives. But I have a question, and it's somewhat related to what Council Member Van Grack was asking, and I come from Member Fulton. And it's about the work that's required to get it up and running. You said that you were training or socializing other staff departments and various staff in using the tool. And so how do you keep up that momentum? How do you keep them using it? Do you put it in your performance metrics? Like every employee that I at least I'm familiar with in my company. We have performance measures and we change them every year. So are you doing something like that or how else will you make sure that once it started you keep up the momentum and keep being added to? Yeah, that's a fantastic question. And I'll give maybe a surprising answer. It's got to become part of our culture, candidly. You know, what's get what gets measured gets done. And my experience very early on the city to be perfectly honest is that we don't give ourselves a lot of dates. We just don't we'll get it done. We'll get it done. This requires us to get it done because everything we're showing is here's the plan, who's in charge, here are the dates. We got to hit these dates if not it's going to be yellow or it's going to be read and then it's a problem. So that's number one. It's got to be part of the culture. But number two, and I think you were leaning in on it. It's really part be part of the culture. But number two, and I think you were leaning in on it. It's really part of our performance reviews, right? If I'm evaluating one of the department heads, I'm going to look at their dashboards in the future. Are we hitting our marks? And if we're not, then why aren't we hitting those marks? Right? we need to perform better. So did that answer the question? Yes. Thank you. Council Member Shaw. Just a quick question. Do we have the ability to have this in other languages? I believe it's tied into Google Translate. I will confirm. Thank you for the excellent comments and questions to my colleagues. I think we have said affirmatively yes we support the results of our framework. Kudos and thank you. I have a few questions and then I'll also respond to a second question here. One is, and I have, I do love data as you know and I do love accountability and where are we and can we go faster? I always say it. I know that city manager here's that often. But one of the things I'd like to know is how can we find out when this has been updated? So I have Delta. I have I've dealt into the climate action plan for example and I know some of the updates were from 2023. Right. So I know that it says it on some of the pages but some't have dates. So I'm wondering, is there a way that we can build in so that if I'm looking at a page, I can tell that there's something new here, right? That's really important for a user. So one of the data points that automatically generates is the date that somebody creates an update. And again, that's the kind of piece of information that we can choose to turn on and off at different levels. That might be something that we don't share at the highest level, but as somebody drills down, we can add that. And it's a design question too. It's how we want to design it. But the information is there if we want to do that. But I will also say that we have a number of plans that have very specific update cadences already. Climate action does a big presentation every year, vision zero every six months. This system isn't going to change the way they necessarily have to time their work and do their work, but it will be done before they come before you, you know, with those regular updates. Right, I'm just thinking that it could be helpful, because you know, sometimes it'll say, in FY23, we did this, so we launched this. It's the first date you see, but if you read down, you can see like the fifth paragraph, you've actually added something. So I just think that something that denotes on the page that there's new content to lucky reading would be very, very helpful. down, you can see like a fifth paragraph, you've actually added something. So I just think that something that denotes on the page that there's new content to look, keep reading, would be very, very helpful. Because I actually, and I love the tool in the way that there is like a high level view, and then you can click in and see more detail. And I agree, we don't necessarily need that at the high level of you, But once we click in, where it gets more content dense is helpful to know that there is something keep reading. The other piece of feedback I have is the budget has a lot of key performance indicators. And so that is by department. How are you going to fold those in so that they're not just in the budget, but we're tracking our progress on those as well? So I'm envisioning using the analytics module to create a performance management page. So it doesn't live in the budget book that again people have to search and click and find and you know, it's a part by the part, but it'll it'll it'll bring together all of our performance measures into a single place. I think it does don't make sense to divide them, break them out by department, but where there are performance measures that are closely tied to any particular plan, we can link that performance measure data into the plan also. So it can live in two places. It only gets updated in one though. I absolutely love that. Because as we go into budget season, you're like, I always go back to the whole budget book and like, where are we? What haven't we done? It is very cumbersome to do right now. So I think, and in the past, sometimes those KPIs are like, we did it for the budget and we're done. It's a living document that we're trying to accomplish. And it's not just when we get to the next budget season that we look at it again. And so that might help also with making sure that either contracts and procurement happening to make sure that we can eventually get to the product that we need. So it just helps us to be honest. So I really love that. You're going to put the budget KPIs in here and we'll be in a whole different state maybe next year. We'll see. To the comment of my colleague, Councilman McGrack, on the yellow, when I look at the outward phrasian version, I'm just again giving the climate action plan. Where you see yellow there, that actually speaks to phase, which is not a bad thing, right? projects happen in phases. So I just put that word there that yellow doesn't always mean something is delayed because I'm just one example is the LED lights. It's a phase project. You're doing it over three times. And the yellow is indicating phase. It's not indicating delay yet. So I just, I don't know how to interpret the yellow. So that just speaks to again to the flexibility of the tool. You can select different definitions for different colors. We the the legend that I suggested the six is what we're planning on using for the vast majority of plans. But there are things that the city does that are very unique, you know, like like a phased project. But the tool allows us to do that. And then the key to success there is just making sure that the legend does that are very unique, you know, like a phased project, but the tool allows us to do that and then the key to success there is just making sure that the ledge is up front. Okay. Yeah. And you can do that. And I like where you could say 55% is in progress and 11% is phased and 33% is actually completed. So the tool does allow you to see that. But I just wanted to note that yellow may meet. We may need to have some universality a little bit in terms of the color if you really signaling something. Councilman Van Grech. If we're using yellow for phasing, then I guess I think it goes for the mayor's question. We've got to be able to look at this and remember and I was going to get into this, but I didn't want to get into it. But part of this is the potential for interpretation. Because if we're using this as an outward facing document, and we're in some cases saying as we might in a meeting or in a response to a constituent or to a resident, say, yellow, well, that's delayed. It's a problem. But then at the mayor said, we're using it for phasing as well. There's got to be some type of consistent metric, especially because it's not only uses intercs. Internally, you can be able to talk to a department and saying, well, that's for phasing. Don't worry about it. Well, we're talking to constituents and we're talking to residents who are saying, well, I'm worried that this climate action plan is heavily delayed, but in reality it's faced. Yeah, ideally we'd establish consistent conventions and looking at that. And in any resident looks on our website, I'm used to just screen yellow red. So I think we just need to get a little bit more tight on our conventions. And if people drilled on even further, maybe they don't see yellow at all. But I hear those really good feedback. thank you. Thank you very much. The other piece is housing. I don't wanna open up a whole new discussion here, but just for housing, I know that some of us have received a dashboard and didn't feel see the level of input that mayor and council provided for the dashboard. So I'm hopeful that we'll get a revised dashboard that we really can see the elements, there were so many elements, for example, on the landlotendant code that are provide more depth and flavor and that when we actually post it, people can see, yes, we're moving forward this transparency initiative or, you know, whatever the inspections initiative so that people can see what we actually talked about and what's getting done. That one's definitely a work in progress. Thank you, Mayor. Okay, thank you. The other piece is the complexity of our plans. So we have the comprehensive plan, but then we have plan amendments. So I was just curious, have you figured that out? And you don't have to answer that right now. I won't bore you with the details, but when the town center master plan was approved, that essentially was planning area one and the planning areas of the comp plan. And it just took a couple conversations with CPS staff to figure out how to do that. And we have an approach and we're building it out right now. And it's structured differently, the town center master plan, but when we present it, it should have a consistent look and feel. I love that too. So one thing I'll say is that when we do plan amendments, there's some things that like we went forward on, right? For example, we have the Bloomberg asphalt and the bike lanes that were created on North Washington and Bill Avenue. Just because we have the Rockville Townsend and massive plan and that's over it in the town center plan It's no longer there, but that is something that was completed So that would I guess be greater archived as some way, but I still think it's important to acknowledge that You all made progress on something we were trying to say that we would do of a public safety So I just I wanted to just note there are some complexities with plan amendments in particular because while they do take over that section, there are some things that could have been completed in the interim. Or maybe our standing. The last, the other thing I want to note is, is there a possibility because this is awesome and I love reporting? Could people download the report? I don't necessarily see a way to do that easily from what I'm playing with on the website right now, but I just want to see if that's a possibility that we can make available to the public. Okay. Yes. Great. And then how to promote this in our community. I know that staff goes around and first of all, you're here. And I imagine that there'll be some updates in the future. I think this would be a great article in Rockville Reports and something we can put on social or maybe a little video and then in terms of your community meetings going out as well. And I know that you're going to have a community manager who's also trying to engage faith-based institutions and others. So I just, I think that we cast in that wide as you know, to let people know what we're working on and get them excited about using it. Council Member Valeriy and then Council Member Shaw. Now, I'm in full agreement. I also think too that ties into kind of my question. I think that the more in general, we can point to it during the course of we're talking to residents or during the mayor and council meeting as well. It does have to, it's similar to what the city manager said, it has to become part of the culture, right? If we don't have it as a resident, you You know, it's not We're not used to it. So we have to get you know you used to it I'm I'm noting and I Maybe because it's not bolded or big that you can get to the climate action plan dashboard from the climate action plan web page But I don't see a similar link on the Vision Zero page. So that would be helpful. And I know that the Climate Action Plan was passed in 2023, right? Yeah. Yeah. Maybe taking the year off it, because it kind of looks like it's a dated thing, as to this is our climate action plan. This is our current dashboard putting I think 2023 on there. Kind of constraints it a little bit, but yeah, as far as getting it out into the community, I think it is also. and coming upon us upon everybody that is watching this right now, similar to how Madame Mayor doesn't go anywhere without her budget survey postcard when it is that time of year. That's what we're gonna have to really do, to get people more connected and more engaged to it. Councilem Bershaw. So I do have a few thoughts around promoting it and sharing it with the community. One of the things that we could think about doing is having a user group or organizing a small user group of community members, just to get their feedback on their experience. I'm going through the new system and some feedback. And another thing could be identifying some touch points when community members are calling the city about housing or about a cold violation or what have you and then directing them, answering their questions, but also then referencing the system and also seeing and checking in with them on their feedback. Thank you. I appreciate those ideas. Yeah. I like the user group as well. So I just wanted to note that the other piece is I wonder is there a way similar to engage rock for like I will say this you have some parts of the city where if you make a change it automatically sends an update to people so people can actually pick the parts of the plans that they want to get updates on. One example of this is volunteer rock foe. Once you have an account in there it actually says a new thing has been added. But that might be another way so that people don't always have to come back to the planet. It actually has a push element to it as well. So you might have people who are super enthusiastic about Jedi or our pack and our back in the Transportation Mobility Commission. They might all say, I want to sign up and just get an alert when something new changes. Okay. Well, you've given us a lot to think about and to appreciate. And I know you have a lot of work to do and just we'll say, thank you in advance for what you're going to do. And we really appreciate all you have done. Thank you. So we're going to take a quick break before we come back. We have an extended discussion coming up on our zoning ordinance rewrite. So we're going to take a quick break before we come back. We have an extended discussion coming up on our zoning ordinance rewrite. So we will see you back. you you you you you you you I'm going to go to the next page. I'm going to go to the next page. I'm going to go to the next page. I'm going to go to the next page. I'm going to go to the next page. I'm going to go to the next page. I'm going to go to the next page. I'm going to go to the next page. I'm goingvening meeting 7-25. I'd like to welcome our planning team. We're here to discuss the zoning ordinance rewrite and the fast-to-and-development process. We have with us today Jim Wastelick, Ricky Barker, Denny Snap, and Jen Forman S. Penelist. And thank you for presenting this new development review process for consideration. Thank you Madam Mayor and members of the council. As you stated, this is the second in a series of work sessions on the zoning ordinance rewrite or ZOR process. This one is focusing on the fast to process improvements. This is the outline that we'd like to follow this evening. We have some questions that we request your feedback on, which I'll get to at a moment. And we want to discuss the relationship between fast two and the zoning ordinance rewrite and also the connection with your focus areas. Outline some of Rockville's advantages and then discuss the overall fast two plan as well as our recommendations. And then we'll come back to the requested feedback. And then we'll come back to the request of feedback. And thenplan as well as our recommendations and then we'll come back to the requested feedback Which are focused on the kind of four main recommendations that we have for you this evening and they are do you support the proposed Streamline project plan process? Do you support the proposed Streamline plan development? Do you support the proposed streamline plan development amendment process? Do you support a provision that allows for site plans in certain zoning districts to be approved administratively? And do you support a provision that allows for certain types of site plans to be approved administratively? Can I ask you one question just as you go through this? Sorry. When you get our feedback, these questions are big and there Be elements as you have in the staff report where yes, we Might say streamline process, but then there's actually a list. So just want to make sure we have the opportunity to pick And choose from that list. Yes, absolutely. Thank you. So just a reminder of the relationship between Fast 2 and the the zoning ordinance rewrite. FAS2 is an initiative that's been ongoing since 2018 and means faster, accountable, smarter and transparent. We've completed a number of those initiatives in the Phase 1 of FAS2. This is the Phase 2 which really focuses on the code amendments that are required. You may recall you had a work session on fast to back in September. Just to remind you of the objectives of the Zora process, not only were we implementing the Comprehensive Plan, Land Use and Zoning Recomm and zoning recommendations and incorporating the city's commitment to equity resilience and sustainability implementing fast 2 is one of those primary zoning objectives. So I am joined by my colleague John Foreman who is the development services manager and he is going to lead you, he's been spearheading the fast process as you know, and he's going to lead you through the rest of the work session. Thank you, and thank you, Mr. Waslik. Thank you, Mayor and Council, it's great to see you all again. Before we get to the recommendations, we'll go through some background and talk about how we got to the recommendations. So, we'll first, we'll start with the connection with mayor and council's priorities, which we really use as guiding principles through this process. There are three we'll talk about in a little bit of depth. Housing production and affordability, economic development, and effective and efficient service delivery. So, we'll start with housing. As we all know, there is a nationwide housing crisis. There is a shortage of units and this is most felt amongst the low cost rentals and entry level homes and particularly in our region. So it's particularly a cute here. As a national issue, there are national strategies to address this issue. The American Planning Association and the National for example, have created a housing supply accelerator. It contains certain recommendations such as streamlining processes and allowing for administrative review of certain decisions. The American Planning Association goes a step further and provides guidance and additional information on administrative approvals stating that they're typically more efficient, less costly, and can make projects more financially viable, and ultimately lead to more predictable development environment. So that's the national framework. Here locally, you all definitely are aware of this issue and how to work session in September also on this topic, where there were a number of housing strategies that the mayor council endorsed to summarize here, streamlining the development review process as well as providing speed predictability and certainty with administrative approvals. So you can definitely see some common themes through there. Next we'll talk about economic development which is related to the the housing crisis. For economic development, it's incredibly important for efficient and predictable processes to allow businesses to locate and to open. And these processes, we have to remember are not in a vacuum. Rock fill exists amongst other jurisdictions and businesses have choices where they can locate. So we definitely need to be competitive with those other jurisdictions processes. I'll add to that, Ready has a strategic plan with some recommendations that are important for us to consider. First is to streamline opening and operating bio and life sciences, and this is known as bio ready in the plan. Other statements such as reducing barriers to coming to Rockville and more administrative approvals again tie back to those common themes we saw earlier. And finally effective and efficient services are a guiding principle. Some observations looking at our processes, our development review processes here take a long time, particularly the ones we're speaking about tonight. Project plans on average over the last five years have taken about 18 months from the pre-application stage to the approval of the project plan. After that, the site plans that come subsequently to plan a commission take over seven months. So that's on average about two years just for the development review part of that process. As a result of this some developers have told us that this time and expense limits raw fields attractiveness to them to do developments. So these recommendations that we've developed tonight were done through several steps. First we're mapping the process. As you all see that in the report in the presentation tonight, then we identified steps that were redundant or added limited value. And we developed the recommendations that ensure the requirements are met through transparent processes while eliminating those unnecessary redundant steps. And I'll add that when you think of a project from the initial very early on development review stage all the way through to permitting, we really feel like the most potential time savings in these processes is not at the permit stage. It's here in the development review stage. So really the ideas by getting to the permit process sooner, you get the permit sooner and that's what we're focusing on here tonight. Some good news now. So, Rockville has several advantages that I wanted to talk about. First, we have quite a few units in our pipeline or projected and there's a healthy interest in developing residential units in Rockville, which is a good thing. I'll note a couple things about this. These units are in the pipeline but a lot of them are still in process. So the recommendations that we're bringing before you all could help not just our future projected units, but for some of these could impact actual projects that are already in our pipeline. Another advantage is our policy framework in our film. You all may remember this image from the September work session. This is showing the distinction between policy-focused items such as the comprehensive plan and zoning ordinance and more technical-focused items, such as plan review that typically staff does. In a general sense, the stronger and more clear your policy documents, the more clear direction you provide in your plans, the more clear standards in your zoning ordinance, the more efficient and effective your technical reviews can be. And Rockville is in a particularly good place here from the policy perspective because we have a recently adopted comprehensive plan that sets out a visionary policy framework, but also contains recommendations that are clear and specific to increase housing to update our zoning to improve processes among many other things. Even more recently we have a newly adopted town center plan that carries those forward and even more detail for our town center. So those are great advantages to the city. Another key advantage the city has is the zoning ordinance rewrite, which is probably the primary implementation tool for the new comprehensive plan from a land use perspective. And as you all know, the zoning ordinance rewrite isn't just about processes such as we're talking about tonight. It's about creating new clear standards that ensure that the plans come to life and that the community needs are met. And these could be modifying existing standards that already exist such as parking or building height or public use space or creating new standards for things like EV charging or parkland. And so as I said before the more clear policy direction you have and the more clear standards you have the more efficient the process could be and for example mayor and council shouldn't have to intervene to get EV charging in a project that's something we should have in our code and that's what we would propose to the zoning ordinance rewrite. Okay so we're almost to the recommendations but a little bit more about fast broadly before we do. I do want to know that since we've spoken with you in September we've been working on a number of items consistent with your direction at that meeting. We've been working with our colleagues and public works to draft changes to chapter 21, which is the road code. We've been working to continue to set up new applications on our online system to create a second point that they take for all of our applications, which we call our virtual one-stop shop. Speaking of permitting, we have, we'll be working on establishing and implementing metrics on reducing permitting times to permit issuance, and I do want to report that we restarted the Quick Start Permit effective on February 17th. This is a sampling. There are over 30 action items. I did want to highlight a few, though, more of the broader ones. There are more related to Zor that we won't speak about tonight. We have, we're working on administrative processes for some historic preservation cases as well as some flats. We're also looking for more effective and efficient processes for changes of use to allow those to proceed more quickly through our process while still maintaining our requirements. But the two at the bottom are the two that we'll speak about tonight, which is streamlining project plans and Pellan Development Amendments and additional administrative improvements for certain site plans. I want to note about these. These are important items. These are going to be impactful items, but to be clear, these are not the solution. So the items and the topics we're discussing tonight will be important and impactful, but I just want to remind everyone that they're part of this broader, fast and zoning ordinance rewrite effort that really is more than just these two items. So having said all that, we will talk about these four recommendations. The first is the plan development process. I'm sorry, the first is the project plan process, then the plan development amendment process, and then two different proposals for administrative site plans. I'll note for all these processes, it may not be clear on the PowerPoint slides, but public notification is recommended to be required for all area meetings and all public hearings before the Planning Commission and Mayor and Council. And for area meetings that includes the administrative processes. So even when there's an administrative process recommended there would still be public notification and a public area meeting is noted in the slides. Okay, so the first recommendation is to streamline the project plan process. Project plans are the biggest projects in the city. So I think Shady Grove or Twin Brook Quarter, very large projects. So the specific recommendation here is for Mayor and Council to continue to be this deciding body as they are now. But we have some process suggestions that we'd like to implement. First is combining the two area meetings into a single post application meeting consistent with the direction Mayor and council gave back in December. The next recommendation is to move the briefings from the planning commission and mayor and council and to allow subsequent site plans. So after the project plan is approved to allow those site plans that come after to be approved administratively. The thought process there is that the planning commission has already seen the project and made a recommendation to the mayor and council. The mayor and council already has approved the project plan and blessed the project. So at that time, staff is able to administer the codes and implement the technical requirements through the site plans. The goal with all this is to make the process achievable within six months where now it takes 18 months on average. And so that was a lot of words. Here's what it it looks like in terms of the process. You see the project plan piece is on top, the site plan piece is on bottom. I'll highlight the two area meetings and the briefings and as well as the post application area meeting at the site plan and planning commission decision. So this is the current process. Our recommended process would be one post application area meeting, planning commission recommendation, mayor and council decision, and then the site plan with staff review and ultimate decision by the chief of zoning. Now a couple of notes about this process. It maintains all the elements. So it's still planning commission recommendation mayor and council decision. Staff still maintains all the technical reviews to ensure that all requirements, including life safety, forestry, stormwater, zoning, ordinance are all enforced through the review, but it's streamlined. So moving on to the next recommendation. It's a very similar recommendation which is to streamline the plan development amendment process. Currently this follows the same process you just saw which is the project plan amendment process. We're recommending a slight difference now moving forward for these two processes. The reason being these multiple zone PD zones are throughout the city. There are approved developments that require an amendment any time an alternative development proposal is proposed. So think rock shy or tower preserve are recent examples of prior approved developments that are in these PD zones that require an amendment. We recommend that Mayor and Council continue to be the deciding body for these as you are now. isn't approved development, this has already gone through the recommendation process and been approved by the mayor and council previously. So we think it makes sense to proceed to the decision-maker sooner in the process and get to that decision in the first step sooner. The other difference would be, we recommend the planning commission remains the approving body for site plans. So they wouldn't have a recommendation but they would be the deciding body on these site plans. I'll note for both this process and the prior project plan process we would allow the project plan to be processed concurrently so someone could submit both the project plan and the site plan at the same time but the plan development amendment would have to be approved first. So that allows for some efficiencies in review while maintaining the integrity of the process. Again, the goal with this is to make the process achievable within six months where it currently takes on average about 18 months. So this is the current PD amendment or also project plan process one and the same. And this is the proposed new process with the single area meeting, the mayor and council decision on the project plan and the planning commission decision on the site plan. Okay, so the next two recommendations will move on to site plans themselves. And the first recommendation is to designate certain mixed use districts for site plans to be approved administratively. So a couple of notes on this and this is represented generally on the map to the right. We would only recommend this and the most intense mixed use districts which are listed on the screen. So this would, by definition, be zones and areas where the city has said growth is intended to go where there's existing transit and infrastructure in place. We would also only recommend this when not within 300 feet of a residential zone. And this is similar to a zoning text amendment that the mayor and council adopted in 2021 to allow for additional small additions and site changes to be approved administratively within these areas. So we would just expand this to allow for up to full redevelopment within these areas. I will note that this would maintain the planning commission to approve site plans that don't meet these criteria. So if it's within 300 feet of residential, those would still go for to the site plan where that discretionary review is required. So that's recommendation number three. I'll move to recommendation number four, which has multiple parts. As Madam May I mentioned, these are kind of discreet pieces that you all can discuss. The first piece, and I'll say these are the ones that are based most clearly on the various goals and priorities that we went over earlier in the presentation. The first is to designate certain project types for administrative site plan approval. And the first example is residential or, sorry, research and development, including life sciences and MXE zone, which you see on the map to the right. This aligns specifically with the city's economic development goals and ready's strategic plan about getting bio ready. The other pieces to recommendation for are deal with housing. Again, these are designating additional project types for administrative site plan approval. The first is housing developments with MPDUs beyond the base requirement. So 20% are greater affordable housing units. So where you provide additional affordable units, you have a faster approval process. The next recommendation is for housing for senior adults and persons with disabilities. This is to reduce barriers to this supportive housing type. approval process. The next recommendation is for housing for senior adults and persons with disabilities. This is to reduce barriers to this supportive housing type for vulnerable populations. The next is for residential developments of up to 19 units. This would be because these smaller processes, smaller projects are particularly challenging and these faster processes are important for their smaller projects and they are less impactful to the community because they're inherently smaller and finally recommending non-residential such as office to residential conversions similar to the projects that we saw the office to residential conversion1RDANs. So the process is don't look incredibly different on this. Again, these would still be subject to public notification with a community meeting. Subject to all the same staff reviews for technical requirements. It would just be the approving authority would be different. The chief of zoning would be the approving authority for the administrative site plans as opposed to the planning commission. So comparing these two processes, like I said, they're still the opportunity for transparency and either process. There's the same thorough reviews and you end up with the same outcome, which is a site plan that implements the city's plans and technical requirements as in the zoning ordinance. And this still maintains site plans near existing residential communities where planning commission would be the decision maker. I'll note two, and I don't think this is in the report, but it should have been, that we would recommend that our administrative decisions be publicly posted. We think that's important for transparency and that we receive some public testimony about that and completely agree with that. And that's not in our code now, and we would recommend that it would be moving forward. So to summarize, we really wanna build on our advantages and unlock our potential to meet our stated goals. We can get there with faster processes. The project plans and PDM amendments currently take 18 months and this could be greatly streamlined. The administrative site plans can also be reduced by seven to ten weeks. And we feel like by providing this predictable and certain environment, it really incentivizes what the city wants to see, which is affordable market rate housing and the type of economic development that we want I'll add to especially for item 4. It's a very adaptable new provision for our ordinance Where as things shift moving forward We're able to add things to that list as we identify new priorities new goals So it's a great addition to the code and that it's very adaptable moving forward. So tonight we're requesting general feedback on these four items, understanding that we don't have specific code language. We would come back to you with that through the zoning ordinance rewrite. So we're looking for feedback on these four items and I am happy to answer any questions you may have. Thank you. First, I wanna thank the team for continuing to evolve those those zoning ordinance rights to try to get us back on track timing wise. And I know this is big thinking and a lot of changes to what we currently have. I have some just general overarching comments and I did get some feedback trying to just understand different perspectives on this. So I'll be infusing that through my comments. I'm wondering whenever the zoning ordinance rewrite comes to us, is it possible to include an update on the timeline? Where are we in the process? And are we still on track from where we said we were going to be done with this project? So I just I think that's a matter of course every time this comes back, we can say here's where we He's what we said we're gonna do by this time we're on time We're not just so we have that accountability Absolutely we can do that. Okay, awesome The other big piece of feedback and I do want to get more specific because I actually took very detailed comments on Page 83 just going through the staff reports I know this is very high this commentary of these questions, but I think we may want to pick them apart a little bit more. But just some broader comments. Definitely think that a process needs to be more efficient and effective and faster. One of the questions I got from the community is, is this really faster or is it more time with staff? And so I think you alluded to in your comments that you are going to try to make it faster. For example, each stage doesn't necessarily yet. I can't tell from this process is a staff going to have a time so people when they submit, they know they've got X-days, 120 days before they hear back or 90 days before they hear back. When will that be coming forward? And are you are you planning to give yourself timelines by which something is submitted and people will get a response in a timely manner? Thank you, Madam Mayor. We have that currently. We have on our website review timeframes for the part of the process that we control. So when we receive a submittal depending on what type it is, the more complex it is the longer the timeline is. But we have timeframes that range from six weeks to two weeks. From the time we get it, it's a complete application to the time we send comments out on the application. So that currently does exist. So are you planning to shorten any of those times to make them faster as part of this process? We have, we're always looking at our timeframes and making sure they're right for the projects that we have in the process. We have different variety of reviewers on them from multiple departments. And so I think that's definitely a conversation we can have. As of right now, we feel like we already do that as expeditiously as we're able to. And we really focus on meeting our timeframes. What I would say is that's definitely an option we can pursue further if that's the will of the Mayor and Council to pursue that. Yeah, I mean, I think that sometimes it's not Mayor and Council who's taking a long time. So it could be, it takes a long time before it gets to us. So I'm trying to find ways for us to look at that process as well. Like how quickly can things get to us? I do think some of the changes that you have included here, like the pre-application means there's a lot of those meetings. They can actually start to submit faster. So that part I agree with, but I do think that it's important to us to look critically at our review times and are they working? Or can we make them faster? And then also, I would like to thank the team for bringing back the Expedite Review program. I think some of my colleagues were clapping up here internally. I know we've been that that went out about a year and a half ago. So I know we've been that that went out about a year and a half ago. So I know we last year this time February 2024 actually it was that we were trying to say when can we get that back. So thank you for bringing that back last month. One of the comments that I received is it's great to see that back. Are you looking at expanding the criteria for what would qualify for expedited permitting? I think thank you again for that question. I think what I would say is that we are looking as part of mayor and council direction to look at our permit time frames. We're looking at across the board our review timeframes and looking for opportunities to provide those services quicker. We don't have a proposal here tonight to speak in detail about that, but I would expect in the future that we would have much more information about that. And yes, there would be expanded whether they're shortened review timeframes or additional expediting. I'm not sure which route we're going to take. But I think the point is to get to permit quicker where we can and absolutely we're looking at that. Okay. I know that there have been some, sometimes where like a housing project has been approved, mayor and council is ready to go, but then there are like 100 100 permits in waiting so that could be a staffing capacity issue that we'll address with through the budget but I just think that we do need to look at that process and then the feedback that I've received is that the project the list of projects that qualify as to narrow so I do want to just encourage us to look at that. The other piece that I wanted to understand is during in the proposed process and I'll just say broadly, I do believe that the public expects the mayor and council to have a level of involvement. I know that we are trying to be faster and quicker of how quickly that can get to us. But I do think that our job is to help shape and provide feedback. I think that this body has done very well in terms of being quick and decisive and being clear about what we need to move forward. And I think this body is committed to housing and economic development and making sure things are being done with accountability faster, with accountability faster, as well as the quality and taking the feedback of our community. So I really thank my colleagues because I've heard, I've heard from many in the community that it feels like, you know, a new error in terms of the process. So thank you to staff for that and I want to thank my colleagues for setting that tone. But you know, I do have some concerns about some of the levels of authority that would be removed from the mayor and council. We heard this evening about some things that happen in administrative review. I do think that the council has made some projects better with our feedback. So I would be concerned about losing them, whether that's been EV charging or BIPOC street names or taught lots or we got something that's going to help us with the King Farm Farm Stead. That was negotiated with Mayor and Council engagement. So I do think that Mayor and Council has a lot of value and we also hear from our community on, you know, and we live here. So I have concern about some of the levels of removal that you are proposing here. However, I do think that some of the things you are proposing make sense. For example, the pre-application process takes such a long time. And I agree with your proposal on handling that. I also appreciate that people can submit the concurrent review of site plans and with the PD amendment. I think that's positive. I've heard in the community that's a game changer, so I encourage that and I support that. I do think that it might be helpful. I know you guys have been really good about this. Of letting people come in and say, I'm working on an idea. Can I talk to you? Because it can be costly if to go down a path and then to here, I know you can't do that. So I just, I want to make sure that there are some, that we keep open some entry points if they can check with you all to see if are they on the right path or or is there something that's going to cause a massive problem. The other piece that I love about this is the navigator. Too often we've heard in the past that like they make it through part of the process and they find out in the second or third door that there's all these other things that were looked at in door one but now they one, but now they have to go back and fix things. So I think the navigator process of here are all the things you need to do. Here's a timeframe of what you're going to hear back from us, so that they know holistically what to expect. And I think the navigator that you're proposing is going to really help to make that so people have a guide to get through our process. So I really appreciate that. I have other comments, but I want to save time for my colleagues. They may have some as well. And I'll come back to mine. Councilor Van Greck. Thank you. And obviously to echo the comments, I think you've heard from just about all of us on streamlining this process. And so the more detailed we get into this is great. So thank you guys for all of the preliminary work. Two preliminary comments. First kind of joining in what the mayor was saying, it seems like a lot of what you're doing it. I know your questions directed are some of the macro issues of replacing one, you know, body of review, taking away certain things that can remove whole blocks of sections off the process, you're going to speed things up. But I wonder also about you keep talking about administrative aspects, whether there's administrative areas that we can adjust in our zoning ordinance rewrite to speed up those process. So, such as I'm guessing, but it seems to me like within the process that we have right now, there are time periods that applicants are sitting in a desk and just waiting for that next step. Is there a way for us to expedite that process where an application is ready for the next step, but it's just either in a line or is in a waiting period where it's those little arrows. When you have those charts up between the boxes of the two boxes, while we're moving a whole box, obviously does help. But if that arrow where it's moving from one block to another is still delayed because it's either in the process on a desk, that can also speed up the process. I don't know if you have any comments, because then it was similar with the mayor was saying about administratively how we can speed things up. I didn't know if there's a way within the Zoning Garden and it's rewrite that we could make those types of process easier. So thank you for that question. And I really appreciate the opportunity to answer because I want to call back to one of the things I said earlier about what we're discussing the night is this is a piece of the overall process. But everything we talked about in September is important. And what I would say is that we don't have a lot of stuff just sitting on desk waiting to get looked at. We do have a lot of stuff that we are looking at and working through various technical issues where codes aren't aligned or are in conflict or are ambiguous. And that's somewhat in the zoning ordinance that's somewhat in chapter 21 that's somewhat in the FTPO. All these efforts that we're doing to streamline all these different codes play into that. And so it's not really a matter of staff's not getting to it. It's a matter of staff is working with applicant on making all the requirements work. And so to the extent we're able to clarify and have clearer standards within the zoning ordinance that are also clear and not in conflict with chapter 21 and the FTPO, that's where we really see those efficiencies within those processes. We get caught and I'll go back to this slide. We're in this review loop a lot. We review, we provide comments because a comment on a zoning requirement effects of forestry requirement effects, road code requirement. And so every element that we're working to clarify in our code will shave time off those reviews and have a spin less time working with applicants in those processes. So I see this public piece of the process is important, but so is all that stuff. And in getting those clear standards is incredibly important. And so that's not just in the zoning ordinance rewrite, but that's a piece of it, but these other processes as well. So explain to me how you talk about the code in conflicts. Is that because the application might be good with one area but not with another? And so you're trying to correct the application or is there a problem within our code system that we can possibly work to correct? It can be both or others. Sometimes we have clear conflicts. Sometimes it's not a conflict so much as just different priorities. And developers are trying to get what they're able to on their property. The city has a need for stormwater and trees and sidewalks and how all the things relate together and we work through a lot of that on a case-by-case basis and so I think to the extent we're able to clarify those things and the upfront and the requirement is really how we can streamline those. All right so the the next question I had in, I know it won't come into all of the streamlined process, but and I know I think we've even mentioned it here from the day as a couple of times of the times and points at which the code aligns for multiple public hearings. Is there a way in which we can combine that into one hearing such as a hearing before the mayor and council. So the public is aware that if they're going to make a public statement to a deciding body, it's clear where they need to go as opposed to having multiple hearings. So when we were before you all before in September, there was discussion about kind of having joint hearings. And we looked at that when we went through these recommended processes. What we found is that if we really focus on having the hearings that matter, which is the public hearing and the decisions, then there wasn't really that much savings by doing combined because we're really getting to the bodies when the decisions made. So for instance, in the prior process where there were the briefings and so you were going to the body's multiple times, notice was a card bless you man for every single time you went and it was very confusing for applicants for staff frankly to track for the bodies to understand why this was coming to the multiple times and mostly for the public to get these multiple mailings and to have to sort through where do my comments actually matter. So we've really focused those now in this to the area meetings early on and the public hearings at the end. And so that's where we focus the public to come and provide their testimony and provide their feedback. And staff of course will work with them throughout the process, but by really reducing the overall number of meetings, it has the same effect as doing joint hearings, which we ultimately didn't recommend because we didn't see the value in the current process. Okay, so, and I know that there was some discussion about joint meetings when I'm necessarily proposing, and I think I mentioned before, I apologize, wasn't making clear as opposed to we're joint hearing having one hearing before the ultimate decision making body. I see. So, as opposed to having the joint hearing, because you can still have, for example, the planning commission, people can write, people can provide commentary without a hearing, but have one single public hearing, but that's before the ultimate deciding body, the mayor and council. Correct, and that's more recommending. Yes, sir. So you're recommending exactly that? Yes. Okay, all right, I didn't get that through, then we're on the same pitch. And that I mean that's more of a procedural thing for the mayor and council with how many meetings they want to take these in that's not written on our zoning ordinance you all have the ability to do it that way now. And the mayor the planning commission already does so they have one meeting where they have the public hearing intake action. So mayor and council could do the same if if they were dying. Okay, so I understand that, but I'm saying with regard to the public, have only one required public hearing, which would be for the Mayor and Council, as opposed to having two public hearings. So instead of having the public hearing at the Planning Commission, and the Mayor and Council, having just a hearing before the mayor and council. I think we could explore that. Okay. That's one of the suggestions that at least what I was trying to potentially get at some of my comments last September. With regard to some of the more direct questions with that's already in that, I think removing the multiple pre-applications is a is a great idea. I think the reducing of the redundancy is a great idea. I do have a concern, similar to what the mayor said, with regard to the administrative or planning commission ultimate deciding. And I think we meet almost weekly. There are sometimes that we don't either because of a holiday or other issues. And I don't see that having the ultimate decision before us, even if it's in certain cases, it can even be simply like a consent item that here, you've already approved it, but we're gonna put a separate item that's for a site plan, ultimately before the mayor and council, because I mean, have to say the buck stops here. You know, we are literally getting these on a weekly basis agenda items and reviewing pretty carefully and having another set of eyes other than just administratively, administrative, that's already looked at it can potentially benefit the projects. So I think there might be a way to have the Mayor and Council review be more streamlined and have the review to the Mayor and Council in a way at which it's not delaying the project. But I don't know if I think it's a good idea to across the board have the administrative approvals. I think I have a few other minor comments, but I know I've taken enough time we can move on to someone else's comments. But what you guys are doing here and trying to look at a macro perspective and trying to get at the smooth and more streamlined project is exactly what we're looking for. And so whether it's out of the box inside the box, what you guys are looking at is fantastic. And so thank you to everyone in the department that looked at this and really tried to get into the nitty-gritty to try to make it smoother. If we can get to this six and seven month period that you guys are talking, I think it'd be fantastic for the city. Thank you. Council Member L's the question. I'm not sure if that's the question. I'm not sure if that's the question. I'm not sure if that's the question. I'm not sure if that's the question. I'm not sure if that's the question. in the details. So I was really trying to go through the details as someone who has followed along a development review process, really closely. I kind of went back, I even went back to some of my old notes as well on, oh, this was great. I probably could have been skipped, I had already heard about most of this. I'm totally cool with combining the pre and post application meetings if the single meeting can be hybrid. Thereby allowing for greater flexibility so that everybody, whether they can physically be present or not, can't participate. Because I think sometimes if you miss the pre-app meeting, you know that you'll get the post-application meeting. It's kind of like a fallback rate. So I think, so I'm cool with that. I think that the single meeting should be hybrid. I was struggling a little bit with, and I think it's been mentioned different ways by both my colleagues so far. Where is the slowdown? Is the slowdown that it takes too long to get on our calendar? Is the slowdown that it takes too long to get to the planning commission. Like where exactly are the pain points that are stretching this process out further? Do you know those off the top of your head or is that just something that I should just throw out there? Because I think that that's where I was struggling to be like where are the inefficiencies if I don't know where the bottlenecks truly are. Is that make sense? It does. And I think I can basically refer back to what I said earlier, where this piece of the process, it does take time to get on all the body's agendas, the area meetings take time, the time that's been on preparing materials for public meetings and multiple public meetings takes time. But as I said earlier, that's not the entirety of what takes the time. It's really the things we all spoke about in September of the various requirements. It all plays a factor. So this is definitely a factor in what takes, you know, these projects. But when you say, what's the bottleneck or what's the pain point, the challenge it as it's not one it's multiple and this is one of several and so this is the one we're speaking about tonight. Again, the things I said earlier about the different competing goods and those things we work through, that's another one, but this does take a while. It does take a long time to have the multiple rounds of notice and getting on the agendas and having the presentations and things. So this is significant. Yeah, too. Thank you. So I think just to follow up on the question, when we reduce the redundancies of the pre-application and the post-application meeting, how much time do you think that saves? So combining the pre-application and the post-application area meetings is four to six weeks probably. Okay, well that's great. And that also saves money, right? Because you have to do mailings each time. And yes, conducting meetings, yeah. So that's it. And then if we do the same thing with reducing the public hearings from in-streamlining the public hearing process, that also could reduce time because if you do mailings and those mailings We quite there these notice themselves typically two weeks in advance, but there's production time that there's thousand Some of the news No, yes, so four weeks is probably how long it actually takes right okay, all right, and that's a good that was a good question Thank you I'm saying some of the things out loud and they're making sense in my brain so if if they don't make sense coming out of my mouth, please be like, what do you mean? So I struggled a little bit with the process for plan developments. Only and the thing that I kept getting caught on was a plan development could have been in theory signed up by a previous mayor and council. And maybe the current mayor and council wants to go, wants to look at it with fresh eyes. I think that's probably a nice way to put it. I think there does need to be the flexibility in the process where the current mayor and council can have input into. Well, this is actually what was presented by the applicant and we all think it's great. I don't know why it was, you know, removed previously. I know that there would be several projects that would probably look different if I hadn't elected earlier, but I just I think that that's my feedback basically is that each new body is you know going to bring in a new perspective and maybe new guiding principles, maybe new priorities. And I can say that I know for certain that this elected body does. I'm not noistronomist. I don't know what the future is going to hold. But I think coming into it with a very positive viewpoint, I think that we've gone into it being like, yeah, let's move things, let's do things, let's, you know, get things rolling. I think that we just move forward positively in that way. I'm going to use an example of something that is very near and dear to me, which you actually brought up the chapter on. And that's our beloved chapter 21. And in general, the road code. There is no mention of Vision Zero in our code period. So looking at any plan and referring to chapter 21, you're not going to look, you're not going to have the administrative lens of Vision Zero Vision zero is the priority. It's been the priority of the last two mayor and council are very different composition. And I think that that is, I think it's a challenge, but I think that's where again, the devil is in the details, right. Because it's not in our code, and because a lot of that is so prescriptive, and God bless the road code, but I know understand has to be very engineering mindset, but as I often talk about infrastructure, there is engineering, but there is a sociology of human behavior, right? And if you're not bringing both the bear, then you're not actually really thinking through all possibilities or opportunities. So that is the challenge, right? Like if the administrative decisions are being made on the basis of as the code prescribes, and the real code does not prescribe best practices of vision zero, then how would that get infused into the development review process? Mr. Simano, perhaps is the administrator of chapter 21. Do you want to address that? I swear I'm not picking on you today, Mr. Simano. I promise. You just know what I like to talk about. That's an interesting question. Vision zero kind of underlies our thinking. And one of the ways you do that, a code sets out specific requirements. But in chapter 21, it actually refers to standards and details that have to be written and approved. And the idea is to make them flexible so that they can take into consideration more challenges, more ideas, more opportunity and not make them so strict that they can't take into account current practices. The other one is to update them. And your code is what carries out the Vision Zero idea if you would. And so to make sure that they're updated to make sure it's reflecting, for example, reflect. your code is what carries out the vision zero idea if you would. And so to make sure that they're updated to make sure it's reflecting, for example, reflecting that bikers and pedestrians, I have some priority in things that are not so strict that it reflects all that. So I think you do it in both of those ways. One is making sure this flexibility when it needs to be in secondly, making sure you update it to reflect that everything and take another look at is everything put on the same level playing field or we give still giving in our code priority to vehicles. Mm-hmm. And I think you brought it. I think that's a really important point, right? That is a shortcoming of the code as being the default that you would utilize for administrative review. If you are using that and you're using your discretion, you may miss the underlying principles of Vision Zero because you are looking at some of the road code, the standards that are solely coming and I know you and I've had this discussion before, solely coming from the engineering mindset, which is the default of conveying vehicles quickly versus overall safety. Perhaps I can give an example. Residential streets are old code, old standards used to have four foot sidewalks and we've changed that now and five feet is the minimum. You You build four foot sidewalks if you have passing zones to me ADA, but we have said no. We are not going to have any sidewalks in the city less than five feet anymore. And so we start off at that base level. We've implemented that change. That's a ADA vision zero change that we have implemented through the code. And it puts that on a level of you can talk to us all day long that on a level of you can talk to us all day long about how you can make a four foot sidewalk work, but we're not going to listen to it because we're going to go for five foot minimum. We don't want to have passing zones, et cetera. And I appreciate that. I just, again, thinking through the process, I think that that is my only concern. Like if you do hit that time period between an update to the road code, like you mentioned, like going from four to five, then we might be missing an opportunity or missing the input of this particular development, there will be a challenge here or here. I've seen it in, you know, I know there was good discussion around Tomb Raqu order, for instance, on how bike lanes were going to be utilized and how can it best be put in. And I think in the process, there was a lot of good feedback that was internalized not only from the Transportation Mobility Commission, but R back and R back and, you know, I get it, I get completely get the streamline, and I feel like I've watched some pregnancies. They were a lot shorter than our development review, but I'm just concerned that without that it being explicitly reflected in our code, that it might be overlooked in the proposed streamlining process. But I appreciate thank you for reminding me of the fourth foot and five foot rule on sidewalk width. I think that that was all, no, I think that's all that I had, but if I remember what my last one was, I will let everybody know. Councilmember Jackson. Thank you, Mayor. First thanks to staff for this good presentation. You know, the mayor actually asked the question long time ago about how we would keep up with the results of the progress on the zoning rewrite and everything else. And I was gonna say David Goudersman had an ideal with the results Rockville, but he's left the building. But no, as I understand it, I was talking to some people about this, and you know, their feeling is that Rockville's code or codes are kind of set up to be impediments in the path of new buildings, ideas, and frankly progress. And maybe that's true to a certain degree. But I think the question is, how do we stream on the process, make it faster, while still assuring a quality for residents and a voice in the mayor and council as elected representatives to the residents? And I think that's the quandary that we all face. I mean, taking the pre-application, the post-application, and combining them, combining the hearings is a great idea. I'm not really sure, given the authority to other bodies besides the mayor and council is a good idea. I really would have to be convinced that that's something that we want to do. But finally, waste of stream on the process is certainly what we want. To the mayor's point about concurrency, and we're trying to find a concurrent process that can be implemented. I want to ask you guys was what about concurrency in within the process? So when you're the the the performance reviews of various items that developers have to undertake. Is there a concurrent review process? Can we can we make the process even more streamlined or do you feel like you've already done that? Thank you for the question, Councilmember. We do have, and there was a recent zoning text amendment that specifically allowed for concurrent reviews, specifically like site plans along with project plans. So we do allow that. We do allow people to submit for building permit, for instance, when they're still in process for site plans. So that's already in in place now To the first part of your statement as well as some of the mayor and others concerns about taking away mayor and council decision making just to be clear The first two recommendations don't remove anything from the mayor and council jurisdiction at all So right now you all are the deciding body for project plans and planned development amendments. You would still be under this proposal. The administrative provisions were recommending in three and four specific to site plans that would otherwise go to the planning commission. So it's removing some site plans from the planning commission, which is contemplated in our code now. There is a process for administrative site plans now. It's just that the threshold is so low, nobody really qualifies for it. So it's really gearing up that threshold to make other projects eligible. But to be clear, nothing would be removed from air and councils purview that's currently under your purview. No, that's really, really good to know. What I wanna ask was on page seven, the economic development guiding principle. You mentioned ready. Can you go through it again? So how does ready and their strategic plan play into the site or what we're talking about with the development or the approvals. So when we work with Ready, we work with them. They have their priorities and they communicate them to us and we worked with them to accommodate them in the ways that we're able to. Ultimately though, we're bound by our codes and our processes and our requirements. So the real way for us to have their influence be felt is through things like this where we're able to amend our code and really tie in because otherwise, we're really limited to what the code allows us. And Mr. Barker, I'm not sure if you want to expand on that at all in terms of how we deal with ready but really this is the big opportunity through our zoning on its rewrite and our process is to implement the priorities of economic development. Now thank you and I really don't need to think further. What I want to say though and maybe it won't be popular up here but I'd again, this goes back to mayor and council making the decisions. So, you know, ready, I love ready. I think ready does a great job. But that's a policy decision. Those are policies that we implement. And I'm not really comfortable saying that, oh, because ready is an strategic plan that we should take an into account rather than it being funneled up to the mayor and council and us making the policy decision. So that's just one aspect. Now finally, just let me sum up, I would really be helpful and Mr. and Mr. Leck, if we could get examples from other cities that have implemented similar processes to what we're talking about, whether it's really streamlined, like I'm talking extremely fast, or whether it's some changes in the process to streamline it and make it faster, that would be really helpful. So we're talking about these in an abstract. We're talking about words on pages. And so give us real life examples of what we're talking about so that we can see. Hey, we can take it down from 18 months to six months or 18 to 10 or whatever it is. But I think that would be really helpful, at least to me, to see real life examples of what we're talking about. Thank you. I'll just add quickly that it would be helpful to see also examples of this is the kind of thing that would used to come to you and on talk specifically about three and four that used to come to you the planning commission and no longer would it that's just a Viral not only just looking at other jurisdictions, but just being clear and articulate about what would actually change. I'm hearing from several of my colleagues that were generally comfortable with one and two were not quite comfortable in three and four just yet. But I do want to hear from the rest of my colleagues. I also want to be able to just kind of go back to one and two because I actually have all the maps out just so we can clarify if we're feeling good about one and two because I think it's very clear on what you've removed and what has changed and so we can at least be super clear that okay go forward with those two so that we can give you direction council and Basha. I also want to echo my colleagues and the appreciation with sharing this. My my questions slash kind of concern with this shorter process is community engagement. I recognize that already we have with this This is a great opportunity to be able to make a new, new, new, new, new, new, my colleagues talked about making it hybrid and that actually opens it up a little bit more. but, I think public hearings, there are a lot other ways to really engage different communities, especially a number of underserved communities. And so with making this process shorter and more streamlined, do you think we have less of an opportunity to engage underserved communities with this plan? And can you speak to that a little bit? Oh, also, I just wanted to add a few weeks back, we went through the Engage Rockville presentation, which talked about community engagement on a spectrum starting with zero community engagement informed consult and then the best-case scenario is community ownership. And so and I think we have different communities that may be on different parts of that spectrum, but I I think the way that we are approaching this, I have concerns that we may not be able to, I think it may limit our community engagement, and I'm just worried about that. So it's absolutely important how we interact with the community and receive feedback and really work with the community through these processes. And there are other areas besides the code amendment that are included in fast that address that and a couple of examples improving things we currently do with notifications. So, for example, we have a notification sign that gets put on the property. It's not particularly easy to read or easy to understand. You know it. There are other communities, speaking about the communities, there are other communities that do that way better than we do, honestly. That's something we're going to work on sooner rather than later. That's going to improve the visibility right there in the neighborhood. Having less meetings, I would argue, particularly for underservederved communities, is actually more friendly and allows them to engage where it's important versus having to track a project through 6 to 8, and I'm not exaggerating 6 to 8, public meetings that they may have to show up for and track and know where to go. Having two or three that are crucial for them to show up to is a lot more manageable for people's time and we need to be respectful of people's time as well. So we're targeting the input, we're communicating better, we have opportunity to improve our online tools, where we're supplementing the mail that we're doing now which is still reaching the community but over time I think is becoming less effective with improving our online how we do notices on the website. So there's a whole variety of things that we do and can do and I'll say this we're always I'll completely open to other ideas as well because there are multiple ways to do this. There's not a right answer. There's just better tools that we can use. And so we're always interested in doing that. So this is this is a piece of it. so is all that. Thank you. Thank you. Can I just ask you to just for items and Dr. Miles, if you want to, I'm watching for you, let me know if you want to speak. Can we go back to number one and just look at your proposed project plan. So can we go to the spreadsheet? I mean, that's spreadsheet, the diagram. So just to clarify, with this new process, you're combining the pre-application meeting and the post-application meeting. Is that correct? That's correct. Okay. Colleagues, are you just general okay with this? You're going item my item? I'm just I'm gonna try to go to this process. So make sure we're going through number one. So going like box-through box because I have an issue with another box. Yes. Okay. And then I heard one of my colleagues mentioned the idea of having hybrid meetings I just want to support that I think you do that now post-COVID Or don't from COVID and on is that correct? We've done these typically virtually So not hybrid but but more virtual meetings. Okay I could see the revelry sorry. I could see that potentially being challenging again from like at access, there's going to be some people that got very used to it during COVID, but with the digital divide that we have, and a lot of people, more people have access to their phone than they do to a laptop or a desktop computer. That might just be something to consider that in expanding the universe that you want to retain the in person just so that you can do things like providing interpretation for communities I may need that. So you can do it on hybrid but I do it on virtual but it's a little bit trickier. So I would, I'd just put a plug in for the in-person as well. You'll be able to hit that, that widest net as possible. I do appreciate that you at least have it virtual and not just in-person because I do, you might have people in different places and states and all that. So I really really like that Okay, so the other piece that looks to be the big difference is there's no like you just have one DRC now, right? At least on on the top Right correct. There's one formal development review committee meeting perfect Okay, and then the other thing is that there is no longer a mayor and council briefing and a planning commission briefing. Can you just talk to the Philistening public to say what happens at those briefings now and how it you know how does removing them impact your timeline? So the briefings currently are early on in the process where the applicant comes before the planning commission and the mayor and council provides a presentation and man through some questions about the project and then move forward. And so what it does is those steps happen early on and the project is typically still in review and so it can't move forward to the approvals until it's through the briefings and really sometimes applicants spend a lot of time on those briefings. So there's the linear sequence of it has to be done before other steps happen. But there's also the time that's been preparing for the presentations and doing the materials for those meetings. So removing those allows for focusing on the reviews and ultimately getting to the recommendation and the ultimate decision meeting sooner. So that's the rationale for removing the briefings. Councillor Bervilaire has a follow-up question to that. Is a follow-up question I swear. This was actually the question that I forgot earlier. I think that I understand how having more than one briefing is a challenge. I will say that I saw another jurisdiction with a major massive project. They had the public hearing after they had a joint meeting where it was one way, where the developer came in, talked talked about the project as a whole planning commission and their mayor and council were all present so they all got the information at the same time and they all heard the public hearing feedback at the same time. I think that could be a good compromise here because frankly depending on reading all the materials on the website I live love you all, but sometimes it's a lot easier to look at images than it is to read through some of the development review documents. So I just put that out to my colleagues as well that there is a benefit to the briefing, not necessarily for us, but for the public to learn more about a project. And I wouldn't want to streamline it, make it a little bit smoother. And that might be the moment as council member Bangra can I or like, let's have a joint meeting. That might be the best use of that joint meeting so that we all get that input at the same time. I have a question about this. So there is a post application meeting, typically mayor and council. In the past, early, in first term, we were allowed to go to post application meetings and there was a discussion about not attending them. So I'm wondering if you're removing these briefings, could we listen in only to these post application meetings just to get a sense of what the issues are? I know that's tricky, so I just wanted to ask the question. I think perhaps Mr. Dume is online. I perhaps is best if Mr. Dume answers that question just so we get it completely correct. Yeah, I know it's tricky. That's why I'm saying if you're removing, but I'll just say this. Sometimes during the briefings, Mayor and Council can provide feedback earlier that makes the path to decision faster to say, yep, we've seen this. We may ask you for something and you've, by the time you come back again, it's done. So that was the only question that I've, how are we providing input except the decision-making point? Because sometimes we will say we need this, so I'm concerned about this and they come back and then they fix it and we say yes, go. But if we never have that point to let them know what we're thinking, then it's really just a rubber stamp at the council decision side. And we're not necessarily of our members, we are thoughtful, represented as of our community. Yeah, there is no. I'm sorry, Madam Mayor, would you like me to address the question or just kind of leave that as something we'll think about later? I'm open to you responding later if you'd like. I know it's provocative. So I just, I'm just, and I know that there may be some legal concerns. What I'm trying to get at is like, how do we, how can we find out sooner before of the decision making process to be able to provide input? Or let's know what's going on. No, I don't, I actually don't, I don't think it would be overly problematic what you're suggesting if if the post app meeting was held hybrid or virtual and was recorded. And a link to that recording was provided in your final, in your public hearing staff report for example, so that it was available to anybody who was interested in seeing it. Then I don't think there would be a problem with the mayor and council listening into the meeting. Just a heads up, there may be some complication depending on some legislation that is currently with the General Assembly, but that's kind of a bit in the future and we'll work on that because that would have implications for other aspects of our development review process as well. But as things currently stand, as long as we followed certain protocols, I don't think it would be problematic if it was just to listen in rather than to participate in the meeting. Right, no participation. Okay. The only thing I'm sorry, Mayor, if I may. The only thing I worry about a little bit on that is all of your attendance at that meeting or not, right? I mean, ideally, if all seven of you can attend that meeting and watch it and get the same amount of information, and it's great, but if only a couple of you can make it all the time, then you guys are getting more information than others, and that makes me nervous. Yeah, so it would just all be given the link to listen. Yeah. Councilman Van Vey. Yeah, and actually the city manager does raise a good point. I'm sorry, I just want to just address that as well. There would be some concern with open meetings act requirements. If a quorum of the members decided to listen in, I know that some open meetings at compliance board decisions indicate that, you know, even information gathering can trigger the act. So it may be that ultimately what we'd want to do is just record the meeting and then,, yeah, and I see Councilmember Van Grack nodding. So that's what we settled on. You had the great suggestion of giving us the link so we can listen in. So we at least get the preview on what the project is. That's not a problem. OK. And then what if we had a comment that is like this is imperative to our decision making? How do we handle that? Sorry, could you repeat that in the final? So we learn about the project or read it from staff's report. How do we make, how do we provide feedback in a way that gets us to decision faster so it's not like they're waiting for it to come to mayor and council decision and then they have to go back. I'm also thinking about that because the briefings have allowed them to hear from us what direction we're leaning in and what it takes to get to yes. Yeah. So we lose that in the briefing. We don't have the feedback. I don't have a way to fix that, can we mayor? I mean what what you're suggesting is do you guys lose a little bit more influence on the front end? The answer is yes, you do. Honestly, it streamlines the process, but you'll be able to to your point, you know, listen to the pre-application meeting and learn about those things. You can share things with me along the way during our one-on-ones, etc. but at at the end of the day, you're going to get all this information, you're going to get public input, you're going to get recommendations from the Plan Commission and from staff. But then you guys ultimately still make the decision. Okay. So that's the one that I'm giving pause on, because I don't want to slow down the process of like they think everything's going on Gidori and then at the decision making, saying this is going to be a problem. And then I have a challenge with us doing just on one-on-ones because then that's not really being transparent with the public. they think everything's going on Gidori and then at the decision making we're saying this is going to be a problem. And then I have a challenge with us doing just on one on one because then that's not really being transparent with the public. So I don't know if there's a way to combine these briefings or what we can do but I just wanted to flag that something. I'm willing to try. I'm not saying no, but as a concern I have that could potentially slow down the process and be less transparent. Colleagues, can we just see what you think on this so that staff, you can ask any follow-up questions or were you thinking on if we can go to the line of this briefing process? Do you want to cancel altogether like they have proposed? Would they're saying remove the planning commission briefing, remove the mayor and council briefing, go straight to decision, or how do you wanna handle that? Councilman Van Graek. I mean, there's a lot of specific questions in there. I mean, what we're talking about, and I said before, the combining of the applications is absurres are right way to go. With regard to the mayor and council decision, again, I think to do a single hearing is beneficial, whether that's a, I mean, we can have a single hearing that's a combination ultimately for the Mayor and Council that's a, I mean, we can have a single hearing. That's a combination ultimately for the mayor and council. That's a combination of virtual and in person, which I have no problem with at all. But I also think at the bottom, as I mentioned before, there's, I don't, I think there's a way for us to not add significant amount of time and have it the mayor and council be able to have ultimate decide. So let's just go to the current so they could see what's being removed. If you can go to that slide. So where it says at the top here, plan a commission briefing and mayor and council briefing. That's proposing to be eliminated. So I just want the bodies, yes or no, eliminate, combine. So if you could just weigh in on that particular part of this. part, I'm supportive. Removing it. Okay. Council member Shaw. I'm supportive of removing it. Okay. Council member Jackson. I'm actually supporting if I'll remove it again. Okay. Council member Larry. I'm struggling a little bit on this one. I know it's surprising, right? I would be much more comfortable with a combination because at the time that Mary Council decision needs to be made, I don't want that to be the point wherein. And frankly, I don't think that people elected us to not make tough decisions. That's on us. The book like stops with us. Not, you know, any staff members or pointed. So I think that not being able, essentially being a rubber stamp and not being able to give that feedback, that is part of the briefing to me seems very much like here's your dessert and is actually delivering onions and you're going to enjoy it. And maybe that's just my feeling on this, but I've seen some projects get mired in, you know, discussions. And I've seen other ones become much better. And I don't see where in the proposed process, the getting better part. Again, like I mentioned, when I was talking about Vision Zero, right? Like, there's nothing prescriptive in our code to talk about Vision Zero. So it's very possible that that could just not be a component of it. And that is a critical, you have an action plan, but it's not in the code. That's my struggle right now, y'all. And I'm really hopeful we can get to a better place because I don't like livery and onions. Thank you. Can I just ask a clarifying question? Right now we don't get a lot of reporting necessarily from planning. We do get from other departments, but I'm wondering, instead of just receiving the report right before the mayor and council decision, closer to after the post application meeting, could we get, here's a project that's brewing, here is the link, here's what we know, just so we can at least start closer to, you know, after that post application meeting or the post application DRC, getting some information from you all, I think that would help what you're hearing is we want to speed up the process, but we also want to be able to be knowledgeable and not just before the decision. Yeah, what does think that through? We want to make so it's sufficiently baked so you're not looking at different iterations of a plan to like how this change, I'm looking at it a month ago, it's different but I understand what you're driving at mayor. So before you propose any you will come back to us with a recommendation on this. Council and Jackson did you have a follow-up question? Yeah I do. So I just want to be clear what we're talking about. So I want to ask want to be clear what we're talking about. So I want you to ask you guys, so when we're talking about the mayor and council decision. No, no, we're already moved past that. When we're talking about the mayor and council, if we remove it and we're talking about the mayor and council decision, my colleague was talking about robust, rubber stamping. When it comes up, is that our role or is it more than that? So I'm so glad you brought that up. Absolutely you're not rubber stamping at all. You guys could turn it, you could deny it. You could turn it around. If it's an opportunity to make conditions, you can do that. You can do any number of things with it. The last thing we want you guys to do is to rubber stamp, and I know the seven of you would never actually do that. So that's not what we're asking for. The challenge is that we could actually be a delay if there's something substantial. So if we don't approve it, then we're caught. We're in now the delay. So that's why I'm trying to figure out how could we get information closer to after the DRC so we have time to be thoughtful? Can I ask a question that I'm going to go Dr. Miles has the planning commission seen any of this? No, ma'am, they have not yet. I think we'll have a scheduled work session with them. It's our intention to bring all the work sessions that we have with you to the Planning Commission. So, I would just love for the Planning Commission to share their feedback on this as well, this particular component of the process. Dr. Miles. Thank you, Madam Mayor. I support removal. Thank you. Okay. So, then we have staff have any follow-up questions? Okay, then it goes to planning commission and mayor and council decision and then nothing else changes is pretty much the same process, right? Okay, so I think we've covered the item one on your list and you guys are going to put this before planning commission to just at least get their feedback because they haven't seen this. Can we go to the proposed PD amendment process. So this one does the same things that we just discussed. So I don't have to go through the first two. It removes it combines pre-imposed application meeting, then after that it goes to DRC. This one would potentially not have mayor and council briefings, but you're going to try to figure out a way to make sure we're aware and smart on the topic. The thing that's different here from what is current, and if we could just switch to the slide where it is current, is you remove the planning commission altogether here From the PD amendment part of the process right right so they and they get to be the final approver at the end correct Okay, so I can you just explain to me what that does for you and why it's proposed? Yes, ma'am so as I mentioned these are prior approved developments that have already gone through the process and The thought process was to get back to the decision-making body sooner and get a decision on the the development and To allow the planning commission to to review and approve the site plans subsequent These These are likely to be somewhat conceptual early on. So the site plans would have a little more detail for the planning commission to review. Similar to other processes we have in our code currently where they're already approved, they would go right back to the approving body. And so this kind of mirrors that process where you get to an initial decision sooner and then the details are worked out through the site plan, which the planning commission would approve. Okay, thank you. So this is one that I'm okay with. I do want to get the planning commission's feedback because it's what kind of like making we are not their body and I would love to hear what they have to say. But why don't we just for the sake of this and clarity D1 item 2, just go down and how we good with this so Councilman Valeri do you want to go first this time? One clarifying question before So what you what I think I heard from Mr. City manager is that there is a we're looking at the proposed there is actually a feedback loop at the end. Okay, so that might be helpful as well because if the feedback of applicant resubmit staff reviews issues comments, well, if mayor and council review issue comment, whatever, that would go back to the applicant for them to resubmit, correct? So then that's what I was looking for. Like when I was looking at the flow charts, I'm like, oh look, a bunch of like the feedback loops have been taken away from mayor and council. If that is still there, then yeah, then I'm okay with this proposed process, but like Madam Mayor said, I would really like to hear from the planning commission on this. Thank you. Councilmember Jackson. Ditto. Okay. Doctor Miles, do you want to get inserted? Are you good with that? I do. I said, uh, but question. Please proceed. No, I'm good with it. I suppose I. Okay thank you council Michelle. Yeah I support the proposed process. Correct me if I'm wrong under this current process that we have now that ultimate decision at the bottom is with the mayor and council right? No. No oh okay this I've got a different one. Okay. I was thinking of a different slide. This is all right. I'm fine. Both processes and with the planning commission that we just discussed one and two. Right? Yeah. Okay. So I think you've heard from us. Dr. Miles, did you have one to ask a overarching question? Thank you, Madam Mayor. I'm okay. Okay. Thank you. So I think we've gone through one and two. Do you have follow questions for us? Anyone have follow questions here? So you'll get back to us on like how you're gonna inform us of the way a smart ahead of. And we know a project's brewing, and you're going to just get feedback from the planning commission. Okay. All right, so your questions three and four. So can you go back to the questions list? Okay. Colleagues, you have followed questions about this one. Councilmember Vellari. I kind of do. Are you asking you asking this about broadly or really only in the context of the exceptions that that y'all listed on those specific slides or both. So number three is meant to be specific to this slide. those zoning those districts when not within three hundred feet. So it's a summary of all this is really what it's asking me. OK. So what about the Metro project? For example, that's, would we, let's say Metro puts housing there, would we be able to approve that? Or you would administer the Levere Prove it? Sorry, I'm not quite familiar with the Rocho metro Station. Rockford Metro Station or Twin Brook Metro Station is going to be housing there, right? And some mixed designations. Can we be a project plan? Just can you clarify? What I'll say is that's in town center, which is I was afraid somebody was going to ask about this is probably the most challenging. You knew it was going to come. because it's still in flux in terms of the character areas and how the zoning is going to work. So I'm not sure I know the answer to that question right off hand. I think the the ideas are most intense zoning districts which is MXTD which is what that is definitely zoned but the town center makes that a little more challenging. Yeah I'm currently need more information for both of these. I think we can, you know, similar to the comments of Councilmember Jackson, I would like to get more information about this. I'm not quite there yet on this at all. For the town center one in particular, I think what I would say is we'll come back with more information about that proposal. We can better answer that particular question to town centerend at that time. Yeah, I just think that some of specific examples because these are potentially big projects. And I don't necessarily feel like the public wants us to just delegate that authority this afternoon yet, but that's just me. My perspective, Mr. Mejellik. Mayor, at this point, too, this like in work session format, if you guys say don't throw out three or four, that's good. If you're saying maybe I'm three and four, just bring us back more detail in the future. If you talk to the planning commission, we're cool with that. It helps us. It really does. I would like to get the planning commissions feedback. I will also go and recommend saying, I'm not currently comfortable with this. Councilman Van Greck. I am not currently comfortable with this. Councilman Pro Jackson. I am not currently comfortable with this. Councilman Van Greck. I am not currently comfortable with this. Councilman Projectson. I am not currently comfortable with this. Councilman Vellieri. I am not comfortable with this, but because I would love to see a reversal, I would actually like us to incentivize, based on guiding principle, not on the particular particular mixed use zone because eventually we need to look at the entire city and making it welcoming viable for residential whatever. So kind of coming at it a little differently where I love the idea of speeding up certain approvals and maybe that might be a place that would bring us together a little bit more than going straight to administratively. That makes hopefully a making sense. Thank you, Councilmember Shaw. I agree, Madam Mayor. I would like more information. Thank you. Dr. Miles. Thank you, Madam Mayor. I associate myself with the comments of my colleagues on this one had a broader question about current and proposed Site plan processes is it true that both an attorney and proposed process? There's no mayor and council input. Just want to make sure I was looking at the flow chart correctly Thank you Dr, Dr. Miles. Yes, the site plans are currently either approved by the planning commission or administratively by staff. There is no mayor and council approval of site plans. Thank you, sir. That was for both current as well as the proposed plans. That is both current and proposed correct. Thank you. That's all. Thank you. So we've kind of gotten your answer on three. Do you want to go to four? For me, Madam Mayor? Sorry. No. I'm asking staff to go to the slide for question four. Do you guys want to take this one separately? You feel the same? Everyone feels the same. We're all feeling the same. Unless Dr. Miles, he feels the same as well. So same feedback. So you've got green light on one and two, three and four, and not we're not feeling sorry. I heard condenshion three and four, and then maybe still not. No. Okay. This is great feedback. Thank you. Thank you. What else would we like to discuss? Can we cover it all your questions? I think we've covered all the questions. I guess the one last question I would have is that three and four basically are different ways of doing the same thing, which is getting to additional administrative approvals for site plans. We feel like there is a path to get there where there's value there. And so I just wanted to make sure you all were open to that concept if we bring you some additional detail and examples and the things you've asked for the planning commissions, feedback on it. Is that something you all are interested in for us to bring back? And I think I hear yes, but we need to hear more than you do. You have a strong maybe. Strong maybe. Because what I've heard from my colleagues. OK. Thank you. I would not quite feel uncomfortable on this, but we welcome feedback from the planning commission examples. Yeah. Good. OK. but I think we also made other larger comments about looking at our permitting time, expanding expedited review, looking at making sure we have virtual meetings. Those are some of the comments I heard earlier. And then also making sure our time frames of when they give you something, how quickly the DRC comes. So those are things that I've heard as well. Just colleagues, is there anything else you want to add there? You're good? We covered it. Okay. Thank you. All right. Well, thank you very much for your time. Thank you all. Right. All right. Well, thank you very much for your time. Thank you all. All right. All right, colleagues. Thank you very much for your feedback. We're now moving into Mak agenda, which is item 13. We are on schedule. So I know we had a discussion this morning on this. Is anyone having any other comments for the Mak agenda? And just to note, our next meeting is on the 17th. I have that date, right, Mr. Mahillig? So it is not next week Monday it is the 17th so just so everyone's aware and that meeting will start at 6.30 all right moving on to old new business and this is something we've added thank you so much for compiling a report it's added at the end of our agenda book, 2025 state legislation. And I know we're not going to go through the whole chart, but there are three specific items that you have questions for us on. I do, Mayor. Thank you so much for the opportunity to give you this quick briefing and then to get some feedback. So we only have three bills to go through tonight, which is great. One is House Bill 1370, the Regional Transportation Authority. We just think this is a really cool idea. It's to create a Regional Transportation Authority that would really implement the Regional Transportation Plans. It's a surcharge, is what it's proposed as, where we would have retail sales, taxable sales, hotel lodging and transfer of real property. And the good news, some of that money, so all that revenue would come in. And then some of that money would go directly back to the municipality, 30% of it. And then the balance of it, 70% would be distributed to the state. We're certainly going to do our part and bring in a bunch of revenue. That's for sure. And then some of that will go back out. Clearly, this is aligned with our transportation goals, our vision zero goals. We do have some hearing dates set up. We already kind of had to line up folks. So one, we're making sure that we're on the right path, that you all support this. Councilmember Vellieri has volunteered to provide testimony to the house on March 4th. So is there support for this bill? Yes, I think this is one that we saw and we good with. So you did but I don't think we talked about it. Okay, so is everyone okay? Yes, I'm seeing thumbs up Dr. Miles you good? Okay, and I don't recall Linda. We have somebody lined up for the Senate here. Thank you staff is going to do that. We're going to do that. Okay. Thank you, Mayor. I appreciate that. The next one is Senate Bill 579, income tax subtraction, expansive eligibility for public safety retirement income, subtraction modifications, 9-1-1 specialist. It does align with our public safety priority. We support this. Hearing did is March 6th. Why don't we if Council does want to support it? If you feel strongly, did you want to provide oral testimony or just have us submit something in writing? So this is on March 6th, correct? Yeah. Yeah. Well, some of us will be in the NAPA-LAS. Yeah. So this allows our seniors to claim subtraction modification against their personal income tax for the first 15,000. Correct. This finance have any opinion on this? So we're supportive. Okay. Because I know we actually in our priorities talked about finding ways to support seniors, people with disabilities and people who have lower income to increase their tax credit. So it seems to align with. Great alignment. Previously talked about. So I just want to make sure my colleagues, I'm tying that lips. Are we good with this? You're welcome. That's okay Do you, do we, do is anyone want to go up and testify councilman Jackson? I will. Okay, councilman Jackson. We'll provide thoughts for councilman Jackson. Okay. Great. Thank you so much. Thank you. And I'll just know I have a family member who's having surgery this week. So I want to be mindful and thank you to my colleagues for filling in. Next one is House Bill 1120, the Maryland OneStop required State County and Municipal Information. I'll just say straight up, this one's a little tricky. This would require by July 1st, 2026 each County Municipal Government to make available on Maryland OneStop all County Municipal Permits, applications and registrations. It was also Crossfeld Senate bill 497, which was withdrawn by the sponsor. We understand the need for this. We appreciate the transparency, but we would recommend a monitor on this one. I just wonder what the council thinks about. There could be some unintended council. I'm going to have a meeting with the council. I'm going to have a meeting with the council. I'm going to have a meeting with the council. I'm going to have a meeting with the council. I'm going to have a meeting with the council. I'm going to have a meeting with the council. I'm going to have a meeting with the council. I'm going to have a meeting with the council. be 1173 and I sent those to you. Yep. Have we gotten back to her? And because this is on the speed cameras on state roads in municipalities. Yeah, there were great detailed questions and we're complying the information and we'll get that back to you all in the senator at the same time. Okay, that would be great. I know she's holding on that bill coming forward. So I want to if we can give it to her tomorrow. She'll be able to get that out to us. I'm going to say we should build it out tomorrow. Yep. That would be greatly appreciated. You bet. Thank you so much. Sure. And thank you all for looking at these. I know that we're very active on state bills and appreciate all of my colleagues. Okay. state bills and appreciate all of my colleagues. Okay. Anything else on the old new business? All right, I have a few things that I'll bring up in the future, but I want to just make sure I'm not springing on my colleague, so I'll hold for now. Councilmember Shaw. Oh, we have a move to adjourn. Do we have a second? Councilmember Rack-Rack seconds. All those in favor. Please raise your hand and say aye. We are adjourned. Thank you, staff. And I will note that we are ahead of schedule. No. Be well, everyone.