At its Monday, February 28, 2022 meeting, the Rockville Mayor and Council will discuss board appointments, FY 2023 operating and capital improvements budgets, a $20/year increase for refuse collection, a $6/year increase in stormwater management fees, maintaining the current property tax rate for 2023 (unchanged since 1995), and tree planting requirements for new townhouses and duplexes. On the Consent Calendar (items approved without discussion) is the provision of a mental health specialist for the police department for calls for service involving persons with mental illness. The Mayor and Council will also receive a report on the county’s plans for its properties along Seven Locks Road including a proposed bus depot. This is a short meeting and scheduled to end at 10:15 pm.

Montgomery County is proposing several demolition and construction projects at the northeast corner of Wooton Parkway and Seven Locks Road (adjacent to the Fallsbend and Orchard Ridge neighborhoods), including the partial demolition and renovation of the detention center, constructing a new criminal justice complex, and a 200+-bus depot for Montgomery County Public Schools (currently on Crabbs Branch Way). The City of Rockville has determined that the County’s current applications are minor in nature and therefore do not require a site plan review per City code; however, any plans for new buildings and new uses for the site (i.e., bus depot) will very much require a City site plan review, including a traffic study, followed by a City Planning Commission review process.

The FY 2023 operating budget totals $148.6 million, an overall increase of 5.2 percent from the FY 2022 adopted budget. The FY 2023 proposed budget restores many of the reductions that were made in FY 2021 and FY 2022 due to the pandemic. For example, the total number of full-time equivalent (FTE) positions in the FY 2023 operating budget equals 638.5, an increase of 17.8 FTEs from the FY 2022 adopted level. In its budget planning process, the City Council established the following priorities for FY2023: implementation of the Comprehensive Plan; environmental sustainability and Climate Action Plan; Vision Zero (zero traffic deaths by 2030); economic development (tourism promotion and business incentives managed by Rockville Economic Development, Inc); and financial sustainability and pandemic recovery.

More details in the 73-page agenda packet are available at https://www.rockvillemd.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_02282022-6515.