Faith Klareich (FK), David Davis (DD), Beri Kravitz (BK), Tolulope Odunlami (TO), Geoff Sanders (GS) and Sura Yakowitz (SY).

Kris Dighe (KD).

Staff Liaison Nate Wall (NW); Council Liaison Phyllis Marccucio (PM); John Kraus (JK) – JBG; Geordan Harris – JBG; Silvio Baruzzi – Rockville resident; Priya Premchandran-Dey – Rockville resident and participant in the High Performance Buildings working group; Brigitta Mullican – Rockville resident and member of the Twinbrook Citizen’s Association.

1.

The meeting was called to order at 7:33pm in the Blue Crab Room at Rockville City Hall.  Congratulations to David Davis for being appointed to the Commission as the Student Member!

John Kraus (JK) of JBG gave a presentation on the plans for Twinbrook Station.  JK said the project had been in the works for almost 8 years.  Originally, ½ of the project was to be in Rockville and ½ in Montgomery County, but it was decided to annex the land into the City so now the entire project is within Rockville.

In general the project is set up with taller buildings along the Metro line, with buildings getting progressively smaller towards the surrounding residential area.  There will be a mostly commercial street, Fisher’s Lane, leading into the metro.  The large WMATA surface parking lot will be converted to structured parking, freeing up a lot of space.  Concept of linear buffer/park around the development.  80% of reforestation is being met on-site.

595 units will be for sale, 1000 as rentals.  Unlike Rockville Town Center, all units are studios, 1 or 2 bedrooms – there are no “family-sized” 3 or 4 bedroom units.  The target here is couples and singles, perhaps retirees.

Overall, there will be 250,000 ft2 of retail (bank, restaurants, grocery store, dry cleaners, etc).  There will be ~325,000 ft2 of office space (most of this on Rockville Pike).  There is ~ 160,000 ft2 of residential.  This has received conceptual approval on their PDP.

JK said this project was developed under the principles of Smart Growth – walk to metro, metro to work; walk to the grocery store, etc.  Transit Oriented Development with metro – wanted to create a dense, walkable community.  Has already won several awards from the Congress for New Urbanism (CNU), American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the Smart Growth Institute.

In terms of green building practices for Twinbrook Station: the development will be using the LEED-ND (neighborhood development) rating system, which is currently in pilot phase from the US Green Building Council.  All units are being equipped with Energy Star appliances; looking in to water saving devices.  Get some LEED points for urban infill redevelopment (this is typically more expensive than Greenfield development since you have to demolish the existing structures first).  However it sounds like the project is only going for 21 points, which under the LEED-NC (new construction) scale would not qualify the development to meet the first “green” certification level.  Site will meet current stormwater management (SWM) regulations for quantity and quality.  Considering stormwater reuse for landscape irrigation and cooling water.  Most SWM appears to be via underground holding tanks.

JK said the he hopes green building using LEED doesn’t become legislated – LEED buildings are built differently: usually taller and more slender to allow for more natural daylighting within the building for example.  It is difficult to make LEED buildings fit into the same requirements as conventional buildings, and mandating LEED points for buildings could complicate that.

As developers, JBG does residential, office and commercial projects – they don’t specialize in any one development sector.  JBG will likely be contracting with Grimm & Parker Architects, and Harkins Construction, both of whom have LEED experience.  JBG currently has an approved use permit for 200,000 ft2 of office and are ready to begin construction.

FK asked the High Performance Buildings working group to look in to the LEED-ND pilot program, and get more information about the development of the LEED-ND scale to compare against JBG’s plans.

DD makes a motion to approve the May 8, 2007 meeting minutes; GS seconds. Motion passes by unanimous vote.

KD had compiled all of the Commission’s comments on the WQPO onto a single document (18 points in all).  The EC went through this document point by point and discussed them, making some changes to the wording or removing comments which referred to an older version of the WQPO.

TO moves to approve the Commission’s comments to the Water Quality Protection Ordinance as discussed; DD seconds.  Unanimous approval to submit comments as discussed into public record.

Watersheds Working Group
KD has compiled the WQPO comments that were discussed earlier.  Audra Lew has sent out the most recent design for the watershed brochure for businesses – that is almost ready for distribution.  SY wants to check with Doug Beard to see if he finalized comments on the Cabin John Creek Watershed Study – then the group will likely want to invite someone from Public Works to come in and discuss the accomplishments from the projects identified in the study, and talk about plans for the next watershed study in FY09.

FK mentioned that she had met with NW and Mark Charles at City Hall and had gone through some of the building data available on the City’s parcel layer.  FK, GS and NW will continue to work on this to get background information on building age, size, etc. within the City to better guide the development of a Rockville-specific green building program.

NW mentioned that Rockville had a “green” theme at its recent employee picnic – all napkins, plates etc. were recycled paper, and forks, spoons and knives were made from a biodegradable potato starch rather than plastic.  There was a “sustainability quiz” with 5 things you could do at home and at the office to be more sustainable.

The Environmental Management Division just got a bit bigger – the Water Treatment Plant has now been shifted under Environmental Management.  The Environmental Management Division has also just contracted with a firm to create an Environmental Management System (EMS) focused mainly on regulatory compliance issues.  Often an EMS is used to “go above and beyond” mere compliance – for that, Rockville will use its Sustainability Strategy.  NW to send out most recent Sustainability Strategy to EC.

A group of about 30 people just got back from a visit to Pinneburg, Germany – Rockville’s Sister City.  Participants were impressed at the level of bicycle usage, wind power, and other green and sustainable practices there.  Perhaps the EC could meet with Pinneburg folk when the visit Rockville in October.

On June 7th, NW met in Annapolis with several other Maryland municipalities with ICLEI to talk about climate protection activities.  ICLEI has a growing presence in the Mid-Atlantic, and is acting as an organizational force to coordinate the many jurisdiction’s efforts to address climate change.  Rockville will be officially joining ICLEI in the next fiscal year to better address some of the goals of the US Mayor’s Climate Protection Agreement.

No closed session this meeting.  Vacancies to be discussed in July and/or August.

Meeting adjourned at 9:56 pm.

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