CITY
OF ROCKVILLE PLANNING DIVISION
STAFF
REPORT
December
31, 1998
SUBJECT:
Application
to Close and Abandon Public Way SCA98-0077
Applicant:
Church Street LLP,
By
Joseph A. Lynott, Esquire
51
Monroe Street, Suite 701
Rockville,
Maryland 20850
Planning
Commission Review Date: January 6, 1999
Public
Hearing Date: January 19, 1999
PREVIOUS
RELATED ACTION:
- Application
to Close and Abandon Public Way SCA-58-89, Irwin Cooperman,
request to abandon public way known as Middle Alley; Ordinance adopted
by the Mayor and Council on September 25, 1989 but not recorded
among the land records.
REQUEST:
This
application seeks abandonment of the public right-of-way known as
Middle Alley, as delineated on the plat of the 3rd Addition
to Rockville subdivision.
STAFF
RECOMMENDATION:
Approval
of the application, subject to the following conditions:
- That easements,
acceptable to the City Attorney, the Director of Public Works, Washington
Gas and Potomac Electric Power Company, be granted to allow access
and maintenance of existing facilities within the right-of-way;
and
- That an access
easement, acceptable to the City Attorney, be granted to provide
for service access to adjoining properties, as required.
BACKGROUND:
The
alley known as Middle Alley has existed since the subdivision known
as the Third Addition to Rockville was platted in the 1870s. The alley
is 20 feet in width and approximately 376 feet in length, and extends
from Church Street on the east to Rockville Pike (MD 355). The area
proposed for abandonment is approximately 7,500 square feet. The alley
currently contains an eight-inch public sanitary sewer line and overhead
electric service lines. The alley itself is mostly gravel from Church
Street to a point between One Church Street and Sunrise Assisted Living.
The remainder of the alley is grass from this point to MD 355. A barrier
exists to prevent vehicular access to the alley from MD 355. Both
the One Church Street and Sunrise Assisted Living properties have
erected fences or railings to delineate the property lines adjoining
the alley.
The
applicant proposes to abandon the existing right-of-way known as Middle
Alley in order to facilitate development of the adjacent vacant property.
The existing right-of-way is proposed to be incorporated into a consolidation
of properties, including vacant land on Church Street and the Wire
Hardware building property. Essentially the same abandonment application
was approved by the Mayor and Council in 1989, but was never recorded
among the land records of Montgomery County. The previous abandonment
application was also filed to facilitate the development of the property
between One Church Street and the Wire Hardware building. The effect
of the abandonment and subsequent consolidation of properties will
be to include the land area of the alley in the lot, and allow creation
of a lot of approximately 50,000 square feet. This will facilitate
development of a six-story 93,000 square feet office building on the
property adjacent to the One Church Street building. (A Use Permit
has been filed with the Planning Division for the building.) Allowable
density on the resulting property will be concentrated away from the
Wire Hardware structure, which is in the Historic District.
ANALYSIS:
Staff
Comment
The
Master Plan contains no recommendation or reference to Middle Alley.
However, utilities are present within the right-of-way, and these
existing utilities must be accommodated within an easement to be granted.
In addition, the alley can potentially provide service access to One
Church Street, the Sunrise Assisted Living building and the Wire Hardware
building. Staff recommends that provisions also be made, via an access
easement, to allow for continued access as required. Staff has recommended
conditions of approval to address these issues.
Staff
notes that typically, in abandonment applications where the right-of-way
to be abandoned and the abutting lots were created by plat, the width
of the abandoned right-of-way is split in half and each half reverts
to the abutting property owners. In this case, the applicant indicates
that the abutting property owners will allow the entirety of the right-of-way
to be owned by the applicant. If this is to occur, proof of the applicant’s
right to the entire width will be required prior to approval of any
development on the property or recordation of a plat including the
abandoned right-of-way.
/rjw
