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State of the City Address
Mayor Phyllis Marcuccio - June 15, 2010
Good Morning. Thank you all for coming.
I am honored to stand before you today in follow up to my continuing dedication to serving the needs of the citizens of Rockville. I will share some reflections on the progress we have made over the past six months through the current administration as well as share some data on status and trends relating to the City’s future. Challenges that are yet to come will be addressed with particular emphasis on keeping the City focused on citizen’s needs and wants. One important note, these remarks today are mine and should not be taken as my speaking for the Council in part or as a whole.
You need to hear from your Mayor. My interests are in helping you envision our future and in maintaining and sustaining the high quality of life our citizens currently enjoy and want in their City.
Let me begin with some data from the document entitled Strategic Scan, 2010. The publication, produced by City staff over months of scouring resources, reports, and development plans, provides information on current City demographics, and economic and social conditions. These data are important as they will be used to guide our planning and thinking as we plan for the future. I am told that most City departments contributed to this profile of our past trends and future projections for population and household growth. Overall, Rockville is projected to keep growing, but our demographic profile is changing as we become a more diverse city and as the population continues to get older.
Let’s look at Rockville’s current population. It is estimated at 62,476 and there are an estimated 24,327 households. Notice Population is projected to increase by more than 21,000 between 2010 and 2040, or an average increase of 715 people per year. More than 10,000 new households are expected by 2040, or an average of 340 new households per year. In other words, we are anticipating a 34% increase in population by 2040. The 2010 census will soon tell us which municipality is the second largest in Maryland—Rockville, Gaithersburg, or Frederick.
Increased growth is all around us. Just beyond our City limits density development is driving the economic engine which will make significant impacts on our community. While the projections given in the chart are maximum build-out numbers and under any circumstances wouldn’t be achieved for many years to come, but we can see that Rockville will certainly be affected by both what used to be the Gaithersburg West Plan (now the Great Seneca Science Corridor Plan) and the White Flint Sector Plan. The Twinbrook Sector Plan should also be noted, albeit the data projections for this plan are not included here. This is just a reminder that we will have impacts stemming from what is happening outside of our direct planning control. We must develop good working relationships with these border entities.
Of note is the collaboration of the honorable Sidney Katz, Mayor of Gaithersburg, and Montgomery County Councilman, Phil Andrews who helped to bring our three Councils together in Rockville City Hall to talk about the major impact that the Gaithersburg West Plan would have on our two municipalities. The project drops a major community between two cities with limited attention to public transportation and traffic connectivity that may be beyond our ability to cope. Through these efforts and the efforts of the County Executive, the County Council reduced the density of the planned commercial square feet by 2.5 million and created a body for monitoring purposes that would include representation from our two cities.
The U.S. Census Bureau defines “urban” as an area of at least 1,000 persons per square mile and we are currently more than 4 times that. (DC is 8,680; Gaithersburg is 5,800 and Maryland is 576.)
Increased density is already showing an impact on average household size in Rockville. In 1960 we averaged almost 4 persons per household. As of 2007 and current estimates indicate 2.55 persons per household. Rockville’s average household size was larger than Montgomery County and national averages until recent years. We are now smaller than the County and U.S. averages. The increase in density housing is a result of so little buildable land left in Rockville and yet the desirability of our City draws residents. Developer focus is on mixed use designs and on the interests of small families and/or those without children.
Another major change in Rockville’s profile is how ethnically and culturally diverse the City has become. The chart depicts these data. One-fifth of Rockville residents are not U.S. citizens and 41% of residents, age 5 and older, speak a second language other than English at home. Notice that 34% of Rockville residents were born outside of the U.S. compared to a slightly smaller percentage in Montgomery County.
Here we see that there has been a steady and steep increase of Asian residents from 5% in 1980 to 19% of the City’s current population. (Read colors of lines if difficult to see.) The Hispanic population is also increasing but at a slower rate and, while there were increases in the African-American population in the 1980s and 1990s, the African-American population is shown to have declined since the 2000 census and is back down to about 7% where it was in 1980.
The elementary school demographic trends reflect an even more diverse population. There is no majority population in the public elementary schools that serve Rockville. While the City’s overall white population is about 60%, that group only represents 40.5% of the elementary school population. Again, the Asian and Hispanic population groups have been increasing as a percentage of the total elementary school population and the African-American population has declined a bit over the 5-year period shown.
This map of the City shows the concentrations of students who are enrolled in English as a Second Language (ESOL) programs throughout the City. Twinbrook and Meadow Hall elementary schools on the east side of the City have the highest enrollment in ESOL programs. Twinbrook’s participation rate is 45.5% and Meadow Hall’s is 24.7%. These two elementary schools are above the County average of 19.8%. ESOL participation rates increased at every Rockville elementary school except Ritchie Park since 2005 but declined at all middle and high schools over the same period. This offers more evidence that the youngest segments of Rockville’s population are the most diverse. Just this past week an adult ESOL program graduated 213 adults.
There are two striking aspects of these data (1) Rockville’s median age of 40.2 is older than that of the County, state, region and almost 3 and a half years older than the national average, and (2) the under 19 years of age group has drop 50%. In fact, the 0 to 19 year old population that represented almost half the population in 1960 now accounts for one quarter of the total. The outstanding performance of the Montgomery County Public Schools (many in Rockville) attracts students from all over the world and we know that the schools are crowded. Could it be that Rockville based school students are not living in the City limits? Is there a message about housing that we need to consider? Further, I challenge the projection for the 65 and over of 16.8% unless there is an increase in senior living facilities in the City. Certainly, seniors on fixed incomes are finding it harder to afford to stay in their homes. We have made progress in programs of assistance, but costs to both the City and the elder may be too much.
The change of Rockville from a small rural town (albeit the County seat) to a City with sophisticated interests and needs is well documented. We are an “office job” center with government operations, courts, and educational institutions. Major job categories are in the professional, scientific and technical services fields, about 14,700 jobs. Educational services account for 12,500 (headquarters of MCPS and home of Montgomery College’s largest campus); and public administration, with more than 10,000 jobs. These are also the three largest job categories for residents of Rockville who are employed.
Unemployment rates have risen in Rockville and Montgomery County, particularly between 2008 and 2009, as well as in Maryland and nationally, but Rockville’s rates have been consistently lower than the other jurisdictions. The average 2009 unemployment rate was 4.8% in Rockville, compared to 5.2% in the County, 7.1% in the state and 9.3% in the U.S.
Rockville had a median household income of just over $86,000 in 2005-7, slightly lower than the County figure of $89,000 but substantially higher than the national average of $50,000. The 2010 census should provide us with insight into the community’s financial health trends.
Current estimates indicate that there are 11,391 single-family detached homes (47%); 3,440 single-family attached or townhouse units (14%) and 9,496 multifamily homes (39%). Equals 24,300 total.
Just for interest, housing price comparisons are tricky because you’re never comparing the same product from year to year, but it appears that price declines for single–family homes sales in Rockville was less dramatic the 2007-2008 time frame than elsewhere, particularly than the VA suburbs. About 65% of Rockville households own the homes they live in. However, Rockville’s home ownership rate has declined slightly since 2000 (when it was 67.7%).
According to the 2009 Montgomery County Rental Facility Report (more than 5,000 units in the City of Rockville were included in the survey); Rockville has a pretty strong rental market with higher than average rents and lower than average vacancy as compared with the county as a whole. The number of households in Rockville and in Montgomery County that are cost burdened, defined as percentage of households paying 30% or more of their income on housing, has increased significantly since 2000 and renters are more cost-burdened than homeowners.
Our new zoning ordinance introduced 7 mixed-use zones that allow housing and commercial uses in areas that had been mostly restricted to commercial uses previously. These are located mostly along the Pike and I-270 corridors. Future development will happen in these mixed-use zones, which is almost everything that is not gray on this map. The gray areas which represent the majority of the City’s land area are largely established single-family neighborhoods where we don’t expect new development.
Rockville prides itself as being a green city.
This slide is from the budget. The rate of development has slowed over the last three years and assessments for existing property have been decreasing with the recession. As a result, total assessed value of real estate in the City is only expected to increase by 1.4% in FY 2011, a far smaller increase than we saw earlier in the decade. The City’s ability to provide high quality municipal services and program enhancements in the future depend revenues achieved from these assessed property values.
Virtually all Rockville households are located within one-half mile of a Metro station and/or a bus stop. The blue circles indicate a .7 mile radius of the three metro stations. The red dots are bus stops and the red lines are bus routes
Rockville residents have more sustainable transportation habits compared to the region and the nation. Most people do travel alone to work, but only 62% drive alone in Rockville compared to 67% in the region and 76% in the U.S. Average weekday passenger boardings at the Shady Grove, Rockville and Twinbrook Metro stations has been increasing since these stations opened in 1984. Passenger boardings at the Shady Grove station have increased about 250% since 1985; boardings at the Rockville station have more than doubled; and boardings at Twinbrook have just about doubled.
Now a few important facts about our public facilities:
About 70% of Rockville properties are served by City water and sewer systems. The remainder (identified by the pink areas on the map), are served by Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission (WSSC). The Mayor and Council moved to refurbish the aging water and sewer infrastructure of the City last year.
The staff looked at three community centers in the City that have been around for a while. Croydon Creek is a more specialized facility than the other two shown here. The Twinbrook community center historically has the largest number of visitors annually. Lincoln Park community center has experienced the most rapid increase in visitors. The number of visits to the Lincoln Park community center increased by 300% between 2002 and 2008.
Attendance at City-sponsored events such as Hometown Holidays, Memorial Day Parade, etc. has averaged about 148,000 each year since 2002. I presume these date include our fireworks display on the Fourth.
The Mayor and Council recently passed a $102 million balanced budget based upon recommendations from our staff. While the inability to give staff raises and/or COLAs was a disappointment, the City has fared much better that other municipal governments in sustaining our cost of government. In fact, it is remarkable to me that after three years of reducing the property tax rate a penny a year (equates to a million a year), experiencing the economic decline of 2008-9, the loss of highway user funds (over $2.7 million due to us from the State), and the necessity to rebuild our employees retirement fund (some million plus), we have managed to balance the budget without laying off employees. However, I am aware of a mounting loan burden of $147 million the City has assumed which carries about $5.6 million in debt service annually.
After many years of using cost allocation figures for various funds, a new system of charging was presented by staff as recommended by a consultant and adopted by the M&C which increases significantly the cost to residents and businesses for water, sewer, storm water management, and refuse over the years to come. Your water bill alone will rise 24% in 2011, another 22% in 2012, etc……. Some of the water expense results from our commitment to repair and replace our aging infrastructure. The full budget is on the City’s web site: www.rockvillemd.gov
To ease these increases, the $100 rebate was kept as in the past several years and the City refrained from raising taxes. Interestingly tax revenue, even with the lowering of most of our property values is not projected to decline this year. Next year may be more challenging. Not only will the new cost allocation program continue to raise your fees for many city services, but the impact of lower property values will still be a threat to realizing sufficient revenue from property taxes. This loss of tax duplication funds from the County may be challenged again and the rebate from the County to reimburse the City for free parking for the library patrons is gone. This expense will have to be borne by our citizens whether or not they patronize the library as the servicing of the debt and costs of the garages (approximately $3 million) comes largely from our taxes.
This has been a good year. The City of Rockville is celebrating its 150th year of incorporation as a municipality. Our new zoning ordinances are being implemented, albeit with need for apparent revision. On Memorial Day weekend, Isaiah Leggett, County Executive, renamed the library in honor of the men and women who have died in service to our country.
On March 29, Community Ministries of Rockville officially opened the Mansfield Kaseman Community Health Clinic on Middle Lane. This free clinic will serve those patients who are underinsured or without health insurance--Approximately 8,000 in Rockville alone.
In the interest of taking the City Hall to the people, we have taken the Mayor & Council meeting on the road. To date, three fully televised meetings live from the Twinbrook Civic Center, the Rockville Senior Center, and the Lincoln Park Civic Center have occurred. Plans include using the Thomas Farm Community Center and other installations that can provide the needed television support.
How about the Chamber of Commerce? The City’s “Buy Rockville Campaign” which began as a request for funds from the Chamber and with the assistance of REDI and a matching grant from the City has brought our Chamber to life. This engagement in promoting our business community and their new initiatives have no doubt contributed to the City’s image as a great place to do business.
A new Youth Commission inspired by Randy Alton, a Wootton High School teacher, and encouraged by the MCPS has been launched. Giving young people an opportunity to participate in government will lead to their adult commitment to be active in the governance of their communities.
Two modest housekeeping items to improve communications among our citizen working groups and the Mayor & Council have been implemented. We revived a liaison initiative begun by Mayor Larry Giammo. Each Council Member assumes a liaison assignment to a Board and/or Commission. This interaction provides insights to important issues and items that may reach the Council for implementation. In addition, advanced agenda listings and ongoing action items are provided at every Council meeting. You can follow the progress of your favorite issue.
Explore all possibly to avoid destroying the green space.
Those of you who follow the actions of the Mayor and Council know that I asked to have two Task Forces appointed shortly after my election. One of these carried the mandate to study the financial policies and processes of budget operations and is under the leadership of Council Member Mark Pierzchala. I am looking forward to his report in September which may give us advice and possibly some workable alternatives to our current budget procedures.
The second Task Force under the leadership of Council Member Bridget Newton is charged reviewing the current methods and ways information is made available to the citizens and exploring improvements in the process. The preliminary report from this group is scheduled to come to the Mayor and Council June 24.
Critical to the sustaining of programs and financial support for the City are our partnerships with our legislators in Annapolis. This year, we worked with our delegates and the Maryland Municipal League to secure state funds for programs and projects such as the improvement of the exercise area in the senior center of a total of $850,000. Another major cost saving bill introduced by our State Senator, Jennie Forehand makes traffic ticket holders ask for a trial and they do not automatically have the option. As a result, police officers will be freed from appearing in traffic court automatically. (great savings in court time and overtime pay).
The information contained on this presentation is the work of many people. It has been my pleasure to bring this material to you and if I have occasionally added emphasis and focus on the data and charts do not blame the sources of data. I look forward to reporting to you again as we respond to the needs of the citizens of the great City of Rockville.