Rockville’s Mayor and Council Seek More General Assembly Support at Annual ‘Rockville Day in Annapolis’
ROCKVILLE, Md., Feb. 27, 2004—Rockville’s Mayor and Council Thursday asked members of Maryland’s General Assembly to further support the City’s future downtown development at the annual “Rockville Day in Annapolis” event held in the Montgomery County Delegation Room of the Lowe House Office Building in Annapolis.
A large number of representatives from the Maryland House of Delegates and the Maryland Senate attended the lunchtime event in which Mayor Larry Giammo led the effort to update the legislators on the progress of Town Center. Governor Robert Ehrlich placed $1.5 million in his proposed FY 2005 budget to help fund Town Center. The General Assembly will finalize the budget in April.
Among those in attendance yesterday were Speaker of the House Michael E. Busch, House Majority Leader Kumar P. Barve and President Pro Tem of the Senate Ida G. Ruben. Including Barve, all members of the District 17 Delegation that represents Rockville were present including Senator Jennie Forehand and Delegates Michael Gordon and Luiz Simmons.
Details of Phase I of the Town Center project, which is scheduled for groundbreaking this spring, were offered by Rockville Councilmembers Bob Dorsey, Susan Hoffmann and Anne Robbins; Rockville Economic Development, Inc., Executive Director Sally Sternbach; Rockville Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Joy Young; and Acting City Manager Catherine Tuck Parrish. Representatives of RD Rockville, LLC, and Federal Realty Investment Trust—the private co-developers of the Phase I area they are calling “Rockville Town Square”—also were present.
The 15 acres of Phase I that will be the center of the new downtown are bordered by Beall Avenue on the north; Middle Lane on the south; North Washington Street on the west and Maryland Route 355 on the east. Eventually, from this central start, Town Center redevelopment will expand to a total of about 60 acres.
The project overall is expected to cost more than $300 million in combined private and public funding.
The new Town Center will include a mix of retail, restaurant, entertainment, residential and office uses. The new Rockville Regional Library, which will become the largest library in the Montgomery County system, will be an anchor of Town Center. A public plaza that fronts the library is included in the design, along with wide sidewalks that will create a pedestrian environment with outdoor cafes. The planned residential projects will include 620 total units (332 apartments and 288 one- and two-bedroom condominiums). Three public parking garages and one private garage, along with on-street parking, will create about 1,900 parking spaces to support the project.
The mix of uses will keep downtown busy after 5 p.m. and on weekends—and provide a ready market for the new retail stores that will locate in the new downtown.
RD Rockville, LLC will develop the residential units under its entities S.J. Ross Development and DANAC Corporation.
The library is designed to be a signature building for Rockville. Its design includes a mix of past, present and future. It will have large bay windows and reading areas near glass, so readers can enjoy a view. It will have extensive computer stations; more than 200,000 volumes; areas devoted to accommodate children and teenagers; and two large public meeting rooms.
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