Gajewski Proposes Suspension of Zoning Revisions

This evening's meeting of the Mayor and Council may be even more interesting than one would have previously thought.

Sunday evening, Council Member Piotr Gajewski proposed via email to his colleagues on the Mayor and Council that they "step back and indefinitely suspend our work on the Zoning Ordinance."

As many residents of Our Fair City know, Rockville is nearing the end of a lengthy review process where the overall law that governs all zoning throughout the City is being redrafted. This began with a committee called RORZOR, which included a number of citizens, who then drafted a proposal that was passed along to the Planning Commission. The Planning Commission revised that proposal and passed it on the the Mayor and Council, who have final authority and responsibility for adopting it.

Tonight was slated to be a worksession on the final draft of the proposed ordinance.


Council Member Gajewski wrote, in part:

Many agree that the process to try to comprehensively revise Rockville’s zoning ordinance has been flawed from the outset.

A committee of well meaning lay-people created a first draft document that was much criticized and contained major problems.

Off to a bad start, the problems only compounded when the Planning Commission entered the arena and, after taking public input, tried to make lemonade out of the lemon it got.

The document improved some, but even by its own admission, the Planning Commission punted on many major issues.

Throughout the process, staff has had the difficult task to keep up with ever-changing new ideas and demands, so that the technical execution of the document has struggled. The document continues with major technical flaws that renders it unusable in present form.

The reality that has emerged is that Rockville is better off with the current zoning protocol than it would be with what is being proposed.

He goes on to suggest that, where changes are felt to be needed, they can be dealt with on a targeted basis, by making text amendments to the existing zoning ordinance. "Individual text amendments that focus on specific elements will allow us to delve into the necessary details more easily, allow everyone to better understand what we really intend, and ensure that we avoid unintended consequences," Gajewski writes.

Tonight's meeting is, as always, at 7:00 pm at City Hall. It begins with Citizen's Forum, where any citizen can address the Mayor and Council (to do so, it is best to call the City Clerk 240-314-8280 by 4:00 p.m. to get on the list). The full meeting is televised on The Rockville Channel and will also be available through the City's new video on demand system within a day or two.