For Immediate Release: Friday, February 3, 2017
Montgomery Council committee to discuss
schools and fiscal impact of Bethesda Plan
Also on Monday, Feb. 6: Transportation improvements
for White Oak, National Philharmonic grant
ROCKVILLE, Md., February 3, 2017—The Montgomery County Council’s Planning, Housing and Economic Development (PHED) Committee at 2 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 6, will address the fiscal impact of the proposed plan to redevelop Downtown Bethesda and the effect the plan would have on neighborhood schools.
The PHED Committee, which is chaired by Councilmember Nancy Floreen and includes Councilmembers George Leventhal and Hans Riemer, will meet in the Third Floor Hearing Room of the Council Office Building at 100 Maryland Ave. in Rockville. The meeting will be will be televised live by County Cable Montgomery (CCM), which can be viewed on Cable Channels 996 (high definition) and 6 (standard definition) on Comcast; Channels 1056 (HD) and 6 (SD) on RCN; and Channel 30 on Verizon. The sessions also will be available live via streaming through the Council web site at http://tinyurl.com/z9982v8 .
Much of the discussion on the impact of the Bethesda Plan on local schools will be about projected enrollments and school capacity toward the expected build out of the plan now being considered by the Council. It is expected that many of the proposed increases in height and density for certain properties would not become reality for 15 to 20 years.
Measures of public facility adequacy examine whether or not there can be sufficient school capacity at buildout to meet the need generated by existing and future development. Public facility adequacy at intermediate points between now and buildout are regulated by the Subdivision Staging Policy (SSP).
Regarding enrollment, Council staff took the Year 2031 forecast in the Bethesda-Chevy Chase school cluster as representative of the buildout of current master plans. It added the new students estimated in the Council's tentatively approved Lyttonsville Sector Plan and the final draft from the Planning Board of the Bethesda Downtown Plan. (The students generated in prior approved plans are already assumed in the 2031 forecast.)
The final draft anticipated up to 8,456 more units of housing in Downtown Bethesda, resulting in 355 elementary school students, 145 middle school students and 195 high school students. However, recently updated projections suggest that 8,456 more units in Downtown Bethesda would generate 431 elementary, 178 middle and 237 high school students.
Regarding capacity, Council staff examined those schools that could accommodate an addition given the size of the site, and the closed-school sites that could accommodate a new school. The analysis reconfirms the conclusion from the Westbard and Lyttonsville Sector Plan analyses in 2016 that the cluster would have sufficient capacity at buildout at the elementary and middle school levels. However, they also show that B-CC High School would be well over capacity, even with the addition that is currently under construction.
The committee also will have a worksession on transportation improvements in the White Oak area, which has been approved for significant redevelopment. In December, the County Department of Transportation transmitted to the Council its recommended White Oak transportation improvements plan totaling $131.7 million.
At 9:30 a.m. in the Seventh Floor Hearing Room, the Health and Human Services Committee, which is chaired by Councilmember Leventhal and includes Councilmembers Roger Berliner and Craig Rice, will discuss operating and financial accounting improvements that have been implemented by the National Philharmonic orchestra, which is based at Strathmore Hall in Bethesda.
In its Fiscal Year 2017 operating budget, the County Council approved $150,000 in the Arts and Humanities budget to provide a grant to the National Philharmonic. In June 2016, the Council also approved a $250,000 supplemental appropriation for FY16 to provide immediate grant support to ensure the continuing operation of the National Philharmonic. The grant was approved with the understanding that the orchestra would, with the help of a consultant, improve its operations, which was running at a substantial deficit.
Executive Branch staff reviewed the National Philharmonic's second quarterly report and is encouraged by improvements in operations. The report showed:
# # # #
Release ID: 17-032