2026-10-12 - Mayor and Council

Good evening, Rockville. Today is October 12, 2026 and we're convening meeting number 24-26. Please join me as you're able in the pledge of allegiance. We'll first begin with the agenda review, Sarah

Taylor-Ferrall. Madam Mayor and Councilmembers, there are no changes to the agenda for this evening. Thank you. City Manager's Report, Mr. Mahalik. Mayor Ashton, members of City Council, ladies and

gentlemen, good evening. Remember when I first started with the city a little over two years ago, there was a fair amount of discussions about non-native invasive species in the city. A lot all over.

We've been doing the best we can to identify ways to clean those areas up. We have been doing that and one really good example is the treatment we just did at Maryville Park. There's a couple of

really good photos out there. We went out and did a lot of cleanup of the invasive species in that area, trimmed it down, mulched over the top. We think we did a pretty good job there, but if you're

wondering what it looks like, but before and after, I would encourage you to go out there and take a look because we're going to be doing that though for a number of years in the city. We have a lot

of invasive species, but we're going to do it as we can, so we appreciate the encouragement from the body on that. We also continue to try to do additional unique engagement processes throughout the

city. What we just did, I want to share with you, we went out to the Maryville Elementary School to get some feedback from the elementary students on the David Skoll Park sculpture that we're planning

on doing. That's going to be, we think, an iconic piece of sculpture. Council saw that concept, if you will, a number of weeks ago. Now we're going into the more deep engagement. So the art team went

out and met with the elementary school students, and to be really hands-on, the students were asked to look at the concept and then use some basically cardboard and things of that nature to mimic what

it looks like to build the sculpture, but more importantly, without telling them we were doing it, we were really curious to see what colors they wanted to do on that piece of sculpture. So it's going

to help inform us because that's one of the things we brought to you. Nobody's really sure why it would be the best color palette out there. It'll be really interesting to see what the elementary

school comes out with. So it's a really good way to engage. And as I've shared with you before, if you engage the kids, the parents get involved too. And lastly, another project we're really excited

about, what we used to call At-Risk Youth. We're now calling our Youth Well-Being Initiative. That was something that Mayor and Council brought forward to us during the end of the budget season. We

are now getting into the deep engagement today. Today we met with over 50 members of the community to discuss that initiative, and always simply ask members of the community, "We're simply this. What

is the well-being of our youth in the city? What are we doing to help youth in our city? And most importantly, what are the gaps?" And we had members there from, gosh, the county, from the school

district, from RHE, from a number of different nonprofits. We had deep, rich engagement, and it's a very enthusiastic approach to this. So as soon as we have some ideas put together, we'll schedule a

work session with Council. We're just really excited about the turnout. That's all I have, Mayor. Thank you. Thank you very much. I want to also just—I know my colleagues have talked about the good

work of Weed Warriors and leading on the support for invasive species across the city when they acknowledge those volunteers. I also want to acknowledge that over the past few weeks we have appointed

new members of the Youth Commission to speak to the comments that you've made, Mr. Mihailik. We believe in our youth in Rockville, and we're excited to also add those youth leaders to help inform

programs and activities and to understand the gaps across the city. So I just want to acknowledge that. I think they had a meet and greet amongst each other last week, and I also want to acknowledge

the Principles Roundtable between the Youth Commission and the work that they did on the Town Hall last year and the Principles Roundtable, and also us listening to our community. This is where we're

getting this idea for supporting youth who are at risk and supporting overall well-being. We believe that we can give young people a positive opportunity to help build our city and our future. I just

want to thank everyone who came together today to support that initiative. I did want to also acknowledge—I know we talked about Indigenous Peoples Day, which is today—the city does also have a formal

recognition day off on American Indian Heritage Day, which is the day after Thanksgiving. So if folks are wondering why we're here, I just wanted to share that background. I talked with Mr. Mahalik

today. All right, so now we're moving on to Community Forum. This is a time where we'd love to hear from our community, find out if there are any issues or ideas that you want to share, as well as any

concerns. I do also want to acknowledge that we have two students from Montgomery Bloor High School who are attending tonight's meeting for their government class to understand more about civics, and

maybe they'll be sharing some ideas with us as well, but we welcome you. It's a perfect night for you to be here, and we welcome you back, and any other youth who want to join in the future. For those

who are interested in participating in Community Forum, please address the mayor and council. Please be respectful to each other and to audience members. Each person is allowed three minutes, and we

ask that you adhere to that time frame. We do have a time clock in front of you. There will be an audible beep at the end of your three minutes. When you speak, please state your name and whether you

live in the city of Rockville for the record. We will call those who have signed up in advance, and then ask anyone from the floor if they would like to speak. Thank you. First, we welcome Mr. Kumar.

Thank you, Mayor Ashton and City of Rockville, Maryland Government Council for this opportunity, this limited but yet open democracy forum. J.D. Kumar here, a Rockville King Farm resident, something

like this. Now, I always remind that I pledge allegiance to decency, kindness. I pledge allegiance to our British American USA Constitution establishing founders, our United States of America. I

pledge allegiance to rule of law, rule of law. Firstly, my sincere request, I'd like you all here in the county, all of you residents and voters, to please referendum out County Outreach. He has been

in government for 60 years, 20 years as Montgomery County Maryland Council and County Executive, 20 years as Tacoma Park County Council Member, et cetera, almost 20 years as a MCPS teacher. Basically,

he's created a restaurant county, and we have not graduated any doctors in many decades. Now, today, October 12, 2026, many, again, I sincerely request that you write in referendum out. I sincerely

request this. He is abused through Montgomery County Police Department and so forth. At least City of Rockville, Maryland government has given me a lot of access about our CPD issues, including you

have a very decency chief of police, Mr. Jason West, who I have immense respect for. Today, October 12, 2026, many parts have renamed or added as Indigenous Day. Must remind and respect this, a lot of

pain hurt for many, for many, and whether directly or indirectly, a lot of pain hurt for all of us everywhere. Today is also Dia de la Raza Day, and I, as JDK, my divine rights, proclaim that CHCIs

should not actively eliminate Mexican membership day, Dia de la Raza. There is a lindo in Mexico, and then there is an illicit problem in Mexico, and we should be vigilant. Now, many of you do not

want to acknowledge that this is discoverer's day also. There's not just one, two, or three or more discoverers. There's Columbus. There's North America's Scandinavian Viking discoverers. We also have

millennia's prior years. Alaska, land, bridge, crossing America's discoverers also. There is the NASA Apollo Day discoverers. There are so many like this. Now, we should implement a British America

Day, and India was the seat of the British Empire Day, also like for real people, like for real. So many Indians here for centuries, people. We call them Indians, all related. Please note, the

Hispanic months are way too long. Those are 21st century discriminatory days, years, decades. Smart scientists always want to protect species, animals, plants, so we should have one of those days

also. Remind, I remind, we should maintain culture, traditions, good and safe ideologies day, and thank you very much. Let's also consider today as HDI Human Development Index 21st Century HDI Day

also. Thank you very much. Thank you for your testimony. Is there anyone else who would like to speak? Thank you very much. You can also share information with us via email,

[email protected]. We'll now move on to Agenda Item 8A, the Financial Advisory Board FY26 Annual Report and the FY27 Action Plan Presentation. I want to welcome staff lead Xiaoxing Xiang,

who is the liaison for the Commission, as well as Michael Patrick, who is the chair of the Financial Advisory Board, also acknowledging Mulei Tsai, Vice Chair Jocelyn Fortis, Jack Kelly, and Laurel

Moreau. Welcome. Hi there. All right. Mayor Ashton, members of the council, wanted to first start by commending Bob Wright, who is our outgoing chair, served in this position for 10 years, wanted to

recognize him for all that he's done for this group. Also wanted to recognize Xiaoxing Xiang, our staff liaison. She does an incredible job hosting our meetings, as well as facilitating all of the

many, many questions that we come about in our reviews, as well as Councilmember Jackson for his liaison to us as well. We completed our reviews for the fiscal year of 2026 at a high level. We find

that the city produces substantial relevant and informational financial data, very easy to access things to extreme detail level and transparent. With respect to the budgeting process, just wanted to

also mention that there's a lot of pride within the city and staff with regards to our property tax rate maintaining consistent, and we find that that anchors the process from beginning to end as to

how the staff thinks about what to propose for the budget. So we found that to be an important feature with highlighting. With respect to transparency, just wanted to call out there's been a number of

improvements. The past year, as you saw with the budgeting process, the online interactive tool was a great help in helping us get through the budget and asking our questions. The city's investment

report that's produced on a quarterly basis was also enhanced, as well as some additional data with respect to grants and grant programs was provided to us. So with respect to our fiscal year 2027,

what we propose is to continue working on the six items that are required by city code, as well as an annual review of the procurement annual report, which the board finds as good primer information

leading into the budget review. So the two items that I have before you are to accept our 2026 annual report and to accept our 2027 action plan. Thank you so much for that report. We really appreciate

it. I know some of us have shared some questions with Mr. Mahalik. And I believe the annual report, the work plan, and the FAQs will be posted online. Is that correct, Mr. Mahalik? That's correct.

Great. So the listening public can see a fantastic presentation and the follow-up provided. Very good. Councilmember Jackson. Yes, thank you, Mayor. First, thank you to the financial advisory board.

It's a pleasure being your liaison because you guys do a really excellent job of getting into details and asking the right questions. So thank you very much for your service there. Mayor, at this

time, I would like to move to accept the financial advisory board's FY2026 annual report. And action plan as well. Oh, well, I was going to make some promotions, but I can't. And I would like to move

to accept the financial advisory board's FY2027 action report. Thank you. Do we have a second? Second. All those in favor, please raise your hand and say aye. Aye. Excellent. Thank you very much. It's

unanimous. We appreciate all of your work. And I'll just note that the financial advisory board, as well as our team, is doing a great job of maintaining our AAA bond status and then looking at

headwinds, whether that's a Potomac interceptor or changes in income because of some of the federal changes that have happened. So thank you for keeping a watchful eye on those issues. All right.

Thank you very much. Excellent. Thank you. We'll now move on to agenda item. And thank you, Xiaoxing. We appreciate you. We'll now move on to the Rockville Home Ownership Assistance Program. This is a

presentation by Lauren Sukow, Housing Specialist, Housing and Community Development, as well as panelist Jane Lyons-Radar from the Housing Programs Manager and Ryan Trout, Director of Housing and

Community Development. This is an initiative that has really taken great shape moving from employees to also supporting residents of the city. We look forward to your update. Thank you. Good evening,

Madam Mayor and City Council. My name is Lauren Sukow. I'm a Housing Specialist in the Department of Housing and Community Development. I am joined by Housing Division Manager Jane Lyons-Radar, as

well as Director Ryan Trout. We are here to provide you with a report of the first year of the Rockville Home Ownership Assistance Program, otherwise known as ARHAP. We will begin with a brief review

of ARHAP's background and objectives before providing you with a summary of the first year's progress. As you know, funding for ARHAP was approved in April of 2025. ARHAP was launched on schedule in

October, thanks in large part to a significant interdepartmental effort. Staff representing Housing and Community Development, the Office of the City Attorney, Finance and Procurement worked together

to develop program documentation and establish unprecedented workflows. In January, the first two ARHAP loans were distributed, and by May, all funds for FY26 were expended. During the April 2025

meeting, staff presented census housing data to contextualize and justify the initiative. We updated the data with the most recent information from the census. It shows a slight increase of about 3

percent in the median home price from 2023 to 2024. According to the City's annual financial report for FY25, the median home value continued to rise to $708,000. The State of Maryland Department of

Assessment and Taxation, or ESTAT, collects actual sales data. ESTAT reports that between January and June of 2026, Rockville's actual median sales price was roughly $774,000. To comfortably afford a

home at this price at today's interest rates, a borrower would need an exceptional credit score, almost no existing monthly debt, significant down payment, and an annual household income of around

$250,000. Like most community-sponsored down payment assistance programs, ARHAP is a silent second trust. Silent means that there are no monthly payments and no interest is ever charged on the loan.

In this way, we are helping to keep applicants' debt-to-income ratio low, which can help them qualify for better interest rates. ARHAP is a second trust because the loan is in second position behind

the first, in the unlikely event that a buyer forecloses on the property. Proceeds from a foreclosure sale will be paid first to the primary mortgage holder. Any remaining proceeds will go to the

city. Borrowers must pay back the loan immediately if they sell, rent out the entire property, or refinance with cashout. We should note that the city would consider hardship exceptions to the cashout

rule on a case-by-case basis. For example, if the borrower wishes to use equity in the home to pay for something related to a health care emergency, repayment is not triggered if the borrower simply

refinances for a lower interest rate without taking cash out at all. The first-generation loan is forgiven after 10 years of living in the home. Non-employee applicants must be first-time homebuyers

and meet income eligibility requirements. The maximum household income of 120 percent of area median income, or AMI, which is roughly $197,000 for a family of four. Depending on an applicant's AMI,

they may receive up to 3, 5, or 10 percent of the purchase price or the amount that is affordable to them, whichever is less. Affordability capacity is calculated by city staff using a formula that

considers factors such as household income, size, and mortgage rates. The employee benefit is not income contingent, and employees may be repeat buyers if they are purchasing a home within the

Rockville City limits for the first time. The home must be the primary residence for all borrowers. Thank you, Jane. The overall goal of our HAP is to encourage and sustain homeownership by breaking

down common barriers, such as saving up for down payment. Staff anticipated issuance of 10 total loans in that first fiscal year. We estimated that 6 of the 10 would include first-generation buyers

and 4 would be employees. The outreach plan was impactful. All available funds were spent down within six months. In addition, we saw an increase in the number of NPDU applications submitted. For city

employees, human resources now includes our HAP and the benefits information and onboarding package. We attended departmental meetings and met with city employees, and sometimes their families, upon

request. We hosted virtual and in-person sessions for community partners who work with first-time home buyers in our region, including the Latino Economic Development Corporation, the Korean Community

Service Center of Greater Washington, and the Housing Initiative Partnership, or HIPAA. Staff tabled at various county-sponsored events, including the Housing Opportunities Commission Ready Set Own

Home Ownership Fair. We offer program information to non-profit partners, and staff will be onsite at future city events, such as holiday giving, to work with Rockville residents interested in

applying. We reached out to industry professionals, such as real estate agents and mortgage lenders, to make them aware of our HAP and to go over our specific program details. We also educate

applicants about the Maryland Mortgage Program and encourage mortgage lenders to apply on behalf of their clients. We are currently coordinating with RHE to develop an info series for residents

enrolled in their family self-sufficiency program. FSS empowers families across various housing assistance programs, like housing choice vouchers or housing choice home ownership, to achieve their

goals by incentivizing the completion of financial education, workforce development, and home ownership prep classes. Last month we presented program information at a home buyer course in

collaboration with RHE and HIPAA, held exclusively for City of Rockville residents. Staff predictions were very accurate. We issued 14 loans between January and June, totaling $437,252. Two of the 14

buyers were first generation, five were employees, and we found that our HAP appears to work best with the City's MPDU program, 13 of the 14 buyers purchased MPDUs. The average monthly mortgage for a

buyer using our HAP in FY26 was under $1,800 a month, including principal interest, taxes, and in some cases PMI or private mortgage insurance. Of the 14 total loans, only four were required to pay

PMI. Undoubtedly related, our HAP loans averaged roughly 11% of the sales price among all buyers. The FY27 allocation of $250,000 was fully reserved shortly after the start of the new fiscal year.

Barring any unforeseen changes to the scheduled closings, seven total our HAP loans will be issued. As of today, four buyers have closed already, three more loans will be issued for properties closing

later this fall or early winter. Similar to FY26, six of the seven total will purchase MPDUs. Four buyers, up from two, are first generation this year. As you can see, our HAP was a great success in

its pilot year. There is room to scale the program without additional burden to staff. Staff are consulting with the City's Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Division, or JEDI, to ensure that

outreach efforts are broad, equitable, and inclusive. This concludes staff's report on the first year of Rockville Homeownership Assistance Program. It has been a pleasure working on this and with

this team. Thank you for having me. Thank you so much for the incredible work and report on behalf of the entire mayor and council. We know this is a special presentation. If there are any additional

questions, the body will send questions to Mr. Mahalik. But if folks are listening want to learn more about what's going on, you can look up our Rockville City website, and it's under the page

Rockville Homeownership Assistance Program. The email is [email protected], and that telephone number is 240-314-8300. Thank you for the incredible outreach, for the compassion, for

comparing this with the MPVU program. And I heard the outreach has been very thorough. Some of the teachers have been really appreciative of that. I know staff has. Thank you for collaborating with

RHE, and I also believe you've collaborated with Habitat for Humanity among many of the nonprofits. So a great work team, and we appreciate the update. Thank you. Thank you. We'll now move on to our

consent agenda, 9A, adoption of a corrected ordinance to rescind and correct ordinance number 8-26 to adopt sectional map amendment MAP-2026-127. I know we have city staff member Katie Gerbiss, Chief

of Long Range Planning, Community Planning and Development Services, and Ms. Dave Mahalik. I think you may have wanted to share something about this as well. Do you want to introduce us, or should we

wait for Katie Gerbiss? It's a consent agenda item, so we're not planning on presenting anything at all. Did you want to share the background? I know you mentioned during the leadership planning

meeting that you all would explain. It was simply a scrivener's error to an ordinance, and we just need to clean it up. Excellent. Thank you very much. So now we need a motion. Councilmember Van

Greck. Madam Mayor, I move to approve consent agenda item A. Thank you. Do we have a second? Councilmember Shaw, second. All those in favor? And third. All those in favor, please raise your hand and

say aye. Excellent. Thank you very much. Okay. I want to check on this because we are ahead of schedule. Just want to flag, but we do have a public hearing. I know it's been noticed and times can

change. I'm going to ask Madam City Clerk whether this has been properly noticed. Yes, Madam Mayor. The notice has been properly noticed on 10/1 and 10/8 in the Washington Post and also posted on the

city's website. And we do say on or before 7 p.m. on all of our public hearings. Excellent. Thank you very much. We'll now move on to our staff presenter, Mr. Richard Lawrence, Principal Planner,

Community Planning and Development Services, joined by panelist Evan Johnson, who's the Director of Community Planning and Development Services, CPDS. Welcome. We're glad to have you here. Good

evening, Mayor, members of the City Council. Again, you kind of stole my thunder, but my name is Richard Lawrence, Principal Planner with CPDS, the Development Division. It's a pleasure to be here

tonight to present this case to you all. Tonight, I'll be presenting a request concerning the existing Sheridan Hotel at 920 King Farm Boulevard within the King Farm plan development. The request

involves the allocation of residential units necessary to facilitate the proposed adaptive reuse of the existing hotel. And I'll just begin with a brief overview of the project site. The subject

property is the existing Sheridan Hotel located at 920 King Farm Boulevard within the Irvington Center portion of King Farm. The property is approximately 2.19 acres. It's designated commercial, zoned

PDKF, so plan development King Farm, and it's currently developed with the hotel use on the site. As shown on the aerial, the site is located at the end of King Farm Boulevard, abutting Redland

Boulevard near I-270 and is adjacent to the existing residential developments within King Farm. The existing building is a 155-foot -- 155-room five-story hotel containing approximately 76,725 square

feet. The hotel use is approved through the King Farm development process in 2004 and was constructed and completed in 2006. The applicant is Ori Real Estate Acquisitions, LLC, in partnership with

Lincoln Property Company, and this brings me to the specific request before the mayor and council this evening. The applicant ultimately proposes to adaptively reuse the existing hotel by converting

143 of the 155 hotel rooms into residential apartments while retaining 12 rooms for hotel and hospitality use. To facilitate that conversion, the allocation of 143 multifamily residential dwelling

units to the property is necessary. The request also includes a density shift of 16 residential units to the Irvington Center office-designated area, which is recommended by the Planning Commission to

the mayor and council, which is consistent with the density-shifting provisions of the approved King Farm concept plan. Importantly, and I want to make note of that, that tonight's action by the mayor

and council does not approve the conversion or a site plan itself. The applicant would still be required to submit subsequent development review applications and require additional approvals to move

forward. One important distinction is that the request does not increase the maximum residential unit capacity, which was already authorized and approved by a previous mayor and council. Rather, the

request utilizes the residential capacity already contemplated by the plan development approvals and shifts a portion of that capacity to accommodate the proposed request. Again, detailed issues

associated with the actual redevelopment or conversion of the property would be addressed through the subsequent development review process, either through a change of use application or a site plan

application, which will be reviewed by staff. On the next slide, I'll go through a series of numbers that explain why the 16 unit density shift was necessary, and then looking through the overall

approval and governing documents of the plan development. Is it possible just to speak a little loud? Some people can hear us. Sure. I'll bring the mic a little closer. Is that better? Yes, perfect.

Thank you. The King Farm concept plan originally authorized 3,200 residential dwelling units with the ability to increase the total number of dwelling units within the overall plan development to

3,600 units subject to approval by the mayor and city council. Of that additional capacity, up to 300 residential units could be located specifically within the Irvington centered office designated

area. Within that framework, resolution number 1096 also provided a mechanism for density shifting among sites within the plan development. Sorry about that. To date, 3,373 dwelling units have been

approved and constructed across the entirety of King Farm. More specifically, the concept plan also established unit type maximums with a maximum of 2,030 multifamily units of which 1,887 have been

constructed, leaving exactly 143 multifamily units available across King Farm. Within Irvington Center, 173 of the 300 units have been constructed, leaving 127 units of capacity. The proposed 16 unit

density shift bridges the difference between those 127 units within Irvington Center and the 143 units requested by the applicant. So 127 plus 16 of the shifted units equals 143 requested by the

applicant. I'm going to take a minute just to walk through briefly some of the relevant prior approvals associated specifically with this site. There had been a series of approvals across King Farm,

but I wanted to isolate the approval specifically as it relates to this site and this particular use. Going back, resolution number 2503 amended the concept plan for King Farm to permit the hotel use

on the subject property. This type of unit allocation requested this evening has precedent within King Farm. Beginning in 2013, through resolution number 0913, the mayor and council approved 144

townhomes on parcels F5 and F6 within the Irvington Center area. In 2017, through resolution number 817, the mayor and city council approved 162 multifamily units on parcels F7 and F8. That approval

was subsequently amended a few months later in 2018, reducing the development to 65 townhouse units. These prior actions and approvals also established the review pathway that staff utilized for this

request this evening. That would be planning commission review and recommendation followed by the mayor and city council allocation of units. Based on staff reviews, the requested unit allocation,

including the density shift, are consistent with the approved concept plan and in compliance with the applicable plan development governing documents as well as the annexation for King Farm. The

requested 143 units remain within the established multifamily unit capacity and subsequent development review via either a change of use application and/or site plan review would be required prior to

occupancy and conversion of the existing hotel. With that, staff will conclude our presentation and we would recommend that the mayor and council hold the public hearing for the request. Thank you

very much for the preview presentation. I do not have anyone who has signed up in advance. However, if there's anyone in the room who would like to speak, please come forward and let us know. Welcome.

Please state your name and whether you live in the city of Rockville. Good evening, mayor and council. My name is Jim Schroeder. I am president of Ori Real Estate. And I just want to introduce myself,

tell you how excited our company and myself are to participate in this project to revitalize and really add a lot of more life and activity to this particular asset. So happy to answer any questions

you may have either now or if you'd ask me to come back up. Thank you. Just to look to staff, I think we will have discussion later, but let us know if you want us to go earlier. It's at the will of

the mayor and council. You guys want to just wait to the next agenda item? All right. We'll officially close the public hearing and then plan to ask some questions. Very good. Thank you very much.

Okay. Thank you. I know this has been properly noticed. I did check to make sure that the required HOA's were notified per the requirements of code. And I was told yes. So thank you very much. And I

know this is, can you just clarify for the listening public, which is not the only time to provide comment in public hearing. There'll be other opportunities coming up where people can follow through

the planning commission as well. Can you please repeat that? That's correct. So following the approval of potential approval of tonight, the applicant will be required to either submit a change of use

application, which is a new process under the new zoning ordinance. And depending on the level of impact, it may trigger a site plan application, which staff would be reviewing. I think per the new

ordinance, it would be a level one site plan, but we're in continued discussions with the applicant on what those impacts may be and what the review path forward would look like. Excellent. Thank you

very much. Okay. So then we will close this public hearing, but note there are other opportunities to provide input to the city and move on to the action portion of our agenda, which would be

potential adoption of a resolution to approve the allocation of 143 multifamily dwelling units to the existing Sheraton hotel. At nine 20 King farm Boulevard, including the density shift of 16 units

to the urban team center office, the designated area within the King farm plan development. Is there anything else that you would like to add before we proceed with questions? Nothing further to add.

I'm happy to answer any questions that you're the council may have. Thank you very much. I'll just start by saying thank you. We know that we are looking to add affordable housing to the city of

Rockville and this would add significant additional affordable housing beyond the 15% requirement for Molly price dwelling units. The staff has confirmed with us today as well. And I appreciate the

innovation that you're trying to bring with new technologies. I think this would be the first robotic furniture community within the city of Rockville. And I know that this has been going on in DC,

but appreciate it. Both trying to meet the housing targets, but also looking at innovative approaches. There'll be some questions about that, but I just wanted to open with a thank you. I know my

colleagues and I have questions. I'll reserve mine until it's my turn. And I know Dr. Miles is on with us now. Dr. Miles, do you have any questions? Thank you, Madam Mayor. Thank you for the

presentation. Two quick questions. One, it's my understanding that these will be rental units, not ownership. Is that correct? That is correct. Second is the owner. It wants to be the landlord or is

it going to be someone else? I believe the owner has stated that they would seek a management company to operate their rental units, as well as the hotel units that would remain as hospitality. And

the applicant's also here to answer questions specifically to the operations. Thanks for the answer. I'm happy for the representative to answer as well. Good evening again, Jim Schroeder, president of

or real estate. So we would be the owners in partnership. With Lincoln property company. And we would likely have a third party property management company to manage and oversee the operations. We

want our expertise to be good stewards of the affordable housing and workforce housing that we're providing. And so our expertise is providing the systems and technology to be able to provide that new

innovative way to do so. And there are plenty of great companies out there that can provide that property management. And so that's not our, our expertise. Thanks so much. I'll just end by saying we,

as a body have generally supported efforts to improve the stock of housing that the numbers of housing units. I think this is one way to get us to that. And I'm happy to hear and hear from my

colleagues and on their questions on this topic. Thank you. Thank you very much. Councilmember Fulton. Thank you. Just two questions. First of all, one, just so I understand. And you said it, but I

just want to make sure I fully understand. We're just approving the conversion of the units. Like there will be a later date when we come back and we talk about like the actual site plan, what like

the robotic, which is really cool. But this is just the move of the switch to residential. Is that right? This is the transfer of the units to the site. So the, the conversion and the change of use

cannot, cannot move forward without the units being allocated to the site. Got it. The subsequent development review process, either through the change of use application or the site plan actually

facilitates the conversion per the new zoning zoning ordinance requirements. Perfect. The other question I had given that that's what we're doing, this is probably silly, but we are very precise in

these numbers. It's 143 and 12. If in the design phase, it turns out that maybe it's 144 or 100, do we have to go through all this again? Is there a way to give us a buffer here? Like in case

something changes. I think the, the number is precise specifically not to trigger any amendments to the larger King farm plan development, which would require a more substantial process. Than what

we're undertaking by this request. So then what we're authorizing now is the most we could authorize under this process. Under the current approvals for King farm. Correct. Then I'm good. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Council member for Larry. Yes, thank you. Um, I am very supportive of this concept. Um, housing is needed in Rockville. Adaptive reuse is good policy. And I'm always a fan of when

the planning commission reviews things. And they absolutely reviewed this, um, in depth. I think, um, I think my questions, um, Are not for, um, the, the developer, but really from our own planning

process. I appreciate my colleague council member Fulton. Um, and her point about precision. Um, I am concerned that we're constrained by, um, not allocating 12 more spaces. Like that seems like such

a small number. Um, not enough to, you know, um, Trigger, uh, any sort of major, uh, uh, utility or sewer issues. But enough that it would make, um, The actual residents is, um, A weird mishmash of

rental and a hotel. So talk me through, if you don't mind, uh, or can talk me through what we would need to do and what that timeline would look like to look at the King farm PD with an eye toward

increasing, um, The multifamily by a small number so that we could have an entirely Residential project. So, um, If you could speak up a little bit. Sure. So my understanding is, um, And this would

have to become, uh, Come at the request of either the applicant or one of the other Owners within the plan development to. Amend the broader. Uh, PD. Um, which would require noticing coordination

amongst hundreds of Different property owners to amend the plan, The approved PD concept plan, the plan development concept plan. So that is a, um, A request that would have to come on behest of the

applicant or one of The owners within King farm to amend the approved concept plan for For King farm. So, so it would have to be applicant driven. Was the applicant made aware of this possibility?

They were made aware of the, um, The impact to the larger PD. They did not want to pursue, um, Kind of opening up the larger PD for, um, for review. Okay. Mad. Sure. So my understanding, because of

course we looked into this, Say it's 12 units. Surely we can find a solution here. And my understanding because such work and effort goes into approving That plan development for King farm initially.

And then any amendment. Even it's only 12 units. It's still triggers the same as if it would increasing by a thousand Units. And because of that, It incurs hundreds of thousands of dollars of fees,

studies, Everything from environmental to sewer, to water, To transportation, to schools. And then it becomes months and months. It could be six to nine to 12 plus months to get through that entire

Process. And so when it came down to, From our perspective as we want to get this housing for the city done as Soon as possible. And we also went to limit our exposure in terms of pursuit cost, Not

wanting to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars for 12 units. Said we'd much rather not have 12 hotel units, But when you compare the pros and cons of each, What is the cost and the benefits? We

will just bear and grit it and deal with 12 units. That's what we must do. But I appreciate. Thank you. And I kind of figured as much from your perspective, The challenge there. I just want to make

sure that as a city that we're, That we're looking a little bit more thoughtfully. In terms of some of these plan developments. And again, knowing what our limitations are, right? Like I noted in the

report that the King farm plan development. And I think the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the. Multifamily is capped at 2030. There would still be. Non multifamily available now. I think that's

where my, my challenge is here, right? Like if we have the units of, of. Single family. I guess I I'm struggling. Single family. I don't know. Allocate for additional multifamily units. I mean, is

that just me or does that seem odd that we could have, you know, we're, we're quibbling over 12, but we have a bunch of single family. Yeah. There still is some additional capacity left over in the

single family and townhouse unit allocations. But because the, um, you know, there's some additional capacity left over in the single family. Um, and so that would require amendments, which would then

open the broader PD. So it's a technical matter, but it does require revisions to an amendments to the overall plan development. And that, and I think that is what the applicant has reflected would

provide additional exposure. So while it's minor, it still is a technical matter that would require revisions to the larger plan development. Sure. And I appreciate you answering all these questions.

Um, but I do appreciate that. Yeah. I appreciate it. I appreciate that. I appreciate that. I appreciate that. I appreciate that. I appreciate that. You're still going forward with the application,

even though there is this, you know, weird little, uh, 12 units segment. So thank you for that. My last question. Um, Oh, where did I have it? Um, oh, and I, I missed it. What is the MPDU percentage

for this project? The requirement is 15%, but the applicant has expressed, um, going beyond beyond, uh, that percentage. I think the details of that would be, uh, finalized through the subsequent

process, but he's expressed an interest in exceeding the minimum requirement for the MPDU. I appreciate that. And I do appreciate, um, you looking at that as well. Um, thank you so much. Um, those are

all my questions and look forward to seeing this come to light. Absolutely. If I may add one thing, all units will be at or below 63% AMI in terms of the actual rents. And the real question mark is

really about how many or what percent will be income restricted. Um, and that's largely due to the capital markets and the perception from the equity that's investing the project. Yeah. No, that makes

sense. Thank you very much for all your answers. Very helpful. Thank you. Do you know, uh, if the city could be an applicant in terms of expanding the number of units? I just, I'd look at our zoning

ordinance rewrite and how we're rezoning things. And I also understand the applicant's perspective. Like for example, they're not going to invest thousands of dollars for 12 units and someone else who

only has X amount may not, but collectively there are things the city would like to do. So I want to say thank you to the applicant, but I'm just asking a broader city question given what we've been

trying to do with the zoning ordinance rewrite and understanding that, uh, perspectives have evolved and we are in general have, uh, done more zoning throughout the city to allow housing units. There

we go. Can you hear me? Okay. Um, that is an interesting question. Um, I would say that it's best for us to get back with legal and see what the mechanics of that might be. Um, as far as whether the

city could be an applicant in that process. So we'll be glad to do that. Yeah. I don't want to limit what the applicant's trying to do, but I'm trying to think bigger picture for the city. Uh, there

may be other offices in that cause I know there's a little bit of an office industrial park, not industrial, but an office park over there. And needs have changed. I know the government had offices

there at a period of time. Uh, and we have to evolve as our city evolves. So, uh, it might not be something that could happen on its own. Maybe the city can get involved if you could get back to us on

that question. Also to let us know what that would involve because I also understand staff time is, is critical. Uh, and you know, how many extra units do we have based on the zoning that we currently

have? Could we get? Absolutely. Okay. Thank you very, very much. Um, I'll just say thank you again. Uh, my questions are not targeted necessarily at any concerns about the project. I'm hopeful to see

that we're, you know, council of governments has said 70% of new units should be affordable. And you're, you're actually focusing on that. I imagine this might be contingent on light tech. Is that.

It's actually not going to be light tech and not light tech. Okay, great. That's interesting. Um, and for the 12 units, hopefully we can fix that in the future, but, uh, that will be operated as a

hotel. We don't have a short term rental legal framework in the city of Rockville. So I just wanted to flag it will be, is it going to be like a separated portion of the residential and be a hotel? We

don't have that fully answered. There are many hotel, or I should say many apartments that manage a handful of units. Granted, they treat them more like short term rentals, but it's a gray area

between short term rentals and hotel. And so we'd be working with the city to figure out what is the best way to both meet the city code and requirements, but also operationally. Yeah, I've seen it in

some places like Philadelphia. There are resident. There's always conflict, um, in, in those areas. And it has worked and other units I've seen where it's kind of an area where they're short term

rental. And it's clear. The one easy thing on the ground floor, there are eight units on the ground floor. So that is a simple way to isolate them and keep them separate now, where the other four

units go to minimize the impact on the residents. That's something we're still trying to figure out. Okay. Thank you. Uh, and then you noted that this, you're looking at potentially 15, 15%. I

remember in some of the original framework, there was 12 and a half percent. The mayor and council, the last body increased the requirement to 15%, but they would be bound by the new policy for 15%.

That's correct. Okay. Which would yield about 22 units. Okay. Thank you. And then it's my understanding that there'll be another mayor and council agenda item to talk about potential request on going

above 15%. I think the applicant has expressed a desire for that, which would come before mayor and council for discussion. We had a quick discussion on six month planning calendar. And it looked like

it's slated to come, which is not related to this. So I just want to note that will be a future discussion for us to have as a body. Uh, and at some point, I think this is a great project. I do think

as a city, as we're looking at this kind of an innovation robotic furniture, uh, it does mean that we might have to inspect differently because the nature of the furniture requires potential. What I

saw online that like something has to go up so you can have a living room and something has to come down so you can have a bed. But I'm, I'm assuming our team is up to the challenge and opportunity.

And that we'll be figuring that out later. That's correct. The applicant is coordinating with, um, our building code and fire and safety teams to understand what the requirements would be for convert

one, converting the building, but then also understanding what the operational and maintenance would be needed for that, that kind of robotic furniture. And I think those discussions are ongoing as we

go through the subsequent development review process, um, and, uh, building code, go through, go through, go through towards permitting for, for the building. Excellent. Thank you. I've got, uh, you

know, this is very interesting to me, so I'm excited to explore it. I just want to say thank you. I have other questions, but I want to allow my colleagues to answer. My one request will be with

staff. I know you're looking at that broader question that we asked, but also given that this is a newer team coming into the city that we try to be as, um, uh, detailed as possible in the process. So

everything is known up front because there's some things to consider. There might be different from other jurisdictions. I want to make sure this is smooth process going forward. And thank you. Mayor,

if I may add and respond to that last comment about safety because safety has been the number one issue for our company since it was founded back in 2015 out of MIT. And so one thing to be very clear

about this would be our first hotel conversion, but Ories and over 2000 apartments across the country. And so it is very institutional, uh, and adopted in the real estate industry at this point. And

there have been zero injuries and we take that very seriously. It's UL certified and in future presentations or meetings, we look forward to sharing and making sure the public, uh, you, and of course

the city staff, uh, as Richard shared will be fully up to speed and aware of our safety. I did watch one of your videos where you had a wine glass and it was not crushed by the bed coming down. It had

alerts and sensors. And I'm sure you've all tested for another discussion in the future, like the lifespan of these things and making sure there's quality housing going forward. Absolutely. They're

designed for over 20 years. Our current systems are lifecycle tested. They're going over 59 years at this point. Our CEO and founder, he actually put his one and a half year old child under the system

to demonstrate how safe he's comfortable shutting, shutting the bed or shutting the closet. So they are extremely safe. I don't recommend that better to do the glass, but I'm glad it's safe council

member Jackson. Uh, thank you mayor. Actually, uh, my colleagues, uh, covered a lot of ground. So, um, I just want to focus right now on, uh, how was notice given to the HOA and to residents? So the

applicant provided written notice, uh, within a defined, uh, border consists a boundary consistent with the zoning ordinance. I believe it was about 500 feet from the property to neighboring, um, uh,

to neighbor to neighbors. In addition to that, he provided a email notification to all the HOA's and civic associations for distribution to their members for both the planning commission and mayor and

city council hearings. And 500 feet. How does that compare to like neighboring at jurisdictions? I believe Gaithersburg is about 200 feet and, um, Montgomery County is, uh, adjacent and abutting. And

how long ago was it that, uh, you provide, well the city provided notice to the, uh, HOA in this case, uh, King farm citizens assembly. I believe both of them were in, in, um, in greater than the two

week notice requirement for, uh, per the ordinance. Yeah. And, and I just asked that because I was, um, I called in to, uh, a board meeting of the, uh, HOA King farm citizens assembly and, um, they

were talking about it. I believe it was about two months ago that I heard them talking about it. So there was ample, um, uh, I guess notice given to the, uh, HOA, but unfortunately it didn't really

make it out, uh, uh, further in the community. Um, but that said, um, and just to clarify, and I wouldn't know we said before, but just again, uh, if we were to vote to approve this request, uh,

tonight, um, there are additional opportunities to weigh in for residents who feel the need, uh, that they didn't get enough notice. So they would be able to weigh in. Um, I'm glad you asked that

question. Um, so the processes that were described by Richard, um, are in fact, um, mostly administrative. So with this approval, a change of use, uh, if it, and ultimately whether it's a site plan

review or a change of use, ultimately will depend on the design and as we're working with the applicant. Um, but either one of those is a, um, staff, um, administrative approval process. The public

can provide comments throughout the process to us and we would take those into account through the normal development review process, but there would not be another hearing based on how we've, uh, how

we're moving forward tonight. Hmm. So this is basically this public hearing would be the only, uh, opportunity for the public to make the comments in this form. Yes, sir. All right. That's, that's

interesting. Good. Good to know. Um, are we worried about if, uh, a possible hit to the city's tax revenue as whole tech hotel taxes and fees are a pretty valuable, uh, uh, tax. So, I mean, but

converting it's to, um, uh, apartment or a residence, um, we no longer have that revenue source. All right. Can you repeat the first portion of your, your question? I was discussing with the director.

Yeah, that's fine. Uh, are we worried about a potential hit to the city's, uh, uh, hotel tax revenues? I think there will be, uh, undoubtedly a reduction in the hotel taxes received with the reduction

of 143 hotel units, but the offsite, the offset would be 143 units, residential units that would be populated by residents that would be living in and spending money and dollars within the city. No,

no, and that's a, that's a good answer. And how many residents, how many residents, uh, do we anticipate this to bring? I believe it's about 361, uh, new residents or, or residents that would occupy,

um, uh, this, uh, this, this project. And I look at my questions and I think, uh, the mayor and others have asked them. So thank you. But I just want to focus on your, uh, robotic furniture system.

And if you will just expand on that a little bit because I'm really interested to hear about it. And I know members of the public probably would be, I don't want to take up too much time, but you need

to take a minute just telling us a little bit about it. Sure. I'd be happy to. So this actually started, I mentioned MIT back in 2015. Our founder was actually doing research. How do you deliver more

affordability through housing, specifically through smaller units? And everyone knows that's a way to deliver more affordability. The challenge is no one's to live in a shoebox. So how do you make a

smaller space more functional and more livable? The Murphy bed has been around for over a hundred years, but it's never changed. And the problem with it, it's cumbersome. It's not very convenient. It

works if you have a guest coming once a month, but you have to move the pillows. You have to tie down the sheets and the comforter. They said, what if you could just press a button and your bed would

move up in the ceiling? What if you could press a button and a wall move to open into a walk-in closet? And so those are the two primary systems that we use to create the systems that we're building

today with the Ori studio. And so that bed, when it raises up into the ceiling, has an integrated built-in couch underneath. So it's your living room when the bed is up and is your bedroom when the

bed is down. That movable wall, typically you think about a walk-in closet. If you have a two-bedroom, that's a luxury feature. To have that in the studio is pretty great, much less a smaller studio.

And so Ori, as I mentioned, has been in over 2,000 apartments across the country. Many of them, I would acknowledge, are very luxury, high-end apartments. Developers said, hey, this is great. Let me

build an A+ apartment, and I'm going to make it A++. But then as we saw the data across the units, the ones that actually did the best for the residents and for the owner were the ones that actually

designed smaller units. Instead of building your standard, larger, 550-square-foot unit, they said, what if they were built at 350-square-feet? Now for the residents, there's actually an example in

Alexandria, the Graystar built. It's called the Commodore. Their Ori units were 340-square-feet. This is a luxury building. The fastest units to lease up, the residents loved it. There were zero

concessions. They rented it three months faster than the rest of the building. And from the owner's standpoint, it was higher economics, because the rent per square foot was higher. As a win-win,

residents get much more affordable and attainable rent in a place and location they want. From the under standpoint, they get the higher economics and the higher return. That is how the company has

now transitioned from selling systems to developers and I joined the company a couple years ago to help transition and become a real estate company. While we will do ground-up development in the

future, hotel conversions are really the immediate opportunity because there are a lot of challenged hotels in our country. Particularly, the sub market is a perfect example. Since COVID, the demand

for hotels and business travel has fundamentally shifted with Zoom in a different in economics and many of those hotels now were oversaturated and so the economics that were there before, they no

longer produce the revenue for the hotel owners, they no longer provide the same hotel tax to the cities and municipalities and at the same time we have a massive need for housing and housing

particularly at attainable levels and so for us to be able to come in and convert these hotels to now housing that is well below what the existing Class A luxury stock is and so that's really our

business plan and thesis. How can we take an asset that is no longer highest and best use and then provide attainable affordable housing for the communities in which we build that. Thank you.

Councilman Basha. Thank you for that presentation and also answering the question about robotic furniture. I'm very interested in learning more about that. Could you share, so there's 143 units, could

you share how many bedrooms there are? Or the breakdown of the bedrooms? Yes, so these will all be studio apartments and so I've spoken to dozens of hotel converters across the country and many of

whom try to combine units to try to have a more larger units of two bedrooms, three bedrooms. The challenge is that's where your costs start to spiral and escalate because you don't know what you're

going to do fine when you get behind the walls and at the same time the revenue has a significant impact of decreasing the revenue for the projects. So generally people have tried either combined

units and the projects have not gone well or they stick with the existing unit layout and then they become Class C entry level housing which has a very important need but what Ori unlocks is the

ability to be a B+ product. It looks and feels luxury but at the same time can be attainable for a lower rent level and so that's really the thesis of what our system is able to do, make those studio

units feel like a one bedroom by having both that bedroom and the living room just not at the same time. I was looking at then the needs assessment, housing needs assessment and it did seem like the

majority of housing, new housing being built was actually for very, very high incomes and a lot of not really aligning with the current incomes of the people who are currently renting in Rockville so

I think this does provide some opportunity for folks that don't have families and so I was just wondering about the number of bedrooms and just to confirm you said it was at 60% AMI. So the target

rents that we're targeting generally equate to around at the max 63% AMI so generally we're targeting households and individuals or couples that are making between 60 and $85,000. It is generally the

range and so whether that's nurses, teachers, firefighters, entry level workers, graduate students. And then I also thank you so much and I also just wanted to thank the staff for a very detailed

economic impact statement. I think it's like a page long and it's that information is really helpful. Thank you. Thank you. Councillor Van Grack. So first and foremost, thank you for putting this

together. We always talk about the fact that we need innovative housing options and it's using a lot of what we already have and you're doing exactly that. So from the aspect of every one of the mayor

and council talking about affordable housing and increased housing, thanks for putting it together. I've got a lot of questions with regard to what you're kind of looking at, how you're looking to put

this together, but I know you haven't really done that yet because you're not at the application stage. We're just looking to transfer that. So presuming you come back here, I'll address those later

when we get into more detail, but I do have a question for staff because I know at this point what we really are considering is transferring these units to make residential units. So the questions

I've got is have we assessed what is going to be potential infrastructure changes or adjustments? Not just considering that we're increasing this into residential units, but now we're potentially

looking at a joint residential unit and hotel potentially in the same region. How have we assessed what the city might need to do or the applicant might need to do with the surrounding infrastructure?

Sure. So maybe just to clarify from the onset. So with the original plan development approvals, remember it was approved for 3200 and then with the allocation or approval by Mayor and Council up to

3600, the technical analyses and studies that were done at the time of approval contemplated the maximum build out of 3600. So this falls within that permitted maximum density across the entire PD.

The subsequent processes that we referenced throughout the presentation that the applicant will be subject to would require additional analysis either through the change of use process or the site

plan process to look at the direct impacts of the conversion, whether that be through water and sewer assessments, traffic, et cetera, impacts of schools. Some preliminary assessments that we're kind

of discussing with the applicant now has already shown that to convert from a hotel use to a residential use as discussed would show a net reduction in AM and PM trips as it relates to traffic and

transportation, as well as a net reduction in waste water flows based off of what the hotel water usage is compared to a residential use of what we're discussing. So initial kind of assessment and

analysis are showing reductions based on the conversion, but that would be looked at in greater detail as we go through the subsequent processes. As the applicant mentioned, these are contemplated to

be studio rentals, which generally doesn't support large families so that we can anticipate impacts of schools to be minimum because they would be expected that these units would not be supporting

like large families or families with, with, with a lot of children. Okay. So as I understand it, with regard to the macro issue we're facing now, which is transfer these units into the King farm plan

development, we've assessed that and the infrastructure will not adjust where we might need to see some infrastructure adjustments is in our next stages with regard to what the plans are. And that's

where we have to adjust whether the city or the applicant would need to adjust the infrastructure plans. Is that right? That's correct. If there are any adjustments that are needed, those will be part

of the conditions of approval for those processes. Excellent. Well, I know staff did a lot of work in it and the applicant did a lot of work with it. So thanks to both the staff and the applicant for

really putting it together, you know, in a, in a excellent format and addressing what we need to for just this first part was just transfer the units. Thank you. Thank you. Councilman Valeri. Yes.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. The voice of the voice of God. So because this was a planned development and because there were a certain number of units allocated that we're not looking necessarily

at huge infrastructure needs because this was a planned development. This is different than if we were looking at a, a non PD zoned area. So I'm, I'm less concerned about that. I want to get back to

the outreach piece though, because I want to make sure that folks have enough opportunity to weigh in. This, because this is an adaptive reuse, is that the threshold where it becomes administrative

and, and less the less hearings, i.e., did we approve this in the ZOR this new process or as part of the process? Sure, that is correct. That was part of the ZOR updates to streamline and make

development approvals a bit more efficient and administrative where possible. So there's a new process that came out of that, which is the change of use process. So this is, because this is a

conversion and it's changing the use from a hotel to a residential use, that is the initial step that we are engaging with the applicant now. Now, based off of the extent of the analysis and the

things that we're looking at, if that triggers a site plan, it would then come, come back to staff as a level one site plan. Prior to the ZOR, it would have come back as a level two site plan, which

would have went to planning commission and then back to the mayor and council. But in this case, it would be a level one site plan, which would then just be approved by, uh, administratively by staff.

Okay, thank you. That's what I had thought and that's what I believed. Um, but I just wanted to, to flag that and thank you. That's the extent of my questions. Thank you very much. I have a few, uh,

just a few questions left, uh, related to the change in the ZOR, which we actually also tried to expedite for affordable focused housing. Uh, it's my understanding that it's a potential that someone

can go from an 18 month plan to a six month plan. Is that still correct in this scenario? And this is a good test case to see how that works. I would presume so. Um, so, uh, if it's a change of use

application and, um, staff determines that the impacts are minimal and it kind of meets the thresholds, then it would, it's a fairly shorter, um, review process even beyond the 18 months or the, the

timeframe that you referenced. If it's a site plan application, I believe staff can review that, um, within that timeframe or even less. I think it'll be very helpful for mayor and council just to see

how it goes, uh, and really appreciate that response. We'd love to see how it works and what the reduction in time is in reality. Now I know that some of that is applicant dependent on when forms and

things are submitted and how well they're done, but I would love to see is what we changed working. Uh, and if there's anything we can learn from this process. Um, I, I did have a similar question on

instead of having these 11, 12 floating hotel units, could they be combined to have at least one bedroom? We have heard, uh, that there are families who are looking for affordability. So I, you know,

I just hope that's still on the table. My question is if they choose to do that, do the process, is there anything precluding them from doing that? Should they look into that approach of combining

those units? Yeah. The only thing precluding them from doing that is if they exceed the total amount of multifamily units per the PD, that would be the only thing precluding. And I know we're going to

try that another process on what the city can do as an applicant to allow more units. Okay. Perfect. But it might not happen in time for this quick process. Um, and then the average size of those

units are about 300 is what I heard. It's about 365 on average. The smallest units around 335 largest units are 375 square feet. Okay. And then I understood that there are 63% of AMI. I know my

colleagues have asked the same follow-up question and you said that was the income range of 60 to 85 K, but there would be also MPD use, which has a different income range, but it could go lower to

50, but also higher to more workforce. Is that true? That's a staff question. Or you guys will come back with that mix. We'll circle back on that. Okay. Thank you very much. All right. Uh, and then I

know this is going to be a streamlined administrative process, but if team, if members of the public do have questions for us, do you want them to email mayor and council or do you want them to email

development [email protected]? Development review is always better. Okay. So development [email protected] is the email to contact. If you have questions and that number is two four zero

three one four eight two eight eight two zero zero. And then just, I know that you're going to give them a holistic view on all the things. I believe this particular property is covered by a WSSC. Is

that correct? Or is that city water? I believe it's WSSC. Okay. So there are things that are beyond the city that I know they'll, they'll need to coordinate with city permits, fire, ADA, and I would

be remiss if I didn't say this. I know that you'll be reviewing to see what green upgrades might be needed for EV charging others that are part of our building code. Yeah. So we, we, I believe I

responded to that question earlier that we'd be looking at that with our building and fire safety folks as we're looking at improvements to the building. Thank you. And my last question is housing

first. Yes. But also we need to think about how do we help lift people up? And so I think as we expand affordable units, just thinking about the social service support needs to help, to help the

community members as well. So I just wanted to build that into, it's not just a permitting and planning. There's a DHED element of that. Thank you for bringing this project to the city of Rockville.

We look forward to hearing how it goes. We hope that it, the changes we made, uh, help it to be swift and responsible for our public, but also as painless as possible. Absolutely. Thank you so much.

And one thing I do want to add, uh, it sounds like notice may not have gone out to certain individuals. We absolutely sent it, uh, by the code to the postcards and then also the HOA. There was notice

for the planning commission. So perhaps people heard about it earlier from that. Um, I, I do want to say, even if it's not required, whether it's through the change of use application or otherwise,

uh, we'd be happy to do a presentation to the community, uh, and do want to volunteer time and effort, whether it's to the broader community, whether it's the mayor and council, of course, our

community meeting have been very closely with the staff. So I do want to put that forward. Are there model units, uh, that one can tour and visit some place in the region? There are some units in, in

DC, but they are fully occupied. I think mostly, uh, we do have a model unit in New York city. I personally live in Atlanta. We have a model unit in Atlanta, uh, but generally any, any property that

has or units, uh, you can schedule a tour, but because those were sold to third party developers, we don't own and control those units. I did troll, I did troll online to see some of the videos. So

thank you for posting that. And to that point, or a living or I living.com, uh, is where you can see images and understand more about our system. So thank you so much. Really appreciate it. Thank you.

Have a great evening. All right. So now we staff just want to turn it back to you. Is there anything else that you need to tell us before we move to action? Uh, nothing further. So, um, thank you for

the discussion. The opportunity to present tonight. So with that staff recommends that the mayor and council approve the allocation of the 143 units to the King farm plan development, including the

density shift of the 16 units of the Irving center office area. And the proposed motion is before you, uh, for consideration. Thank you. I saw two hands. So councilman bank rack, um, Madam mayor, I

moved to adopt a resolution to approve the allocation of 143 multifamily dwelling units. The existing Sheraton hotel at nine 20 King farm Boulevard, including the density shift of 16 units to the

Irving center office designated area within the King farm plan develop. Thank you. We have a second councilmember Larry. All right. All those in favor, please face your hand and say aye. Excellent.

And I know that we have an agenda, not specifically approval process, but something about, uh, the MPD use and trying to get more that will come to us at a later date in time. That's correct. Thank

you very much. Thank you. We are going to take a quick five minute break. We are team ahead of schedule. Let's keep it going and appreciate all of our staff for helping us to get through this agenda.

Good evening, Rockville. Welcome back. Today is still October 12th, 2026, and we're reconvening meeting 24 dash 26. We're now going to be moving on to our work session agenda item 12 a and the topic

today is accessory dwelling units and small scale developments. I'd like to welcome Jean Booth, the director of justice, equity, diversity and inclusion. Yes, we celebrate that here in the city of

Rockville as well as Evan Johnson, director of community planning and development services and Ryan Trout, director of housing and community development housing department. Welcome. Uh, thank you very

much. Good evening, madam mayor members of the council. Uh, as was mentioned, I'm Ryan Trout, director of the department of housing and community development. I'm joined this evening, uh, by Jean

Booth, the director of the office of Jedi justice, equity, diversity, inclusion, and Evan Johnson, the director of community planning and development services. Uh, tonight we will be, uh, speaking to

you, uh, about small scale development and, and ADUs. Uh, and we're looking at a multifaceted approach to, uh, to improve development outcomes of ADUs. Uh, so, uh, per usual, we're going to start with

our outline here. We're going to, uh, go over the requested feedback. We'll give you a little bit of background. We'll talk about pre-approved plans, ADU financing, uh, developer ecosystem, uh, some

next steps that staff would follow. And then we'll circle back to that requested feedback to get your input. So that requested feedback we'll be seeking at the, uh, end of the work session. Uh, uh, it

comes in, in kind of each of those buckets regarding pre-approved plans. We'd like to know, do the mayor and council support exploring pre-approved ADU and small scale infill building plan concept? Do

the mayor and council support a pilot ADU financing program, which would be funded through a portion of the housing opportunity fund? And then do the mayor and council support engaging local and

regional partners to host a small scale development training program? Uh, for a little bit of background, uh, housing is one of the five central focus areas, uh, of the mayor and council. Uh,

previously the mayor and council approved two zoning text amendments allowing accessory dwelling units in single family neighborhoods consistent with the Rockville 2040 comprehensive plan. Uh, uh, a

multi-departmental, uh, a multi-partner team, uh, participated in a government alliance for racial equity, uh, cohort, uh, focused on economic mobility where these concepts, uh, were kind of delved

into and have grown out of. Uh, we engaged a graduate student from the universe, uh, from Duke University, uh, to help us with some additional research. Uh, and then staff conducted some aligning, um,

research as well. I think it's important to note that this work session is to provide a framework for a multifaceted program designed to increase ADU production by providing incentives intended to

reduce development costs and provide support to navigate the process. Many of these proposed elements aligned very closely with the recommendations included in the county's office of legislative

oversight report intended to improve equity outcomes. And with that, I'm going to pass it over to Jean. Thank you, Ryan. Can you hear me okay? We can, uh, keep the mic close. I'll keep it close. Thank

you. All right. So I'm here to speak to you specifically about the city's participation in the GARE cohort project. GARE stands for the Government Alliance on Race and Equity, which was founded in

2017 and is now anchored in, uh, race forward starting in 2017. Excuse me. So this national network of governments has been committed to racial equity, but we joined this specific cohort, um, in the

early 2025. Excuse me. Mic please. Goodness. Apologies. I'll start again. So the city engaged in this cohort in early of 2025 and the cohort ended in February of 2026. And during that process, we

worked with, um, regional jurisdictions and we focused on, uh, the framework that is developed by the Urban Institute and there will be a slide on talking a little bit more about that framework, um,

in just a moment. We'll just go ahead. Okay. So again, as I mentioned, in spring of 2025 staff joined this nine month cohort, which concluded in February, there was an inter departmental team from the

city of Rockville, multidisciplinary inter departmental community planning and development staff were there, housing and community development staff were there, communications and community engagement

staff were there. I was there representing Jedi. We had folks from recreation and parks as well as the department of public works. We also had nonprofit partners. One of the few jurisdictions that

included their nonprofit partners. Um, in this particular cohort, we had folks from ready as well as nonprofit Montgomery represented in the development of this, this project. Um, we selected a small

scale development program using ADUs and future residential infill housing as our project. Um, that included duplexes, triplexes, quads, um, and, and more to build wealth and expand housing options

for the city. We applied the Urban Institute's upward mobility framework, uh, to design this local project and that was geared towards advancing upward mobility. So this next slide shows you the

different pillars that in this framework, the Urban Institute's upward mobility framework. Um, we acknowledge though that the, there are existing racial disparities between neighborhoods and that

ultimately is a long term, uh, target for our intervention. We recognize that addressing and mitigating those very real conditions will require a multi-system approach to shift the systemic realities

that perpetuate those outcomes. We're familiar with the work of the county, our, uh, racial equity and social justice office, and we're elevating economic mobility specifically in this, with this

project and not singularly, but specifically we, we were hoping to address that. Uh, the Urban Institute's upward mobility framework that you see on the screen defines upward mobility through three

dimensions. They're focused on economic success, power and autonomy, and dignity and belonging. So the goal is to help governments, nonprofits and community coalitions understand and strengthen the

conditions that shape long-term economic and social mobility. As Ryan mentioned, we also worked with a graduate student with the, in the public policy master's program from Duke University, um, and

that particular person developed a capstone report and a companion implementation guidebook that was attached, uh, in the, um, in the registrar's system. The research organized its finding into six

different elements that focused on what is necessary for building a supportive incremental developmental ecosystem, and you'll see those, uh, those, um, components bulleted in the box to the right.

The, okay, we can move on. Staff additionally did additional research, independent research into pre-approved planning regimes, ADU financing models, small-scale, small-scale development ecosystems

and programs in other jurisdictions, including, um, Los Angeles, Portland, Seattle, Montgomery County's ADU zoning, uh, changes, as well as, um, most recently the city of Napa and Napa County as well,

and I am going to now shift and pass it on to Evan. Thank you, Jean. Um, my job here tonight is to give you a little bit of context on the story of how we've gone about changing our code over the last

few years to allow more ADUs within the community to make it easier to, um, build an ADU, um, as well as talk a little bit about, uh, pre-approved, uh, building plans as well. Um, there we go. So

first, uh, we'll just talk a little bit about the Maryland context. Um, as you all, um, are aware, um, House Bill 1466 was passed in 2025, and we just passed a major deadline for that particular

legislation, which was October 1, 2026, and that was the required, uh, deadline for having, um, changes to your zoning code to permit ADUs on land with existing residential single-family detached

units. Um, the legislation itself, um, well, first of all, I am happy to report that we have met that, uh, requirement by several months. Um, the legislation it's over a year, right? Um, the

legislation also defines, um, what ADUs are, um, talks about not creating unreasonable barriers to ADU creation. Um, so that kind of is, that, that sets the stage for ADU development in the state of

Maryland now. Um, pre-approved building plans are permitted within the state. Um, there aren't, I am not aware of any examples at this moment where they are being utilized. Um, however, um, there is

nothing, um, prohibiting them with the exception of making sure that you are consistent and, uh, up to standards for the building code. Um, so ultimately there is a lot of local flexibility and if,

and how those, uh, pre-approved plans are developed. Excellent. So just to give a little history lesson, um, to talk a little bit about, for the public here to talk a little bit about the, uh, changes

that have happened over the years as it relates to our zoning code and accessory dwelling units. Um, first prior to, prior to 2024, all the way going, all the way back to 1990, we permitted what were

called accessory apartments. They had to be attached. So essentially they were attached ADUs. Um, they were approved by special exception process. Um, after legislation passed in, um, and I want to

point out that I've got the dates right here. Uh, we have, uh, the first one here, we have permitted attached ADUs that was passed October 9th, 2023, and it became effective in 2024, um, April 9th.

And the next legislation, uh, permitted detached ADUs. That means freestanding buildings. Uh, that was September 16th, 2024 and became effective January 1st, 2025. We can go to the next one, but that

wasn't all. Um, essentially we then went through the process of updating the entire zoning ordinance. And I think a big theme as you all know, was about how do we create opportunities for more

housing, different types of housing throughout the city of Rockville. So, um, our ZOR that has been approved as of June of this year and effective August 1, uh, we allow ADUs in all residential and

mixed use zones. Um, so that is a significant, um, majority of the city of Rockville. We don't have any parking requirements. Um, and we've removed any conditional use requirements. So essentially

what we've done through the ZOR is to make these, uh, by right uses if you are in a single family, um, a detached home. Um, we've also, the last bullet there, we ensured consistency with state law

changes. Um, and so the timing worked out really well where we baked those into the ZOR update. Um, and that included, uh, increasing max unit size up to 75% of the main dwelling size and eliminating

locked coverage requirements. Um, now from 1990 to 2024, we have 28 accessory apartments approved in the city of Rockville 2024 to 2026. In the last couple of years, so far we have approved 10 ADUs,

um, under a greatly evolved process, um, which has only gotten easier and easier. So I look forward to coming back and reporting further progress on that particular number. So we allow ADUs throughout

the city. We have become very flexible with where we allow them and how we permit them. Um, now they are very expensive, right? They're expensive to build. And I think that's going to kind of go into

the second half of our presentation. Um, construction is expensive. And one of the ways that a lot of local communities around the country have tried to address this is, um, to fill us a, to, to use

pre-approved development plans or to create them or to have them created for the purposes of creating basically development templates for accessory dwelling units. And many of the example

jurisdictions also will create single family home examples. They may create townhome examples. Um, really it is up to the local government and there is a wide variety of different ways in which

they've, um, been solved. The problem has been solved. Um, I will say that the recently passed 21st century road to housing act, um, does authorize HUD to, uh, create grants to help local communities

create these pre-approved plans. Um, I am not aware at this time, I do not believe any of that money has become available. Um, we don't worry. We're keeping an eye out for it. Um, but that is

something to look forward to in the coming months. I won't go into a lot of detail here. Um, with these particular examples, these were taken from the, uh, students, um, research report, the Duke

graduate student, um, who had, uh, provided reports on small scale and ADU development. Um, really main point I'd want to make is each one of these, which have very well-known programs that have been

around for a while, they're all different and they're different in the way in which they are implemented. They are different in the types of units that they have made available. Um, and some, uh, um,

some make it extremely push button easy, um, website design. You can go in, um, I believe it's Kalamazoo has pro forma, uh, so you can actually see how much development it's going to cost to get a

sense of that before you get into the weeds with getting through permitting and all of that. So there's lots of great examples and great tools out there. Um, I think, um, our challenge, if we were to

move forward with a program like this is really figuring out the right fit for the city of Rockville, our zoning code, our development community, um, and how we do our permitting processes here. So to

that point, the key process objectives. Um, so first step is establishing an internal CPDS group. Um, that's all the folks involved with the planning permitting, all the folks involved with building

and fire, uh, to make sure that we have a sense of, um, start to air out what, what are the issues concerns that we need to address early on in, in any type of development of a, of a program. Um, and

that group, um, is really going to continue as we move forward with any changes or recommendations about whether or not to, um, move forward with pre-approved building plans. Um, we want to develop,

determine what development types, as I mentioned, there can be a great variety of development types that are permitted by these processes. Um, and ultimately that may depend on resources that may

depend on approach. Um, there are private vendors. Um, but again, I think ultimately we want to make sure that whatever we pick is right for, uh, the Rockville zoning code and the Rockville

regulations. Um, only others, uh, thing I wanted to mention here is that ultimately, um, we're going to have to go through the process of figuring out the best way to obtain the plans, get what we

want out of, um, the designers and then ultimately get through and approve them. And then in addition, one last thing that will always, um, that is always a part of the implementation is how do we

license them or how are they licensed? Because each jurisdiction has a slightly different legal framework, which is something that we'll have to work through, um, as well. That's the last slide. And

now I'm going to hand it over to Ryan to talk a little bit more about the finance side. All right. So, uh, as Evan mentioned, one of the barriers to, uh, the development of ADUs is their cost. Uh, uh,

so a lot of times you might hear that, uh, ADUs are a nice, uh, affordable housing option, but many times they can run 150, 200, $250,000 plus. All right. So how do we find a way to help bring down

those construction costs to make these more accessible to more, more homes, uh, across the city? So financing, uh, is identified as one of those persistent barriers to ADU construction. Uh, a lot of

times traditional lenders are reluctant to finance them. This is because they're perceived as, uh, either they're unfamiliar with them. They might be perceived as higher risk, uh, or too small to

justify the underwriting costs. Uh, this can result in these units being undervalued, uh, limiting a homeowner's ability to refinance or borrow against equity, uh, or secure the construction loan in

the first place. Appraisers frequently lack comparable sales data, right? There, if there's only, uh, a handful across the city, it can be hard then to, to appraise them properly. Uh, and then, uh, as

was discussed, sometimes the, the, uh, upfront permitting or design costs can compound that problem disproportionately burdening small scale developers, right? And so that's where this kind of

multifaceted approach comes, comes into play. Um, but even when an ADU pencils out for a homeowner, um, at market rent, the economics rarely work if the homeowner also commits to renting them below

market. And so we wanted to, to try to think about what we might be able to do, uh, to, to assist homeowners. So, um, uh, staff, uh, has done some of this already and we'll continue, uh, to look at

established capital subsidy models, um, uh, and, and would like to pursue a pilot ADU financing program. Um, these include places like Santa Cruz, uh, Los Angeles, Long Beach, uh, as you can see,

California has, it has a pretty robust, uh, ADU, uh, history. They, the, the state there has really committed to the development of ADUs. And so there's a lot of different models that we can, can pull

from, uh, to kind of learn what's working, what's not working, how are they targeting certain populations versus, uh, versus other incomes. Uh, and then, uh, also Massachusetts, uh, has a new

statewide ADU construction loan product, uh, that staff will explore. Uh, but this won't just be looking at what other jurisdictions are doing. Um, as Evan was talking about really bringing it back to

Rockville and understanding how it's going to work in our market requires us to engage with regional and local partners to help design and administer the pilot, engaging with local banks, uh, our

community development finance institutions, uh, as well as our COG partners who, uh, with this new state law, a lot of other jurisdictions are exploring these types of, of programs. And so engaging

with them and learning what they're doing can help inform our work. So, uh, as was mentioned, the, the solution to that challenge that, uh, staff is proposing is to develop a pilot ADU financing

program, drawing on models, uh, from other jurisdictions, as well as our local partners to help lower upfront cost. Uh, and that can be the predictable planning and design phase, uh, supporting gap

financing with capital subsidy, uh, and then looking at, uh, uh, affordability covenants and control periods, uh, along with that. So assessing how that's going to affect the home owner's ability to

rent the units. How long can we reasonably, uh, expect them to keep it as an affordable unit? Uh, and then also looking at small ongoing cost reductions, um, that particularly those homeowners who are

agreeing to rent them at a reduced cost means that we've lowered their, their, uh, net operating income. And so what are some small things we might be able to do to help boost that up to make this

attractive, both for the homeowner to rent them affordably so that way we can, uh, have additional affordable units across the city. So, um, together these tools attack both the upfront cost barrier

and the ongoing cashflow challenges of operating an affordable ADU. Next, going to shift gears and talk then about the broader small scale developer ecosystem. Uh, so zoning reform, um, is very

helpful. Uh, having pre-approved plans, having, uh, financing tools can really help move the needle on ADU development. Um, but it won't, it's not the only thing that, or that alone won't produce

housing. It needs to be paired with people who have the skills, uh, the understanding of the financing systems and the confidence to actually build them. So, um, a network of trained local builders,

informed homeowners, engaged lenders, and supportive city staff, uh, can really help turn that capacity into built units. So small scale local developers can, can keep the wealth here, right? Instead

of an extractive model where outside developers come in and build ADUs and then take that income outside, we can work to try to train folks within our community to build these ADUs and then that, that

money will stay in our community. Uh, and it will also help keep decision-making within the community. So building this ecosystem is a complement to the pre-approved plans and the ADU financing pilot.

Some best practices, uh, around building these, right, like most things, aligning city departments, making sure that we're talking to one another. I think right now is a great example of that. We're

all up here today, uh, presenting this to you, uh, but also, uh, designating a central point of contact for, uh, for new developers who are, are getting into this, who, um, um, maybe a neighborhood

developer who is doing their first project, um, having somebody on city staff to help them, to walk them through the process, investing in training, uh, not just the permitting side. So South Bend is

a great example. They were mentioned earlier in the presentation as, uh, uh, a community that has pre-approved plans. They also have really invested in this, this small scale developer ecosystem. Uh,

so each month, uh, 10 to 15 small scale developers, city officials, contractors, and bankers meet, uh, to share their capacity to help educate one another. I might have worked with a really good

lender and so I'm going to tell Gene about them and connect them at the monthly meeting. So then Gene's project in her neighborhoods can get off the ground, uh, and it also helps develop these

relationships over time. This also, uh, can teach homeowners and aspiring small scale developers the fundamentals of incremental community scaled real estate development. And when paired with

training, uh, and, and real support, emerging developers aren't left to navigate this process alone. So staff is, uh, proposing to engage regional and local partners to host a small scale, uh, or

incremental development training in Rockville or the surrounding region. Uh, the goal would be to seed a pipeline of trained local small scale developers and connect them directly with city staff,

lenders, and each other. Uh, it would help support the housing production goals while creating a genuine local economic development pipeline. Uh, and also by using a regional approach, um, potentially

bringing in an outside vendor for that small scale incremental development training. It can help spread the costs across multiple jurisdictions, but also allow us to hit kind of a capacity of folks

to, uh, to be in the cohort to receive the training, um, and also extend their capacity to be able to do projects in, in other jurisdictions that are nearby. And so some of the next steps, uh, are

related to all of these, uh, the things you've heard this evening, uh, would be to develop in pilot a pre-approved plan model aligned with code and process requirements, develop an ADU financing pilot

program, engage local and regional partners to host a small scale developer training, utilize the Rockville website and communication tools to provide updates to the community and conduct outreach for

the training and new tools for ADU builders, right? Really make sure reaching out to the community, uh, to encourage folks to attend those, uh, that training or bootcamp. And then, uh, if the mayor

and council support, uh, whoop, these are our next steps. So we're going to go back to our requested feedback. All right. So again, uh, what we're seeking feedback on this evening is, uh, whether the

mayor and council support exploring a pre-approved ADU building plan concept, uh, support a pilot ADU financing program, uh, and support engaging local and regional partners to host a small scale

development training program. Thank you. Thank you so much for the thorough presentation. I, uh, was complimenting our city manager because I really appreciate the way the three of you have come

together across planning, housing, community development and looking at it from an equity perspective. Uh, we heard earlier some innovative approaches to affordable housing and it's nice to see some

innovative models being proposed here. Uh, and I know this body has talked before about the importance of ADUs as, as one of the many tools. Um, and I know I have seen many families who were exploring

this. People, parents with, uh, children with disabilities who want to be able to live, uh, independently but close by, uh, seniors who we've been seeing seniors who are either wanting to live in the

main home and allow their children to come back and live or seniors who want to live in the ADU and rent out or have their family be in the primary home. Um, I wanted to, and then young professionals

as well, I wanted to just make sure I clarify, uh, two things. One is, uh, you talked about the state law up front and there are a number of things that were very clearly outlined. One thing that I

have, I think not a lot of people know, and I wanted to just clarify up front is, uh, that HB 1466, which was effective October 1, 2025 also prohibited HOA's from stopping a qualified homeowner from

being able to build or rent an ADU. Uh, so I think it's important to say because we do have a number of HOA's in the city of Rockville and previously, uh, under our rules in the city of Rockville,

HOA's could ban, uh, ADU's but now because of state law they can't. And it's not that we were saying that it was just, we don't, they, the state has that enabling authority to make that happen. So I

just want to make sure that is clear. And then my last thing is, um, just before we get started on questions, uh, the, the item number three, I remember when we approved the ADU's detached ADU's as

this current body, uh, one of the things we all, a majority call for was a technical assistance program. So is the feedback you're requesting specifically on, as we go through our conversation, the

unique mix of this type of technical assistance? Cause I think we heard general positive feedback about technical assistance. Is there a cost tied to it? Is, what exactly do you want us to provide

input on? Yeah. So what's being proposed tonight is, um, to, uh, look at the landscape, uh, around the country and bring in a, uh, a third-party technical assistance that are experts in small scale

developer training, uh, and that, that may incur a cost to the city, but that we'd also look for, um, support from the mayor and council to engage our regional partners to spread that cost, um, across

multiple jurisdictions. Okay. Thank you for the clarification. I'm going to ask folks in IT, can we make sure everyone else is muted online? We're hearing some feedback. Uh, thank you for that. Uh,

with that, we're going to move to mayor and council questions. I'm going to start on this side of the dais. Councilman Van Grack. Uh, thank you. And, uh, just as the mayor said, thank you to staff. I

know this cross cuts a number of, uh, priorities that the mayor and council had. And I know that you guys have put a tremendous amount of work in putting all this together, which tracks exactly what

we've asked you to do. So that extreme thank you to all the staff involved. So, um, a couple of kind of preliminary questions as we go through this. I know we've talked about, and I saw that we've got

10 ADUs that have been built. Have we also assessed, number one, if there, um, how many applications that have went forward and hasn't transpired. Um, and I guess along those lines, have we heard from

what are the obstacles that people are here? It relating to us is the problem why it might not be more than 10. I would first want to clarify that it is not 10 built. It is, um, 10 total have been in

the hopper since the code was adopted in 2024. And, but well, since it became effective in 2024 and of those, I believe it is three were existing units that were, um, going through the conditional use

process in order to become grandfathered. So they didn't quite fit in the accessory apartment. They didn't, you know, so we offered them an opportunity to move in and become official if you will. And

then there are seven of which, uh, seven new ones of which four, uh, have received their building permits of which one has received, uh, at least some inspections. But as my knowledge, uh, a couple of

weeks ago, there are known that have actually received a certificate of occupancy under the new code. With that being said, I would say that I think the challenges with ADU development first and

foremost is any challenges you have with the, with the permitting process, with the working with an architect, with going through the building permit process, all of that, those are going to be

challenges that you face, whether you're building ADU or some other development, right? So I think the good news is, is that those additional improvements that we've been making for fast and all of

that in our processes, hopefully we'll speed a lot of those processes up. But one of the reasons why I think pre-approved plans are attractive is because they take some of that out, um, at the, uh, as

part of the review process. From what I see and for what you're saying, uh, number one seems, uh, like absolutely. I mean, having that pre-approved process, it makes all the sense in the world because

just as you're saying, these generally people who are applying are not ones who are very familiar with our regulatory process. Do I have that right? So that makes a lot of sense. Um, one question I

did have with regard to kind of the developer ecosystem that we're talking about with the, um, small scale development, obviously this is a, and I think you're using the right word, ecosystem

potential change. Because if we do this right, we literally could see city-wide, um, um, essentially, um, small scale development involved throughout. Have we talked about, and I know there was

discussions about talking with a number of organizations, have we talked about, um, some of the financial constraints and organizational constraints of merging with either the Chamber of Commerce or

ready? Because it seems to me like they would have as equal vested interests as we do, of seeing this type of, um, um, training and ecosystem increase. So I'll take that one. I do think that the

ecosystem, we'd like to open that up to as many people as possible. I agree through whether it's ready, the Chamber, the County, maybe an adjacent jurisdiction. We're not aware of anybody in the

region that's really doing extremely well getting ADUs to come out. So if we go out and say, look, we want to create this ecosystem, we want to have people come in and provide lecture on how to get

this launched. And most importantly to spend, I mean, it could be $100,000 to develop these pre-approved plans. I bet you'll get a lot of people sign up for it and share the cost. Excellent. That's,

we're thinking the same thing. Great minds think alike. Um, so, um, kind of reversing back to the ADU financing. So one of the concerns that I have is we've obviously got a lot of housing, um,

opportunity fund needs throughout the city. You've heard us talk about all the different avenues. How do you see this? And if we're going to put the funding in to be potentially more advantageous than

some of the other traditional uses of the housing opportunity funds in getting people into affordable housing in the, in the, in the city. So I think, uh, part of what we would like to do is really

explore, um, different facets of that financing piece, right? So we talked about the upfront piece. We talked about the gap financing. Uh, the gap financing would be, um, like a low dollar amount

compared to our support for these larger development projects, obviously. So it'd be a lower dollar investment, uh, and then they would be tied to some, um, period of time covenant that the property

or the unit would need to remain affordable. Um, the, uh, I think exploring that, really looking at that cost structure for the city, uh, but then also using it as a pilot to say like, you know, is

this attractive? Does this really move the needle on increasing us from, from 10 to 15 or 20, uh, ADUs across the city? And then can we build on that success or do we need to take a step back and say,

okay, well this financial structure isn't working. How can we pivot and potentially do something different that will attract people differently? And it sounds like you've, um, addressed some of my

other concerns, which is if we're going to do this, um, you're talking about putting specific regimented conditions on whatever use is done with that with a potential clawback if the conditions aren't

met. Correct. All right. Um, so I know you have feedback, um, you've answered just about everything that I've, uh, that I had in my questions. As I said before with the pre-approved plans, it

absolutely makes all the sense in the world with regard to a developer ecosystem, obviously, depending on how it's put forward, that training I think would be helpful with regard to the financing and

the housing opportunity fund. I do have some concern just because of the priority of use of the funding, but I know I've talked to the mayor and I know the mayor has done a fantastic job of kind of

pushing this initiative, which is something that I'd like to see. Um, I also want to see what type of parameters we're putting down and what that cost to the city would be. Like I said, we've all

talked about significant demands on the housing opportunities funds because there is needs. If this can fit into that in a reasonable, not necessarily grant program, but some type of, whether it's gap

financing or some other avenue, I'd definitely like to see it because I think it sounds like just as you were talking about a pilot program makes sense, but I'm cautious about doing so as the demands

on the housing opportunity funds are pretty significant now and might even get more. So thank you so much for staff. Thank you. Council, Michelle. I want to echo my colleagues and thank you. Uh,

there's a lot of work put into this and this covers a lot of different areas. Um, so my initial questions are around the racial equity piece and then, um, I'll get to more of the ADUs. Um, so just in

general, um, the, the GARE program in 2018, I actually was there representing Montgomery County and I know, I know that program very, very well. And the three things that come out of that program is

one, making sure that you are very intentional and focusing on racial equity and racial equity forward that focuses on race first, um, because that's where they're finding the most inequities, even

across all different demographic areas, um, to, uh, making sure that you are getting direct input from the community that's most impacted. So under a GARE cohort, I would think that would be black and

brown working class people if it's under upward mobility, which was the point of, or the purpose of that cohort. Um, and then lastly, uh, making sure that you are figuring out who is most, who is

directly benefiting from this and who is directly being burdened. Um, and so I am struggling a little bit, uh, knowing that ADUs and there was a recent racial equity and social justice impact

statement from Montgomery County that came out in May, 2026. And it like just a few months ago, and it was sharing that, um, uh, ADUs, um, trying to find it, give me one second here. ADUs, um, so they

found that ADUs negatively have a negative impact on racial equity. Um, and ADUs quote, can perpetuate, can perpetuate pre-existing racial inequities in, in housing policy. Um, and this is basically

because ADU policies mostly benefit wealthier, often white homeowners, um, in affluent neighborhoods. Uh, you usually have to have larger lots, which means larger homes, which means you have to be

homeowners. There's a smaller percentage of black and brown homeowners, particularly working class homeowners. So all of these things kind of pile into, um, ADUs in general, um, don't necessarily

advance equity. I will say just to be clear, I strongly, strongly support the building of AD, ADUs. We need different types of housing. My question and concern is more around this being a racial

equity project. And, uh, my first question is what racial equity assessment or analysis did you do under the GARE cohort, being a GARE cohort project, uh, that led to deciding to focus on ADUs rather

than something like, um, in upward mobility, guaranteed income, tenant protections, workforce development, co-ops, all of these things that are more of a bottom up kind of economic development

approach. Why ADUs when historically they, they actually don't advance equity. They need to be built and I'm supportive of this project, but I'm just questioning why it's under racial equity when

there are so many other things. I will also say too, um, in, in just engagement with our working class neighborhoods, black and brown folks, I have never heard anyone say that they're, they are

struggling with not building an ADU. And so I just, uh, want to understand why, uh, under the GARE cohort, cohort, which I, I greatly respect, um, why this project was selected for that. So council

member, let me take a stab at that. Um, and I'll just see if my colleagues have anything to add. Um, boy, I hate giving this answer, but it's just some truth to it. Um, when the decision was made to,

to go and look at ADUs as part of the GARE initiative, none of the folks sitting up here, including me, were part of the team back then. So again, not passing the bocker saying it was a bad decision,

but that decision was made and we inherited it. At the same time, um, as we went through developing the 40 strategies for increasing affordable housing, this body said, ADUs, let's not forget about

it. We took our first couple steps but How can we move forward with it more specifically? Then going back to your really well-made statement about the county's assessment of this, we agree with you.

We looked at the county's assessment in some detail and agreed that there were some disparities. What we're asking for in the feedback tonight is our approach to saying, "Look, we can make this better

for people of varying different income levels of all races in the city by approving pre-approved plans by having financing programs through a pilot project and also creating an ecosystem so people

that may be disadvantaged have a greater opportunity to either build an ADU or more importantly be using an ADU as an affordable housing unit." If you want us to give a lot more detail on an equity

assessment after this, after we receive feedback from this evening, we're happy to this. I'm going to see if my colleagues have anything to add. Just to clarify my question, I appreciate that answer.

I don't think my question was answered so I just want to clarify my question. I think this is a great program for ADUs and I support this generally. I have a few tweaks that I can talk about later,

but my question is why was an ADU project selected to advance equity under the GARE cohort? This project could have happened under a different type of program, but why under GARE, a GARE cohort which

is specific to advancing equity? At the point at which I joined this project, the folks from GARE and COG were specifically elevating economic justice, socioeconomic justice. The tools that they had

us looking through this model, it had a term, I'm sorry, it's scaping me right now. All of those were focusing on economics as opposed to racial equity. I do agree with you that historically these

projects have focused and elevated racial equity. This particular cohort was elevating socioeconomic justice as a focus. Even elevating economic justice in Rockville means we're elevating black and

brown people. We're doing the same thing, but the people who have the means to actually own a home, own a home in a larger lot, have the ability to even think about building an ADU. Meanwhile, 50% of

our population are tenants, 50% of them are cost burdened, 48% of our tenants have lived in their home for less than a year. There's a lot of people struggling, and so when we talk about people that

are 80% AMI or less, was there any community input done, or sorry, any community engagement to get input from folks that are 80% AMI or less? I mean, are they talking about needing an ADU? Not that

I'm aware of. During our GARE project, as was reflected in the presentation, it was a multi-departmental approach using the Urban Institute's upward mobility framework. We engaged those non-profit

partners in hopes of getting an outside perspective for staff to help us develop these programs and these designs, using then the GARE modules. These are monthly meetings where we're working on a very

specific part to help design a program. Then the intention is, as we go to design these specific parts, to go and get that input from the community to make sure that we're designing it in a way that

it meets their needs and reflects their needs and interest in the programs. And when we say from the community, just to be specific and just to, based on GARE training, to be specific, when we're

saying the community, we're talking about homeowners that are able to build an ADU or considering an ADU, or even have the ability to build an ADU. Or are we? Yeah, I think we'd be looking at a kind

of a multi-pronged approach, right? So there's the first component is those interested in learning to become a small-scale developer, to gain those skills. There's then access, folks who have the

zoning and the allowance to be able to build ADUs on their properties, no matter what part of the city that they're in. And then also, once ADUs are being built, also making sure that we're providing

those that have financing kind of connective tissue to tenants who are looking for affordable units. And ADUs, just in general, do not produce a lot of housing, correct? I think the approach here is

that it would be incremental, right? And so the idea, ADUs both in the pre-approved plan component, along with ZOR allowing different typologies, particularly in some areas of the city where you can

potential for conversion of a single family to a duplex or a triplex, that ADUs would be the first element that we could explore for small-scale development training. But then also those developers

that build ADUs may then look to tackle a larger project in the future, like a conversion of a single family home into other typologies. And the idea would be to incrementally grow without having the

same level of impact or burden on our infrastructure on the school system and other mechanisms. And just to be clear, because we passed this law, this is a state law, we have to do ADUs, which is a

really great thing because we want to do ADUs. And so finding ways to mitigate the disparities is what I'm seeing. But I only have a concern that this is under an economic justice, a GARE project that

is very specific to advancing racial equity and economic equity, which in Rockville means black and brown people, right? Like, I just want to be clear about that. So that's my only issue. And I think

that there should be some greater opportunity to look at some other projects down the line that directly advance racial and economic equity. So those that are primarily benefiting, going back to GARE

training, those who are primarily benefiting from this project are going to be developers and homeowners that have larger lots. And so I'm not sure if this necessarily equates to, like, economic

justice in a lot of ways in comparison of what is needed, even for housing, even for renters. And I know that we are part of this, part of the hub funding. So I like that we are providing a lot of

support for folks that want to build an ADU to help them with cost. But can you talk more about the requirement around affordable rent? Because I know we oftentimes use the word affordable and that

can mean different things. Are you talking more about, like, MPDU affordable or just in general? So at this time, the pilot financing hasn't been developed. We look at different thresholds of

affordability to try to correlate kind of the loss in the net operating income from what an ADU could be rented at versus where we would like to pin the affordability and then try to structure that

gap financing to help cover some of those losses in order to make it attractive for the homeowner to then agree to the long term covenant. And I think what I would like to see, like, going back to the

economic justice piece, a lot of the housing that is being built or created is not generally for does not address the needs. And we saw that in our needs assessment. And so looking at the income

levels that actually need housing and tailoring it to that, because if we're going to give city and taxpayer money to developers and to homeowners, I think that we should be able to have truly or

deeply affordable rent. And just one more question to confirm. So with this process, staff didn't speak. Did you reach out to any renters or anything renters or not that I'm aware of? Okay. And then

also, is there any kind of like demographic data that was used, like geographic data for the current ADUs or or any income information used, you know, especially since this is an economic justice

project? Was there any and based on GARE training, was any of the data disaggregated by income that you have? Yes. And we can send that all to you. Manisha from CPDS helped build out some of the maps

so we could look at different disparities across the city. We also used the opportunity Atlas to look at different areas and to kind of build out that system. But we'd be happy to send that

information to you all. Okay. And so just to share my feedback, I absolutely agree with the pre-approved plans. I want to do more of that. For the ADU financing, I want to understand more about the

requirement for affordable housing and which incomes we are targeting and how many people will be impacted by that. And then I also agree with the developer ecosystem. Thank you. Councillor Jackson.

Thank you, Mayor. And let me just say I really appreciate Councilmember Shaw's comments and her thoughtful questions. And I agree totally with what she had to say. And I just want to thank the staff

as well. You know, it's a cross-functional undertaking. And you guys really did put some thought into it and have a coordinated plan going forward. And I know that ADUs are just a part of everything

we're trying to do on the housing front to meet our goal, which is to provide all types of housing in the city of Rockville so that people can actually move here, grow here, thrive here, and make the

choices that they want to make. So thank you for doing that. I'll be brief on the requested feedback. I really do support the pre-approved plans. I think that the way to go, I think that, as has been

mentioned before, oftentimes the people that are going to be building ADUs don't really have the expertise and time to actually hire people to do that work. And to have the pre-approved plans, I

think, makes it a lot easier and is something that we really do need to have. The ADU financing through the Housing Opportunities Fund. I agree with my colleagues. You've heard it all before, so I

won't belabor the point. But I just worry about the Housing Opportunities Fund and all we're trying to do. And if there's enough money in it to actually fund everything that we are trying to do with

the Housing Opportunities Fund. So maybe that's a discussion for another day. We should discuss, you know, the Housing Opportunities Fund and how much funds are in it and if it's enough or if we need

to increase it. But that's another discussion for another day and there's all sorts of complications there. And then the developer ecosystem, yes, I fully support that. I think it's a great idea, just

like what we have with the nonprofits where we've brought them together with the symposium and the cafes. I think that's doing a great job. I think it's doing exactly what we intended it to do,

bringing the nonprofits together, building up their corporation, their ideas and giving the city a lens into their working so that we can work better with them and then with us. I think it's perfect

and I think that having this with the developers is totally, totally the way to go. And just one more thing, Councilmember Van Grack actually jogged my memory when he was talking about REDI. And I

would just say it's kind of funny, you know, we had a retreat several years ago with REDI and one of the ideas that came out of that was to have like a navigator position in the city to actually take

it, people's requests, developers or others and navigate the city. And just like you guys did with, you know, housing, Jedi and planning, you came together. I think it's important to have somebody

that can navigate the city for the resident. And I say it was funny because the city manager actually was talking to me and mentioned the same idea. So I think there's something there and just want to

put it out there because I think that we didn't really discuss it, but it seems like it's in the same vein ideas as you guys have discussed here. So thank you, Mayor, and I yield back. Thank you very

much. I appreciate all the comments of my colleagues and the important considerations of what we're trying to do to have the most impact for the people who need it most. So I will just say, I

appreciate that we're complying with state law, that we were leading ahead on state law in some areas. And now we're really looking to my understanding, you're trying to find a way to make this even

more equitable and to really target the communities that need it most. So that's the vein of which I took all of your feedback and your ideas that you have put forward with us. And I have heard

specifically from parents with children with disabilities who are near adults who said, I want love to figure this out. It's expensive. I want my child to be independent, but they need to be close. I

have heard from people who were seniors. And I've seen in other states where seniors are either in the primary or ADU and it's a way for them to be able to age in place, as well as young professionals

as well. So I appreciate this. And I really like that you guys have dug in on how can we support BIPOC as well as low income communities so that these are just not for independently wealthy people

that we're really trying to target inclusionary zoning. There are many older neighborhoods that there aren't the same opportunities for new inclusionary zoning because new developments are not

happening. And so you do have some segregation across the city. And this is an opportunity to look at how do we actually support that and have more inclusion. So that's the spirit of which I took your

presentation. And I really appreciate all of what you put forward and the research that you've done and the way you partner together for innovative ideas. I do have a couple of questions and then I

will go to your answer. I really do like the idea of the pre-approved catalogs. I think it's an excellent approach. Having to go through the permitting process and figure things out for someone who's

new at this is incredibly daunting and could end the project right there. I imagine that is one of the big pieces of why you may not see as many ADUs happening in the county as well as the city. I

will also note that the county did have an October 2026 equity statement on ADUs and some things that they're looking at. And they are actually talking about adopting incentives to increase low-income

property owners to support and have affordable units. So that's actually something that they noted and they looked at loans on that. They also are looking at training departments to provide technical

assistance. So I see some synergies in what you all are proposing specifically at trying to make this a more equitable approach to housing and finding ways to have more units that will ultimately

support increasing the availability of more housing and decreasing costs. So thank you for that. I do have some concerns about what are some of the barrier points. I agree with my colleagues both on

small businesses and on housing that having a navigator is something that we've been talking about in other budget sessions that we've had. And I hope that we can, if we want to build our small

business ecosystem, we want to build affordable housing and look at ADUs that target this, we do need to think about that person who is not a professional developer. We're trying to build from within

the city. I would fully support and I continue to push for a navigation program. But one of the areas that I've heard that the challenges is figuring out plumbing and electrical. So if you're trying

to take your current home and you may be in an older home and now you have to spend $50,000 because you're, I forget what it's called, but the entry pipes coming into your home are not the right

diameter. And now that's an expensive process. I was just wondering, is that something that you're seeing as an issue? I am not specifically aware of any of those in the applications we've received

this far. But to your point, you were speaking of a like a lateral from a main into the house. Certainly it could be more of an issue with an older home, but it is not something that has come up so

far. But I know that there are some people who have even built on their own homes and had a $50,000 surprise. So I just, I do think that is something in our technical assistance programs that we'd

have to figure out upfront and help people do a pre-screen so that they're not finding out by accident when they're halfway through the project. So I wanted to raise that issue, could be the same on

electrical as well. In terms of thinking about the ecosystem, I don't like calling it a developer ecosystem because you specifically said, how do we build community from with it? This is not to

support LLCs and big developers coming in and making a bunch of money in Rockville. This is about helping people to do homegrown work, to have affordable housing here. So I don't love even calling it

developer ecosystem. This is about pulling nonprofits together. This is about getting experts from COG and other places and other jurisdictions to figure out how to make it work here. So I just, I

would like to reframe that. I also wonder if we're, if we're looking at getting some consultant support, could we partner with neighboring jurisdictions who are also trying to do the same thing and

share in that cost so that it's cheaper for all of us? Because as I noted, the county just had equity statements and they're trying to do something similar with technical assistance. Other

jurisdictions, other cities might be as well. And that's something that I think we should consider. Our financial literacy program, we have a great sort of bank network that's helping to provide

educational training on homeownership and budgeting, et cetera. Could we do something where we're engaging with local bank partners to think about creating loans for this as well, affordable loans for

this? I know that is one of the barriers that were mentioned in the report is that bankers don't know and understand ADUs. So if we're including them as part of our education outreach and trying to

create a cohort to let them know what we're doing and what we're trying to see happen in Rockville, perhaps that can move the needle a little bit. Because no matter what we do, if the financing is not

available, this is not going to happen, especially on the equitable, affordable side of things. So I wanted to raise that. So one of the things I've seen happen in other jurisdictions is if there are,

if someone is trying to develop affordable units or units for people with disabilities, that they might have some sort of discount on fees. So it doesn't necessarily have to come out of our housing

opportunity fund, but it could be another way to consider supporting reducing the cost. I looked at the accounting report and the fees can range just on permitting a loan between two and three

thousand dollars. So that can be a way to not expend city funds but find ways to support these more affordable units and maybe tie it into if you're developing something for a certain AMI, ways that

we can consider that. In terms of the ADU financing, I do want to kind of have a holistic view of the housing opportunity fund. If we were to do it for me, it would be more of a revolving loan that we

can pour back into the system and can support future people who are trying to do this versus giving funds away. So that's another minor adjustment I wanted to make on what you're proposing. We have

been talking about community development finance institutions since the comprehensive plan. I have not seen us do it yet. I'm hoping this is an area where that we can push go and see how we can get

innovative housing programs here in the city of Rockville, whether that's building new rentals, new ADUs, but I do think that's been on our wish list for a time and I think maybe some intentional

concerted efforts to make that happen. In terms of the financing program, I know in your write-up you talked about potentially targeting specific AMI requirements. Is that correct? Average medium

income requirements? It just wouldn't just be for anyone who's trying to develop an ADU. It would be something specifically for affordable units. Is that correct? That's correct. Which would advance

some of the principles that you learned in GARE. That's correct. Okay, and you would also potentially have some MPDU guidance so there'd be a lot kind of a lock-in to what those so they would stay

affordable for a period of time. That's correct. Okay, I appreciate that and I think that's a good approach. We talked about ORE furniture before. There might be an opportunity for collaboration here

because these are small tiny homes, but since we're talking innovation, why not? They might have some experience in this area that they can help us on as you're thinking about the ecosystem you're

pulling together. In terms of the trainings, is there a way that we can... I say yes on trainings. We talked about technical assistance before. Can we record that so it's not just a moment in time but

is an ongoing evergreen resource until we change the policies of course if that happens in the future. Very likely. Okay, thank you. Has there been discussion with the county on impact fees? I know

that has come up with some jurisdictions where they've looked at reducing impact fees because right now there would be an impact fee requirement. We haven't yet. That's something we'll look into.

Okay, that would be I think very helpful. Then I also just want to make sure as we're thinking through this that it's not... I want to be careful that we're not again inadvertently just having people

come in and pray. We've seen in some jurisdictions where people are finding loopholes in ADU policies and it's becoming more of a business than the homegrown approach. I just want to make sure that

we're looking at guardrails on that. I did want to note there's a great UC Berkeley report, the Turner Center for Housing Innovation that looks at ADUs for all breaking down barriers and it

specifically looks at low income, moderate income and BIPOC communities. So there are really good smart people thinking about this and pushing forward ideas to improve equity and I greatly appreciate

what you guys have put together. I think it's a start and that's my feedback on those three. Thank you. Councilmember Valeri. Thank you and thank you to everybody, to all my colleagues, to staff. I

thought the staff report and the presentation and the guide, the research foundation on this is really strong and I want to give kudos to everybody that was part of its development and I want to also

thank my colleagues in particular Councilmember Shaw. As somebody up here who lives in a working class black and brown neighborhood, you don't hear people talking necessarily about ADUs but what you

do hear is, you know, culturally I would never put an elderly relative into assisted living. That individual stays within my family, right? I hear people talking about how it is almost impossible to

afford housing specifically for people with disabilities. So while folks, there might not be this ground swell of support for ADUs, the need and the necessity is there and I think an educational

opportunity to talk candidly about when you hear this phrase, right? This is what is possible. Also in my neighborhood, I do talk to everybody, a lot of people daily. We have a lot of folks who are

already independent contractors, construction, a lot of DIY folks and so, you know, and they are homeowners and so there is a lot of kind of overlap of the right kind of when we are looking at this

through an equity lens, it would benefit the families who really can't afford, you know, to do anything else and have a family member in need because I think that's a challenge. We, as a city, keep

stating that we want people to be able to age and place affordably. Well, if we don't look with any sort of intentionality, the person who will benefit is the corporation running the assisted living

facility and maybe not the homeowner in some respects. So since even before I got elected, I have strongly supported ADUs. A big part of it is, again, the educational piece. What does it actually

mean? It's just a phrase. Even accessory dwelling units is a little bit of a challenge for folks to kind of wrap their mind around but from what I remember and I think the last time I looked at this,

it was probably like six months ago or so, the majority of ADUs and accessories before that were in the pipeline where on the east side of the city. Is that still accurate? I would have to check to

confirm that. Okay. That was my understanding. Again, kind of going to the DIY ethos of the east side of the city. When you are a homeowner and you don't have a lot of extra funds to really be able to

do other things but you have this skill, I think if we can make it easier for folks to have an ADU, then we should be doing everything possible. If we do nothing, then ADUs will keep being built

mostly by homeowners who already have the cash. So I absolutely see this as an issue of equity. I actually agree with the mayor. Maybe it is more like a construction ecosystem. I will throw that out

there. It was a term that kept popping up in my head that we're looking at folks that are able to do that kind of construction work and maybe need further training on the process or they have never

had access to a catalog and plans to really be able to learn from. I'm also going to put a plug in there too on point three. It would be great to see a pipeline from the youth build program into this

sort of ecosystem because that is another equity point in terms of building that to the mayor's point, the homegrown construction experience. Can you tell some of my best friends work in construction?

But I see that that is both a challenge and opportunity and I think that we have a big educational component here in terms of what is an ADU and then what is possible and then what is out there. I

absolutely agree with looking at something like an income threshold for lower fees for ADU permitting. Anything we can do and thank you to Mr. City Manager, anything we can do on the county side in

terms of impact fees would be great. Absolutely a plus plus to that. A lot of my questions were taken so I'm going to kind of just throw out my ideas and my random brainstorms. This is like a really

challenging one. Could we possibly look at bringing into compliance unpermitted ADUs that may already be in existence? It's only grandfathering if it was already in the pipeline, correct? I'm talking

about bringing more into compliance. I'm going to make sure I understand. Are you saying that someone that may have built an ADU without the benefit of a permit? Correct. Can I clarify because I know

that this came up during last council before some, I think all of you were not here yet, so this particular discussion came up and there was a discussion about allowing some grandfathering people to a

grace period, people to be able to come into the city to make sure that their unpermitted ADUs could go through a process to get permitted and there are structures that were built prior to even

discussions on yay or nay on ADUs. I just want to give some background as you answer that question. So I'll just say, I wish I had a better answer than maybe, depends on the extent. Yeah. And there's

certain things, you know, exiting, fire suppression, sewer water, etc., that would be tough for us to say, "Yeah, come on in," and I know that's not your point, but if there's ways for us to provide

some additional flexibility and interest of promoting ADUs, we could certainly consider that. It would really depend on the individual unit though. Absolutely. No, no, and then that's kind of, I just

wanted to kind of throw that out there. Again, I'm not trying to ever want to name names, but I think that would be a better approach than being punitive, rather bringing people into the safety and

compliance too, right? And I definitely take, Madam Mayor, I was watching the previous ADU discussions because it was something that, you know, is of great interest to less affluent parts of the city,

and so I absolutely believe it's out there, and if we can make it an easy, non-punitive way to bring, you know, safety considerations, I think we'll see that we actually have a lot more ADUs than are

noted. Next, my last question, because I think for the most part, everybody asked mine, "Do we need to do anything," you meant when you were talking about the HOA and ADUs, "Do we need anything, we

need to do anything to align city code and permissibility within HOAs to the state law?" Because it seems that the state law is basically, to your point, Madam Mayor, that homeowners are able to, it

is permitted, even though an HOA may say, "No." What does our city code fall on that, and are we perpetuating the, like, prior to the state law, basically, that people could point to our city code and

be like, "Well, no, actually, we're, you know, you can't build that here," knowing that the state law is different. I will only be able to answer right now by saying that when the ZOR was finalized,

it was consistent with state law. Okay. So, moving forward, we, if you have an HOA, you can't keep, you know, prohibit an ADU from being developed or built, assuming you meet the other standards for

the zoning district, etc. So, but I can, I can check with my zoning team and, you know, see if there is some clarifying, you know, history there that, that I can provide. But that is my understanding,

was because of the timing worked out so well with our ZOR, we were able to incorporate all of those changes into the zoning update. That would be great. It almost seems like we need, and of course, I

defer to my colleagues who live in HOA's, but it's almost a flip side of, like, what a residence bill of rights are and what they're able to do versus what, you know, not saying that people are, may

not be getting the full story, but people might not be getting the full story, and they may not know their rights. Okay. So, I think I answered all of these. I'm absolutely yes on pre-approved plans,

absolutely yes on ADU financing. I think that this is another opportunity to, to actually bring in equity to black and brown homeowners. Also, we just had a great conversation about first-time

homeownership. So, you could have somebody who is a first-time homeowner, and we saw that we, we got some work to do to maybe increase funding there, and then would be able to be part of the ADU

financing, and that could only make things even better. On the construction ecosystem, I absolutely support it and would want us to really work closely with our community partners like YouthBuild and

other opportunities to really get to that kind of homegrown, building our backbench of the next generation of employers and employees. So, thank you all for handling my rambling. Thank you.

Councilmember Fulton. Thank you. Always good to go last. So, it all costs a lot of money, right? So, I always, I look at these three things and they all cost money. So, I assume I'm giving feedback

regardless of the cost of the thing, because otherwise you need to weigh the cost benefit of some of them, right? So, if we all, if we all say yes, we want to do all of these things, I can't do that

without knowing how much it's going to cost, but I can tell you, but I'll give you my general feedback on them. The pre-approved plans, absolutely 100%. Yes, we should do that. The financing, I'm

hesitant, both because of the cost, because of the return on that investment, and like I think some of my colleagues said, if there are other ways we can bring down the cost of permitting for folks,

waivers or the like, I'd want to explore that, as opposed to coming out of the housing opportunity fund. On the ecosystem, yes, but I see two different, I think there's two different proposals here

the way I understand it. One is when I was reading the staff memo, partially it's, you know, get all the people together to talk about this and how we can do it well and how can we educate folks and

how can we make sure that there's lending available, but the other is can we do a boot camp for people that want to do ADUs here in Rockville and make it easier for them to do that, to be that almost

navigator. I went and looked at the company that was referenced in the staff memo, so I just want to be clear that we, like, I want to do both, and that's why, and I want to do one for, I understand

the regional model, I get it, we should get all the people together in the region that want to do ADUs and create more affordable housing, yes, but I also want to help people build ADUs in Rockville,

and our zoning is different and our code is different and our, so that actually has to be specific to us, so my answers are yes to number one, maybe not to number two, three, I understand it to be

asking for two things and yes to both of those things, thanks. Thank you, Dr. Miles. Thank you, Madam Mayor, thank you all for your comments, I don't have much to add. Like many said, certainly on

board was number one, where you approved plans, number three, also support the developer ecosystem. Two, I would want more information, I think the most recent phrase was used as return on investment,

and in my estimation the return that I'm interested in is number of units produced, particularly those that are affordable to meet the need. If this is the best way to do it, then great. If there are

other ways to spend a finite amount of money, then I would perhaps favor those, which is why I'd say, and maybe with number two, with the Nashrix, that's all I have, thank you. Thank you, Councillor

Burchard. Thank you, I did just want to clarify a few things, just with the racial equity impact statement, because I think it was cited a few times, just overall the impact statement for the county,

which was on bill 26-06, or sorry, zoning text amendment 26-06. It does overall say that ADU program will, it has a negative pack on equity, and the three things that were stated were, if you wish to

mitigate, find ways to mitigate the overall negative impact on racial equity and social justice, were the things that you did cover. So understanding that we are doing this program, and it's moving

forward, it's our law, it's state law, we're doing this, and I'm excited about doing this, that I am glad that we are doing some of the things that are within that racial equity impact statement, but

I just wanted to be clear so that that impact statement is not, there's not, I just want to make sure that we're clear about what that impact statement says. And with that being said as well, one of

the ways in which the impact statement talks about, which comes from the county's 2024 ADU report, which is a really, it's a really great report on ADUs and how you can, it goes into further detail

how you can mitigate some of these things. It talks about using not just affordable rents, but also voucher programs as well. But I just, I did want to just like frame that these are ways to mitigate

the overall negative impacts. And then I think like with every equity project, it's not just terminology, it's also based on data. So things like finding out within this pilot program, the income

levels of the people taking advantage of it, what, if we can disaggregate this by race, it would be interesting to know, you know, ADUs probably cost somewhere like tens of thousands of dollars right

now. So it would be interesting to find out how many black and brown homeowners within Rockville have the disposable income of tens of thousands of dollars to take advantage and have the size of the

lot. Because I know that a lot of ADUs are built on larger lots or lots where they have, or they may have more than one lot for their home. So it would be interesting to find out what demographics

typically have large houses and lots and disposable income of tens of thousands of dollars. Just to get that demographic data, so we can confirm who is actually benefiting and making sure that we have

the accountability around the economic justice piece that we are seeking under this GARE cohort. Thank you. I also just wanted to reference that the state put out some interesting ADU specific

guidance and they talk about legacy, racial inequity and housing and how this could potentially address some of the red lining from the past, as well as now that we're not allowed to have restrictive

governance. So I just wanted to flag an additional resource for the listening public and for staff, but it was the Accessory Dwelling Unit Policy Task Force Final Report by the Maryland Department of

Planning from May 31, 2024. I appreciate this presentation. I just wanted to see if staff has any other feedback from your history or expertise that you wanted to share or clarify with us or any

additional questions you have for the body. I see smiles, so that means I think we'll take the very positive feedback we received from body to body. We have a lot of work to do. We just, again,

appreciate the support. We think this is, I'll speak on behalf of the team. They won't say it. I think this is best in class so far. We have more work to do. Once we identify costs, I heard that

brought up by several people, and what the financing might look like when we come up with a program design, I'll continue to inform council on where we head with this, and clearly during budget, we'll

have a better idea for the overall costs and where this money would come from. We appreciate all that. Thank you. I did hear a strong support for one in three. What I heard from number two was a

desire for more information. I think a concern about forgivable loans, forgivable grants, but if there was something, what is something where it's revolving back in? And how do we prevent from just a

lot going out for a limited number of people? So if there's any additional information that you can share with us, I will also, I heard some feedback about looking at reducing fees as a way to address

this versus direct outputs, and I will also note that the state report I noted looked at state pursuing legislation that limits the impact of fees that unduly hindered the affordability of ADUs. I

will also say that this has been a journey of work for this mayor and council, the previous mayor and council. I know when I first got on, the fees were ranging, not permit fees, just a special

exception fee was one to 3,000 to start, and that was on top of all the additional permit fees. So I think there's been a lot of progress in this area to try to make it more affordable, and I really

appreciate staff's look and how do we make it more equitable as well, and the innovative models that you're looking at. So please continue to share information with us. I would like to just ask the

city manager for you all, is there anything that you're going to come back to us on? I know that there were some next steps noted. We don't plan on bringing back specific elements of this. When we

have a program designed, especially for the pilot ADU, clearly we'll share that with the council. We'll have a cost associated with that. We would drop it into the proposed budget, let me stress that,

and then you guys can decide whether or not you want to move forward with it. It's hard, I know, for you guys all to figure out and get excited about a program without one, knowing the cost, and two,

what is the cost of that program relative to all the other programs we're going to move forward. But we'll build that into the recommended budget and go from there. I do want to stress, I think we

just, and somebody mentioned, I'm going to ask Councilmember Valeri, we just did a pilot on the homeownership program. I think a pilot for ADU financing is what we have in mind now, smaller scale, not

a ton of zeros attached to it, put it out there, collect a lot of very rich data, and you guys could decide after that if you want to continue funding it and at what level. Thank you, and that would

be more of a grant look or something that pours money back into so that could fund itself in the future. I don't want to make a commitment on any one of those tools yet until we come up with a program

design. Okay, I was just hearing feedback from my colleagues and just wanted to look at the range of how we're using HOF. We saw the homeownership of program. We know that there's a project that's

going to come for HOF money in the future that we talked about tonight as well as this. So it might be a good holistic discussion for us to just understand this magical HOF, how it's funded, how much

is needed, and what has the most impact. Understood, thank you. Excellent, thank you so much. Thank you to my colleagues and to staff for a robust discussion. I think we uncovered a lot here and

there's a lot of opportunity for the future. We're now moving on to our mock agenda. We did have a leadership planning team meeting earlier today and talked about agenda. I know that the six-month

planning calendar online is due for some additional balancing and so things may shift on that and that may also happen on our last meeting of the month. So there are notes on that. It'll be online. If

anyone has any questions, please let us know. Now we're moving on to old new business. Councilmember Valeri. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Recently, we heard from a one of our commission members requesting

after having received some some hostile emails, hostile anti-LGBTQ emails requesting that commissions commissioners receive city issued email accounts and as a way to protect volunteer privacy. It

would also make MPIA requests simpler. I agree with both. I'm wondering if staff would be willing to look at the cost and logistics of offering city email accounts to board and commission members.

Apparently, there is a precedent in other jurisdictions and it would be a good way to provide a certain level of privacy for these individuals who are volunteering their time. Thank you. Councilmember

Schell. This was also something that I did also I want to support that and just also share that this was something that I also asked the city manager to look into previously. An example of this is in

Fairfax City where some of the boards and commissions have city emails because they're considered part of a high-risk vulnerable group and so it doesn't have to be for all boards and commissions just

those that can fit a particular criteria. In addition to that also I also asked previously about storage space just to make sure that and that can be connected to their email as well. Thank you very

much. If the city manager can just let us know. I think there's a broader issue of just hate mail being received by a particular commission. We've seen some things happen online and if you just want

to share some thoughts with us and ideas of how do we protect our commissioners and support their volunteerism. Mayor, this wasn't on the agenda so if I could get six hands. We're not asking you for

an answer now if you could come back to us with additional information. Is that possible? Sure. Okay. Councilmember Schell. Sorry, just one more note and I know that you're looking into this. The

other reason was also just to exchange knowledge if, you know, if there's turnover, if a commissioner leaves, they still have that email and that storage space there and that's something also I shared

but I just wanted to also just share that again for the body. Thank you. Councilmember Van Grak, do you have a comment? Yeah, I was just going to add that obviously we need to look into what the

consequences of this are from a legal standpoint from the city so anything that we do I just want to make sure that we do it carefully. Of course. Thank you. I also just wanted to report that last

meeting we talked about solid waste and the conversation we had with the county was very robust. The city manager's office with staff sent a letter on behalf of the mayor and council sharing our

concerns and is continuing to work with Gaithersburg and Washington Grove on our collective letter as well but just wanted to follow up to say that did happen and we have received some emails from

folks throughout the community who share similar concerns. Hey, is there anything else? Do we have a motion to adjourn? Councilmember Van Grak. Madam Mayor, I make a motion to adjourn. Thank you. Do

we have a second? Councilmember Folsom seconds. All those in favor please raise your hand and say aye. Thank you all so much. Appreciate the robust discussion.