Montgomery Village Master Plan Meeting (October 1, 2014) Followup

To: Kamen, Renee
Subject: Montgomery Village Master Plan meeting (October 1, 2014) followup

Renee,

As a 46 year resident of Montgomery Village and active participant in community affairs, the Montgomery Village Master Plan is very important to me. It is my hope that in the end, we will retain the best from the Kettler vision, plot an energetic and innovative patch to the future, and do so in a way that will contribute to the well being of all the residents of this diverse community.

Please consider the formation of an official citizens committee to address the Montgomery Village Master Plan process. At the meeting last night I left with the view that the County Planners were opposed to a citizens committee.

Beyond whether a citizens committee is formed or not, I would like to call your attention to the methodology for systematically framing the needs and vision of the community; distilling the consequential issues of population density, roads, and development; and fairly assessing the balance of benefits and impacts on Village residents in the HOA’s, Montgomery Village as a whole, and the adjoining City of Gaithersburg along with the specific activities for gathering usage stories, engaging stakeholders, structuring alternatives, and highlighting consequential outcomes. This is a way of working that will deliver results for Village residents and I encourage you to whole heartedly adopt some these features as we go through the process.

Now you had asked us to comment on things we liked and loved and things we wanted changed. Please consider the following:
1. I love South Valley Park and want to keep it a park, a pristine environmental nature preserve with shared purpose as a sports venue.
2. I like the Montgomery Village Golf Course and its open spaces and want to keep it a golf course.
3. Please scrap the Senator Nancy King’s $250,000 plan to build a Restroom and Concession Stand in South Valley Park. It is being imposed by outsiders and is overwhelmingly opposed by immediate neighbors and many others throughout the Village.
4. Please scrap the Monument Reality plans to develop the golf course. Please evaluate alternatives that might include keeping the golf course a golf course, permitting residential development up to the limit of remaining population credits, and waiving population and density limits just for the golf course with no change to the Town Sector Zone.
5. On the Montgomery Village Shopping Center, please find ways to upgrade the mix of businesses and stores without adopting the 2030 Plans for adding upscale townhouses along Montgomery Village Avenue.
6. On the Professional Center, please scrap the 2030 Plans for a four story parking garage immediately behind the Courts of Whetstone and a six story office building.
7. Please establish a citizens committee to do the heavy lifting needed to structure alternatives, highlight consequential outcomes, and tabulate the benefits and impacts to Village residents and business community reconciling issues of fairness.

I hope these ideas are useful and will be considered. Please don’t hesitate to contact me to discuss these further or to call on me as part of the Montgomery Village Master Plan process. This activity is is very important to me.

Don O’Neill
Montgomery Village