Thursday, May 16, 2013
Montgomery County Council Member Roger Berliner asked the Maryland Public Service Commission to require that substantial changes be made to electricity services in the state.
Is better electricity service in the future for Montgomery County? Montgomery County Councilmember Roger Berliner—chair of the council's Transportation, Infrastructure, Energy and Environment Committee—is pushing to make that happen. On Tuesday, Berliner filed a formal pleading asking the Maryland Public Service Commission to implement the "Utility 2.0" pilot program developed by the Energy Future Coalition, which was tasked by Governor Martin O'Malley's Grid Resiliency Task Force to come up with recommendations for improving electricity service in Maryland. The Utility 2.0 pilot program is "a system truly worthy of the 21st century—cleaner, more reliable, efficient, technologically advanced and consumer-driven. Montgomery County residents…
Monday, May 13, 2013
Montgomery County Council President Nancy Navarro, whose district includes Wheaton, shifted her support to a plan that would tie the Park and Planning headquarters to the rest of Wheaton redevelopment.
County officials have the next six months to work with private developers on plans for Wheaton redevelopment that could include the new Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission headquarters, the Montgomery County Council decided at a budget worksession Monday. With the current Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission headquarters at 8787 Georgia Avenue in Silver Spring added to the mix of properties available in Wheaton, county officials say they are seeing more interest from developers. The project description form (PDF) embraced by the Council sets forth a timeline for this process: The Executive has indicated his intent to issue an RFP by June 1 and select a developer by Nov. 1. Planning and engineering will…
Sunday, May 12, 2013
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Sunday, May 12
By Patch Staff Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown Kicks Off Gubernatorial Bid In a speech highlighting his military and government service, Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown announced in his home county of Prince George's Friday night that he is running for governor of Maryland in the November 2014 election. Dan Bongino’s Home Burglarized Wednesday Night While Family Slept A spokeswoman says computers, purses and a wallet were taken from the Severna Park home of Bongino, the former Secret Service agent who ran for U.S. Senate in 2012. Report: Anne Arundel County Top in State for Generating Tourism Money The county saw a more than 7 percent increase in money from tourism between 2010 and 2011, according to a new report. Businesses Look to Marketplace Fairness…
Saturday, May 11, 2013
Silver Line appears on new map, but when might the Purple Line appear?
The Maryland Transit Authority has scheduled a series of five open houses to update citizens on the status of the much-discussed Purple Line, according to a Washington Post story. The Purple Line is a proposed light rail extension of the current Metro system and would run for 16 miles between Bethesda and New Carrollton, and connect with the existing Red, Orange and Green Lines. Among issues that have been discussed is how the line’s construction would be funded. A February Post article stated that for Maryland to receive federal funding, the state must demonstrate that it can pay its half ($2.15 billion) of the costs. The gas tax and public-private partnerships have been talked about as possible sources of funding, but no decisions have …
Friday, May 10, 2013
Hundreds gather at Prince George's Community College in Largo, MD for Brown's gubernatorial campaign announcement.
Follow @UMarlboroPatch for live coverage of Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown's announcement.
Thursday, May 9, 2013
Some councilmembers want to move forward with the Park and Planning headquarters, separate from other redevelopment in Wheaton; others want the headquarters to be part of an overall redevelopment strategy.
In considering options for Wheaton redevelopment and the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission headquarters, members of the Montgomery County Council found themselves equally divided on how to move forward at a joint committee meeting Wednesday. Councilmembers Hans Riemer and Valerie Ervin joined Council President Nancy Navarro in supporting a "split project" approach in which Park and Planning could move forward with its plans for a new headquarters building south of Reedie Drive, separate from the redevelopment possibilities being explored for other parcels of county land in Wheaton. Park and Planning prefers this option because it wants responsibility for its own building, Planning Board Chair Francoise Carrier said. …
Wednesday, May 8, 2013
Move could pave way for Walmart. “I think that the community has spoken and the community wants retail at that location,” developer Bruce Lee tells The Gazette.
A zoning review of the vacant office BAE Systems building—an Aspen Hill location desired by Walmart—has been expedited by the Montgomery County Council, The Gazette reports. The measure passed in a 5-4 vote Monday, The Gazette reports. Bruce Lee, president of Lee Development Group that owns the site, told the newspaper he was pleased with the outcome: “I am really pleased that the majority of the county council recognized what the community wants, and I’m proud that they came to the right conclusion,” said Bruce Lee, president of Lee Development Group, owner of the Vitro site. “I think that the community has spoken and the community wants retail at that location. And that’s what we are going to pursue.” Read the full story at Gazette.net. …
Tuesday, May 7, 2013
The meeting is scheduled for 2 p.m. in Rockville.
Two Montgomery County Council committees are scheduled to discuss Wheaton redevelopment at 2 p.m. on Wednesday, May 8. The joint committee meeting will be in the Seventh Floor Hearing Room of the Council Office Building at 100 Maryland Ave. in Rockville. The meeting will be televised live by County Cable Montgomery (CCM—Cable Channel 6 on Comcast and RCN, Channel 30 on Verizon). The broadcast also will be streamed through the county website. The Government Operations and Fiscal Planning committee and the Planning, Housing and Economic Development committee will consider proposed amendments for two projects included in the county's CIP budget: the Wheaton Redevelopment Program and the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission …
Monday, May 6, 2013
A report by Pew Charitable Trusts found some areas in the Washington, DC suburbs benefit more from a controversial tax credit than any other place.
A home ownership tax credit favored by the wealthy disproportionately benefits residents of Maryland and Montgomery County, particularly Bethesda, Gaithersburg and Frederick, a report from Pew Charitable Trusts found. Some members of Congress, however, are working to cut the mortgage interest deduction from the tax code. In Maryland, 37 percent of tax filers claim the deduction, while more than 40 percent of tax filers in Bethesda, Gaithersburg and Frederick claim the mortgage interest deduction, the largest percentage in the country, Bloomberg BusinessWeek reported. Nationally, only 22 percent of filers claim the deduction, Bloomberg reported. The deduction is typically filed in wealthy areas with high rates of home ownership. In the …
Montgomery County Council meets most Tuesdays in Rockville.
Montgomery County Council members will continue to discuss Fiscal Year 2014's budget at its next meeting, planned for Tuesday, May 7, at 9:30 a.m. in Rockville. Allotments for several county agencies, including public safety divisions, housing and affordable housing programs and education and early childhood programs will be approved based on recommendations from the Council committees. Fiscal Year 2014 begins July 1, 2013. (Read the entire council agenda, attached to this article.)
Costco Gas Man
5:22 pm on Tuesday, May 21, 2013
New communities throughout the country have buried cables. Homes in these modern communities go for $142,000 on the average. Utility costs are reasonable in many of them. So how is it that PEPCO can avoid it? Ever notice how the council rips them a new one now and again? It's all for show. They council will never force PEPCO to do anything. There's your answer. The envelopes full of cash are more… more ›