Randolph Civic Association

Traffic on Rockville Pike will be shifted to a new bridge built over Montrose/Randolph Road during the next two weekends.

via washingtonpost.com.

The council will deliberate three new county master plans in the coming months— White Flint, Gaithersburg West and Kensington—as well as specifics of the new Commercial-Residential Zone, which is being crafted to encourage mixed-use developments of residential, retail and commercial space within those plans.

via Gazette.net

The September 2009 Echo (PDF), has been posted.

Our next General Meeting will be held this Thursday, September 10, 2009 at 8:00 p.m. We meet at the Veirs Mill Rec Center, view map.

We will be featuring Roger Berliner, our District One member of the County Council and Marc Elrich one of the At-Large members of the County Council. Unfortunately, Council Member Berliner will be unable to attend. Hope to see you there!

by Damon Manetta

Photo courtesy of Karen Helfert

After the June meeting, many felt the MNCPPC had been fairly negative, citing the many obstacles to overcome before our Randolph Dog Park could be created. The primary obstacle was that much of the proposed Dog Park lies within the 100-year flood plain – where current MNCPPC rules forbid building park facilities.

However, developments over the summer have been very positive. One such development has been the discovery that some of the trees located in the non-flood plain section of Randolph Park are actually invasive species not native to Maryland, meaning that they can and should be removed. Removal of these trees will make more open land for the Dog Park.

As of this writing, a special community meeting has been tentatively scheduled for Wednesday, September 30th, 8pm at the Viers Mill Rec Center. The purpose of this meeting will be for Park officials to present to the community a proposal for a Dog Park, details about the exact nature of their proposal are not yet available. Please check our website, where more information will be posted as it becomes available.

by Dan Hoffman

The White Flint/North Bethesda area will be undergoing a major development and revitalization process. The changes outlined in the White Flint Sector Plan (WFSP), will bring new business, retail, entertainment, and residents into the local community. As such, the development is required to provide a new elementary school to service the increase in school-age children. The Rocking Horse Center (formerly the elementary school for RCA communities), has recently been named as the ‘recommended’ location for the new WFSP elementary school by the Montgomery County Planning Board, the arm of local government in charge of planning the development with its stakeholders (other county agencies, White Flint Developers, Local Residents, etc.).

The recent recommendation is a significant and extremely positive milestone for RCA. However, there are still a number of challenges ahead, as the recommendation needs to be approved by the Montgomery County Council before Rocking Horse Center is named as ‘the’ elementary school for the WFSP.

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Hear Planning Board Member and Commissioner Joe Alfandre commend the efforts of our neighborhood and its efforts related to the White Flint Sector Plan by clicking the audio player below. More information on the Sector Plan is available at MontgomeryPlanning.org.

The Echo archive for June 2009

In coordination with the Randolph Civic Association, a new dog club group has been created to organize dog activities in the neighborhood and to show interest in and discuss the possibility of a future dog park.

The new group is called “randolphdogclub”. You can join at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Randolphdogclub/ or by sending a mail to Randolphdogclub-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.

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The Echo archive for May 2009