Rollingwood Village residents who sought to secede from the rest of Montgomery County saw their last hopes of getting the County Council to approve their efforts to incorporate dashed Tuesday.
During a meeting, council members unanimously voted down a petition signed by more than 500 individuals from the 850-family Chevy Chase community. Under the incorporation proposal, Rollingwood would handle its own basic services, have a distinct governmental body and reap tax money from its citizens.
Leaders of the two-year effort to withdraw from the county maintained that Montgomery’s charter says it is in the public’s interest to foster municipal home rule. But council members shot down that notion Tuesday.
“Our county attorney has pointed out this provision in the code relates to the county’s obligation to support existing municipal governments and not the creation of new municipal governments,” said Council Member Roger Berliner, who represents Rollingwood Village residents.
Berliner has said the decision to reject some of his constituents’ efforts to separate Rollingwood Village from the rest of the county was very difficult for him.
“I acknowledge there could be real benefits to the residents of Rollingwood proper of incorporation,” Berliner told the Council Tuesday. “However, that is not the end of the analysis, but only the beginning. The tougher call, a call that this council made on a unanimous vote, is that incorporation under the terms of existing state law is not in the county’s best interest.”
Under Maryland law, the new municipality would have directly received 17 percent of the income tax receipts from Rollingwood residents, which now go to the county.
This translates to a loss of roughly $1.2 million per year in revenue, according to county fiscal staff.
Given the financial impact, Berliner said he believed the proponents of Rollingwood Village’s separation from the county must show incorporation is “critically needed.”
“In that regard, I do not believe the mere enhancement of existing services or the general and understandable desire for home rule is sufficient,” Berliner said.
Steve Vaskov, a leader of Rollingwood’s incorporation efforts, said asking for a compelling or critical need “is something that is completely discretionary to the whim of the council.”
“What is a compelling need?” Vaskov asked. “I think it is a compelling need when you have 30 percent of the registered voters in our area signing a petition saying they wanted incorporation.”
Vaskov said the group is evaluating its next steps and may consider legal action.
