Some Rockville residents are starting a campaign to keep a second affordable housing complex away from the city’s West End neighborhood, saying the project would add traffic congestion, crime and crowding to an already maxed-out area.
Members of the city’s planning commission gave initial approval last month for Beall’s Grant II, a 109-unit, mixed-income building that will sit across the street from affordable housing at the 60-unit Beall’s Grant apartments. Those opposed say they had no idea the project was even being considered.
“The city is choosing to concentrate all affordable housing in this area,” West End resident Melanie Zaletsky said. “This will add even more traffic, burden local schools, reduce green space and be out of character with the neighborhood: This is a four-and-a-half-story building that will border on one-story homes.”
Zaletsky and others opposed to the project are putting up yard signs, circulating petitions and contacting their neighbors in the hopes of getting elected leaders to reconsider the project, which was passed over for state funding in the spring but soon will make a second request for cash.
Patricia Woodward, president of the West End Citizens Association, which represents about 1,500 homes, said she backs the project and that residents had ample opportunity to speak out before the planning commission considered the proposal.
“This has not been a closed, smoke-filled backroom decision,” Woodward said. “This went before the mayor and City Council, those meetings were televised, we have a newsletter, we have a Listserv, we have block captains.”
Some opponents have said they fear the new complex will bring crime, but Rockville Police Chief T.N. Treschuk said the current Beall’s Grant apartments have an “average number of calls for a residential unit/complex.”
Although the planning commission has signed off on the project, Zaletsky said she and other opponents hope to persuade Rockville Mayor Susan Hoffman and City Council members to alter the content of a letter they must send to the state to help the project receive funding.
“We think once they realize the extent of opposition, they won’t be able to say in good conscience that the community is behind this,” Zaletsky said.
Hoffman said she did not foresee council members changing their minds.
“This is walking distance to the Metro, to Rockville town center,” Hoffman said. “We’re often talking about how our kids, our teachers, our police officers and firefighters can’t live here, and if that is the problem, this is an opportunity to fix it.”
