What’s happening around the Village
by David Humpton, EVP
Montgomery Village Professional Center
A number of residents have contacted MVF about the future of the Professional Center. Transwestern, who manages this property for owner Northstar, has informed MVF that there is one last tenant who would vacate no later than Wednesday, March 1 and then all the buildings would be secured.
All of the glass openings to all the buildings would be secured with plywood, and lighting around buildings would remain operable. They will regularly monitor the buildings and grounds but do not plan to hire a security guard. They will continue to cut the grass and perform other landscaping services, but maybe not to the same level.
Snow removal on sidewalks would continue and they have to plow a lane around the parking lot during snow for fire department access. MVF will continue to monitor the site and keep in touch with Transwestern to do our best to ensure that this property is not neglected.
MVF has also contacted the county police who have indicated that patrol officers will visit the site regularly. County Code Enforcement has also been notified to keep watch as they do inspection tours.
Transwestern has talked with a number of developers, both commercial and residential, about redeveloping the property, but no contract has been executed.
East Village meeting regarding siren noise from PSTA
After a number of complaints from East Village residents concerning police car siren noise emanating from the new Public Safety Training Academy (PSTA), MVF facilitated the scheduling of a meeting with the East Village board, community members, PSTA managers and other county officials to determine what could be done to mitigate neighborhood impact.
The meeting was held on February 15 at the PSTA and hosted by Police Captain Ed Pallas, from the police department, who manages the PSTA operations and Fire Captain Adam Jones, the lead trainer for county fire and rescue services.
From the very beginning it was noted that the police only use sirens during training and that noise would be limited to several weeks during each academy class, which are held twice a year. Fire and rescue training does not use sirens.
Pallas and Adams described in detail the training objectives for academy recruits, the need for state certifications including active training scenarios, the equipment they utilize during the training and the training schedule for the recruit classes. They were both sympathetic to any negative impacts the training facility was having on the neighboring residents and emphasized that the PSTA wanted to be a good neighbor while at the same time fulfilling their important mission of training public safety personnel to protect the public and keep everyone safe.
Captain Pallas and another lead police trainer described how important it was for the training to be active with sirens on, using the training track and the city scape facility where role playing was done by police officers, acting criminals and bystanders. Pallas agreed that East Village residents would be notified when training would involve sirens. He also said that sirens would not be used at night and that careful consideration would be given when daytime siren training would be completed. Ed Pallas noted that he is going to work with Upcounty Regional Services Center Director Cathy Matthews to plan a community-wide tour of the PSTA in April.
Golf course redevelopment pre-site plan community meeting
Monument Realty shared their latest plans with interested residents on February 6 at the Whetstone Community Center. M-NCPPC required the developer to meet with residents prior to submitting a preliminary plan or site plan to the Planning Department for review.
The plan includes a total of 488 units (32 single family homes and 456 townhouses) on six areas of the original golf course property. A plan showing the central park was also displayed. The park, once built by Monument, will be owned and maintained by MVF.