On Monday, October 6, The Rockville Mayor and Council held a work session on the Zoning Ordinance Rewrite & Comprehensive Plan, which was taken off the agenda last week due to time. Peerless Rockville supports efforts to improve and update the historic preservation policy in the City. Read below for what we’re following. We will keep you updated when there is open forum on this subject.

You can read other proposed changes and ask staff questions through the engage Rockville website.

Third-Party Nominations

• Current Rule: No limit on who can apply to nominate a property for historic designation.
• Proposed Change: Only the property owner, the Historic District Commission (HDC), or the Mayor and Council could file a nomination.
• Is this change needed? Third-party nominations are rare—only two since 2010 (both from Peerless Rockville) and require significant effort and follow procedure. These applications require a presentation to the HDC and are judged by the adopted criteria. There is no history of burdensome or meritless nominations.

Owner Consent for Historic Designation

• Current Rule: Historic designation can proceed with or without owner consent.
• Proposed Change: If an owner doesn’t agree (or stays silent), both the HDC and Mayor & Council would need to vote unanimously for designation.

Is this change needed?

• Owner Consent is rarely required in Montgomery County or Maryland jurisdictions.
• Other City zoning rules do not require a unanimous vote.
• This rule would have blocked past designations, such as the Farmers Banking and Trust Co. Building.

Demolition by Neglect

• Current Rule: Code currently lacks an enforcement mechanism for this policy.
• Proposed Change: Adding language to create an enforcement mechanism.
• Is this change needed? Yes! This will allow for better protection of historic resources.

Evaluation of Significance for Demolition

• Current Rule: Every building—no matter its age or condition—must be evaluated for historic significance before demolition.
• Proposed Change: Evaluations would still be required, but only the following would go to the HDC: Properties in a historic district or in the 2009 Historic Building Catalog, and properties staff think may meet designation criteria.
• In other cases, staff could approve demolition without HDC review

What to know:

• Rockville hasn’t updated its surveys of historic resources in decades.
• The Historic Building Catalog is outdated.
• This change would cut out public input and could stop recognition of overlooked historic properties.