Save our Neighborhoods - Say no to excessive institutional concentration

The Jehovah’s Witness Church has submitted an application to the City of Rockville to construct a second Kingdom Hall at the corner of Great Falls Road and Maryland Avenue.

The proposed facility would abut the existing one and double its size. The two facilities are proposed to house 5 separate language-based congregations. There is a high density of institutions in this area already. This is a tipping point which will result in the loss of a portion of our neighborhood and degrade the quality of life for area residents.

This development would adversely affect the neighborhood and the residents’ quality of life and safety for the following reasons:

• The proposal requires the elimination of the residential use of the properties at 626 and 628 Great Falls Road. This will result in a critical reduction in residential structures in this immediate area and increase institutions such that they will compose more than 70% of the land use. This will effectively redraw the boundaries of the residential community, shrinking it and changing forever the residential character of this area and other close-by West End neighborhoods.

• This area has long standing historical roots as part of the original settlement of Rockville. This site was part of a black kinship community begun by free black men and women before the civil war. Today it is a primary residential gateway into the City. If built, the proposed institution will destroy the residential character of the gateway by demolishing the houses at 626 Great Falls Road and so enlarging and architecturally reshaping the house at 628 Great Falls Rd, recognized in the City’s “Historic Buildings Catalog” and currently being evaluated for historic designation. This intersection will be unrecognizable as the entrance to a residential neighborhood.

• The proposal lacks sufficient parking, both on and off-site, for the expanding congregations; currently the church uses Julius West Middle School parking across the street, creating the situation where congregants have to cross Great Falls Road at a heavily trafficked and limited sight location. This problem is compounded on by the fact that Julius West is fully utilized currently (MSI soccer games, school rentals, etc.) Overflow parking will be sent into the neighborhoods. In 2006 the city turned down an application to demolish the house at 626 Great Falls Road to create a parking lot for congregants.

• Increased traffic congestion will result on both sides of the Jehovah’s Witness site that straddles Maryland Avenue and Great Falls Road; this curving stretch of Great Falls Road is problematic because drivers going into Julius West MS will compete with vehicles turning into Jehovah’s Witness. Traffic coming off I-270 – many who cross three lanes to turn left onto Great Falls Rd. - is already a problem as is the volume of traffic speeding between I-270 and Town Center on Maryland Ave. This expansion will make traffic worse and increase the hazards because of the number of turns in and out of the parking lots.

• The proposal will adversely affect pedestrian safety because of short sight lines, too many ingresses and egresses located side by side on both Maryland and Great Falls Rd.; few places for pedestrians to cross the busy roads;

• The proposed institutional facility is Incompatible with surrounding residential properties; the few residential properties that will be left will feel like islands in a sea of institutions and their quality of life will be severely degraded for this and the other reasons listed above.