As county school system officials struggle with a school overcrowding issue they did not anticipate, Rockville officials struggle with identifying their role in a possible solution.

On Monday night, the City Council voted against a proposal to amend a city law, the Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance, created to protect public facilities such as schools, roads and other services from being overburdened by development.

The law's school-overcrowding provision was cited in a Maryland Court of Special Appeals decision in August as grounds to overturn city approval of a 74-unit affordable housing project.

Bruce Crispell, director of public facilities management for Montgomery County Public Schools, said the county's more established school clusters like Richard Montgomery in Rockville and Walter Johnson and Bethesda Chevy Case, both in Bethesda, are facing a perfect storm.

"There is typically a lot of movement of people moving in and out of Montgomery County, but fewer people are moving out because the job market isn't good anywhere else," Crispell said. "Births have been going up for years and children are coming in from private schools, so that's compounding the outmigration issue."

The ordinance is a hot topic of conversation in part because it prohibits construction of any development that would add students to a school that is 10 percent over capacity.

The council is working with Board of Education member Laura V. Berthiaume (Dist. 2) to arrange a tour of some of Rockville's overcrowded schools and at Monday's council meeting several council members informally spoke of gathering residents to lobby the county and the school system to find a solution.

Berthiaume said the tour will include Twinbrook and Beall elementary schools and Thomas S. Wootton High School, all of which are over capacity.

Seven of Rockville's eight county elementary schools and two of its three high schools are overcrowded.

Larry Giammo, a former mayor and a principal author of the ordinance, led the legal battle against Beall's Grant II. He said the Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance is serving its purpose.

"The law has worked as intended and continues to protect Rockville residents from the negative impacts of overdevelopment," Giammo said in an email.

Crispell, however, said new development, like high-rises or affordable housing, is a very small part of the problem.

"People vilify new development, but (those projects) don't really affect enrollment. It is a marginal part," Crispell said. "A lot more existing houses generate new families than new development. Single-family, detached houses, that's were most of the families with kids are residing."

Crispell also said he doesn't think the time element of the law coordinates well with the county school process. The ordinance requires the city to immediately reserve space in affected schools for the potential students generated by approved, but not completed, development.

"I think the law says two years, and because we have a biennial budget there is no way new problem can be fixed in that time," Crispell said. "I think (the writers of the law) meant well, but I'm not sure that fits the problem."

Crispell said the county is moving to correct the overcrowding problem. Classroom additions have been proposed or approved for Beall, Ritchie Park and Twinbrook elementary schools. Wootton High School is on track for modernization.

"We don't want to be in a hole for very long either, but it's very expensive for us to resolve these problems," Crispell said.

Cheryl Kagan, former state delegate who worked with the nonprofit Montgomery Housing Partnership in its effort to build Beall's Grant II in downtown Rockville, said the city will soon have to discuss changing the law.

"There is a growing consensus that the (Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance) is going to be revised; the questions are when and how," said Kagan. "If there are going to be (9,000) or 10,000 more residents that move to Rockville in the coming years there are going to be implications for our facilities and for the city. The question is whether the city gets out in front and makes plans to accommodate the additional residents and business or if we continue to try to play catch up."

To read the article from its source, click here.