Larry's Record
Effective Leadership for Rockville...
Revitalizing Rockville’s Town Center
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Larry
led the effort to revitalize Rockville’s Town Center. The redevelopment
project, completed in 2007 has made
Rockville’s downtown a very inviting, pedestrian-friendly destination with over
20 restaurants (all with outdoor dining), over 20 retail shops, the county’s premier library, an arts
& innovation center, and town square. The project includes three public
parking garages, created 94 affordable housing
units, encourages transit use, and increases the tax base for all four levels
of government. -
Fostered local entrepreneurship and job creation by bringing a business incubator to Rockville’s Town Center. The incubator will become the home to over three dozen new start-up businesses.
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Secured over $40 million of investment by the county, state and federal governments to make the current revitalization of Rockville’s Town Center possible.
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For more information about the revitalization of Rockville's Town Center, click here.
Achieving Balanced, Sustainable Growth
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Larry led Rockville's adoption of an "adequate public facilities ordinance" (APFO) that strictly limits new growth when roads are jammed or schools are overcrowded. Rockville's growth controls are now among the strongest in Maryland. To read the 11/7/05 Washington Post article about Rockville's APFO, click here.
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Led Rockville's adoption of new, comprehensive requirements to ensure that developers provide all of the transportation and pedestrian safety improvements needed to support their development projects.
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Because he believes we need to strike a sustainable balance between growth and quality of life, Larry initiated Rockville's current efforts to develop and implement:
Development impact taxes to ensure that developers will always pay the full cost of all of the public infrastructure needed to support their new developments.
New requirements for construction in existing residential neighborhoods that will ensure that every newly-built or expanded house will truly be a positive asset for the community.
New urban design standards for the larger areas around the Rockville and Twinbrook Metro stations. New standards Larry is pushing for will: limit building heights to keep development human-scaled and inviting, limit density to minimize traffic generation, improve building designs and streetscapes, increase the amount of public park land, and increase the retail space available for locally-owned shops and restaurants.
Creating Affordable Housing
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Rockville's
(and Larry's) commitment to creating affordable housing is unrivaled. Over 565
affordable housing units have been added to Rockville's affordable housing
program. Rockville's affordable housing program now has, on a per capita
basis, twice the number of affordable housing units than Montgomery County's
program. -
Larry is proud that the city government never granted a waiver to developers from the city’s affordable housing requirements and requires affordable housing units to be equally distributed throughout the community. By comparison, the Montgomery County government allowed developers to buy their way out of having to provide hundreds of affordable housing units, typically paying only a small fraction of the cost to provide those units elsewhere.
- Facilitated the "Legacy at Lincoln Park" redevelopment project that will replace traditional "public housing" to create innovative, mixed-income housing to foster home ownership and to strengthen the Lincoln Park neighborhood. This redevelopment project has been recognized as a potential model for the nation.
Improving Traffic and Pedestrian Safety
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Added new traffic control
measures, new crosswalks, and new sidewalks in neighborhoods throughout
Rockville. -
Implemented new enhanced pedestrian safety improvements specifically for school zones across Rockville.
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Increased traffic enforcement and initiated the deployment of speed cameras in order to reduce speeding, especially in residential neighborhoods and school zones.
Enhancing Community Safety
Secured $1.5 million of federal
money to provide Rockville police the equipment needed to respond effectively
to regional crises.
Added new police officers to
serve our growing city.
Investing in Valued Community Facilities
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Supported funding for a new community center west of I-270 to serve residents and to expand the city’s senior and youth programs. Design of the new facility has already begun!
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Added and upgraded parks throughout the city, including the Mattie Stepanek Park, Mary Trumbo Park and Dawson Farm Park.
Supporting Education and Local Schools
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Implemented the "Linkages to Learning Program" at the Twinbrook and Maryvale Elementary Schools to help at-risk students and their families succeed.
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Increased the city’s academically-oriented after-school programs at other elementary and middle schools in Rockville.
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Larry advocated strongly for building the new Richard Montgomery High School. Construction is now nearly complete.
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Supported providing city funding for the expansion of the new gyms at Lakewood and College Gardens Elementary Schools.
Building a Multicultural Community
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Larry made it a priority to reach out to and bring together Rockville’s highly diverse and international population (one-third of Rockville’s residents were born outside the U.S.).
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Hosted roundtable discussions with Asian, Hispanic and African-American business leaders to identify ways to broaden Rockville’s business base. First-ever Washington, DC-area Asian Business Conference hosted by Rockville city government on October 17, 2005.
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Increased city funding to provide ESOL classes to help recent immigrants learn English and to become a part of our community.
Enhancing City Government Performance
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Took a fresh look at the city government’s operations to identify ways to further improve responsiveness and efficiency. Hired Scott Ullery as Rockville's City Manager who continues to make great strides with his management team and city staff toward making Rockville's city government world-class in terms of innovation and achievement of results.
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Fiscally responsible and held the line on expenditures. In 2007, the City of Rockville was awarded the AAA credit rating (the highest possible and very rare among cities Rockville's size).
Providing Property Tax Relief for Homeowners
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Reduced the city's property tax rate twice, instituted and additional $100 tax credit for homeowners and significantly expanded the city’s property tax credit program for Rockville’s lowest-income homeowners.
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Larry proposed a new approach to provide greater property tax relief for homeowners and to make property taxes more progressive. To read Larry's proposal, published in the Washington Post's Close to Home section in April 2005,