Kensington adopts new building code

Wednesday, May 3, 2006

The Kensington Town Council voted unanimously to increase the size of additions allowed on homes and to give more flexibility to the amount of space between homes.

After hearing from several residents, the council decided on Monday to adopt a building ordinance that allows homeowners to build additions up to 650 square feet — up from the 500 square feet it had originally proposed.

The new ordinance does maintain the flexibility that allows those homeowners to have less than 10 feet on both sides, as long as there is at least seven feet on one side.

The decision comes after more than a year of discussion that has aimed to strike a balance between allowing residents to add on to their homes while preserving town character, so that homes aren’t much larger than the majority of homes or located too close together. At the same time, the council has worked to ensure owners of smaller homes were not heavily restricted in what they could build.

The town’s new building code is also stricter than the Montgomery County building code, which requires homeowners to have a combined 18 feet of space on both sides of a house up to the property line with one side having at least eight feet.

‘‘I appreciate the attention and the work that has gone into looking at this,” said Jennifer Beaudet, who argued that a 650-square-foot addition allows for two comfortable-sized rooms. ‘‘We’ve been working with an architect since last summer trying to come up with a design [for] a small home...and we do strongly believe that 650 square feet is a better cutoff.”

In the end the council agreed.

‘‘We’ve worked on this for a year to try to address this issue of an unintended consequence to making improvements to the building code,” said Town Councilman Al Carr. ‘‘We’re trying to fix that. There may be other unintended consequences that we’ll have to correct...I’m comfortable with this change. I think it’s a step in the right direction.”

Emergency trash service

The Town Council voted to allow Public Works Director Mike Wojton to outsource trash pickup for at least a month after one of the town’s two trash trucks broke down on April 19.

Wojton is currently in the process of securing a contract with the Burtonsville trash removal company All Star Waste and Recycling that could begin as soon as Friday, Wojton said.

The Light Truck repair shop in Rockville offered to repair the town’s second trash truck for about $22,000, but Wojton will look at other companies before deciding on a repair shop, he said. The cost to have All Star pick up trash for one month is expected to cost $7,500.

The town normally has trash and brush pickup on Fridays and Mondays. Since the truck broke down, the public works staff has been picking up trash on Fridays and Mondays and brush on Tuesday.

If All Star agrees to help with trash removal, the schedule will go back to normal and the town’s remaining truck will be used to pick up brush.

Any changes in trash and brush service are announced online at www.tok.md.gov, Wojton said.

Demolition fee increaseproposed

The town is looking to increase demolition fees to $100 for residents and $500 for commercial businesses.

Nothing has been decided yet, but the idea was proposed by Mayor Lynn Raufaste at the Monday work session in light of upcoming demolition projects, such as the Safeway building on Howard Avenue and the cement plant on Metropolitan Avenue.

Currently it costs $30 to obtain a commercial or residential demolition permit in town. By increasing the fees, the town would have more revenue.

‘‘There’s going to be a lot of demolition coming in very quickly,” Raufaste said. ‘‘So we do need to talk about this soon.”

Safeway plans outlined

Plans to build a new Safeway grocery store on Howard Avenue are moving forward, according to company representatives who spoke to residents during Monday’s work session.

The plans for the store include replacing the current one located at 3838 Howard Ave., with a new 50,000-square-foot design that will have an expanded meat department, a Starbucks coffee shop, a Sun Trust bank and a dry cleaners.

Currently there are copies of the design to the Kensington Town Hall office, 3710 Mitchell St., for residents to look at.

A date for construction on the new store has not been set, but plans will move forward until Safeway relocates and opens the current store’s pharmacy.

The pharmacy will move across the street to 10530 Connecticut Ave., where Masters Tuxedo used to be. Safeway is still trying to obtain building permits to open the pharmacy, said Tom Castleberry, vice president of real estate for the eastern division of Safeway.

Other plans for construction around the store include widening Knowles Avenue between Connecticut and Armory avenues and adding a right-turn lane on Connecticut Avenue. A left-turn lane will also be added at Plyers Mill Road between Connecticut and Metropolitan avenues, according to Project Manager, Daniel Duke.