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The Rockville City Council voted Monday night to again extend the moratorium on new development as its continues working on citywide zoning ordinance revisions.

By a vote of 4 to 1, the council extended the halt on new construction in the city through Dec. 31 or until the zoning ordinance goes into effect, whichever comes first.

This is the fourth time the moratorium has been extended since it was first approved in November 2006.

The council also voted to extend time for a decision on the zoning ordinance until Nov. 27. The law requires the council to come to a decision within 90 days of the public hearing. The last public hearing was on June 30. Not extending the time would have allowed the application to expire and the process would have to start all over again.

The lone dissenter of both of the extensions was Councilman Piotr Gajewski, who wanted to "indefinitely suspend our work on the zoning ordinance."

During the meeting, Gajewski expressed concern over the "confusion" by the community as to what the process is, where the council is in the process and what decisions were made.

"To me the end result, where we are today, represents that perhaps the process was faulty from the get-go and perhaps the very first draft should have been done by professionals … so that indeed by the time it arrived at our doorstep we'd have a product that was nearly finished," Gajewski said Monday.

Some council members did not agree with his proposal.

"While I am sympathetic to many of the things that Piotr points out, I ,too, have been really frustrated with the process … but when I look at where we have come from where we were, I feel encouraged that there's a certain amount of progress being made," Councilwoman Phyllis R. Marcuccio said Monday.

Councilwoman Anne M. Robbins also agreed to continue with the zoning ordinance revisions because of the need to revamp the current ordinance.

Mayor Susan R. Hoffmann said the process took as long as it did because of the amount of time given for public input.

On Monday, Gajewski circulated an e-mail addressed to the council with his proposal that would instead approve specific areas of the ordinance one by one over time instead of all at once.

In the e-mail, Gajewski called the process "flawed from the outset." He referenced the original document, drafted by a group of residents on the Representatives of Rockville Zoning Ordinance Review (RORZOR) committee in 2007 as "much criticized and contained major problems."

Those problems "compounded" when it reached the Planning Commission, which "tried to make lemonade of the lemon it got," he said.

"The reality that has emerged is that Rockville is better off with the current zoning protocol than it would be with what is being proposed," Gajewski said in the e-mail.

The e-mail drew strong reaction from some on the RORZOR committee and the Planning Commission.

Former Mayor Larry Giammo said Monday that Gajewski's e-mail was "a lot of blanket negative statements."

"There is a whole litany of specific items in the proposed new zoning ordinance that are designed to help manage growth and development much more effectively and to the benefit of Rockville's residents," said Giammo, who served on RORZOR and was mayor when the zoning revisions were initiated.

"The only people who would prefer the current ordinances versus what's proposed are developers," Giammo added. "What we have now are weak and inefficient, and allows developers to get away with things that I don't think people want to see in Rockville."

Planning Commission Chairwoman Robin Wiener said she took offense to Gajewski's statements.

"We worked very, very hard on that," she said Monday. "This is something that has been worked on for a long time and I feel like Piotr's not putting credit where credit is due … people worked hard on it. I don't believe it was lemon to start with."

The zoning discussion continues

The City Council continued with a worksession on the zoning ordinance Monday, reviewing changes staff made over the council's August recess and discussing the regulations on so-called "mansionization" and industrial zones.

Some council members agreed on a maximum 37-foot height by right for single-family homes, with the ability to go to 40 feet with alternative energy installations and approval from the Planning Commission.

Marcuccio and Gajewski restated their opposition to mansionization regulations, saying residents' property rights should be protected not limited.

Restrictions were initially created to control the number of large homes being built on small lots, which some residents say are out of character with the neighborhoods but conform to the city's current standards.

Hoffmann said the increase in mansionization was one of the main reasons city officials decided to rewrite the zoning ordinance.

Hoffmann also urged East Rockville residents to voice their opinions about the possible rezoning of the Stonestreet Convenience Mart. It is currently zoned for commercial use and the Planning Commission recommended it for residential zoning. The East Rockville Neighborhood Plan states that the community would like the store to remain commercially zoned but to get rid of the off-site alcohol sales. A mixed-use commercial zone would accomplish that.

Hoffmann told The Gazette Tuesday that she met with school system officials on Monday to discuss the zone for their property on North Stonestreet Avenue, which is zoned for residential use. Montgomery County Public Schools is requesting that it be zoned for denser development

"We both share the same goal to get the trailers off the property, it's how we get there," Hoffmann said.

If the school system brings forth a specific development proposal for the property, then they would discuss it, she said.