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Plans for a retail and condominium complex in Olde Towne Gaithersburg can move forward after the city relaxed requirements for new developments to meet 110 percent school enrollment if the projects meet certain requirements.

The mayor and council agreed to an exception in the Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance (APFO) that will allow projects to get started in areas with schools projected to have 120 percent capacity within the next two years, if they meet certain requirements. Those requirements include if they meet the city's Master Plan and strategic directions, are compatible with neighboring projects and the number of students generated does not result in a net increase in Montgomery County Public School (MCPS) enrollment projections, said Gaithersburg Planning Director Lauren Pruss.

Developers of The Summit, slated to bring more than 300 residences and retail to a 6.8-acre parcel at the corner of Goshen Road and Girard Street, said the changes will help their project advance.

Developer Todd Jacobus of Woodfield Investments LLC, told city leaders that school overcrowding and potential double counting threatened to slow redevelopment.

The APFO generally said that the mayor and council could not approve plans for a residential development if the property were within the attendance area of a public school forecasted to have a student population that exceeds 110 percent capacity in the next two years.

The change to the "110 percent rule" could pave the way for the project and redevelopment projects throughout the city, said Director of Planning and Code Administration Greg Ossont.

Fewer "students are coming from these types of developments," said Community Planning Director Trudy Schwarz, who cited a discrepancy between the number of students projected by MCPS and the number of students living in multistory developments with structured parking, such as the nearby Park Station Apartments.

City planners advised the mayor and council in August that, as it was written, the APFO hindered redevelopment of the Summit Shopping Center next to the Hidden Creek townhome community.

Students projected to live in The Summit — renamed in July as the Residences at Hidden Creek — were counted in the fiscal 2010 MCPS forecast, so student projections in a proposed schematic development plan for the project would be a double count, said Schwarz.

Changes to the ordinance will help the project go forward at the same rate as in Montgomery County, which has a 120 percent school capacity requirement.