Rockville council pauses King Farm Farmstead adoption after residents push back on parking; staff to post revisions for Nov. 17

Mayor Ashland convened the Rockville Mayor and Council on Oct. 20 to consider the King Farm Farmstead master plan after an extended public comment period focused on parking, open space and historic preservation.

Tara Stewart, director of Recreation and Parks, opened the staff presentation and asked the council to adopt the plan. Consultant Mike Stover of Design Collective presented three parking options: (1) a paved 44-space lot next to the community garden with temporary event parking on the 355 side; (2) asphalt moved to the 355 side with 50 new spaces and temporary grass event parking; and (3) rely on existing on-street parking and a 5-minute walk from Matty/Maddie Stepanek with minimal on-site paving. Stover recommended involving a traffic and parking consultant in the next design phase.

Those at the podium urged the council to preserve green space and avoid parking next to the community garden. "I would like to advocate for not having any parking next to the community garden," said Ilsa Bey Urban, a King Farm resident, citing pedestrian safety, loss of expansion space and negative impacts on pavilion rentals. "This is a $20,000,000 city investment," Anna Chung added, urging a traffic and parking study before adoption.

City Manager Jeff Mihalik told the council a formal public hearing is required only when a master plan amends the comprehensive plan; staff characterized this adoption as a facility-use master plan and said subsequent site, landscape and architectural plans will go to the Planning Commission and the Historic District Commission (HDC) for review.

Council debate focused on phasing, cost and parking. Staff outlined a two-phase approach that prioritizes rehabilitating the dairy barns and farmhouse in Phase 1 (FY27-FY30) at an estimated $21.6 million, and completing the horse barn, tenant houses and garage in Phase 2 (FY31-FY33) at an estimated $7.1 million. Multiple councilmembers expressed concern about initial capital outlays; several supported removing a proposed dairy-barn addition to reduce the Phase 1 price tag by roughly $2 million.

Positions diverged on parking: some councilmembers favored Option 3 to protect open space and rely on off-site overflow parking and on-street spaces, while others favored Option 2 (parking on the 355 side) to reduce overflow into neighborhood streets during high-use events. Staff noted zoning currently requires roughly 142 parking spaces and that requirements would change depending on final program sizes.

After discussion the council gave clear direction to staff: do not start the project with the dairy-barn addition, show the plan as two phases in the capital improvements plan (with the option to break phases further later), preserve the community garden, and post a revised "clean" master plan for public review (staff aimed for Nov. 1-ish) with a targeted adoption date of Nov. 17. The council did not vote to adopt the plan on Oct. 20.

What happens next: staff will revise the master plan to reflect the council feedback, post it for public review, and bring a recommended adoption back to the council in mid-to-late November. The HDC and Planning Commission will have formal review opportunities later in the design/permitting stage.