Planning commission approves new gated entrance to Rockville Senior Center

The Rockville Planning Commission on Wednesday approved mandatory referral application 2026305 to build a new driveway from West Goode Drive to the Rockville Senior Center at 1150 Carnation Drive, voting to adopt the staff recommendation with conditions.

Nelson Ortiz, a planner with the city—s Community Planning and Development Services Department, told the commission the site is designated civic and public institutional and is zoned park. "This application is for the property located at 1150 Carnation Drive," Ortiz said, and staff "find the project to be consistent with the plan" and recommended approval with conditions.

Craig Simona, the city—s director of public works, described the project as implementing a comprehensive-plan recommendation and said the entrance would provide a second, more convenient point of access from a major corridor rather than routing visits through the surrounding residential streets. Simona said the project would include two 12-foot travel lanes, new sidewalks and curb ramps, a dedicated left-turn lane on West Goode Drive, signage and landscaping.

To address neighborhood concerns about cut-through traffic, the plan includes two access gates between the north parking lot and the circular driveway in front of the senior center. "We chose 2 gate arms because we did not want traffic to get all the way up that road to a gate arm and decide they couldn't make it through and they would have to back down that access road," Simona said.

Simona described operational options the city will retain during procurement: the gates can be kept down after hours, opened for events, operated with camera monitoring and paired with a call button that would connect to the senior center. "We can count the cars that come through in an hour," he said. "If you have 45 cars that come through in an hour and there's only 15 cars parked in the parking lot, something's going on, okay?" He said staff chose flexible procurement to allow technology choices to adapt based on observed usage.

Commissioners asked about monitoring and how the call button would be routed; Simona said the call button option would go to the senior center and that most users would not need to use the gate unless one side of the parking lot was full. Commissioners also heard from staff that the project includes a proposed micro-bioretention facility and that construction is anticipated to begin late this year pending design completion and mayor-and-council approvals.

The commission approved the mandatory referral by voice vote. The project will proceed to bid; because the anticipated price is expected to exceed the council—s contract threshold, the mayor and council will review the contract for final approval.

What happens next: staff will complete 100% design drawings following the commission decision, the project will go to bid and the mayor and council will review the contract. The planning commission—s recommendation and the staff report record the conditions of approval.