Some very long hours at work have kept me from posting about this sooner, but input to the county council from residents regarding Wheaton redevelopment is still needed this week. The council and the county executive office are in the process of hammering out a compromise for what the $55 million in Wheaton redevelopment can be spent oc. For those of you in favor of the platform over the metro, you should email the council to tell them that they should include the bus bay platform in the list of projects that the $55m can be used to fund. It's sounding like the negotiations are moving towards listing a number possible projects the $55m could be used for - i.e. the parks and planning office building, town square, etc. At the last WRAC meeting, a DGS representative basically said that B.F. Saul will most likely walk away from their project if the platform funding doesn't happen.
Getting the platform added to that list for the $55m is an important first step in making the construction of the platform a reality. Once (and IF) that happens, there will still be a struggle down the line to make sure the money actually goes to the platform and doesn't get diverted to one of the other potential projects that will be listed (everyone seems to acknowledge that the $55m won't be enough to do everything that will be listed). So, please, email the council again to let them know you want the platform to be included in the funding that they're voting on April 10th.
According to a Patch article, all comments should be submitted by end of day this Wednesday. Here's the link with contact info for council members.
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So it would appear that Wheaton redevelopment is being sold down the river in the name of a union jobs bill and minority contracting set-asides. I had hopes that Navarro would be better than Ervin (at least her staff answers emails), but it appears that her campaign contributers in Olney, Potomac, and Bethesda win out over the needs of the residents of her district.
ReplyDeleteFrom the redeveopment plan
"Based on the March 2012 estimates from DGS, DGS is the highest bidder for this project. DGS estimates that the cost of building a 150,000 square foot government office building is nearly as expensive as B.F. Saul's cost for delivering a building twice as big."
And...
"Prevailing wage law
•Executive's request: Would not apply to office building construction; probably would apply to platform (County financed construction project)
•PHED/altemative recommendation: Would apply to office building construction.
Living wage requirement
•Executive's request: Would not apply to service providers serving the office building
•PHED/altemative recommendation: Would apply to service providers
Minority owned business
•Executive's request: Construction and service contracts associated with platform and building would not be counted towards/against minority-owned business goals
•PHED/altemative recommendation: Construction and service contracts would count
Local Small Business Reserve
•Executive's request: Would not apply to construction because of the size of contract; would not apply to services to the office building
•PHED/altemative recommendation: Would not apply to construction because of the size of contract; would apply to services to the office building"