A Very Busy Civic – and Community Engagement - Week!

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The week of April 9th will be one of the busiest civic weeks our community has seen in a long, long time. From Monday through Thursday there will be no less than 7 critical meetings, open houses, and/or networking opportunities well worth attending.

Obviously, no one can be at all of these. BUT: most every group, association, and organization interested in our civic and community engagement world can assign different members to attend the different gatherings. This way, we will all be able to at least say “yeah, I know what is going on” and/or “yep; I put in my 2-cents worth!”

MONDAY, APRIL 9

[] SILVER SPRING CITIZENS ADVISORY BOARD REGULARLY SCHEDULED MONTHLY MEETING (7pm, Civic Building) This meeting will focus almost exclusively on the County Executive’s recommended operating budget. If you want to get more into the budget before the meeting, see our previous blog post here. For the Board Packet, which include a wealth of information regarding the Board’s recent work click here.

[] MIDDLE SCHOOL #2 SITE SELECTION (5pm, Park & Planning – 8787 Georgia Avenue) The Montgomery County Planning Board will meet to review and discuss public sites evaluated in the Report of the Site Selection Advisory Committee for the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Middle School #2. This impactsthe western neighborhoods of the Silver Spring Regional Area. For the agenda, click here.

TUESDAY APRIL 10

[] ZONING REWRITE PROJECT OPEN HOUSE (5-8pm, Park & Planning – 8787 Georgia Avenue) This is not a meeting; there will be no presentation… Rather, it is an opportunity to learn about what is going on regarding this critical topic… Montgomery County planners have undertaken a comprehensive rewrite of the county’s Zoning Ordinance. In concert with a team of consultants and a public steering committee, planners are simplifying a complex, outdated code to reinforce Montgomery County’s enviable quality of life. The zoning code was last comprehensively rewritten in 1977. For more info, click here.

[] YOUTH EMPLOYMENT NETWORKING (6-7:30 El Golfo Restaurant – 8739 Flower Ave) This is not a meeting either… Rather, it is “an evening with friends and neighbors, young and old, to connect youth to jobs.” The event is coordinated by Impact Silver Spring, Gandhi Brigade, MANUP, MMYC, and the Silver Spring Regional Center. See flyer here.

[] FOREST GLEN PASSAGEWAY FEASIBILITY STUDY (7-9pm Sligo Middle School – 1401 Denis Ave) While this is technically outside the Silver Spring Regional Area, it is of utmost importance to any of us that drive on Georgia Avenue and are interested in pedestrian safety and access. Also, this effort is aligned with the study being done for re-doing Georgia Avenue from Forest Glen down to 16th Street. For more info on the Passageway click here.

[] BUDGET PUBLIC HEARING (7pm, Council Office Building 3rd Floor – 100 Maryland Ave, Rockville) This is your opportunity to voice your opinion to County Council on the recommended operating budget for Fiscal Year 2013, which starts July 1st of this year. For more info click here.
(For our previous blog posting to help you navigate the budget, click here.)
NOTE: This opportunity is repeated Wednesday and Thursday at 1:30 and 7:00 p.m.

WEDNESDAY APRIL 11

[] BUDGET PUBLIC HEARING (see Tuesday)

[] SAFE SILVER SPRING (7pm, Civic Building) The Safe Silver Spring initiative brings it monthly meetings to the Civic Building once a quarter to provide an opportunity for a dialogue with our 3rd Police Precinct. This meeting in particular will focus on the business community, with Lt. Robert (Bob) Carter presenting information on the new “Safe City” program. For more info on Safe Silver Spring visit here.

THURSDAY APRIL 12

[] BUDGET PUBLIC HEARING (see Tuesday)


If you and your group were to be representing at each of these convenings, you will be able to most expediently come up to speed with nearly all that is ‘going on in Silver Spring’!

Again: We encourage you to make sure your group is represented in all these great opportunities to ‘engage our community’.

Reemberto Rodriguez, Director
Silver Spring Regional Area