MoCo Council to interview two applicants for Planning Board vacancy
Plus: Public hearing on issuance of county bonds for Viva White Oak redevelopment project
By
Ceoli JacobyJuly 13, 2026 5:30 p.m.
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The Montgomery County Council on Tuesday morning will interview two applicants for a vacant seat on the five-member Montgomery Planning Board, part of the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission.
In the afternoon, the council will recognize retiring state Del. Pam Queen (D-Dist. 14) for her years of service to the community. There will also be a public hearing about proposed county bonds for Viva White Oak, a 280-acre planned redevelopment project in the east county.
The council will meet at 10 a.m. Tuesday in the Stella Werner Council Office Building in Rockville for its first regular business meeting of the month. The council did not meet on July 7 due to Independence Day.
Here’s what on tap this week:
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Planning Board vacancy
At 10:30 a.m., the council will interview two applicants — James Hedrick and John Schlichting (both D) — for a vacant seat on the Montgomery Planning Board, which oversees land use, development and environmental protection in Montgomery County.
Hedrick’s partial term as a Planning Board Commissioner expired June 14, according to a council staff report.
Hedrick, a housing policy professional, has applied for re-appointment, this time to a full term. John Schlichting, the former director of planning and code administration for the city of Gaithersburg, has also applied to fill the vacant seat.
Hedrick’s initial appointment to the Planning Board in March 2023 followed a series of controversies surrounding the entity.
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In October 2022, all five members of the previous Planning Board resigned after the body met in closed session to fire former Planning Director Gwen Wright. Then-board chair Casey Anderson had earlier been found to have violated Planning Department rules by keeping a full bar in his county office.
In February 2023, the council chose Hedrick over four other Democrats to replace Cherri Branson, who had been serving on the Planning Board in a temporary capacity since the raft of resignations.
The following month, County Executive Marc Elrich (D) vetoed the appointment of Hedrick, saying at the time that Hedrick had “made insulting and dismissive statements about those with opposing viewpoints” regarding housing. The council then overrode Elrich’s veto with a unanimous vote.
Planning Board terms are typically four years long, according to a council staff report. Commissioners are paid $30,000 annually and are limited to serving two full terms. No more than three commissioners can be members of the same political party.
Recognizing Del. Queen
Just after 1 p.m., the council will issue a proclamation recognizing state Del. Pam Queen (D-Dist. 14) for her years of service to the community.
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Queen, of Olney, was appointed by the county’s Democratic Central Committee to fill a legislative vacancy in 2016 and elected to full terms in 2018 and 2022. In addition to Olney, District 14 includes portions of Burtonsville, Brookeville, Clarksburg, Damascus, Fairland and Laytonsville.
Queen announced in September that she would not seek re-election in 2026, a move she said was “part of a bigger plan of not only retiring from the General Assembly but also my teaching job” as a professor of finance at Morgan State University in Baltimore.
Queen plans to serve out her term, which ends in January. Matt Post, a former student member of the county Board of Education, easily won the Democratic nomination for the seat currently held by Queen and will not face a Republican opponent in November.
Viva White Oak bonds
Starting at 1:30 p.m., the council will hold a public hearing on a proposal to issue county bonds to the developer of Viva White Oak.
The planned 280-acre redevelopment project, previously called LifeSci Village, would be near the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s White Oak campus at 10903 New Hampshire Ave. It is expected to add 12.1 million square feet of commercial, residential, retail and public space, including nearly 5,000 residential units, to the eastern part of the county.
The county intends to enter into a tax increment financing agreement with the developer, MCB Real Estate of Baltimore. The bond authorization is the last step in executing the agreement, which is the first of its kind in the county.
Through a tax increment financing agreement, property tax revenues generated from a project within a set period can be awarded back to the developer in the form of bonds to help support the construction of public infrastructure required as part of the project’s approval.
Under the terms of the financing plan for Viva White Oak, MCB Real Estate could receive a maximum of $420 million in county bonds, according to an October 2025 fiscal report. The bond money would be broken up into five issuances between 2026 and 2039.
Elrich has said bonds issued to MCB Real Estate are not expected to impact the county’s municipal bond rating, which dictates the interest rate at which the county is able to borrow money, or its general fund balance.
The council’s Economic Development and Government Operations committees are scheduled to review the bond authorization on July 23.
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Originally published at Bethesdamagazine