The County Council next week will interview five applicants for the vacant commissioner position on the county’s Planning Board.
The Council announced that Natali Fani-Gonzalez, Dennis Kamber, Charles Kauffman, Mohammad Siddique and Victor Weissberg will all be interviewed during the Council’s regular session on Tuesday, Sept. 23. The interviews will be aired on County Cable Montgomery and streamed online at the Council’s website.
The shake-up on the Planning Board comes after the Council selected former commissioner Casey Anderson to replace outgoing Chair Francoise Carrier in July. The Council received letters of interest from 25 applicants to take over Anderson’s spot.
Among them was former commissioner and Chevy Chase resident Meredith Wellington, who made the final cut of five interviewees for the position left vacant by Carrier and got the support of a collection of neighborhood associations in Chevy Chase. Wellington will not be given a chance to interview for the commissioner position.
The person the Council selects for the job will likely have some influence on the Bethesda Downtown Plan, the sector plan rewrite for downtown Bethesda that is set to go before the Board early next year.
The new commissioner will likely also have a significant role in the future of Westbard, which unlike downtown Bethesda does not have the transit facilities that typically serve as justification for large-scale redevelopment. A new property manager in the area hopes to create a “main street” and include housing in what’s now a strip shopping center anchored by a grocery store.
Both sector plan rewrites must get approval from the Planning Board before being submitted to the County Council.
Fani-Gonzalez is seeking the job after coming up short in her bid for a District 18 House of Delegates seat. In her application letter Fani-Gonzalez said her entrepreneurship and status of a millennial could be needed on the Planning Board.
Kamber, a civil engineer, hails from Poolesville, while Bethesda resident Charles Kauffman wrote a lot about his work with seniors and the aging population. Silver Spring resident Victor Weissberg seems to bring the most planning and government job experience, while Montgomery Village resident Mohammad Siddique has been a consultant and project manager with private companies and Montgomery County government.
The interview times have yet to be announced.
