The disputed property. Image from Google Street View.

Rockville and Gaithersburg are nearly identical in many ways, and usually get along. But they aren’t happy with each other right now, as they fight over who will annex a property located in the narrow swath of unincorporated land between them. This fight shows how long-term planning works and why it is important.

The crux of their disagreement is that Gaithersburg wants to annex a piece of land near the Rockville border that Rockville has never annexed itself, but to which Rockville thinks it is entitled. The land is south of Shady Grove Road, which many people think of as the unofficial boundary between the two cities.

But what people think of unofficially is not the law. There are actually laws on the books that govern how annexation works. When the dust settles, Gaithersburg is going to win this fight, because Gaithersburg has proactively thought about its long term planning needs, while Rockville has been strictly reactive.

The State of Maryland requires incorporated cities to adopt a future expansion plan, showing areas that each city may want to annex in the future. The entire point of this requirement is to give cities the opportunity to show where their “unofficial” boundaries are, so that everyone can plan accordingly.

And whether Rockville cares to admit it or not, they never made any kind of claim to the land in question until after Gaithersburg claimed it for itself, despite many opportunities to do so. If Rockville thought itself entitled to everything south of Shady Grove Road, then Rockville should have used the state’s process to stake a legal claim.

Here are maps showing each city’s adopted expansion plans, taken from their respective growth plans (page 66 on Rockville’s on the top, page 30 on Gaithersburg’s below):

The property in question is near the southeast corner of Shady Grove Road and Frederick Road:

Map by the author on Google Maps.

The Gaithersburg plan was adopted in 2009, and clearly shows this property as part of Gaithersburg’s claim area. It’s possible Gaithersburg claimed the land even earlier, but at the very latest by 2009 they had declared their intention to the land. Meanwhile, Rockville’s plan shows that they didn’t start thinking about this property until 2010, and had even specifically excluded it from their expansion plan during their previous update in 2002. If Rockville wanted this land, why didn’t they claim it in 2002? Or even before? If they really thought of Shady Grove Road as the boundary with Gaithersburg, why not make it official during any of the many updates to their expansion plan over the decades? Why wait until after Gaithersburg claimed it to express any interest? Rockville didn’t plan for the long term, and Gaithersburg did, and so Gaithersburg is going to win. They are set to annex the property at tonight’s City Council meeting, and Rockville is powerless to stop it. This is a good lesson to everyone. Proactively plan for what you want, or lose out to someone who did.