Montgomery County, MD Green Party Blog

The intercounty connector, an east-west highway planned for the northern Maryland suburbs that has been 50 years in the making, moved a significant step closer to construction today after the federal government said the highway plans satisfied all legal and environmental requirements.
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The highway could … be stalled if state legislators balk at its $2.4 billion cost….

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Montgomery Residents Request Clearer Regulations

Small measures, such as posting information about development proposals on the Internet and holding more public hearings in the evenings when working people can attend, would give residents greater say in how their communities develop, the groups said. The Planning Board should also do a better job of explaining the county’s perplexing zoning code and allow more time for the public to rebut developers’ comments before voting on a proposal, several community activists suggested.

“The process is very opaque to the average citizen,” said Kathleen Michels, president of the Upper Sligo Civic Association and Friends of Sligo Creek. “The developers know exactly where to go and whom to talk to.”

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A day after Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan called for a hard look at the management of the county’s planning department and ordered work halted on another project, some county officials said his remarks did little to resolve the controversy over construction irregularities in northern Montgomery.

Some council members, as well as planning staff, said that in his state of the county address, Duncan tried to take undue credit for attempts to resolve problems at Clarksburg Town Center. Others said he was using his speech to boost his political fortunes.

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The heart of the Kensington historical district is the mansion originally built by Brainard Warner, who in 1891 established Kensington as a residential community based around the newly built railroad station. The mansion is now used as a nursing home and the grounds around it are available to the residents.

Earlier this year the owners of the property decided to sell it to developers who wanted to replace the mansion with housing developments. Hoping to preserve the town’s historical heretige, the town council turned to the county planning board which has a program to buy up “Legacy Open Space Heritage Resources.”

The town approached the Board and thought they had an agreement to buy the property and preserve it, but when it came time to sign the agreement they found out that the Board planned to close the nursing home and build housing on half of the property.

Once again the Planning Board secretly negotiated with developers. Nothing was said to the residents of the Board’s agenda for the property at the town meeting in July. Instead the town was presented with a “take it or leave it” deal.

Confronted with this the town persuaded the Board to postpone signing the agreement and to hold a public meeting on Nov. 28th. Board Chairman Berlage and County Councilman Tom Perez have agreed to participate in the meeting. They are likely to hear some bluntly frank opinions.

Developer Vows to Use Pig Farm As Revenge

“Now maybe when I go to negotiate with these people I’ll get a little better response,” [Steve] Nagel told The Spokesman-Review newspaper.

But county and city officials doubt that Nagel will follow through, noting that threats to go into the hog business have become planning dispute cliches.

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Opponents Fear Drainage System Will Allow Development on Preserved Land

They are nothing more than mounds of earth, often camouflaged by grass. But in the fight to stave off suburban sprawl in northwestern Montgomery County, sand mounds have taken on unusual prominence.

Twenty-five years ago, county planners created one of the nation’s most ambitious land preservation programs, setting aside 93,000 acres for farmland and open space. To deter residential development, they kept public water and sewer service out of most of this agricultural reserve, forcing property owners to use wells for water and septic systems to filter sewage into the ground for absorption.
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The mechanics of sewage disposal are well-known to residents of Montgomery’s “upcounty.” In a conventional septic system, waste flows into a storage tank, then into a drain field where the soil soaks up most of it. In a sand mound system, a pump carries the sewage up into a man-made mound of sand and gravel, bypassing the unsuitable soil. A pipeline then lets the waste drain down through the soil.

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Officials’ Careers May Be Affected

Its 200-plus pages are written in pure bureaucratese. And it avoids identifying any major player by name.

But this week’s report from the Montgomery County Council’s investigative arm still manages to make clear that the county’s planning system is ailing and that three officials watched as it grew weaker: Planning Board Chairman Derick P. Berlage, County Executive Douglas M. Duncan (D) and County Council member Steven A. Silverman, who heads a key committee with oversight of the planning process.

Berlage, Duncan and Silverman (D-At Large) face career crossroads as they try to shake the stigma of Clarksburg. Duncan is seeking the 2006 Democratic nomination for governor, Silverman hopes to become the next county executive and Berlage is fighting to keep his $129,000-a-year job as board chairman.

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Clarksburg Audit Depicts Agency on ‘Autopilot,’ Lacking Records

A culture of sloppiness and arrogance pervades the Montgomery County planning process, creating a system in which staff and developers work together out of public view with little supervision, according to a County Council audit released yesterday.

The four-month investigation by the Office of Legislative Oversight into the construction of Clarksburg Town Center does not single out individuals in key posts, such as county Planning Board Chairman Derick Berlage or Charles Loehr, former executive director of the Department of Park and Planning. But it offers biting criticism of the system’s performance on their watch and that of their predecessors.

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County Inspector General Alleges Lack of Cooperation With Clarksburg Probe

Inspector General Thomas J. Dagley said the agency, which makes recommendations on land-use policy to the county Planning Board, is withholding information and dragging its feet on requests to interview staff members.

In a letter to County Attorney Charles W. Thompson Jr. dated Monday, Dagley said he is looking into at least two other matters involving the agency, although he would not say what they are.

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Only Montgomery Project Leader May Know the Truth, but She’s Not Talking

What’s beyond dispute is that [Wynn] Witthans is the missing star witness today as the Montgomery County Planning Board opens the final phase of its probe of Clarksburg Town Center. At issue are allegations that the developer, San Diego-based Newland Communities, and four local builders violated a series of binding agreements on building heights and setbacks, the style and configuration of homes, and retail and recreation plans.

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