MoCo Housing Strategies effect on MCPS

[Anonymous]

"The Montgomery Planning Board voted June 13, 2024 to approve and transmit to County Council Montgomery Planning's Attainable Housing Strategies, which recommends zoning modifications and other policy changes that would continue to allow single-family detached homes to be built, but would also permit duplexes, triplexes"

https://montgomeryplanning.org/blog-design/2024/08/faq-curious-about-our-proposal-to-relax-single-family-zoning-weve-got-answers/
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What was said tonight at the last listening session held at BCC HS tonight with County Council members on topic of developing single family homes into duplexes etc.?

What schools are going to be affected? Many were expected to show up in opposition.

[Anonymous]

Some coverage of the meeting at BCC

https://moco360.media/2024/09/26/zoning-changes-major-opposition-at-bethesda-listening-session/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some coverage of the meeting at BCC

https://moco360.media/2024/09/26/zoning-changes-major-opposition-at-bethesda-listening-session/

Not good coverage, poorly representing the concerns shared at the session.

[Anonymous]

I get that they want to build build build. I mean developers are the biggest donors to these politicians, but schools and infrastructure can't handle the current load. Let alone a billion affordable housing units that rely on tax offsets to make them affordable. This will further drive up taxes and drive away high-paying businesses.

[Anonymous]

MCPS can barely tend to the schools it has today. So many schools are at or over capacity, particularly in areas likely to be most affected by this atrocious hand-out to developers, and the county struggles to approve and pay for capital improvements. There’s no attention in this proposal to schools, infrastructure, and other basic aspects of living in the county. The county is selling out its residents to developers. Unacceptable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MCPS can barely tend to the schools it has today. So many schools are at or over capacity, particularly in areas likely to be most affected by this atrocious hand-out to developers, and the county struggles to approve and pay for capital improvements. There’s no attention in this proposal to schools, infrastructure, and other basic aspects of living in the county. The county is selling out its residents to developers. Unacceptable.

People need places to live. The population is growing and will continue to grow. That means we need more homes somewhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I get that they want to build build build. I mean developers are the biggest donors to these politicians, but schools and infrastructure can't handle the current load. Let alone a billion affordable housing units that rely on tax offsets to make them affordable. This will further drive up taxes and drive away high-paying businesses.

We accommodated much faster housing and population growth in previous decades. The problem is that people don't want to pay for schools if it means their taxes might go up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I get that they want to build build build. I mean developers are the biggest donors to these politicians, but schools and infrastructure can't handle the current load. Let alone a billion affordable housing units that rely on tax offsets to make them affordable. This will further drive up taxes and drive away high-paying businesses.

We accommodated much faster housing and population growth in previous decades. The problem is that people don't want to pay for schools if it means their taxes might go up.

And schools seem incapable of budgeting since what's another $5M or $10M to hire an outside comms firm or settle another hostile workplace lawsuit.

[Anonymous]

Do they have any projections of the impact on schools? I feel like this would maybe add 10 families per year to an elementary school boundary area. Just based on how many houses would get sold in a year to a developer who chooses to build a duplex or triplex or quadplex. Not all of them have school-age kids and if they do not all at the same level. So maybe 2 kids per year to each elementary, 8-12 to middle and high schools? They should really be trying to calculate this and the cost to the school system and how that will be paid for. It will probably add more property tax revenue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MCPS can barely tend to the schools it has today. So many schools are at or over capacity, particularly in areas likely to be most affected by this atrocious hand-out to developers, and the county struggles to approve and pay for capital improvements. There’s no attention in this proposal to schools, infrastructure, and other basic aspects of living in the county. The county is selling out its residents to developers. Unacceptable.

People need places to live. The population is growing and will continue to grow. That means we need more homes somewhere.

They can go to Howard county. Plenty of land there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MCPS can barely tend to the schools it has today. So many schools are at or over capacity, particularly in areas likely to be most affected by this atrocious hand-out to developers, and the county struggles to approve and pay for capital improvements. There’s no attention in this proposal to schools, infrastructure, and other basic aspects of living in the county. The county is selling out its residents to developers. Unacceptable.

Which is why the big boundary study needs to be done and completed quickly instead of this 2026 schedule that it’s on. If we are hiring an outside firm we need to push them to help get this done in this cycle so capacities can be leveled out. This study is needed or regardless of when the new HS opens.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MCPS can barely tend to the schools it has today. So many schools are at or over capacity, particularly in areas likely to be most affected by this atrocious hand-out to developers, and the county struggles to approve and pay for capital improvements. There’s no attention in this proposal to schools, infrastructure, and other basic aspects of living in the county. The county is selling out its residents to developers. Unacceptable.

People need places to live. The population is growing and will continue to grow. That means we need more homes somewhere.

Drive around the county. There are tons of empty apartments available for rent. I have a job in sales so I’m all over MoCo. There are TONS of available rentals.

We don’t need to build more right now. We do need more schools/parks/better infrastructure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do they have any projections of the impact on schools? I feel like this would maybe add 10 families per year to an elementary school boundary area. Just based on how many houses would get sold in a year to a developer who chooses to build a duplex or triplex or quadplex. Not all of them have school-age kids and if they do not all at the same level. So maybe 2 kids per year to each elementary, 8-12 to middle and high schools? They should really be trying to calculate this and the cost to the school system and how that will be paid for. It will probably add more property tax revenue.

I would bet it will add more than that!

Have you been around the Twinbrook area where all that high density housing has gone up recently? If you watch the school buses, there are dozens and dozens of kids who are living there now who were not there 5 years ago. Plus the new development at Wegmans. It is a significant amount of kids being added all at once.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do they have any projections of the impact on schools? I feel like this would maybe add 10 families per year to an elementary school boundary area. Just based on how many houses would get sold in a year to a developer who chooses to build a duplex or triplex or quadplex. Not all of them have school-age kids and if they do not all at the same level. So maybe 2 kids per year to each elementary, 8-12 to middle and high schools? They should really be trying to calculate this and the cost to the school system and how that will be paid for. It will probably add more property tax revenue.

I would bet it will add more than that!

Have you been around the Twinbrook area where all that high density housing has gone up recently? If you watch the school buses, there are dozens and dozens of kids who are living there now who were not there 5 years ago. Plus the new development at Wegmans. It is a significant amount of kids being added all at once.

Yes, development of large multifamily housing projects adds a ton of new families and students.

Isn't the Attainable Housing strategy about allowing duplexes, triplexes and quadplexes? That's not going to add a ton of kids all at once. It's really nothing compared to an apartment building or even a brand new single family community.

[Anonymous]

From the link in OP's post:

4. My schools already feel crowded. Wouldn’t adding more homes to my neighborhood add even more kids?
We closely analyze and anticipate how many students are generated by new housing of all types and we expect them to have minimal impact on schools.

This kind of development is expected to occur slowly and piecemeal. This means individual communities — and groups of neighborhood schools — would see relatively few new multi-unit structures built each year.

Second, while some individual schools are overcrowded, the system countywide is not, especially at the elementary- and middle-school levels. The high school level will also have surplus capacity after planned new high schools open in the next few years. Montgomery County Public Schools can adjust enrollment boundaries and pursue other tactics to make the best use of systemwide capacity.

As they do today, developers would be required to help pay for any new schools or expansion projects needed to accommodate additional students from their residential projects. They do this through paying impact taxes required of all such projects, as well as additional fees if any of the affected schools are overcapacity.