Call your MoCo Council Member: Just say no to bill 2224 re: Impact Taxes

[Anonymous]

People, it would help to get the word out by posting elsewhere as well - Reddit’s Bethesda forum is active, as is MoCo, though it slants to younger new arrivals. It’s ironic to hear the new condo and apartment dwellers complain about transformer blows. Also use your neighborhood listservs and show up to community meetings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People, it would help to get the word out by posting elsewhere as well - Reddit’s Bethesda forum is active, as is MoCo, though it slants to younger new arrivals. It’s ironic to hear the new condo and apartment dwellers complain about transformer blows. Also use your neighborhood listservs and show up to community meetings.

Part of the problem is that every time we wrap our heads around one scheme they replace it with a new scheme. This seems like a deliberate effort to “flood the zone” as they are saying these days.

So we had Thrive to “plan the plan.”

Now there is the AHS, the corridor plans, and now Moore Housing? For some reason they all involve the same things and there is no accounting for overlap.

They’ve already passed parking requirement changes completely separate from these, and much is predicated on the BRT being built (you know, the bus), and many of those transportation changes will require state approval which might take YEARS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People, it would help to get the word out by posting elsewhere as well - Reddit’s Bethesda forum is active, as is MoCo, though it slants to younger new arrivals. It’s ironic to hear the new condo and apartment dwellers complain about transformer blows. Also use your neighborhood listservs and show up to community meetings.

Part of the problem is that every time we wrap our heads around one scheme they replace it with a new scheme. This seems like a deliberate effort to “flood the zone” as they are saying these days.

So we had Thrive to “plan the plan.”

Now there is the AHS, the corridor plans, and now Moore Housing? For some reason they all involve the same things and there is no accounting for overlap.

They’ve already passed parking requirement changes completely separate from these, and much is predicated on the BRT being built (you know, the bus), and many of those transportation changes will require state approval which might take YEARS.

Though they each result in undercutting of neighborhoods, don't confuse

More Housing N.O.W. (New Options for Workers) / ZTA 25-02, ZTA 25-03, SRA 25-01 & Expedited Bill 2-25 -- the set of bills Friedson and Fani-Gonzalez have put out to push forward with as much of the AHS as they think they can get away with via divide-and-conquer for now, only intending to push incrementally for the rest via the same

with

HB 503 / SB 430 -- Gov. Moore's 2025 requested housing bill that would let developers build housing of any type pretty much anywhere in MoCo unless Montgomery Planning puts up a rigorous & vigorous legal defense, along rather limited lines, for each development request.

Don't confuse either of those with the several bills & laws recently passed to spur residential development, including Gov. Moore's housing request from last year at this time that already adds significant additional density, but which Montgomery Planning and the County Council continue to drag their feet on reviewing with respect to AHS/other initiatives because they know the full extent of combined impacts would go over like a lead baloon when trying to promote their own agenda.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People, it would help to get the word out by posting elsewhere as well - Reddit’s Bethesda forum is active, as is MoCo, though it slants to younger new arrivals. It’s ironic to hear the new condo and apartment dwellers complain about transformer blows. Also use your neighborhood listservs and show up to community meetings.

Part of the problem is that every time we wrap our heads around one scheme they replace it with a new scheme. This seems like a deliberate effort to “flood the zone” as they are saying these days.

So we had Thrive to “plan the plan.”

Now there is the AHS, the corridor plans, and now Moore Housing? For some reason they all involve the same things and there is no accounting for overlap.

They’ve already passed parking requirement changes completely separate from these, and much is predicated on the BRT being built (you know, the bus), and many of those transportation changes will require state approval which might take YEARS.

Though they each result in undercutting of neighborhoods, don't confuse

More Housing N.O.W. (New Options for Workers) / ZTA 25-02, ZTA 25-03, SRA 25-01 & Expedited Bill 2-25 -- the set of bills Friedson and Fani-Gonzalez have put out to push forward with as much of the AHS as they think they can get away with via divide-and-conquer for now, only intending to push incrementally for the rest via the same

with

HB 503 / SB 430 -- Gov. Moore's 2025 requested housing bill that would let developers build housing of any type pretty much anywhere in MoCo unless Montgomery Planning puts up a rigorous & vigorous legal defense, along rather limited lines, for each development request.

Don't confuse either of those with the several bills & laws recently passed to spur residential development, including Gov. Moore's housing request from last year at this time that already adds significant additional density, but which Montgomery Planning and the County Council continue to drag their feet on reviewing with respect to AHS/other initiatives because they know the full extent of combined impacts would go over like a lead baloon when
trying to promote their own agenda.

You missed the most important part of More Housing NOW: A 25-year property tax abatement for certain new rental developments (only for rentals). It’s a giveaway for landlords at a time when the council is about to take up the second massive property tax increase for everyone else in three years.

[Anonymous]

The County Council overrode the veto yesterday. There was no discussion of the County Executive's concern that the bill creates a gap in funding that means capital projects for schools and roads will experience additional delays

Evan Glass, who sponsored the bill, was the only speaker. His sideways remarks continued his earlier insinuation that this was essentially a free way to boost development by reducing developers' up front costs, as though there was no difference in the county having funds available today versus having those funds unavailable until years down the road.

His enacted bill now has made that change -- not a single Councilmember supported the veto.

[Anonymous]

Say what you want about Elrich, but on these issues he fight for residents.

https://montgomerycomd.blogspot.com/2025/03/message-from-county-executive-marc.html?m=1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Say what you want about Elrich, but on these issues he fight for residents.

https://montgomerycomd.blogspot.com/2025/03/message-from-county-executive-marc.html?m=1

Too bad he has no say in the Attainable Housing Strategies ZTAs that Friedson and Fani-Gonzalez are having heard at tomorrow's council meeting. It's all smoke & mirrors, anyway, since his vetoes always get overriden by the special-interest-beholden councilmembers.

And he hasn't shown he will play hardball to protect communities, either. Knowing those vetoes will be overriden on an individual basis, he should know that his objection would only carry force if he were to threaten action unfavorable to certain councilmembers outside of those development-related bills in order to achieve compromise.

Much as he might be preferable to any of those (Friedson, Glass, Jawondo) now salivating at the prospect of the open CE seat, what with the voters being duped into the term limit vote last November, his refusal to double down on his vetoes makes his role one of paper tiger. As that is self-inflicted, one might think he is just part of the machine, appointed to play the role to keep folks from realizing that it is all a show.