Montgomery County zoning: Council wants to change zoning throughout the county to multi-family

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I know because I do live in one of these neighborhoods and all of my neighbors disapprove. Anyone who lives in these conditions does not enjoy it.

We would prefer that there is better enforcement of housing code laws. And better enforcement of parking laws. But, because Montgomery County is a Sanctuary county, officials are explicitly told that they cannot discuss immigration status with residents. Which means, that it becomes impossible to prove who is and isn’t related when there are 15 people crammed into a home. Which means there can be no enforcement.

I can guarantee that all the PPs supporting illegal immigration do not send their kids to schools with illegal immigration because I see what that has done to our ES/MS/HS in the past decade.

The PPs who support illegal immigration are likely business owners who get an endless supply of non-unionized, cheap labor. Or who like having illegal immigrants available for childcare/landscaping/housekeeping services.

It's not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a shed that borders my neighbor's property that is grandfathered in because it was built long ago. So I can convert it into an accessory dwelling pretty easily, and there's nothing my neighbor can do about it. What a mess.

Yeah! Me too! Get ready for a 20 foot tall tower overlooking 3 people's lots

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a shed that borders my neighbor's property that is grandfathered in because it was built long ago. So I can convert it into an accessory dwelling pretty easily, and there's nothing my neighbor can do about it. What a mess.

Sure you can, if "pretty easily" means:

1. providing an additional parking space (unless you're within 1 mile of a Metro station)
2. you don't mind having the same address as your tenant in the accessory dwelling
3. you add a window that can be easily opened to every room in your shed
4. the bedroom has at least 70 square feet of floor area, is at least 7 feet wide, and has a window you can use for emergency egress
5. the kitchen has a 30" wide stove (burners + oven) and a standard-sized refrigerator plus shelves and counter space
6. you add exterior lighting and a walkway (if there isn't already one)
7. you add a bathroom
8. you add at least 2 electrical outlets to each non-kitchen room, 3 to the kitchen on a separate 30-amp circuit, and GFIs to the bathroom outlets
9. you add a furnace and water heater

plus other miscellaneous requirements.

So that would have to be a big and expensive shed.

Also, why should your neighbor be able to do anything about it? Should your neighbor also be able to do something about the color you choose to paint your front door?

Alright good point

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I know because I do live in one of these neighborhoods and all of my neighbors disapprove. Anyone who lives in these conditions does not enjoy it.

We would prefer that there is better enforcement of housing code laws. And better enforcement of parking laws. But, because Montgomery County is a Sanctuary county, officials are explicitly told that they cannot discuss immigration status with residents. Which means, that it becomes impossible to prove who is and isn’t related when there are 15 people crammed into a home. Which means there can be no enforcement.

I can guarantee that all the PPs supporting illegal immigration do not send their kids to schools with illegal immigration because I see what that has done to our ES/MS/HS in the past decade.

The PPs who support illegal immigration are likely business owners who get an endless supply of non-unionized, cheap labor. Or who like having illegal immigrants available for childcare/landscaping/housekeeping services.

It's not.

County officials disagree with you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
I know because I do live in one of these neighborhoods and all of my neighbors disapprove. Anyone who lives in these conditions does not enjoy it.

We would prefer that there is better enforcement of housing code laws. And better enforcement of parking laws. But, because Montgomery County is a Sanctuary county, officials are explicitly told that they cannot discuss immigration status with residents. Which means, that it becomes impossible to prove who is and isn’t related when there are 15 people crammed into a home. Which means there can be no enforcement.

I can guarantee that all the PPs supporting illegal immigration do not send their kids to schools with illegal immigration because I see what that has done to our ES/MS/HS in the past decade.

The PPs who support illegal immigration are likely business owners who get an endless supply of non-unionized, cheap labor. Or who like having illegal immigrants available for childcare/landscaping/housekeeping services.

Please explain specifically how not asking about immigration status means it's impossible to prove who is or isn't related.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a shed that borders my neighbor's property that is grandfathered in because it was built long ago. So I can convert it into an accessory dwelling pretty easily, and there's nothing my neighbor can do about it. What a mess.

Sure you can, if "pretty easily" means:

1. providing an additional parking space (unless you're within 1 mile of a Metro station)
2. you don't mind having the same address as your tenant in the accessory dwelling
3. you add a window that can be easily opened to every room in your shed
4. the bedroom has at least 70 square feet of floor area, is at least 7 feet wide, and has a window you can use for emergency egress
5. the kitchen has a 30" wide stove (burners + oven) and a standard-sized refrigerator plus shelves and counter space
6. you add exterior lighting and a walkway (if there isn't already one)
7. you add a bathroom
8. you add at least 2 electrical outlets to each non-kitchen room, 3 to the kitchen on a separate 30-amp circuit, and GFIs to the bathroom outlets
9. you add a furnace and water heater

plus other miscellaneous requirements.

So that would have to be a big and expensive shed.

Also, why should your neighbor be able to do anything about it? Should your neighbor also be able to do something about the color you choose to paint your front door?

Alright good point

DP

The thing is that some of these requirements are already in place regarding accessory apartments (parking spaces, windows, etc) but they are rarely enforced. The illegal boarding homes in our neighborhood have plenty of violations, but the County either chooses not to enforce them, or doesn’t have the manpower.

Either way, these guidelines are already being ignored and the new ones will likely also be ignored.

When slim landlords are already illegally renting homes, they just care about the money they can get. They don’t care about following County regulations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a shed that borders my neighbor's property that is grandfathered in because it was built long ago. So I can convert it into an accessory dwelling pretty easily, and there's nothing my neighbor can do about it. What a mess.

Sure you can, if "pretty easily" means:

1. providing an additional parking space (unless you're within 1 mile of a Metro station)
2. you don't mind having the same address as your tenant in the accessory dwelling
3. you add a window that can be easily opened to every room in your shed
4. the bedroom has at least 70 square feet of floor area, is at least 7 feet wide, and has a window you can use for emergency egress
5. the kitchen has a 30" wide stove (burners + oven) and a standard-sized refrigerator plus shelves and counter space
6. you add exterior lighting and a walkway (if there isn't already one)
7. you add a bathroom
8. you add at least 2 electrical outlets to each non-kitchen room, 3 to the kitchen on a separate 30-amp circuit, and GFIs to the bathroom outlets
9. you add a furnace and water heater

plus other miscellaneous requirements.

So that would have to be a big and expensive shed.

Also, why should your neighbor be able to do anything about it? Should your neighbor also be able to do something about the color you choose to paint your front door?

Alright good point

DP

The thing is that some of these requirements are already in place regarding accessory apartments (parking spaces, windows, etc) but they are rarely enforced. The illegal boarding homes in our neighborhood have plenty of violations, but the County either chooses not to enforce them, or doesn’t have the manpower.

Either way, these guidelines are already being ignored and the new ones will likely also be ignored.

When slim landlords are already illegally renting homes, they just care about the money they can get. They don’t care about following County regulations.

If they're already ignoring all of the regulations anyway, then why worry about the ADU regulation? It's not like they're sitting around thinking, "Currently I'm not allowed to build an additional structure on my rental property and rent it out too, so I'm going to wait for this ADU regulation to come into effect, which explicitly forbids an additional rental structure accessory to a rental house, and then disregard it."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think this is why the house next to my family's property in Wheaton has been on the market for 9 months, and can't sell. It is a 5-bedroom, 4-bathroom house with an elaborate deck and 2.5 car garage - and it sits on 1/2 an acre. They can't even get $500k for it. They're dropping the price, month after month.

The other problem is that the high school is a 3, with half the school on ESOL. NOBODY with school-age children wants to buy here.

Give it time. Is there an HOA? Once the price drops enough, a (most likely Chinese) landlord will purchase the home and divide it up into a boarding house. They are interested in pretty much any neighborhood, without an HOA, once the home goes under $500K.

It ends up being an incredibly lucrative business model for the landlords. The rent out to illegal immigrant men or families with young kids. They have no lease or rental license, so can force them out at will. And, they collect cash only rent so that they do not have to report any income. Also, they fix the houses up as poorly as possible - it's all being done illegally anyway, so there is no reason for them to keep the buildings up to code.

Not sure why people support this kind of thing. Honestly, it puts these illegal immigrant families at risk. We have one that has several babies who live there, and the home is absolutely, positively not up to code. Seems dangerous, and is definitely overcrowded. Why would anyone defend letting kids (or really anyone) live in these homes as a good thing to encourage?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some of these SFH neighborhoods in Wheaton are so crammed with multiple families per house, and the resulting five or six cars per house, that you can barely drive up the street. Now it will be even worse. Pretty soon we'll have cars parked on the front yards. How lovely.

Also, these neighborhoods were formerly for families, and these backyard shacks will be rented out to single men unable to afford a normal apartment. Not a way to improve the appeal of the neighborhood.

You don't have to be a dog to hear those whistles you're whistling.

You think you're clever but you're not. DP but this phenomenon is real. Even on the way into my otherwise pretty nice neighborhood, we have a house that expanded in an ugly way and has tons of cars out front and sometimes even on the lawn.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Give it time. Is there an HOA? Once the price drops enough, a (most likely Chinese) landlord will purchase the home and divide it up into a boarding house. They are interested in pretty much any neighborhood, without an HOA, once the home goes under $500K.

It ends up being an incredibly lucrative business model for the landlords. The rent out to illegal immigrant men or families with young kids. They have no lease or rental license, so can force them out at will. And, they collect cash only rent so that they do not have to report any income. Also, they fix the houses up as poorly as possible - it's all being done illegally anyway, so there is no reason for them to keep the buildings up to code.

Not sure why people support this kind of thing. Honestly, it puts these illegal immigrant families at risk. We have one that has several babies who live there, and the home is absolutely, positively not up to code. Seems dangerous, and is definitely overcrowded. Why would anyone defend letting kids (or really anyone) live in these homes as a good thing to encourage?

Probably you mean "rooming house".

Also you can't file for an eviction if you don't have a rental license.

I haven't noticed anybody supporting the idea of babies living in houses that aren't up to code.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some of these SFH neighborhoods in Wheaton are so crammed with multiple families per house, and the resulting five or six cars per house, that you can barely drive up the street. Now it will be even worse. Pretty soon we'll have cars parked on the front yards. How lovely.

Also, these neighborhoods were formerly for families, and these backyard shacks will be rented out to single men unable to afford a normal apartment. Not a way to improve the appeal of the neighborhood.

You don't have to be a dog to hear those whistles you're whistling.

You think you're clever but you're not. DP but this phenomenon is real. Even on the way into my otherwise pretty nice neighborhood, we have a house that expanded in an ugly way and has tons of cars out front and sometimes even on the lawn.

So is it families, or isn't it families?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some of these SFH neighborhoods in Wheaton are so crammed with multiple families per house, and the resulting five or six cars per house, that you can barely drive up the street. Now it will be even worse. Pretty soon we'll have cars parked on the front yards. How lovely.

Also, these neighborhoods were formerly for families, and these backyard shacks will be rented out to single men unable to afford a normal apartment. Not a way to improve the appeal of the neighborhood.

You don't have to be a dog to hear those whistles you're whistling.

You think you're clever but you're not. DP but this phenomenon is real. Even on the way into my otherwise pretty nice neighborhood, we have a house that expanded in an ugly way and has tons of cars out front and sometimes even on the lawn.

So is it families, or isn't it families?

Many people live in that house - more than the other houses on the block

I feel bad for all the people in the county whose homes depreciated when their neighborhoods were allowed to turn into mostly boarding homes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some of these SFH neighborhoods in Wheaton are so crammed with multiple families per house, and the resulting five or six cars per house, that you can barely drive up the street. Now it will be even worse. Pretty soon we'll have cars parked on the front yards. How lovely.

Also, these neighborhoods were formerly for families, and these backyard shacks will be rented out to single men unable to afford a normal apartment. Not a way to improve the appeal of the neighborhood.

You don't have to be a dog to hear those whistles you're whistling.

You think you're clever but you're not. DP but this phenomenon is real. Even on the way into my otherwise pretty nice neighborhood, we have a house that expanded in an ugly way and has tons of cars out front and sometimes even on the lawn.

So is it families, or isn't it families?

Many people live in that house - more than the other houses on the block

I feel bad for all the people in the county whose homes depreciated when their neighborhoods were allowed to turn into mostly boarding homes.

Do children live there, or not?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some of these SFH neighborhoods in Wheaton are so crammed with multiple families per house, and the resulting five or six cars per house, that you can barely drive up the street. Now it will be even worse. Pretty soon we'll have cars parked on the front yards. How lovely.

Also, these neighborhoods were formerly for families, and these backyard shacks will be rented out to single men unable to afford a normal apartment. Not a way to improve the appeal of the neighborhood.

You don't have to be a dog to hear those whistles you're whistling.

You think you're clever but you're not. DP but this phenomenon is real. Even on the way into my otherwise pretty nice neighborhood, we have a house that expanded in an ugly way and has tons of cars out front and sometimes even on the lawn.

So is it families, or isn't it families?

Many people live in that house - more than the other houses on the block

I feel bad for all the people in the county whose homes depreciated when their neighborhoods were allowed to turn into mostly boarding homes.

Do children live there, or not?

Yes they do. am I missing something for why you keep asking?

[Anonymous]

You're saying that it's only a problem if it's a house full of single male laborers. Well, it's also a problem to have three families living in a house that normally would fit one family.