Why doesn't Montgomery County rezone Commercial Property to Housing?

[Anonymous]

Lets get real. Between Amazon and work from home trend, there will be less need for commercial property. Large portions of Rockville Pike could be converted to apartment buildings and townhouses. Why is MoCo so focused on changing residential zoning. Plenty of underutilized commercial property exists.

[Anonymous]

Plenty of residential areas that could benefit from more housing also exist. So, why not both?

[Anonymous]

There are now townhomes on Rockledge Drive so it appears they are doing some of this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Plenty of residential areas that could benefit from more housing also exist. So, why not both?

Why change residential areas when you do not need to change them?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Plenty of residential areas that could benefit from more housing also exist. So, why not both?

The politicians want lots of overcrowding of course. We need more density blah blah blah.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Plenty of residential areas that could benefit from more housing also exist. So, why not both?

Why change residential areas when you do not need to change them?

Why assume that residential areas should remain unchanged?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Plenty of residential areas that could benefit from more housing also exist. So, why not both?

Why change residential areas when you do not need to change them?

Why assume that residential areas should remain unchanged?

Because I like where I live and don’t want it all jammed full of people?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Plenty of residential areas that could benefit from more housing also exist. So, why not both?

Why change residential areas when you do not need to change them?

Why assume that residential areas should remain unchanged?

Because I like where I live and don’t want it all jammed full of people?

"I like where I live" is a personal preference, not a policy reason for forbidding property owners from building duplexes instead of single-household detached houses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Plenty of residential areas that could benefit from more housing also exist. So, why not both?

Why change residential areas when you do not need to change them?

Why assume that residential areas should remain unchanged?

Because I like where I live and don’t want it all jammed full of people?

"I like where I live" is a personal preference, not a policy reason for forbidding property owners from building duplexes instead of single-household detached houses.

That logic means, of course, that I can build a skyscraper on my residential property. What an idiot! The end result of this stupid move is that many middle and upper income families will move out of Maryland. They have the money and the options that come with money. And, especially due to COVID, they prefer old fashion residential neighborhoods. MoCo is already losing upper income families. Guess what our economy is based on-consumption. Guess who drives the consumption economy-middle and upper income families. Guess who pays most of the income taxes already. Middle and upper income families pay almost all of the income taxes anyhow. At Federal level, top 1% pays 38.5% of all federal income taxes, top 5% pays 59%, top 10% pays 70%, top 25% pays 86%, and top 50% pays 97%. In sum, it will not take much for MoCo to lose even a small percentage of these taxpayers, and losing even a small percentage will destroy MoCo's tax revenues. MoCo needs these taxpayers to stay.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Plenty of residential areas that could benefit from more housing also exist. So, why not both?

Why change residential areas when you do not need to change them?

Why assume that residential areas should remain unchanged?

Because I like where I live and don’t want it all jammed full of people?

"I like where I live" is a personal preference, not a policy reason for forbidding property owners from building duplexes instead of single-household detached houses.

That logic means, of course, that I can build a skyscraper on my residential property. What an idiot! The end result of this stupid move is that many middle and upper income families will move out of Maryland. They have the money and the options that come with money. And, especially due to COVID, they prefer old fashion residential neighborhoods. MoCo is already losing upper income families. Guess what our economy is based on-consumption. Guess who drives the consumption economy-middle and upper income families. Guess who pays most of the income taxes already. Middle and upper income families pay almost all of the income taxes anyhow. At Federal level, top 1% pays 38.5% of all federal income taxes, top 5% pays 59%, top 10% pays 70%, top 25% pays 86%, and top 50% pays 97%. In sum, it will not take much for MoCo to lose even a small percentage of these taxpayers, and losing even a small percentage will destroy MoCo's tax revenues. MoCo needs these taxpayers to stay.

Because a skyscraper is just like a duplex? And middle-class families will move out of Maryland if the Montgomery County allows property owners to build duplexes for middle-class families near Metro stations?

Also, you know what old-fashioned residential neighborhoods have? A mix of housing types.

[Anonymous]

I know many former MoCo middle and upper middle coworkers who have moved from to either Loudoun, Frederick, or Howard counties specifically because of the unbridled construction and density.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know many former MoCo middle and upper middle coworkers who have moved from to either Loudoun, Frederick, or Howard counties specifically because of the unbridled construction and density.

And I'm upper middle class and I moved to MoCo and not those other places in part because of the density. Random anecdotes aren't particularly helpful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know many former MoCo middle and upper middle coworkers who have moved from to either Loudoun, Frederick, or Howard counties specifically because of the unbridled construction and density.

And I'm upper middle class and I moved to MoCo and not those other places in part because of the density. Random anecdotes aren't particularly helpful.

Enjoy the density! Congratulations you got it!

[Anonymous]

I was thinking the same thing OP. MoCo may have more empty commercial space if more companies decide to continue with WFH in the future.

I think areas around metro stops particularly would be a prime spot to convert commercial to residential.

[Anonymous]

There is a huge portion of the Pike that is underutilized. There is simply no way that the Pike needs that much retail space. And office space will never be the same, even if it comes back partially.