Reply to What votes can I make in Nov against the upzone-ing in MoCo??

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[quote=Anonymous]Sooooo...after that lovely and totally productive exchange earlier this morning, what can the OP or others with similar concern do this November?

1. [i]Vote [b]against[/b] the lower term limit for County Executive[/i].  Rationale: Elrich regularly has cautioned that County Council development initiatives carry unnecessary benefit to developers at the expense of residents, and has come out publicly against the AHS as it exists for this and other reasons.  Though the Council often has overridden his veto where he has employed one, and though the Council would not need his approval to enact a Zoning Text Amendment (among the reasons that Planning has suggested that path to AHS implementation), the lower term limit clearly has been initiated with the intent to get him out of the way for developers, and rejection of it would send a message of support for his position.  No Councilmembers, themselves, are up for election (neither is Elrich, but he wouldn't be able to run again if the lower term limit were in effect), and, though it correctly has been noted that no legislation is yet before the Council, there will not be an opportunity, short of a special election being called, for county residents to vote for Councilmembers based on their positions vis-a-vis AHS, which most have yet to publicize, prior to related legislation being enacted.  (There is little reason to rely [i]solely[/i] on Councilmembers being swayed by testimony at legislative hearings, given their current reticence in the face of the sentiments expressed at the listening sessions.)

2. [i]Vote [b]for[/b] BOE candidates who demonstrate concerns related to increased housing densities without commensurate ensurance of school capacities/facility conditions[/i] (and, perhaps, ensurance of adequacy for other such public facilities/services; though that would be largely outside of their wheelhouse, things like transportation infrastructure can impact school bus service, for example).  Rationale: Though the BOE does not have the power of the purse (that lies with the Council, which routinely has underfunded school budget requests), their interactions with the Council on the Capital Infrastructure Plan, define, in broad strokes, the possibilities for achieving school facility adequacy.  Again, the impact of such votes on the Council's potential action likely would be limited to signaling.  I am not aware of any BOE candidate who has taken such a position publicly, but would be glad to know of any who do, and would consider related positions they have expressed in the past, if only as a poor substitute to knowing their mind more directly with respect to the AHS.  Pro tip: look out for claims of newly-calculated adequacy based on the measures MCPS took this summer to increase maximum class sizes due to the Council's underfunding the [i]operational[/i] budget request, and pay attention to the current Council Bill 16-24, which may see some kinds of development pay lower impact taxes that fund transportation and school infrastructure, to see if the Council commensurately finds alternate revenue for these purposes rather than leave them even more underfunded than they currently are.[/quote]

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