Reply to MOCO - County Wide Upzoning, Everywhere

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Not related to the transit corridor plan discussed on the other thread, so it seems that it deserves its own.

"County leaders are now proposing big changes to a third of the land area in Montgomery County. Roughly 33% of the county is zoned as 'residential'. The proposed plans would allow for a duplex, triplex or even a fourplex to be built in areas zoned as 'residential' that right now only allow a single-family structure.”

https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/local/housing/missing-middle-montgomery-county-maryland-zoning-affordable-housing/65-93cefa3c-c40c-4dc4-87ee-f6484047d9eb?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR2P3BnRVnlBolejyz0A3sqMLaZi_eWyfLuj85ZZbju90xYP7mN9Dg_01V8_aem_AfbsI1tcRqPPtS-dsOSgr5pipQ_IFHTQOOZm4apLV6ObY6Bs8hAndoQYB59jUaadDfNNQDH5oRXZa3IRMgRPCKAq

https://ggwash.org/view/93944/montgomery-countys-planning-board-will-recommend-relaxing-single-family-zoning?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR0qDsA8w9ulYrb9Fgo12QdAD8pv-hs8SWKg8jpAfC3PaQY7alnQY3y_fVU_aem_AfapxC0nYC0N_v7kFbK4CSAP9Mg1z87L8nXsqIl63IpAnKM-l8O63kaDcK5z62oa_W21l6yIkR4jAI_FGcJP8NKI[/quote]

It is entirely inappropriate for the current MOCO county planning director to post opinion articles for a 501(c)(4) nonprofit that conducts political advocacy related to zoning and land use! He is employed by MOCO (not GGW) to make important zoning and development decisions about the county. This is very unprofessional, and it raises legitimate questions about the credibility of his recommendations and whether he is acting with the interests of county residents in mind.[/quote]

Weird take.

How is better to write letters to for-profit media organzations? Or just keeping your mouth shut and doing everything secretly?[/quote]

[b]They should be having public meetings an interviews with the media. [/b]Most people think it’s inappropriate for local government employees to have this type of relationship with lobbyists. They are supposed to protect the health and welfare of county residents not to advance political policy goals of private equity funds. [/quote]

They are doing that too.

I'm hoping you'll explain how you got from "posted an opinion piece on a non-profit organization's blog" to "advanced political policy goals of private equity funds."[/quote]

DP.  They are having 2 pro-forma public Cointy Council PHP Committee working session meetings following the presentation of the report.  Neither the meeting at which the report was presented nor the workshops (next/last one is Monday, 7/22) allow for the public to speak. It is just the planning folks, directed by the County-Council-appointed Planning Board, having a relatively meaningless exchange with the Council, who already know the outcome they seek and who are just making a show of the interaction, already knowing the thrust of the report.

Councilmember/PHP Committee Chair Friedson indicates that there will be an opportunity for public input in the fall.  However, this would be far too late to shape the initiative vs. the timeline they have suggested, and there is every reason to believe that they will utilize that lateness simply to dismiss raised concerns, given the Councilmembers' stances on this issue: Friedson (committee chair) and the Montgomery Planning director were each vocal in their support, commenting that this is a must-do.  Jawondo's own voiced support is entirely unsurprising, as he had previously introduced related zoning legislation (not passed at the time).  Fani-González vigorously supported it.

Meanwhile, the public engagement to which Montgomery Planning points whenever asked happened much further back in the planning process, and well before the massively more consequential set of changes proposed was presented.  There has been (and, likely, there will be) no meaningful opportunity afforded to MoCo citizens to weigh in on those.[/quote]

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