Reply to Zoning Laws and People Being Priced-out

Forum Index » Metropolitan DC Local Politics

Reply to "Zoning Laws and People Being Priced-out"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Are zoning laws responsible for people being priced out of the public school system in Bethesda, MD? Too many old SFHs are being torn down to build large McMansions in their place. The old SFHs cost from $800K to $1.25MM so for the builder to make profit, the new McMansions will have to sell for $2.5MM and up. The ratio of total square feet of home to square feet of lot area for the new McMansion is several multiple times that of the ratio for the old home. I blame zoning laws in Montgomery county to be the root cause of people being priced out of Bethesda, MD and its public schools resulting in increased class segregation.

Unless we elect county officials who value and promote economic diversity, racial diversity, and more equal access to all residents the situation will not change. We voters should realize that the special interest groups and lobbyists may shell out campaign contributions and offer other incentives but they also have only one vote per person. We are in much greater number than the special interest groups and the lobbyists.[/quote]

You are sort of onto something but not quite.

We do need more development near transit and Bethesda is a good example of this.  Though unless I'm mistaken most of what is currently planned for Bethesda is commercial and not residential.

Having said that the solution to under performing schools is not more transit oriented development.

Upper NW and Bethesda both have the same problem - there has been an explosion in their public school populations (though in Upper NW it is not really because of development of which there has been little) but in both jurisdictions there is a cap to how many more people can be squeezed into the public schools in the higher performing areas.

[b]The solution in both places has to be improving lower performing public schools.
[/b]
And maybe zoning in the form of transit oriented development can be a way to incentivize middle and upper middle class folks to live in neighborhoods they previously would not have considered and thus lift those schools.

In DC it appears that this is working at the Elementary school level but there isn't much evidence that this is working yet at the middle and high school level.

Perhaps the coming Purple Line, which will represent a big increase in transit capacity for Lower Montgomery County, will have a similar catalytic impact?[/quote]

Agreed. And this will happen by (1.) increasing density near transit in order to provide cover to (2.) break up the current feed patterns and boundary lines. Only so many kids can go to BCC and WJ. They must shrink the current boundaries at some point.

Furthermore, I think we will see re-zoning, especially of SFH blocks right near major commercial strips. I'm looking squarely at Friendship Village, Chevy Chase, and Somerset blocks just adjacent to Wisconsin Ave commercial strip. I think it's only a matter of time (less than 5 years) where we see them allowing developers to tear down an old house and replace it with 3 unit condo buildings (similar to what you see in DC). [/quote]

This simply won’t happen in Somerset. It’s a separate town that would have to vote to change any zoning laws within the town limits. I imagine that the close in parts of Chevy Chase Village are the same and they would not vote to change the laws either. [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics