Reply to More MOCO Upzoning - Starting in Silver Spring

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]PP, this is an argument for never allowing any change, on grounds that the change would be change.

But change happens, one way or the other, even if you don't allow it.

And we don't give current residents veto power over the future.[/quote]

No.  It is an argument for change to come with proper input, principally from those most directly affected.  Government by consent of the governed-type stuff.

This involves well-informed compromise, neither veto from the one side nor railroading from the other -- which largely is what we see, today, with limited exception for those most wealthy/powerful.[/quote]

The Planning Department RIGHT NOW is collecting that input. Everyone has their opportunity RIGHT NOW to offer their input. Actually everyone has had their opportunity to offer their input for well over a year, but there is even more opportunity RIGHT NOW.

Government by consent of the governed comes when the Montgomery County Council, which is elected by the voters of Montgomery County, officially adopts the plan.[/quote]

Great.  Then [i]right now[/i], there should [i]have been[/i]:

Postcards received 2-3 weeks ago by [i]all[/i] of the residents of neighborhoods of which any of the study [i]might reasonably be considered a part[/i] (this clearly did not happen),

Providing the kind of [i]reasonably fullsome understanding[/i] as noted above (e.g., 3 suggested visualizations with public facility impacts), and

Allowance for meetings long enough to permit [i]free-form[/i] input from any of those residents who wish to provide it and all of that input considered for [i]changes to the scope of the study, itself[/i], as that requisite level of impact awareness was not a part of the well-over-a-year part of the engagement.

The County Council is politically astute enough (as is the planning board) to make sure that the public engagement box has been checked (you don't see presentations on these matters without a slide showing that timeline) so that they can claim consent of the governed.  Those in the system, Councilmember and otherwise, are also politically astute enough to adopt approaches that limit likely opposition to their policy aims.[/quote]

…and the powers that be really don’t like it when you question their methods and motives.

https://www.arlnow.com/2024/04/30/missing-middle-critic-subpoenaed-as-county-seeks-to-know-what-forces-are-behind-lawsuit/[/quote]

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