Countywide citizen effort to reform planning process underway; websites launched

Brookeville Road businesses
that could be impacted by
Greater Lyttonsville sector plan

Residents organized by Save Westbard gathered at the Washington Waldorf School in Bethesda last night to discuss next steps in what is becoming a Montgomery County-wide citizen uprising against a planning process dominated by development interests. With the recent passage of the Westbard sector plan, attempts by the County to place several bus depots in residential neighborhoods in Rockville, controversial developments planned in Lyttonsville and downtown Bethesda/Chevy Chase, and the Planning Board approval of an urban-style low-income apartment complex in rural Damascus, disparate citizen groups are linking together to change the process, and boot out the County Council that voted unanimously to approve the Westbard plan and Carver bus depot.

One indication of the frustration with County elected officials was activist and attorney Robin Ficker collecting a bounty of new signatures for his term-limits initiative. Ficker believes he will come in with more than the 10,000 signatures required for term limits to be placed on the ballot for voter approval or rejection. If approved by voters, Councilmembers Roger Berliner, Marc Elrich, Nancy Floreen and George Leventhal would be forced to step down in 2018, and could not run again for those seats for four years.

Two new websites are being launched in the effort at Westbard and countywide.

MCCPR.org is planned to be the hub of activism for a county-scale citizen operation to reform the planning process, and reduce the influence of development interests in County planning and politics. Currently, the Council receives more than 80% of its campaign contributions from developers and development attorneys, with the exception of Elrich, who accepts no funds from development interests.

Evidence emerged that the Council has actually been cynically crunching the voter numbers, and had concluded that the number of voters at Westbard alone could not boot them from office. That Machiavellian calculation emboldened them to unanimously pass the Westbard plan despite overwhelming community opposition and anger. With large, mobilized citizen groups now linking up, all bets are off for their reelection in 2018.

More specific to Westbard (but potentially duplicable in other areas facing sector plan rewrites), is a second site, PlanWestbard.org. Jack Lopez, a resident and professional urban planner, will head up the site. It will not only dive in-depth into the Westbard plans expected to be unveiled next week, but also present alternative concepts going forward.

Lopez says he will try to bring new tech innovations other jurisdictions and the private sector are using in planning to the analysis. Many of the methods currently used by the County to study traffic, for example, are vague, inaccurate, and incomplete.

Longtime County activist Stan Wiggins presented an analysis of the option to incorporate, which a majority of residents voted to explore back in April. It was hoped that an incorporated southwest Bethesda, or Lyttonsville, for example, would give local residents authority over land-use decisions like Rockville and Gaithersburg currently enjoy. Wiggins found that a new municipality's land-use authority would be retained by the County, unless a provision in the law was overridden by the state legislature. Given that many state-level office holders also receive hefty checks from the same developers, that is unlikely to happen.

This is just the beginning, as the large turnout at last night's meeting suggests.

First worksession on Greater Lyttonsville sector plan March 24

The Montgomery County Planning Board will hold its first worksession on the Greater Lyttonsville sector plan this Thursday, March 24. It is currently scheduled to begin at 6:00 PM.

Concerns have been raised about the proposed increases in density, and potential loss of valuable industrial land and the services it provides to the larger community.

One important thing to know if you are a resident, business-owner or landowner: Attendees at the worksession may speak at discretion of the Chairman. It may be helpful to email Chair Casey Anderson by Wednesday to state which issue(s) you would like to address the Board on.

Anderson instituted this policy during the Westbard sector plan process, but did not publicly announce it until the worksessions were over! I mention this so that Lyttonsville-area residents aren't similarly ripped off in the process.

Lyttonsville sector plan public hearing draft approved by Planning Board

The Montgomery County Planning Board yesterday approved the public hearing draft of the Lyttonsville sector plan. Commissioners voted unanimously to add additional staff material to the draft. A public hearing will be held before the Board at its February 11, 2016 meeting.

LYTTONSVILLE SECTOR PLAN COMMUNITY MEETINGS IN JUNE

The Montgomery County Planning Department will host a series of "Monday Meetings" regarding the Greater Lyttonsville Sector Plan update in June.

Meeting topics and dates will include:

Monday, June 2, 6 – 7:30 p.m. Topics: Urban Design, Historic Preservation, Land Use
Monday, June 9, 6 – 7:30 p.m. Topics: Parks, Environment
Monday, June 16, 6 – 7:30 p.m. Topics: Transportation, Purple Line

All 3 meetings will be held at the Gwendolyn E. Coffield Center, 2450 Lyttonsville Road, in Silver Spring. They will be located in the second floor classroom. It's definitely a good idea to get involved early on these plans, before a concept you don't want in your neighborhood starts gaining momentum.

GREATER LYTTONSVILLE SECTOR PLAN RELAUNCH MEETING, MAY 6

A sector plan rewrite for the Greater Lyttonsville area (east of Rock Creek Park, and west of downtown Silver Spring) is getting a second start next week. Montgomery County planners are hosting a public meeting to relaunch the process on Tuesday, May 6, from 7:00-8:30 PM, at the Gwendolyn E. Coffield Center (2450 Lyttonsville Road, Silver Spring).

The resulting plan will guide development in Lyttonsville for the next 2 decades. A major factor in that time frame will be the construction of the Purple Line light rail route through Lyttonsville.