Sparks fly at county meetings
February 2007

A lot of sparks have been flying recently at the County offices in Rockville, particularly over growth and development.  Last November’s victory by progressive forces in the County Council races has been reined in by developers and land-use attorneys, at least for now.

In December, County Council President Marilyn Praisner (District 4, in eastern county) and County Executive Ike Leggett proposed a moratorium on approvals of new projects, including about 70 projects that had been submitted but not approved, until the County Council could review the current growth policy.  The review, to take place before the summer recess, most  likely will lead to higher fees on developers to offset public expenses for school overcrowding and road congestion.

Immediately there was whooping and hollering that the County Council was unfairly changing rules in midstream. 

Some newspaper headlines falsely created an impression that the County Council was proposing a complete building moratorium.  No such thing was true – there were 29,000 housing units and 10 million square feet of commercial development already approved that could have been built any time the developers wanted and which required no further Planning Board action. Only about 5,000 housing units and 2 million square feet of commercial space in the pipeline would have had to meet new rules.

But the strategy of the pro-development forces was to claim that Montgomery County would become “hostile to development” and “closed for business.”  The strategy worked.

Progressives Valerie Ervin (District 5, Silver Spring and Takoma Park) and Roger Berliner (District 1, Potomac and Bethesda), holding the swing votes on the County Council, settled for a compromise that allows all developments in the pipeline prior to January 1 to go forward.  Only projects submitted after January 1 will face new regulations and fees.

Valerie had previously seemed to indicate support for the moratorium and her retreat caught many of her supporters off guard.  Keith Berner, a member of her campaign staff, urged her in an e-mail message, “We need you on our side as an advocate of progressive change that takes unrestrained power from large developers and turns it back to the people of the county.  I’m hoping [you will help] bring this about.” 

Valerie answered that she was concerned about the impact the moratorium would have on “an already depressed housing market…[and] that several church and elderly housing projects will be delayed if [the moratorium] is enacted.” 

On the surface this seems like a valid argument, but County Council at-large member Marc Elrich of Takoma Park had offered to soften the impact by putting on hold only projects those that failed a road and school congestion test, meaning the churches and most of the housing projects could have gone forward. 

Moreover, with 29,000 housing units already approved and waiting for the market to call on them to be built, a pause in approvals would have had little or no effect on affordable housing.  The 29,000 approved units equal 15 years of growth at last year’s rate.

After the vote, Takoma Park resident Greg Smith, who has worked on transportation and environmental issues for more than a decade here, asked Valerie for a constituents’ meeting to discuss these and related issues.  A meeting was set for March 5, but I, for one, would like to see it held even sooner given the urgency of some issues.

My insight, from watching and supporting Valerie’s campaign last year, is that she’s firmly committed to social justice priorities, and that she will work hard and well to advance them.  In this case, she wasn’t sufficiently swayed by slow-growth advocates or by the fact voters resoundingly supported Ike Leggett over his opponent, Steve Silverman, an architect of the existing policies. She felt comfortable opposing the moratorium. 

My hope is that she will follow Ike’s example and host “town hall” meetings to hear from her constituents.  A lot of us believe she will ultimately do the right thing, but she needs to hear a clear message about how we want to proceed on the issues of growth, public safety, health, transportation, education, etc.

At a public hearing about the moratorium tempers flared when representatives from the Montgomery County Civic Federation, which represents more than 70 civic groups, clashed with County Council member at-large George Leventhal of Takoma Park. 

It began when Jim Humphrey, a leading member of the Civic Federation, was giving his testimony. Leventhal continually challenged Humphrey, and it got so heated Council President Praisner had to intervene.

Leventhal’s attack seemed a bit bizarre.  On the one hand, he opened by preemptively castigating witnesses for “gotcha” politics and for what he considered to be too much attention on the past -- such as the developer-funded “End Gridlock” slate on which he ran in 2002.  On the other hand, Leventhal wanted to grill Humphrey about statements he had made in the past.

When Neighbors for a Better Montgomery Executive Director Drew Powell testified, Leventhal again angrily tried to interrogate him.  Again Praisner had to calm Leventhal down.  County Council at-large member (and former social worker) Duchy Tractenberg quipped that she “was going to do a clinical intervention.”  Arnold Gordon, a federation vice-president, admonished Leventhal by saying, “Shame on you.”

I admire George for the courage of his convictions and his good work on children’s health and certain environmental issues, but I worry about his temper.

In the end, all nine County Council members, along with Ike Leggett and the Civic Federation, agreed to the compromise. “Better that than blowing up the whole thing,” Marc Elrich said.  Ike and the County Council now will have a few months to figure out if they can muster a majority to support a new era where developers and land agents pay for their fair share of the infrastructure costs they impose on taxpayers.

Meanwhile, I attended Ike’s meeting with constituents at Northwood High on January 24th. In addition to public safety questions, the biggest item concerned undocumented immigrants.  A few members of the Minutemen, a national group that attempts to intimidate undocumented workers and wants them deported, also showed up and tried to stop other issues from being aired.  It’s worth thinking about how to engage these folks at public meetings.  It brought back memories of cadres of Maoists disrupting public meetings in the 1960’s.

Want to read about Mike Tabor's 3-week visit to Israel, and view pictures from the trip? Click here.

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