The Arrogance of Planning

Roger Lewis, in today's Washington Post, writes about master planning. Using the language of the developers, so familiar now to those of us in Montgomery County, Maryland, he admonishes us for being so selfish as to only care about traffic and ease of getting from point A to point B. Mr. Lewis testified at the Gaithersburg West Master Plan Public Hearing last Thursday night, September 17. After his testimony as he walked up the aisle, developers crowded around him to shake his hand. Having never met Mr. Lewis before I have no idea if he has spent much time in the county. Does he take the red line? Who knows. Did he take a bus or metro to get to the hearing? Who knows. Those of us concerned about inappropriate unsustainable density, however, have many more concerns than increasing congestion. We are concerned about overcrowded schools. Mr. Lewis never mentions our schools. We are concerned about the quality of our infrastructure, having seen watermains burst along River Road and most recently in Dundalk, Maryland. He never mentions our failing infrastructure. Mr. Lewis is not concerned about restoring the natural environment. He has no concerns about the increase in particulates that our children will be breathing in as the traffic increases to such a degree that the planners themselves, in order to shoehorn in the developments they want, adjust the amount of congestion allowed in the proposed high-density developments.

Mr. Lewis is another example of how Montgomery County is being ‘governed,’ from the top down, by supposed experts who know more than we about our quality of life. The arrogance is unbelievable.