...Tom Hearn, a resident of the nearby Sumner neighborhood who said he was instructed to sign up in order to speak near the end of the hearing, stood up to speak just before the vote, saying his questions about the number of new potential apartment units and school overcrowding had gone unanswered.
Hearn told Bethesda Beat after the meeting he had hoped to convince the Planning Board to delay the vote.
Anderson pointed to a table presented during the meeting that said the plan would allow a maximum of 1,380 new residential units in the next five to 10 years and a maximum total of 2,470 new residential units over the entire life of the plan.
County planner John Marcolin said projections of the number of students who would live in potential new development didn’t merit the Planning Board to require a new school in the Westbard area.
“I cannot have people come in on the last day and return to an issue that we have fully considered and given any member of the public a chance to talk about,” Anderson said as Hearn attempted to talk over him. “You’re welcome to talk to our staff and I’ll even meet with you personally and of course you have the opportunity to weigh in with the County Council, but not now.”
Also before the vote, Norman Knopf, an attorney who frequently represents county homeowners against certain aspects of proposed development, argued the board should add language that restricts new retail spaces to 1,000 square feet...
County Planning Board Approves Westbard Sector Plan After Last-Minute Wrangling Over Retail Spaces - Bethesda Beat - Bethesda, MD
County Planning Board: Bringing perennial gridlock and pollution to a neighborhood near you. . .
ReplyDeleteThe same bunch of planners who thought it'd be a good idea to build a whole new town, essentially, just downwind of the Solid Waste Transfer Station, adjacent to a busy freight and commuter rail line, while completely failing to find MCPS buses a new site for a depot or at least front them the funds to do so?
ReplyDelete*sigh* SMDH....