Rally Wed. 10/19 at County Council: Coalition Calls for an Immediate Investigation into M-NCPPC | CALL TO ACTION

We, the undersigned, call for an immediate investigation into the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission (M-NCPPC) which has enabled the disenfranchisement of Black communities countywide, participated in the ongoing desecration of Moses Macedonia African Cemetery, and has been led by actors who have exhibited racism and sexism towards community members and employees. We also call for a stoppage of the hiring process for new Planning Board Commissioners. While this investigation is being conducted, we ask the Department of Justice to place M-NCPPC under receivership. 

As our community has learned through direct experience with the Planning Board and through historical research and documentation, racism has been at the core of Montgomery County’s land use regulations since its inception. The Planning Board consistently disregards the livelihoods of Black, brown, and working class communities. Intergenerational wealth has been stolen, lives have been jeopardized, and entire communities have been erased. These are not victimless crimes.

Without a full and independent investigation, the crimes and hateful policies of the Planning Board will continue to be covered up by the County Council and County Executive, the very governmental institutions that should be holding the Planning Board accountable to their constituencies. Instead, we risk allowing the Council and Executive to replace the destructive characters that have just resigned with new leadership that will simply replicate their harms. 

      

Established in 1927 during the Jim Crow era, M-NCPPC oversaw the development of segregated suburbs in the county. Under the driving influence of E. Brooke Lee, developer and Democratic Party leader, the agency began using zoning laws to implement segregated neighborhoods. Established Black communities throughout the county were forced out to make way for development that largely benefited wealthy white developers and landowners. 

 

The African American community on River Road in Bethesda was actively displaced throughout the 1930s, 40s, and 50s. Developers would intimidate or intentionally mislead residents to sign papers giving up their land. Operating in tandem with developers, the Ku Klux Klan would terrorize the neighbors who refused to leave. Harvey Matthews, a member of the Bethesda African Cemetery Coalition and River Road community, recalls huddling in the dark of his house, fearing for his family’s safety. These were commonly known as “Black Out” nights. By the 1960s, most of the residents had been driven off their land.

 

In the 21st century, the Planning Board erased the historic Black Farm Road community to make way for development. It did so by erasing from its maps the dirt road that connected the community to county roads. Planning Board officials told the residents that their road no longer existed and that without it they could not get permits to make repairs or sell their homes. 

 

More recently, in the case of the undelineated Moses African Cemetery, the Planning Board approved a permit to excavate 30 feet of soil containing human remains, funerary objects, and other community artifacts. The permit was approved despite repeated and countless calls by community and faith groups to end the desecration of the cemetery which has been ongoing for six-plus years. When County Executive Marc Elrich called anthropologist Michael Blakey, PhD, to alert him of the discovery of possible human remains (bones) found in Moses Cemetery, Dr. Blakey told him that construction must be halted. Marc Elrich did not respond as instructed, and the bones were mysteriously “lost” under his watch. This act, a hate crime, destroyed the bio-archaeological remains of Black ancestors.   

 

Last year, A Black Maryland-National Capital Park Police officer sued the department, alleging that his white supervisor and others in their Montgomery County unit created a hostile work environment by making racist comments and disparaging remarks about Blacks, Hispanics, LGBT individuals, and others on multiple occasions in a group chat in 2020. Park Police have also been involved in several high profile shootings. 

 

Earlier this month, the discovery of Planning Board Chairman Casey Anderson’s liquor cabinet was compounded by charges that Anderson had created a “toxic misogynistic and hostile workplace” at the planning department. The following day, the board fired Gwen Wright, the county’s planning director, three months before she was set to retire.

 

Due to these controversies and countless others, we are concerned that County Executive Marc Elrich will have the ability to confirm the future Commissioners despite the fact that he is an accomplice in the Planning Board’s racist actions towards our community. We echo Elrich’s sentiments that  “this cannot be the end of the conversation on the dysfunction and structural issues at Planning,” that “The Planning Board and Commission face a deficit of trust, and continued questions about management, transparency and process must be addressed," and that he must stand ready "to ensure transparency in choosing the interim members of the board and ensure that the investigations continue.” Given Elrich’s and the County Council's role in the Board’s past actions, there is a conflict of interest in allowing either office to have any role in an investigation on the actions of the Planning Board. In fact, an investigation should extend to them as well. 

 

County Council President Gabe Albornoz recently came forth stating, “The Council has lost confidence in the Montgomery County Planning Board and accepted these resignations to reset operations. We are acting with deliberate speed to appoint new commissioners to move Montgomery County forward.”

 

What is essential in this moment is not deliberate speed, but deliberation—with vigorous public input and oversight to ensure that any actor involved in the racism, sexism, corruption, and illegal activities is removed from Montgomery County office and is held responsible to the fullest extent of the law. 

 

In conclusion, Parks and Planning is broken. Expecting the County Council and Office of the Executive to solve a problem they had a hand in creating is not an effective solution. M-NCPPC needs fundamental change to address the systemic racism that has been baked into the commission since its inception. Those who are clamoring to fill Planning Board vacancies  must not be allowed to do so within the framework of a demonstratively racist, hostile, and opaque system—that they themselves have supported, condoned, and maintained. 

Signed:

Montgomery County Poor People’s Campaign 

USDA Coalition of Minority Employees

Parents’ Coalition of Montgomery County

United Front for Justice

Reverend Segun Adebayo, Macedonia Baptist Church

Montgomery County Green Party

Anti-Racist Bethesda Coalition

Bethesda African Cemetery Coalition

If you pertain to an organization that would like to sign onto this letter, please email ari1gutman@gmail.com

We will be rallying on October 19th and 12:00 PM in front of the County Council Offices.