This morning four County neighborhood groups joined SaveWestbard and submitted a joint letter to the County Council.
May 3, 2016
Montgomery County Council
Council Office Building
100 Maryland Avenue, 5th Floor
Rockville, MD 20850
Dear Councilmembers:
This letter is a joint effort among the following groups:
SaveWestbard
Rosemary Hills
Lyttonsville
Keep Damascus Rural
Luxmanor Citizens Association
We ask the County Council, once again, to reject the proposed Westbard
Sector Plan (WSP) or, at a minimum, take a strategic pause before
approving this sector plan in order to allow for a thoughtful and
measured process in which community trust of county government is
restored and community concerns (about school-overcrowding and traffic
congestion) are appropriately and meaningfully addressed. Consultation
with the community is imperative as the Westbard Community Survey,
submitted to your offices yesterday, confirms that Westbard-area
residents overwhelmingly oppose the proposed WSP.
Irrespective of
the Council’s vote today, the Westbard experience has united and
mobilized communities across Montgomery County with the common view that
the overall Montgomery County planning process is broken.
For
the reasons set forth below, we, the undersigned communities, are united
in our opposition to the Montgomery County planning process, and we
invite other communities to join us in opposition:
First,
communities across Montgomery County are equally dismayed by a
County-wide planning process that favors developers over communities,
and that consistently results in outcomes that communities do not want.
The County Council and Board, in apparent partnership with major
developers, are now engaged in a full-fledged effort to urbanize rural,
sub-urban, and local communities through overbuilding and
commercialization of public space, at great profit to developers, but to
the detriment of our public schools, the environment, traffic
congestion, community diversity, and social services. This will not
stop until we unite.
Second, County officials have dismissed, as
unreasonable, public opposition to urbanization that favors developers
over the environment and over the local, established community, and
instead have sought to thwart the overwhelming opposition through a
planning process designed to divide and then mislead the community about
real intentions and plans. This will not stop until there is reform.
Finally, the undersigned communities stand together and will use every
legal and political means at their disposal to reform the planning
process, to put an end to unwanted over-development, and to create a
process that involves maximum citizen participation. This is the only
tenable strategy for improving our built space, protecting the natural
environment, strengthening social infrastructure, and preserving our
cherished values of diversity and responsible stewardship of the County.
Respectfully submitted,
SaveWestbard, Jonathan and Dominique Cahn, Patricia Kolesar, Bobby Lipman, Stan Wiggins
Rosemary Hills, Leonor Chaves, Mark Mendez, Valarie Barr
Lyttonsville, Charlotte Coffield
Keep Damascus Rural, Seth Gottesman
Luxmanor Citizens Association, Abbe Milstein
