School Capacity and Development on Planning Board Agenda for July 12, 2012

Subdivision Staging Policy Worksession #1: Schools and Local Area Transportation Review

Is your Cluster Overcrowded?

Here is the report by Bruce Crispell of Montgomery County (MD) Public Schools (MCPS) to be presented to the MoCo Planning Board for approval on June 17. 

Is your school overcrowded?  Check the table in this document to find out. The measure of over-capacity, according to the County Growth Policy, is 105% (portables not included).  If the cluster exceeds 120% a moratorium on development in that cluster must be in force.  Eight school clusters exceed the 105% ceiling; one school cluster, Richard Montgomery, exceeds the 120% ceiling.

Our new Planning Board chair is Ms. Francoise Carrier.  Planning Board members are: Norman Dreyfuss, Joseph Alfandre, Amy Presley, and Marye Wells-Harley.

To contact the Planning Board, send an email to MCP-Chairman@mncppc-mc.org.  Better yet, attend the meeting yourself! The Planning Board meets at 8787 Georgia Avenue in Silver Spring.  Read the June 17 agenda here.  The School Test will be discussed and voted on as part of the discussion on the Adequate Public Facilities Discussion, Agenda Item #8.

Growth Policy School Test for FY2011 PB 6-17-10[1]

Overcrowded Schools Coming Your Way

Get ready for increasingly overcrowded schools in Montgomery County, Maryland because, folks that's what you want! Bet you didn’t know that. Well, now you do. How do I know? I just read the proposed Growth Policy, happily titled, “Reducing our Footprint” so shame on you naughty awful suburbanites with your oh-so-huge carbon footprints! Shame on you for wanting to get rid of portables and wanting smaller classrooms. Who do you think you are? Your elected County Government and Planning Board, chaired by Royce Hanson, know what’s best for you. You elected the council, they appointed the Planning Board, they do the hires and provide the funding (oh wait, I though WE provided the funding. Oh well, that is so old school), so this is what you wanted. Who knew?

And here’s what you want: “School Capacity Related Changes”

Check out pages 46-48 of the Growth Policy that is going to the County Council. Here are the recommendations.

Here is what you want for your children:

1. Set the threshold for application of a school facility payment at project enrollment greater than 110 percent of projected program capacity at any school level by cluster

2. Retain the threshold for school moratorium on new residential subdivisions at projected enrollment greater than 120 percent of projected capacity at any school level by school cluster.

3. Allow residential subdivision applications that are complete within the 12 months prior to imposition of a moratorium but have not been acted upon to proceed; and

4. Allow any approved school capacity for a specific development to be transferable to another development within the same school cluster.

Yes you read that right; the second recommendation is to keep the threshold for the moratorium; and the third recommendation is, ignore the moratorium and build anyway! Why? Because as the staff writes in the Appendix, it is just too darned expensive. so, let's ignore that pesky moratorium. After all, only B-CC, Seneca Valley, and Clarksburg would be affected.

Don’t want that? Tell the county council. Email your councilmember and make sure they know. You have until September. That is when your council that you elected will vote on this ‘growth’ policy. Otherwise get ready for overcrowding. Oh, your local school is already overcrowded? That’s what you want! Congratulations.