"campaign contributions from developer-related and other special interests -- and that this contributes to excessive density and school overcrowding"

MCPS classroom trailers

GRASSROOTS EFFORT INITIATED TO IMPROVE COUNTY GOVERNMENT

A group of MoCo residents are concerned that candidates for County Council are too dependent on campaign contributions from developer-related and other special interests -- and that this contributes to excessive density and school overcrowding.  This grassroots groups of MoCo residents have formed MoCoVoters.org:

http://www.mocovoters.org/

... and created its related Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/MontgomeryCountyVoters/

Please consider "liking" and, most importantly, widely "sharing" the Facebook page.  Anyone interested in participating with MoCoVoters.org can contact them through their contact page:

http://www.mocovoters.org/contact-us/

MoCo Planning Board Chair Casey Anderson and Westbard developer EYA shake hands minutes after plan passes

https://robertdyer.blogspot.com/2016/05/westbard-sector-plan-may-be-pyrrhic.html

Elrich, "Eliminating 1,000 jobs and thinking that is a bright idea."

Westbard, Rosemary Hills, Lyttonsville, Damascus & Luxmanor Unite to Send Message to Council

Here's what the opposition to the Westbard Sector Plan is saying before today's expected approval: pic.twitter.com/MatZrCD1S9

— Bethesda Beat (@BethesdaBeat) May 3, 2016

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

Future residents will "pay a million dollars for a home, and their kids will go to school in a trailer," one resident said.

Toll Bros. unveils plan for WMAL site; residents want data on traffic, schools (Photos)

...A resident of Brixton Lane termed his children's schools "ridiculously-overcrowded already. How many kids" will the Toll Brothers project generate, he asked.

Leatham said Montgomery County Public Schools calculates those projections, and they have concluded 152 students will be generated. That number was met with laughter in the room. "Can we get realistic numbers?" someone asked. "Isn't this the same MCPS that allowed overcrowding" in the past with lowball projections, another asked. "I can't argue with you," Leatham replied. "These are numbers that have been vetted. These are the numbers we have to use." 

Future residents will "pay a million dollars for a home, and their kids will go to school in a trailer," one resident said...

...Several residents asked about the environmental impact of developing such a large green space. Toll Brothers assured them that stormwater management after the completion of the project will be "better than it is now, better for the Cheasapeake Bay." Resident Nancy Neff was skeptical. "I am offended by you patting yourselves on the back" for the bioswale plan to manage stormwater. "The best natural drainage is there
right now," she said. She cited the "appalling" drainage systems in King Farm in Rockville, which cause some homes in that community to flood regularly...

 http://robertdyer.blogspot.com/2016/04/toll-bros-unveils-plan-for-wmal-site.html

Council: "MCPS has fairly consistently underestimated actual emollment"

Today at 2:30 PM, the Montgomery County Council's PHED Committee will discuss their plan to overcrowd Montgomery County Public Schools for developers who want to build more housing.

The Council knows MCPS enrollment forecasts are flawed, but doesn't care.

The Council plans on simply "enlarging" the following schools to accommodate the plans of developers in the Westbard area.  Similar plans are being hatched for other parts of the county.

 So much for the Maryland State study that reported on the "optimal" size for public schools! 

Classroom trailers have been in use in MCPS for over 30 years.  They will be on the ground for another 30 years if the Montgomery County Council and Montgomery County Planning Board have their way. 

http://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/council/Resources/Files/agenda/cm/2016/160229/20160229_PHED1.pdf

"Charette is French for Charade" - Planned Overcrowding of Public Schools

Tom Hearn gave the following public comment at the February 4, 2016, Montgomery County Council public hearing on the Westbard Sector Plan.  
Mr. Hearn's statement applies to a number of communities that have participated in the County planning process in the last few years. 

Elrich told Fani-Gonzalez that the ideas were “BS” after the hearing Tuesday night.

As Westbard Plan Hits Council, Marc Elrich Says Affordable Housing Promises Are Excuses For Overdevelopment

...council members remained quiet and listened as 34 speakers—about half who spoke in opposition to the level of redevelopment proposed for the area around River Road and Westbard Avenue—made their points during a two-hour session.

After the meeting was a different story...

 http://www.bethesdamagazine.com/Bethesda-Beat/Web-2016/As-Westbard-Plan-Hits-Council-Marc-Elrich-Says-Affordable-Housing-Promises-Are-Excuses-For-Overdevelopment/

"We have no questions." Council Sticks to Plan of Not Asking Questions at Public Hearings

In keeping with their plan, Montgomery County Councilmembers did not ask any questions of the public during the Tuesday evening public hearing on the Westbard development plans. 

Berliner Staff: "...large meetings tend to turn into opportunities for people to shout and express their anger more than serving as a vehicle for productive dialogue."

The Council is holding a meeting with the Westbard community – two of them in fact.  Next week, all nine councilmembers, including Councilmember Berliner,  will hear from over eighty witnesses who will testify about the plan. between the two nights, they will probably spend over 7 hours listening to residents' views.  Written testimony from dozens of others will be submitted.

 In addition, Councilmember Berliner has personally received correspondence about the Westbard Plan from over 1,400 people.  We have had meeting and multiple phone conversations with almost every neighborhood head in the Westbard area.  I would say at this point that we are very familiar with the views of the community. Therefore I do not think it would be very helpful to have an additional meeting, especially of a very large size.  In my experience, those large meetings tend to turn into opportunities for people to shout and express their anger more than serving as a vehicle for productive dialogue.  However, if there is an individual neighborhood that would like to set up a meeting with Councilmember Berliner, we will entertain it.  We do have meetings scheduled with Springfield (we did not pick the location) and with Sumner.  The Citizens Coordinating Committee for Friendship Heights will also be meeting with the councilmember in the office sometime in the next couple of weeks.  Beyond that, we  do not have any specific requests pending that I know of.

May I ask what neighborhood or HOA you reside in?  Have you received Councilmember Berliner's recent letter he sent to many in the area outlining his general approach to the plan as the Council begins its review? If not, let me know and I will forward it to you.

Best regards,

Cindy Gibson 

Cindy Gibson | Chief of Staff | 240-777-7827 
Office of Councilmember Berliner | County Council 
100 Maryland Avenue | Rockville, MD 20850

Westbard Neighborhood Objects to Planned Overcrowding of Community and Schools

PETITION TO MONTGOMERY COUNTY COUNCIL

This petition is sponsored by the Citizens Coordinating Committee on Friendship Heights, consisting of 19 civic organizations, comprising over 7,000 households, in and surrounding the Westbard Sector Plan area.

We, residents living within or nearby to the Westbard Sector Plan area, petition the Council to revise substantially the draft Planning Board Westbard Sector Plan.

1. We endorse the goals of the draft plan, to create "a vibrant village center", with "preservation of local retail", to provide "neighborhood goods and services serving the surrounding residential community". Development is to be on a "neighborhood scale", "preserving compatibility with adjacent residential uses". [pp.6,18]

2. The draft plan is inconsistent with these goals because of the amount, type and height of development.
       A. The large amount of retail is well beyond what is needed or appropriate for a neighborhood serving center and is more like a regional mall. It will promote large stores not serving neighborhood needs; attract visitors from a wide geographic area; local businesses on which residents have depended are unlikely to survive.
       B. The large number of dwelling units will generate students overcrowding our already overcrowded schools for which no realistic plan to accommodate them has been offered, especially on middle and high school levels.
       C. The plan does not address the need for housing, including affordable, for seniors who comprise a substantial population (24%) in this area of the county, a type of housing that will not overburden the schools.
       D. The proposed height of some buildings is not on a neighborhood scale and is not compatible with nearby single family homes, e.g., 110 ft on Westbard Ave. near Westbard Mews townhouses; 90 ft on Westwood 2 site, near Springfield homes; 75 ft uniformly along both sides of River Rd., creating an urban "canyonization" effect....

https://www.change.org/p/nancy-floreen-roger-berliner-marc-elrich-tom-hucker-sidney-katz-george-leventhal-nancy-navarro-craig-rice-hans-riemer-keep-the-westbard-sector-plan-on-a-neighborhood-scale?recruiter=464658506&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=share_email_responsive&utm_content=dt_shortened_links---url_short

Video: Council Retreat - "Don't ask questions" of public at hearings.

Part 2:  Exclusive video of Montgomery County Council Retreat on January 11, 2016.  The retreat was held in Potomac, Maryland.  No members of the press attended the retreat.  The Parents' Coalition was the only outside organization to attend this off-camera, off-site public meeting of the Montgomery County Council.

Floreen: "...warm up for Westbard..."

Floreen on public hearings run by Committees:  Floreen thinks all public hearings should be before the full Council.  Councilmembers are not "up to speed on issues" when they do not attend public hearings.

Riemer:  "immediate impact on schedule" with evening public hearings... "limit number of nights I go out during the week..."

Hucker:  "...we're all grownups and can make good decisions about our time..."

Minute 10 of video
Floreen:  "...we have the Westbard challenge..."

Minute 12 of video
Floreen:  "We've been doing a pretty good job of just letting public testify...Once we start engaging, we really can't stop...If you have questions at the end you can always ask staff at the end..."

Leventhal:  "...long Delegation hearing...amazing for me to hear elected officials argue with their constituents who showed up to testify... it didn't reflect well on our Delegation... reflects better on us just to listen at public hearings... gets us home earlier... Don't ask questions and certainly don't disagree or pick fights..."

Navarro:  "...where you have a theme going on that is factually incorrect..."

Minute 17 of video
Floreen: "...we need supporting staff to help us..." during public hearings. "Keep in mind our job is to help the public."

Minute 19 of video
Floreen on number of people speaking at a public hearing.  "If we keep our mouths shut, the community gets to weigh in... my personal...is more the merrier."  "I know what they are going to say on land use..."

Minute 22 of video
Discussion of problem with lights on microphones at public hearings.

Hucker:  "...we look very bush-league..."

Floreen:  "Mr. Katz runs is own personal timer."

Katz:  "What is follow up after public hearing?"

Minute 32 of video is discussion about making individuals disclose at public hearings when they are actually representing a group.

Casey Anderson Says Schools Not Overcrowded, More Kids No Problem! #fantasy

Casey Anderson $200,000 a year Chair

In a January 7, 2016, e-mail, Montgomery County Planning Board Chair Casey Anderson says that adding more students to already overcrowded MCPS classrooms is not a problem.  

 

Parents and guardians: Mr. Anderson is paid $200,000 a year to be the Planning Board Chair.   Mr. Anderson is appointed by the Montgomery County Council.  The County Council is 100% responsible for putting in place a Planning Board Chair who loves overcrowding MCPS classrooms and schools. 

MCPS schools and classrooms are overcrowded by CHOICE.  It's not an accident, it's not a mistake, and it's not a surprise.  MCPS has been continuously using classroom trailers for over 30 years.  

Here is Mr. Anderson's statement on school capacity in the planning of the Westbard area:

 

...Schools

Demographers for Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) have analyzed the Westbard plan and concluded that the school system can accommodate the additional students generated by the plan's recommendations for new housing. Most of the growth of enrollment in MCPS comes from demographic changes within existing development as older residents sell their homes to younger adults with school age children.

The apartment and condominium units built under the new Westbard plan will add students, but the growth in enrollment will be a fraction of the total student population in the area and will contribute fewer children for each unit than the single-family houses that predominate in the adjoining neighborhoods...

County Planning Board Approves Westbard Sector Plan After Last-Minute Wrangling Over Retail Spaces - Bethesda Beat - Bethesda, MD

...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

Development Plans will Add Students to Whitman and BCC Clusters

Chart shows Montgomery County Planning staff's estimates of additional residential units that would be added by August 2015 draft plan.
Column E seeks updated estimates given building height increases adopted by Planning Board on November 19, 2015.

   Westbard Sector Plan--Residential Unit Count by WestbardWatch

This map shows how the Westbard development plans will straddle the Whitman and BCC clusters.

   Westbard Whitman and BCC Clusters by Parents' Coalition of Montgomery County, Maryland

SCHOOL RAGE: RESIDENTS QUESTION HIGH-DENSITY WESTBARD PLAN, NEW ES SITES NOT LARGE ENOUGH

From Robert Dyer,
Robert Dyer @ Bethesda Row Posted Nov 15, 2014. 
For the full post go here.

"This is crazy!"

Friday brought one of the most contentious meetings of the Westbard Sector Plan charrette, and not surprisingly, the topic was schools. Current and future public school parents in the Wood Acres-Pyle-Whitman cluster acutely aware of existing overcrowding questioned how Montgomery County planners could recommend a high-density growth plan for Westbard in that context.

Concept 1 - all of the red
structures are new apartment
buildings

Planners released their first projections for total housing units, and students to be generated by the plan, at the meeting. Those numbers were met with skepticism. Under a full build-out of Concept 1, Westbard residents would find 2529 apartments dropped into their community. That would, under the current U.S. census bureau statistic of 2.58 persons per housing unit, bring 6525 new residents (and 12724 additional cars!) to the 153 acres that comprise the Westbard Sector. In other words, 43 people per acre, which is quite a change from the area's single-family-home suburban character.

The Planning Department projection calculated Friday predicts 306 new students, with 153 of them being elementary school students. Those numbers generated some grumbling among the crowd of residents at the meeting. If one has been on Westbard Avenue when the school buses stop there in the morning, you know there are quite a few students coming from those few buildings now. In fact, Park Bethesda alone has 59 students, and Westwood Tower adds 65. Unfortunately, the chart shown did not have the numbers for the Kenwood Place condominium, which is also in the Walt Whitman HS cluster.

MCPS' infamous forecaster Bruce Crispell made a late arrival to the meeting, but tried to generate some numbers more in line with what we've seen in the Westbard area. Crispell's calculator gave him a projection of 750 students, more than double what planners forecast - and equal to the size of the entire Wood Acres ES population, one resident noted. In the context of 6525 people coming under Concept 1, 750 still sounds a bit low.