LEGGETT,

COUNCIL:

CAUGHT IN

DEVELOPERS'

WEBB

With no money and a massive budget shortfall again pending, the Montgomery County Council has voted to purchase the Webb Tract in Montgomery Village. Are they using the barter system, or did the seller accept an IOU?

Remember, these are the same people who cut your public school budget by $80 million this year, and took back COLAs and step increases from teachers, police officers, and firefighters.

The Washington Post and other local media failed to even give the straight story on the Webb Tract, and instead chose to parrot the county's press release - as usual. (By the way, has anyone else noticed Ann Marimow has vanished from the Post, and that the Post has essentially ceased to provide full coverage of the executive and council?).

So let me give you the truth. Here's how it works. First the developers pay the councilmembers, and get them elected. Then the scheme goes into motion: The council will sell extremely valuable land near the Shady Grove Metro station to one or more of those developers at a sweetheart price. That's on top of the fact that this is the worst possible time for the county to sell land - it's at an all-time low in value. A fiscal conservative who knows how to manage the affairs of the county would never sell that land at this time.

In order to free up the land so they can give it to the developers, the county must first move what's there elsewhere (and some other "assets" such as the liquor warehouse near the Kentlands).

Hence, the plan to move a lot of junk, plus public safety training facilities, to a residential neighborhood in Montgomery Village called the "Webb Tract."

I don't recall there being a public hearing, or even a charade... I mean, a charette. Sorry.

This was ham-fisted, faux-green, Big-and-Beholden-to Developers-Government at its best.

Two notes on the public safety part:

This Webb Tract scheme is actually going to reduce public safety, as it will not be possible to conduct flashover training at the new site. Councilmember Mike Knapp has admitted this, and has correctly opposed the Webb Tract training site, in favor of renovating the current training center.

My other point is that they just replayed the program on the Rockville Channel where they interviewed two of the great architects in Montgomery County history. You know, this was back when there was actually some creativity in the design of buildings, and you see these around Rockville.

One of the structures they designed was the Fire Training Academy. So how can they tear down that historic tower, for instance.

The whole thing is ridiculous.

Speaking of ridiculous, what has happened to Marc "No Developer Influence" Elrich? First, he was helping developers in Bethesda by trying to print new money for the wealthiest schools in the county, to end the moratorium.

Now Councilmember Elrich is proposing to give developers a tax cut! While he voted to give you an 8% property tax increase this year!

It's outrageous.

Although I believe we should reduce the Impact Tax on single family home builders, and townhome builders to a lesser extent, it would be a tremendous mistake to cut the tax on any more of these disastrous mixed-use debacles. Single-use zoning worked fine, and we need to get back to that.

The other thing we should be encouraging is more affordable apartments in downtown Bethesda. Dr. Yes and the Planning Board are helping keep rents high by approving only those buildings that cater to the rich or the homeless. Talk about a man of extremes! What about the rest of us?

Elrich says he wants to increase the number of development projects in the county. Huh? "No Developer Influence?"

This is very much a case of a leopard trying to change his spots.