The event is expected to bring stakeholders together to have a dialogue on the topic. Berliner is not proposing specific changes to the County's Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance at this time, but beginning a community discussion on the topic. Based upon the feedback of public school PTAs, developers, municipal leaders and other stakeholders, action items proposed at the event could be addressed by the Council.
While the event was primarily prompted by the potential development at Westbard, it will consider the entire county, and officials from large municipalities like Rockville and Gaithersburg are expected to participate.
County-level officials currently scheduled to attend include County Council Deputy Administrator Glenn Orlin, Montgomery County Public Schools Director of Long-Range Planning Bruce Crispell, and Planning Director Gwen Wright.
This is a discussion that is long past-due. The Walt Whitman school cluster in Bethesda is already filled to the point where Wood Acres Elementary no longer has a music classroom, and some kids are taking gym class in hallways at Pyle Middle School. BCC High School is maxed-out on its site, and cannot be expanded further. Wood Acres will be similarly maximized after its current addition is completed, hemmed in by Wood Acres Park, forest buffers, and the residential neighborhood that surrounds it.
Yet, the Montgomery County Planning Department is rewriting the Westbard Sector Plan, and the current draft proposal would allow thousands of new residents and cars to be jammed into a roughly 2-block area. Developer Equity One last week unveiled a more specific plan for its Westbard properties, which would account for 500-700 new housing units (representing 1290-1806 new residents, using the current U.S. Census Bureau measurement of 2.58 persons per unit). How can this apparent disconnect between developer desires and zero school capacity be addressed? Something literally has to give.
County planners and the council will either have to scale back the Westbard redevelopment plans to a more appropriate height and density, or MCPS and developers will have to come up with significant new resources of money and land. It's one thing to talk about growth in newer communities. But we're now finding that those who criticized the reckless plan to allow massive "infill" sprawl redevelopment were correct in calling it irresponsible. When you destroy strip malls and neighborhood commercial and service areas, and replace them with luxury apartment towers, you get students and cars. Students and cars means more classrooms and more traffic.
The problem with infill development is that there is little-to-no capacity for either.
To go forward with a plan of thousands of new residents, there are really only 2.5 options. First, is the third rail of MoCo politics - major changes to school boundaries, which would result in long bus rides for some.
Second, developers would have to hand over significant plots of land. Where is that possible in 20816? Planners identified two sites for a new elementary school, those currently occupied by the vacant Manor Care Springhouse nursing home and the Little Falls Library. But neither site is large enough to hold an elementary school under MCPS guidelines. A shared school site with adjacent Westland MS at the library site is talked about, but that idea totally falls apart when you consider the common facilities such large student and faculty populations would have to share. Neither school's students would be adequately or justly served by the finished product. Those endorsing such a plan obviously are not planning to send their own kids there. I'm not even sure how sharing the site with Westland provides any more acreage to the proposed elementary school than if it stands alone on the library site. Westland currently occupies all the buildable space above the library, minus a service road and small forest buffer that stand between them.
The third, "0.5" solution is just that - only a partial solution: reclaim former schools such as that currently leased by the private Washington Waldorf School on Sangamore Road. WWS recently re-upped that lease, and my understanding is that the terms were quite favorable to them, with renewals at their option, not MCPS'. Again, it's a partial solution, because those former school buildings are smaller than today's, and wouldn't meet the demands at the elementary, middle and high school levels by themselves.
I haven't even talked about roads, stormwater and sewer facilities, and all the other things that people often forget are required to support residential growth (until the existing facilities fail).
Hopefully putting a lot of community leaders into one room will generate new ideas, because I'm not finding many options or solutions at this point, short of scaling back the infill sprawl plan for the Westbard Sector.
25 comments:
Thanks for this report. I think you are the first to report it so good job. I wonder if it's too little too late. Maybe not for Westbard but other areas of the County.
5:57: There's probably enough time to do something related to the Westbard redevelopment, if they start with this meeting. Anything that's already in the pipeline will probably get built before something could be put in a capital budget *and* actually get funded by MoCo and Annapolis, so probably not as favorable of a timeline for those areas. It's also going to depend on what developers are willing to contribute beyond what they are already required to.
The list of speakers doesn't include anyone from the community, or any of the civic organizations.
It's a start. Perhaps write in to suggest some community or civic organizations?
"500-700 new housing units (representing 1290-1806 new residents, using the current U.S. Census Bureau measurement of 2.58 persons per unit)"
Ugh. Come on, Dyer. The only thing worse than a dumbass claim is making the same dumbass claim over and over again. The average household size for the United States of America has exactly zero relation to the type of development we're seeing in Westbard.
You've never been outside of Bethesda if you think these Westbard apartments and the average U.S. household are comparable.
I'd love to take your blog posts seriously, but the fact you go about supporting your opinion in such a dumbshit way makes me automatically assume your whole argument is bullshit. You're not doing yourself any favors. Why not try and support your opinions with legitimate facts sometime?
From the Best of Dyer:
"Each new apartment will bring 2.5 additional residents and 5 additional cars."
http://robertdyer.blogspot.com/2014/11/school-rage-residents-question-high.html
6:46: Foul language is your "argument?" That is the latest calculus for persons per housing unit from the Census Bureau. You obviously know nothing about Westbard, if you are unaware of the families and large number of public school children who reside in the multifamily buildings on that street. Even Bruce Crispell acknowledged that, and had a special formula to calculate how many students would be generated FROM THE UNIQUE SITUATION OF WESTBARD APARTMENTS IN THE WHITMAN CLUSTER. You are clearly behind on current events and reality.
Paula, this is a very early and partial list of speakers. I would hope and expect a broader array of particpants will be invited in the coming weeks.
7:04: That is a completely fictitious quote. Anyone who actually reads the article knows it does not say 5 cars per unit. Stop lying. You are desperate because you can't win on the facts. Does Hans have a publicity stunt planned for the OLO report?
Good God - the MoCo political machine actually has people who don't consider U.S. Census data "legitimate." Tinfoil hat time, folks.
@6:46 & 7:04...Obviously you've never been to another master plan meeting. MC Planning Dept. always uses 2.5/unit. And if you actually read the article you linked to you will see the estimate is less than 2 cars/unit proposed at that time. Equity One trolls really desperate with their abusive language.
8:28 AM - All-caps are your argument?
8:38 AM - Your article originally claimed that each apartment would be expected to bring 5 new cars. That is what your "edit" stamp is all about - you had to remove that embarrassing claim.
Just open charter schools in the empty office space in Bethesda. 2 problems solved.
8:58: It was not a "claim," it was a typo that was immediately corrected. Your "quote" was entirely fictitious. Now help Hans Riemer find Westbard on GPS.
It's amazing how far the developers have gone with their plans without the school and traffic issues being resolved. Honestly, all most people in the neighborhood want is an upgraded shopping center with a restaurant or two in addition to the existing shops. And they want surface parking - sounds like another Little Falls Shopping Center (Sangamore) would suffice!
@9:45AM
Not much attention is being made to what residents want. The developers and planners will say it's more about what the new residents want and need.
The current residents will just be another voice at that point.
At the end of the day, residents in the "Westbard" area will have to appeal to their elected officials to try and impact the plans. They're very interested in keeping their positions of power and will respond if you can organize yourselves effectively.
To be fair, the developers don't really need to care what the vocal residents want. It's their property and they could always do with it what the current rules say. The residents knew this when they bought there,
Theoretically the developer is doing what the people in general want, not just those who vocalize an opposing view. They are building to make a profit by calculating demand and making a product that serves this demand. So theoretically the people want this. Just not the existing westbard residents.
And theoretically the Westbard folks are voting in their representatives so any change that has been or will be affected they do have a say.
It's not just the developers who have county council members in their pocket as Dyer often comments.
10:41 AM You basically said what I said at 10:01 AM.
We just had an election and urbanization of suburban neighborhoods was an issue. Folks voted for this.
I don't blame the developer to want to utilize every square foot of land. It's really up to the Planning Board and Council to be a backstop and try to get something for the community.
Robert, residents did not know what's being proposed would be allowed when they purchased their homes. That's because A) Equity One only recently bought the property. You make it sound like they are longtime owners. And B) Their proposal is illegal under the sites' current height limits. Therefore they must get a zoning change, and that absolutely means the community has a say in what happens.
Why does it matter how long that Equity One has held the property?
6:16: I didn't say it did. I was responding to a previous comment which claimed residents knew of the Equity One proposal when they moved into their homes. Very few residents would fall under that classification.
Those folks at Equity One are a sneaky bunch. They wait until everyone has bought a house in Westbard, and then they pounce.
Prescriptive notice applies though. It's a homeowner's responsibility to find out before they buy what is around their property. Not to say necessarily exact development plans but potential allowed uses. Purple line, development, etc. Of course zoning changes and developers usually ask for more than what is allowed, but the idea is that they have to give something back to get the extras they want. And the approval process tries (tries) to do some good for the community based on balancing needs.
How is "stormwater" going to suddenly become an issue with any new construction? The area is already covered with impervious surfaces.
I found this comment particularly funny. :)
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