A television camera was set up, and a reporter was conducting an interview about the plan, which would create a concrete canyon of high-rises along Westbard Avenue, and bring 3550 people and their cars to a 1.5 city block area. Protesters, who Friday had been forcibly evicted from the parking lot after Equity One called the police and threatened to tow their vehicles, formed a line starting on the public sidewalk along Westbard.
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| Protesters line the sidewalk along Westbard Avenue despite the cold, rain, and - yes- snow (Photos above + top: Robert Dyer) |
Protesters have asked the Montgomery County Council to delay their. vote on the plan. Given the success of this weekend's protests, one would think they have the political sense to start listening.
Councilmember George Leventhal, when not lecturing residents from a holier-than-thou position, took pains to emphasize how much he is listening to residents. But he clearly has not heard their actual position yet, which is 580 additional units, and height limits of 50'. Instead, Leventhal and a majority of his colleagues are talking over them, and proposing to bring 3555 new residents and 2618 new cars to a 1.5 block strip.
MyMCMedia posted two videos of protesters:
Video 1
Video 2
Here are some more photos by Robert Lipman, which again show diversity in age and race - and why the Council needs to start listening to its constituents:
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| "Dump Berliner" |
80 comments:
It's not a "1.5 block strip". Lying so blatantly and obviously does not help your cause.
"photos by Robert Lipman, which again show diversity in age and race"
One or two African-American families (of four) and one White-Asian family (of three).
Using the claimed crowd count of 300, that's 1% for each group.
5:27 said:
"One or two African-American families (of four) and one White-Asian family (of three)."
Give them credit where it is due. by your own math 50% of the African American residents attended and 33% of the Asian Americans in the area.
Those are progressive numbers. There is no need to be sarcastic about it. Honestly I have no diversity-related nitpicks with these protesters. They may even have a very good point about the impending development causing problems, I just wish they would dress better so people with the ability to act on their message might have a chance of taking them seriously.
@ Poppy - I hadn't noticed the combination of the dayglo orange ski cap with the olive scarf and jacket. Excuse me while I clutch my pearls.
Thanks for the coverage of this second protest in two days.
Clearly, the protesters have the attention of the developer and council. Their anonymous paid Stepford wives are busy putting up as many bullying comments as possible.
But it looks as if the paid bullies have not been able to silence this community. Nor have they silenced Lyttonsville or Damascus to name a few other communities that are not happy about the increased density in Montgomery County without the infrastructure (including classrooms) to support more people.
We live in a county where bullying by adults is how our government runs. Yes, those same elected officials tell children they should not be bullies, but then the elected officials turn around and bully their constituents.
The e-mails showing the advance planning behind closed doors by the developer and the county are now public. There is no secret to how these plans come to fruition.
Citizens are the last to know what is being planned for their neighborhoods and their advocacy falls on deaf ears.
Who suffers from the corruption of our elected officials? The children.
@Poppy. Please keep your progressive propaganda and your inventive reports to your own satire blog. This is a real issue, taken up by real residents, and does not deserve your fiction.
5:11: If you can't measure the distance between River Road and Park Bethesda, you're hardly one to question my credentials.
5:27: God, your repeated pathological rants of the same gibberish. Just admit you've lost the argument. You're not winning any followers with your "KENNETH, WHAT IS THE FREQUENCY??!" presentation. There are black people, Asian people, Latino people who live in 20816. Get over it!
7:24: Yes, I think the citizens have had enough of getting a raw deal, providing the play money for the Council and Planning Board to personally and politically profit from said raw deal, and then getting a patronizing lecture from them to boot. We're going to throw the bums out in 2018.
"I need muscle over here."
I can't wait to see the NIMBYs' tears on Tuesday.
8:44: I can't wait to see the County Council's tears on November 6, 2018.
I love going back to your archives of 2010 and seeing your smug predictions of certain victory, followed by your shock at losing in November of that year. And more of the same in 2014.
8:51: Can't be any more smug than the people I ran against. Who have the media and MoCo political cartel behind them.
I count 30 protesters in the first picture, 36 in the second. Less than that in every other picture.
9:12: There was definitely more than 36, and hundreds the previous day. So far, your side is having trouble coming up with a single live body. The County Council should be worried at this point. They are putting their political careers on the line with this vote.
Three words: 1990. Neal. Potter. If you're a carpetbagger, research those words to find out what happens when politicians overreach.
Says Dyer the undocumented Virginian.
8:51, oh wonderful! Then you had to have noticed that until "Westbard development" came into play, there were only one or two trolls, generally giving Dyer a hard time about a food review or something.
Mid 2014 that all changed. Suddenly there were 30+ comments on a Westbard post. And it all spiraled from there. Gee, wonder where all those commenters came from...
10:26 AM - Good point. I almost feel bad for the astro turf bloggers having to spend their time on a weekend bullying people on a blog.
@ 10:26 AM - Dyer-relative, I love the way you claim that everyone who disagrees with Dyer is either a "troll", or "astro turf bloggers".
I agree that describing Westbard Ave and the Westbard II as a "1.5 block strip" is at best misleading. Robert , hope you'll retire that phrase. Yes, the sector plan is far too excessive and overcrowds a small area, but misleading language doesn't help matters.
Poppy, why not apply to replace the tendentious Robin Givham at the WaPost as fashion critic? You can specialize critiquing people on the street and insult a far larger audience. : )
"I count 36 protesters in the first photograph and 30 in the second. Less than that in every other picture."
No one contends that Dyer's photos cover the entire crowd. I was there. There were *definitely* more than 36. Probably double/close to double that. That's an excellent turnout for weather in the 30s with mixed rain and snow.
@6:23 I am not trying to be insulting. I am trying to be helpful.
If you had a habit of showing up for job interviews in a Spuds Mckenzie T-shirt, wouldn't you want someone to tell you that isn not appropriate?
@ 5.27:
The increasingly shrill and unwarranted criticism of the demographics of these protesters suggests that you are grasping at straws.
Let's review the criticisms:
-"Too many seniors"... so photos of younger parents and children are produced.
-"The participation of children was involuntary." (For what it's worth, I was there and the children were participating enthusiastically.)
-"No minorities"... so photos of black and Asian families are produced, and they're supposedly not enough of the crowd. (FWIW, the protestors over 2 days included whites, blacks, Asians, Latinos and people from the Indian subcontinent.)
Face the facts: this was a reasonably diverse group and reflective of the community.
A bigger question: where is the "silent majority" that supposedly supports the proposed sector plan? Equity One even brought in food trucks for you on Friday, to counter the April 8 protest. If supporters of the County's plan can't even be induced to come out for free food, that's not saying much. And it's not that Equity One didn't publicize its event: they sent out a mass e-mail invitation. I received one.
The "silent majority" supposedly in support of the sector plan has also been missing at the public meetings convened by Equity One and the Planning Department. Nor did they appear (save for a couple of citizens) at the Planning Board and County Council hearings. Maybe it's because they don't exist?
Robert, describing the Westbard Avenue redevelopment area as 1.5 blocks is misleading. The Westbard Avenue portion extends from Ridgefield Road to Massachusetts Avenue, considerably longer than the usual definition of a block. You can do better.
6:20: It's a completely accurate statement. The first intersection you encounter is at the Capital Properties site after you pass the shopping center. And Ridgefield barely extends half-a-block between Westbard and River. The only misleading language was when someone representing a developer described the Westbard area as being equal in size to downtown Annapolis.
I fact-checked that in an article I wrote by contacting the official cartographer for the City of Annapolis, proving it a bogus comparison.
In short, there's always been an effort to describe Westbard as a larger space, to create the fantasy that it's a prime spot for population growth.
Who's misleading again?
If the Council approves anything on Tuesday, I will lay money on its being something along the lines of Councilmember Berliner's compromise plan, which scales down the original sector plan by about half. If so, that's the largest scale back in recent Council history and a victory for those who opposed the plan. (I'm betting that a scale downed plan will be approved.)
But if the Council happens to pass the sector plan approved by the Planning Board, watch out for major changes on the County Council in 2018. Floreen, Leventhal and Riemer will be voted out, and Berliner likely will be, too. (Councilmember Berliner has proposed a workable compromise, but I suspect that he'll be replaced if he doesn't bring it over the finish line.)
If the original Westbard plan is passed, current Councilmembers will be in worse shape than the NIMBYs, and I don't think that the Council wants to inflict that on itself.
If the Berliner compromise is passed, the NIMBYs will have won a considerable victory. Same thing if the vote is deferred.
Let's check back after the vote.
Great work by residents in organizing themselves and protesting in open defiance to their Council. They made their message loud and clear to their Council, and now we wait for the decision.
Also great work by Robert Dyer in covering this saga, from the beginning. As we all know, Jeff Bezos has reduced local news coverage in the Post and shut the Gazette down. We need Robert Dyer's reporting...now more than ever.
@ 7:09 PM - Sadly, we've had this same discussion with Dyer many times. Dyer refuses to use the term "block" as the term is commonly used - typically 0.125 (1/8) miles. "Block" is as small as .05 (1/20) miles along Norfolk Avenue in Bethesda.
Going along Westbard Avenue from Ridgefield Road, to Crown Street, it is 0.4 miles, or 3-4 standard blocks. It's another 0.3 miles from Crown Street down to Massachusetts Avenue, or another 2-3 standard blocks.
By Dyer's definition, the Beltway is "one block long" between Old Georgetown Road and Rockville Pike. It's just typical of the kind of shameless distortion that he uses in his arguments.
"Floreen, Leventhal and Riemer will be voted out, and Berliner likely will be, too."
Assuming, for the sake of argument, that Westbard residents are unanimous in their opposition to the proposal, comprise 1% of the population of Berliner's district, and 0.2% of the population of the at-large constituency.
Robert, the distance from the intersection of Ridgefield Road and Westbard Avenue to the Capital Properties site on Westbard is .3 miles. That's far longer than a typical block, as you are no doubt aware. Your 1.5 block description might be technically accurate, but it is misleading and you don't need it to make your case. You shouldn't open yourself to criticism in this way.
Same type of thing with your mischaracterization of MPDU and mixed income housing as crime-ridden.
I agree with you that the Westbard sector plan is too dense/high, but I can't go along with some of the mischaracterizations that you employ. It's a shame that you do this on occasion, because your reporting is generally accurate and excellent.
P.S. I calculated the .3 mile distance from the intersection of Westbard/Ridgefield to the Capital Properties site with mapping software. You and your readers can replicate the calculation.
Totally agree on job interviews, and I'd even let you outfit me. Community protests are a different matter. Protests are meant to be scruffy. : )
I generally agree with Dyer on Westbard, but he's wrong on the 1.5 block meme. Using this phrase unfortunately undercuts his credibility.
That said, the Westbard sector plan should be modified significantly or defeated.
Yes, but 2018 is an off year, the Council races are down ballot contests, and small numbers of votes can be very decisive. A lot of folks who voted for the current Council are *very* unhappy about Westbard, and will make that known at the ballot box.
I'm an example of that, and I don't think I'm alone. I have been genuinely shocked at the extent to which the views of the community have been ignored on Westbard. I don't expect the community to dictate to the Council, but I do expect compromise in the face of significant citizen opposition.
You are 100% correct that local news coverage is lacking, and that this fuels the disconnect between voters and local government. The shutdown of the Gazette has created a vacuum and I therefore greatly appreciate Dyer's coverage of the County Council. Bethesda Beat's coverage is appreciated, too.
The Westbard issue has made me acutely aware of the importance of community newspapers. Public officials are far less responsive to their constituents-- and far more responsive to special interests-- in the absence of regular media coverage
Making gratuitous personal insults is being a troll. An example: your use of the phrase "Dyer-relative". With it, you're relying on sarcasm/insult and you're a troll. Omit these two words and you're fine.
BTW, I have no relationship with Dyer or
10:26. I'm just a reader who is tired of the accelerating nastiness of some of these posts.
"A lot of folks who voted for the current Council are *very* unhappy about Westbard"
Documentation? Actual numbers?
@10:19 - The whole Tom Joad look may go over well at protests in Greenbelt, but this sin't Greenbelt and it isn't 1938.
The protestors would do far better to present themselves as smart, stylish, modern residents. I think we can all agree the county council won't think twice about the ideas of a bunch of people taking on the look of a bunch of Okies.
Those protestors and their families and friends vote. Ignore them at your peril, County Council.
"1500+ communications to Councilmember Berliner opposing the sector plan."
To repeat a question that was asked earlier, do we know how many unique individuals wrote/phoned in/sent these communications?
8:44: I used to be a NIMBY, but now I'm a NOMBP (Not On My Back Porch). You see, my back porch is all I have left since MoCo's developers redeveloped, re-purposed and infilled my backyard and my driveway (btw they thought it would "encourage" me to use public transit). My former backyard is now a wine shoppe with an "e", and a Halloween costume store next door to that. Oh well I guess I didn't need that veggie garden anyway.
I am black, white, asian, latino, south asian, mixed race, young, old and middle aged. It's irrelevant because I am here as a property owner and resident and I pay TAXES that have gone directly into the developer's pocket. Oh and I vote....particularly for the next mayor of Bethesda once we incorporate.
(Music up.)
"And....dance by the light of the moon."
I can't really see the sun or moon anymore cause of the skyscrapers, but.
Classrooms not bedrooms!
Hugs,
Your fav NOMBP Shill
P.S. That should read "households" in the last sentence. (Typo.)
So the council members will lose 300 votes I guess. How many votes did the winners receive total?
These folks don't use logic and follow up to understand the data they are seeing. So nope no one has answered that. They just tout the stat without much basis for belief.
11:14: You're still at it. Every avenue of feedback from the first public meeting has been overwhelmingly against urbanization. In fact, the first meeting after the charettes at Westland MS didn't have a single resident of the neighborhood in favor of the initial draft presented.
It was that embarrassment that probably led Casey Anderson to lose his grip on reality and start talking about the "silent majority." He memorably claimed that there were supporters of the plan in the back of the room who told him so, but that they were too intimidated to step forward by all of the menacing kids, Whitman parents and senior citizens in attendance.
Hey, at least Mr. Anderson didn't call in muscle and the cops that night!
6:08: Thousands of votes, not 300. You need to check the Census numbers for 20816.
Are you saying that those "thousands" are "the silent majority", Dyer?
6:22: No, they're the ones who have actually put their names down on the emails, petitions, and letters, and are the real faces you see in the protest photos.
Your folks are the ones claiming there's a "silent majority" in favor of urbanization, but it looks like you're going to have to hire the Ghostbusters to find and catch them with a ghost trap. They simply don't exist.
1. Councilmember Berliner has spoken of substantial opposition in his district to the proposed sector plan. That suggests that many unique individuals wrote/phoned in/sent these communications, rather than a few. I suggest that Councilmember Berliner would not have recommended that the sector plan be downsized on the basis of comments from just a few individuals.
2. The 1454 unique signatures on the Change.org petition opposing the plan suggests that Councilmember Berliner heard from numerous individuals.
3.The SaveWestbard group has obtained and is reviewing all correspondence received by Montgomery County on the plan. This should shed light on the number of unique individuals commenting and their views.
4. It would have been useful if the County had prepared an analysis of public comments received on the sector plan, but it has not done so. Alternatively, commissioning a survey on the sector plan would have been helpful, again not done. (Councilmember Berliner, when questioned at a community meeting, said that a survey was not needed, as he had a strong understanding of sentiment in his district concerning the sector plan. Councilmember Berliner believes that there is significant opposition, and I see no reason not to take him at his word.)
The weight of the evidence that we *do* have (online petition, remarks of Councilmember Berliner, live demonstrations, testimony before the Planning Board and the County Council, correspondence received by the Council, sentiments expressed during public meetings) points in one direction: there is substantial opposition to the Westbard sector plan in the surrounding neighborhoods.
How many unique individuals sent those "1500 communications", Dyer?
6:30: I actually went through all of the emails sent to the Planning Board that we were allowed to see online, and with few exceptions (such as civic association leaders who had to follow up on evolving issues) they were one email per household.
If you want to see ALL of the emails, join residents' quest to have the Council and planning department release ALL of the emails they've sent and received regarding the Westbard plan!
See my detailed responses above, 6:30 AM.
Again, all of the evidence points to substantial community opposition to the Westbard sector plan.
No one is preventing supporters of the plan from demonstrating, testifying, contacting the Council, signing petitions. In fact, the developers have been trying to encourage this.
If supporters aren't coming forward, I'd suggest it is because they are few in number.
I went through those emails, too. Here's how they broke out:
-Emails supporting redevelopment of the shopping center with no mention of height/density issues.
-Emails supporting the daylighting/cleanup of the Willett Branch stream, with no mention of height/density issues.
-Emails supporting the provision of more affordable housing at Westbard, with no specific mention of density or height issues.
-Emails opposing the scale, density and/or proposed building heights in the sector plan.
I counted, and group 4 (the writers with concerns about height/density/scale) were in the majority. With respect to the other writers, it is unclear whether or not they supported the scale/height/density of the sector plan or were unaware of these issues.
Note: My count was taken before the Planning Board and Council meetings, so is not a complete analysis of the emails received by the County. The complete roster of emails received by the County has not, to the best of my knowledge, been released.
Casey Anderson's claims of community consensus for the plan are balderdash, and I base this on having attended Planning Department, Planning Board and County Council meetings and hearings on Westbard.
Anderson has not been accurate on this point. In fact, his statements on "consensus" have been so off the mark that I question his fitness for the office he holds."
No supporter is protesting because they are in support of the plan.
The Planning Board has handed off quite a hot mess to the Council.
Anderson is clearly amateur hour at this point. Anyway to recall him from the position?
Poppy, OMG why are you so vile? You are an embarassment to the real Bethesdans discussing real issues. Get back in your 1968 Caddie and go home to West Virginia.
I live in another MoCo neighborhood, not Westbard, but the reports on their experience together with personal experience I have had with the development process in my own neighborhood has convinced me that the system in place is irrevocably broken, and that the Council is not on the side of the actual residents/constituents any more. I am sure I am not alone in these feelings from outside the boundaries of Westbard.
Our elected officials should hear the message that they've got trouble on their hands. It will be thousands of votes lost.
I think development anywhere inside the Beltway is good. It's Washington DC- a major metropolitan area. There is already a huge infrastructure of roads, mass transit, power lines, data cables, gas lines, sewer systems, schools, etc. in place. Rather than sprawl out deep into the suburbs, taking over farmland and plowing under forests- and congesting roads with commuter traffic- build where the infrastructure already exists. Neighborhoods in cities change profoundly and quickly. If you don't like living in a dense metropolitan area, buy a house further out. The thousands of people who will move into Westward- and the 100,000's of residents who will shop there- FAR outweigh the please of a few dozen NIMBYs.
I think development anywhere inside the Beltway is good. It's Washington DC- a major metropolitan area. There is already a huge infrastructure of roads, mass transit, power lines, data cables, gas lines, sewer systems, schools, etc. in place. Rather than sprawl out deep into the suburbs, taking over farmland and plowing under forests- and congesting roads with commuter traffic- build where the infrastructure already exists. Neighborhoods in cities change profoundly and quickly. If you don't like living in a dense metropolitan area, buy a house further out. The thousands of people who will move into Westward- and the 100,000's of residents who will conveniently shop there- FAR outweigh the pleas of a few dozen NIMBYs.
3:56: "Neighborhoods in cities change profoundly and quickly."
If so, why have Spring Valley and the Palisades remained unchanged since the mid-20th Century?
Why is "Westbard" facing this rapid change you speak of, and they not, when their communities are even closer to downtown Washington than Westbard?
Probably because neither Spring Valley nor Palisades has the huge contiguous bloc of greyfield properties that Westbard has.
Also, neither Spring Valley nor Palisades are in Montgomery, so neither the Council or the MCPC has any jurisdiction. But do keep on shifting those goalposts, Dyer.
I would support an Anderson recall...
I agree with you that the Montgomery County development process is broken, and that substantial change is needed.
Before Westbard, I thought that the County would try to reach a true compromise between residents and developers, with give and take on all sides.
I'm sorry to see that I was wrong.
1. Everyone wants the shopping center redeveloped. The point of contention are building heights and the density of proposed housing.
2. At minimum, the redevelopment will include 580 residential units, and all residents support this. Other residents support Roger Berliner's proposal for 1,213 residential units. Both of these figures are considerable.
3. The Planning Board-approved plan would add up to 3,000 residential units (~6,000 people and 4,000+ cars) in an already congested area that is experiencing school overcrowding. This is Metro-density development in an area without a Metro. Bad planning from the get-go, and rightly contested by residents. Development planning should be compatible with the surrounding area. The Planning Board's recommended plan is excessive.
Actually, Spring Valley did have a large, contiguous gray field: the retail area that contains Crate and Barrel, Pain Quotidien and other shops. Further, office space is down the street and an A&P and a strip mall are across the street from the Crate and Barrel/Pain Quotidien retail center.
The reason that this commercial development in Spring Valley is not usually noticed is because it *fits in seamlessly* with the surrounding neighborhood. The same is true of commercial development in the Palisades.
That is what the community would welcome at Westbard: commercial space that *fits in* with the surrounding neighborhood.
Unfortunately, development that fits well with the surrounding area is exactly what the County has failed to recommend. And that's why the community is so upset.
(BTW, I don't blame the developers: they would develop within the scope of existing zoning if required to do so. The fault lies squarely with Montgomery County, which has become far too cavalier about recognizing the needs and preferences of existing residents. The County's failure to act as an honest broker demands change.)
5:47: You're wrong - their retail properties are low-density with surface parking just like Westbard. Have you ever been to either community? You couldn't honestly have made your statement if you have.
What does it matter that they are not in MoCo? Are you acknowledging the reality that D.C. officials have protected the quality of life there better than Montgomery County's protected ours?
That's the whole point of my comparison of Westbard with our analogous neighbors in Northwest. Thank you for inadvertently underlining it for me!
7:16: Excellent point - even the most recent project seeking approval was of the same size as the bank and Crate and Barrel structures on that side of Massachusetts.
The Spring Valley business district is less than half the size of the Westbard business district, and the area covered by the surface parking lots are significantly less than in Westbard.
And the Spring Valley business district includes the AU Law School building, which is at least 80 feet high. I guess you support that building height for Westbard?
10:05: You're grasping at straws. The density is the same - even lower than Westbard. I'm not going to speculate on the process that led to approval of the law school building because I'm not familiar with that story.
I do know that a law school building is not the same as a residential building when it comes to traffic and school overcrowding.
45-50' is the law at Westbard, and that's what the majority of residents support. And keeping the same quality of life and low-density environment that have been preserved in Spring Valley and the Palisades.
I am very active in local politics and despise the continuous activism and outrage that have become the hallmark of some people in Bethesda.
5:04: Yeh- anecdotally, basically 2 neighborhoods have stayed the same in DC, while 90% of everything east of 14th street has dramatically changed in the last 30 years. Is your point that a sliver of DC has stayed the same?... even though the vast majority of it has changed? Increasing density is the trend in big metropolitan areas, as it should be- it's what makes them "metropolitan".
5:53: The reason Spring Valley and Palisades haven't increased density is the same reason Westbard shouldn't - they are not located within walking distance to Metro. Most of DC is accessible by Metro, except for these communities and Georgetown. So of course areas near Metro are getting built up.
Palisades is not really a valid comparable to Westbard. It's over twice the distance to Metro as Westbard. 3.0 miles from MacArthur & V to Dupont Circle, same distance from MacArthur & Arizona/Dana Place to Cleveland Park.
Plus, the footprints of the commercial areas are much smaller, and the whole area is on a steep hill leading to the river.
7:55 AM Palisades would provide fantastic river views from the high rises that could be built there. I'd love to live there!
Very convenient for those working in DC or even over the river in Rosslyn.
The grocery and retail is all old, outdated and therefore needs to be replaced (if we're applying the Westbard standard).
Well served by bus and walkable to Metro. Short 3 mile walk you say.
"The grocery and retail is all old, outdated and therefore needs to be replaced."
Yes, it does, and it should be. But again, it's not comparable to Westbard because the footprint of that entire commercial strip between U and V Street along MacArthur Boulevard is only 2-3% of that of the shopping center in Westbard.
But do keep comparing apples to oranges, Dyer-relative.
"Short 3 mile walk you say."
Notice how the Dyer brothers hear things that absolutely no one ever said?
I'd love to live in the Palisades! Can I have input into redeveloping the Palisades please? I see myself living there eventually! Imagine the river views from my apartment! I could walk to Georgetown.
The retail and current apartments look like 1950 to me. Time for change!
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