Fake-out resembles
false promises at Westbard
Montgomery County started a free Express Bus route between the Grosvenor Metro station and Rock Spring at taxpayer expense a few years ago, when officials were trying to deodorize their scheme to transform the office park area into more residential housing. Now with the plan passed by the Planning Board and County Council, and the developers having reaped their profits, guess what? The Express Bus will go "poof!" and disappear tomorrow, Friday, May 10, 2019.
Residents of the new housing at Rock Spring who thought they would continue to have this amenity that was advertised when they moved in? Get out your wallet, or get a good pair of walking shoes.
This resembles the false promises made during the Westbard sector plan process. A transit center was promised, only to be deleted later by the Council, saving the developer big bucks and providing more buildable space and bigger profits. Then the Council removed a requirement for the developer to provide a shuttle to the Friendship Heights Metro station, which is two miles from the planned Westbard redevelopment.
You've been had, folks.
11 comments:
The old Hans Riemer bait and switch
I miss George Leventhal!
I never understand why our planning board and Council are so unwilling to negotiate better terms from developers to benefit residents. These firms all want to build here, we hold the cards. Why not get a better deal?
Blame Marc Elrich. He's in charge of RideOn and is slashing a lot of routes.
"I never understand why our planning board and Council are so unwilling to negotiate better terms from developers to benefit residents. These firms all want to build here, we hold the cards. Why not get a better deal?"
What does this even mean? MoCo has some of the highest barriers to their new construction in the entire country. 12.5%+ of new units are required to be MPDU, 10%+ of land area must be for public use, dozens of impact studies must be conducted prior to approval, buildings must be at least LEED Silver accredited, transportation and school impact fees are higher than almost anywhere else, strict stormwater management requirements are in place, etc.
@1:30PM: Impact fees are higher than anywhere else because the cost of building these things is higher in Montgomery County than it is anywhere else. As high as they are, the impact fees don't cover costs, so new residential development is not even a break-even proposition for the county. It's a cost center.
I would like to know more about why the bus route is being discontinued. Was it lack of use or was it funding? How many car trips is this development actually generating?
Finally, I agree with you that there's a lot of red tape. We should get rid of reviews that generate little value for the community and strengthen those that are valuable.
There are FOUR ride-on buses that go the same route along with TWO metro buses. How many freaking bus routes do we need going the same way? As an R, Bobby, I'm shocked you're not in support of eliminating duplication like this. Of course, you'd have less to whine about, right old sport?
3:57: And the tackling dummy moves the goalposts again. The whole point is that this bus was free, and was just a fakeout by the Council to get the plan approved. As soon as they and the developer got all they wanted out of it, they cancel the bus, despite all of their BS lip service about transit. Stick to the topic at hand, old sport.
So are you complaining that the County spent tax dollars supporting this free bus, or are you complaining that they have stopped spending our tax dollars supporting this free bus?
You can't have it both ways.
To Roberts credit, he did not claim a scoop on the Marine Layer. Not always that case, be in this instance, he did a nice job. No political mumbo jumbo, just a factual report with a recent photo. I wish he would treat all of his posts with this level off neutrality.
"its soft, custom-made cloth material made from beechwood pulp."
Sounds like a fancy Hipster renaming of gold ol' Rayon.
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