Executive Director of MNCPPC leaves

The Washington Examiner is reporting that Oscar Rodriguez, the Executive Director of the Maryland National Capital Park and Planning Commission (MNCPPC) of which our Montgomery County Planning Board and Planning Department is part, along with Prince George's County, has left abruptly.  According to the article, he was given one year's severance, and has signed a non-disclosure agreement.  Rodriguez was Executive Director and was in charge of all administrative issues including financial reviews and audits.  You can read the entire article here.  The article was written by Examiner staff writer Bill Myers.

Metro Expectations

The White Flint Sector Plan relies heavily on the assumption that public transit will move the tens of thousands of new residents and employees, all of whom will have to run errands, take kids to the doctor, make a quick trip to the dry cleaners and grocery store, and get to work. So how realistic are those expectations? Today’s article in the Washington Post, “D.C. Transit Agency Often Slow to Act on Safety Recommendations,” by reporters Joe Stephens and Lena Sun questions both the safety and the financing available to fulfill the requirements of the Sector Plan buildout.


According to the reporters,

"A Washington Post analysis of committee data shows that, as of Nov. 20, more than 100 safety corrections recommended after accidents, other incidents and audits were listed as not completed."

To be fair, the article points out that after the analysis, 36 of the corrections were implemented.

However, a former member of the NTSB is quoted in the artice saying that there is neglect to safety priorities. And, oversight is so lax that our Maryland senator, Barbara Mikulski, has called for strict new oversight and changes.

And why haven’t some of these changes, like retrofits to some railcars, haven’t been completed because – wait for it – there is no money.

Today’s article adds to numerous articles in the Washington Post and The Examiner that make it clear in addition to lax safety oversight, Metro simply does not have the money to build a second approach to the White Flint Metro, let alone add another metro stop.

As someone who takes the redline on an almost daily basis, if we have the choice between safety and convenience, I am firmly in the safety camp. How about you?

Next PHED Meetings January 19, January 26, Feb 1

All,
The latest Montgomery County Council Commnittee Agenda is now out and three more WF work sessions are scheduled.  You can see the schedule here.

They are:

January 19, 2PM, 3rd FL Council Office Building:
Transportation, staff report by Glenn Orlin
White Flint, staff report by Marlene Michaelson

January 26, 2PM
Financing, staff report by Michaelson/Faden

February 1, if Needed.

We have asked for a Work Session on the Environment and Sustainability.  If you haven't already, please email the County Council at and tell them we want a Work Session on the Environment and on Sustainability. The address for the Council is County.Council@montgomerycountymd.gov.

And come to these work sessions!! The room is always full -- of developers, developer attorneys, developers' planners, and oh yes, a small handful of the residents and the taxpayers that fund these studies, pay for the microphones, the lights, well, you get the picture.

The Developers' Friend

The Tuesday December 15 edition of the Maryland Politics Watch blog, written by Adam Pagnucco, has an interesting discussion of the newest entry into the At-Large council race, Becky Wagner.

Here is the blog, which can be read in its entirety, here.

"At-Large County Council challenger Becky Wagner is making the rounds of an important Montgomery County constituency: the developer community. And she has a powerful ally opening doors for her. That may have consequences for incumbent at-large Council Members Marc Elrich and Duchy Trachtenberg.


MPW intercepted the following email from James Soltesz, President/CEO of planning and engineering firm Loiederman Soltesz Associates.

From: Lee Alexander On Behalf Of Jim Soltesz, P.E.
Sent: Friday, December 11, 2009 3:10 PM
To: Jim Soltesz, P.E.
Cc: Becky Wagner; [Other email addresses withheld]
Subject: Montgomery County Council Race

I had the outstanding opportunity to meet with a very qualified and energetic person who is running for Montgomery County Council At-Large seat. As you know, the upcoming elections could be pivotal in finally getting a council who understands that economic growth and job creation is not a problem, but a benefit for Montgomery County.

Becky Wagner has declared her candidacy for the At-Large position. She comes highly recommended by numerous people in the County including several current Council members.

I am not asking you for any donation at this time, but instead I am inviting you to meet with her in a small group setting (10 to 15 people) for a breakfast at my office.

You can hear for yourself first hand her views regarding economic growth, job creation, taxes, and other related issues which are of critical importance to us.

Outlined below are four dates with the meetings beginning promptly at 8:00 AM, and we will have everyone out the door by 9:10 AM.

Thursday, January 14th

Thursday, January 21st

Thursday, February 11th

Thursday, February 18th

If you have interest, please let me know. I am trying to balance out the number of attendees with the dates. Therefore, if there is more than one date that works, please indicate that as well.

Thanks, hopefully you will accept this opportunity to meet with an outstanding individual who can become a very key political leader in the future of Montgomery County.

Thank you.

Jim


James A. Soltesz, PE
President and CEO
Loiederman Soltesz Associates, Inc.
2 Research Place, Rockville, MD 20850
301.948.2750 fax 301.948.6321

Jim Soltesz is a very influential figure in the Washington suburbs’ development community. His company has performed planning, engineering and consulting services on many high-profile projects, including Downtown Silver Spring, King Farm, One Bethesda Center, Shady Grove Adventist Hospital and White Flint North. He was also a member of Montgomery County’s Affordable Housing Task Force along with a who’s-who of political players and activists.

Soltesz, his firm and his wife have given a combined $63,989 in state and county political contributions over the last ten years. Those who received the most money include Comptroller Peter Franchot ($4,250), the Community Coalition Advocacy Slate ($4,000), a slate of incumbents in Prince George’s County including Senators Ulysses Currie and Nathaniel Exum, the Vison for 2006 Slate ($3,450), a slate of Prince George’s politicians including Jack Johnson, former Montgomery County Executive Doug Duncan ($3,000), Montgomery County Council Member George Leventhal ($2,950), Governor Martin O’Malley ($2,500), the Frederick County Chamber of Commerce Business PAC ($2,500), Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett ($2,500), Prince George’s County Executive Jack Johnson ($2,500) and former Montgomery County Council Member Steve Silverman ($2,500). With his personal resources and his business contacts, Soltesz is the kind of sponsor that almost any County Council challenger would be overjoyed to have.

But we are most struck by this statement in Soltesz’s email: “She comes highly recommended by numerous people in the County including several current Council members.” That means the development community, some on the council and their associated insiders may be coming together around Wagner. Since all four incumbents are running again, supporting Wagner means knocking a sitting Council Member out. There are only two possible targets."

How Bad is MoCo traffic, really? Worse than NYC...

Well, according to the latest study, highlighted in The Examiner article by Brady Holt, in his article,

"GPS company TomTom collected data from its users to identify roads where drivers needed to slow to less than 70 percent of the speed limit -- which turned out to be more than one in three of the roads in Montgomery County -- worse than New York City by this metric. The suburban county ended up in fourth place among the nation's most congested cities or counties, behind only Chicago, Los Angeles, and Seattle."

yellow highlights my own.

PHED Meetings scheduled

Here are the dates for the next Planning Housing and Economic Development aka the 'PHED' committee meetings on the White Flint Sector Plan.  The meetings are at the County Council office building in Rockville.  Some of the meetings are being televised on the county cable network.

Dec 10:


9:30AM (1) • White Flint Sector Plan - transportation (Orlin) 7th FL

2:00 PM (2) • White Flint Sector Plan - land use issues (Michaelson)  7th FL
To be televised live on County Cable Montgomery
 
 
Jan 19:
 
2:00 PM - 3CHR White Flint Sector Plan -- no topic has been announced for this date; Council Staff Marlene Michaelson has been identified as the person writing the staff report and recommendations.

Next PHED Session - Land Use Issues, December 7, 2PM, 7th FL Council Building

Be there or be square! The next PHED Session will focus on Land Use Issues.  That means density.  The staff report is broken out in sections according to development properties.  From what I can read there is no attention to existing surrounding neighborhoods that will be heavily impacted by these discussions and decisions.

The staff report was prepared by Marlene Michaelson, Senior Legislative Analyst, and is available online, here.  This session will be televised.  Please send letters to the council and comment on this staff report.  I was surprised to see that after two years of working on this plan and dozens of hours of meetings, testimony, and letters from residential property owners, the only 'testimony' addressed in the staff report was from the developers, with one exception, Natalie Goldberg, a property owner in the White Flint Garrett Park Estates neighborhood.

Is this really how the Montgomery County, Maryland government works? Your choice, these are the people you voted for.  If you are a residential property owner with concerns, write and email the council; call them at 240-777-7900.

Here is the email address:

county.council@montgomerycountymd.gov

Here are the emails for the PHED Committee Members:
councilmember.floreen@montgomerycountymd.gov
councilmember.knapp@montgomerycountymd.gov
councilmember.Elrich@montgomerycountymd.gov

Last Week at the PHED Work Session -- Transportation

Wow! Interesting discussion on transportation issues at the November 25 Work Session of the PHED.  Of course, only one kind of transportation was discussed - that would be cars, folks. Except of course for those of you that will be interested in bicycling or walking to work.  Please comment here if you walk or bicycle to work, and let us know how far your commute is and how often you commute this way.

Anyway...the staff report, by Glenn Orlin, the Deputy Council Staff Director, included 3 bullet points -- these were suggestions as to how to reduce the anticipated congestion.  Orlin stressed that ALL 3 of these would have to be implemented for the WF Sector Plan to work.  And here they are:

• Increase the Non-auto mode share (NADMS) for residence from 48% to 53%.  Which, would be, as was said, dramatic;
• Remove the median on Montrose Road between I-270 and Montrose Parkway and replace it with a reversible lane.  Of course, thanks to all of you, there were so many emails and such an outcry that the PHED immediately took it off the table.  So, there goes one out of the three required changes that would have to be implemented for the plan to work; and
• Widen Rockville Pike from 6 to 8 lanes between Edson Lane and the Beltway.  And, as some pointed out, given the idea of the dedicated bus lanes, that could in reality mean widening the road to 10 lanes.  And again, the PHED members took that out of the mix.  So there goes 2 of the 3 required changes to make this plan work.

What are we left with? Given the proposed density, the SAME amount of traffic. Just nowhere for the traffic to go.  So, you folks that use Montrose Road; it is not like the traffic generated will go away.  These 3 proposals were an attempt to alleviate the traffic. Somewhat.  Now you are stuck with the SAME AMOUNT OF TRAFFIC; just no way for it to move.  Happy now?  Think you've won the war? The battle? Think again.

You still have not addressed the issue -- the amount of traffic generated cannot be handled by the proposed road network.  We are out of balance.  How did the PHED leave it? Here is what Mike Knapp (D-District 2) said: 'We can change the balance.'

What I think he meant, and this is just my opinion, is that the council has the authority to change the definition of 'balance.'  did not know the council could do that...

White Flint Sector Plan: Work Sessions are on now!

The White Flint Sector Plan is making its way throgh the Montgomery County, Maryland County Council process.  The Planning, Housing and Economic Development (PHED) Committee at the Council is holding work sessions over the months of November and December.  Make sure your voice is heard!

November 30, 2 pm: Transportation Issues

December 7, 2 pm: Land Use Issues

December 10, 9:30 am: Land Use Issues; 1 pm, Financing;  2pm Land Use Issues

Read the staff reports and write letters! send emails! make phone calls!

 The latest staff report, on Transportation Issues, by Glenn Orlin, Deputy Council Staff Director is out and available online at the County Council website. Tell the Council what you think about this proposed plan.

Here are some quotes from Mr. Orlin’s staff report:

“Incorporating a new or expanded transportation project in a master plan does not even guarantee it will be built in the long term.”

Instead, Mr. Orlin states that ‘A plan in balance does not mean the traffic conditions at build-out will be deemed ‘good’ or even ‘fair’ more likely the traffic congestion will be at the borderline between ‘tolerable’ and ‘intolerable.’

To achieve even this state of congestion, the non-auto-driver mode share for employees in White Flint would have to increase to 50 percent. According to the staff report,

“…so this would mean the proportion of commuters to White Flint not driving would have to nearly double.”

How could it reach 50%? Mr. Orlin proposes the following possibilities:

• Congestion pricing
• Removing the median on Montrose Road between I-1270 and Montrose Parkway and replacing it with a reversible lane, as is done on Colesville Road or Georgia Avenue...and "a reversible lane would mean introducing overhead lane indicators such as those over Georgia Avenue in Montgomery Hills and over Colesville Road north of Silver Spring, and could mean peak-period left-turn prohibitions at Tildenwood Drive and at Hitching Post Lane/Farm Haven Drive."
  
  Widening Rockville Pike from 6 to 8 lanes between Edson Lane and the Beltway
  

That is what the Planning Board and Mr. Orlin envision for the existing White Flint/North Bethesda communities. The roads should look more like the roads that represent some of the most congested areas in the region.

If you can’t wait for this traffic disaster to come your way, just sit tight and it will. IF you don’t quite see this ‘vision’ for our neighborhoods, or for our county, please email the County Council immediately. Tell them you don’t want the ‘intolerable’ traffic that the Council staff says will happen. Tell them you don’t think the FAR is in balance with the infrastructure. Tell them you want the density decreased so our infrastructure can support it and tell them not to approve unachievable density plans. This is not sustainable.
The members of the PHED committee are Mike Knapp, Nancy Floreen, and Marc Elrich.

To contact the council email county.council@montgomerycountymd.gov; to read Mr. Orlin’s report, go to http://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/content/council/pdf/agenda/cm/2009/091130/20091130_PHED2.pdf

Read the report!  Is this what you want?

If You Only Have 5 Minutes

If you only have 5 minutes to learn how proposed development affects our schools in the Walter Johnson cluster (especially Garrett Park ES, Luxmanor ES, and Walter Johnson HS), here are 10 Fast Facts:

(1) The White Flint (WF) and other development plans propose major residential growth. They would add more than 350 HS, 410 MS, and 440 ES students in our cluster (WJ).
(2) The plans are designed to take 20-30 years, but affect schools well before that. The Growth Policy would speed up the plans, by providing exemptions to various public facility requirements.
(3) If the Growth Policy accelerates a 30-year plan into a 24-year plan, our (newly modernized) WJHS would be overcrowded in 12 years. The ES's in the Walter Johnson cluster would be overcrowded by 300 students in 10-15 years.
(4) If the Growth Policy speeds up a 20-year plan, the overcrowding comes sooner.
(5) The proposed WF plan doesn't reserve land in the WJ cluster for a school, or funds to reopen a school in the cluster.
(6) Once ES's are overcrowded by 300 students, MCPS would act. The proposed WF plan recommends: (A) Reopen former Rocking Horse ES, which redraws the boundary between WJ and the Downcounty Consortium. (B) Redistrict.
(7) The site selection or redistricting could be 10 years off, but the County Council will vote on the Growth Policy and several plans this fall and winter.
(8) The Council can refuse to approve a plan unless it dedicates land for a school.
(9) The Council can commit to providing funds to build a school or reopen a former cluster school. For example, it can give WJ (as a Smart Growth cluster) priority for CIP funds. It can retain school facility payment requirements.
(10) The Council can reduce the Growth Policy's accelerated development by dropping exemptions to public facility rules.

September Garrett Park ES Newsletter

Want a Smarter Growth Policy - one that supports our schools? Attend the County Council hearing on Tuesday, Sept. 22 at 7:30 - with or without a statement - and show your support. The hearing is at 100 Maryland Ave., Rockville.

For further information, contact SmarterGrowthForSchools@Gmail.com

Metro Cannot Handle the New Residents

The White Flint Sector plan assumes somehow the required public transit will miraculously appear, while in fact providing no plan for that to happen. Here is an article from the Washington Examiner that shows us there is no way transit required to support the plan will happen. with 20,000 new proposed jobs and 12,600 proposed new residential units for the Sector, how will people move around the area? The White flint "plan" kicks the ball into the far future.

Metro is unsafe at any speed
Examiner Editorial September 10, 2009

Despite National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) recommendations and General Manager John Catoe's personal pledge after the June 22 Red Line crash that killed nine people and injured 70, Metro is still putting old, unsafe rail cars at the front of some trains. Outrageous as it is, this is what inevitably happens with union-heavy, quasi-statist bureaucracies like Metro: They aren't unresponsive to the public they are supposed to serve because there is no effective accountability to the public.

With billions spent to build and expand Metro, the most important
day-to-day task for the system's managers remains operating and maintaining it
to ensure passenger safety. Despite huge taxpayer subsidies, 10 of the nation's
25 largest transit agencies have had to raise fares (as high as 33 percent in
San Francisco and Boston) to cover looming deficits. But Metro has taken a
slightly different route: It's deferred literally billions of dollars in needed maintenance...

The White Flint Community Coalition

In July the Montgomery County Maryland Planning Board approved the White Flint Sector Plan and sent it on to the County Council. The plan insists on inappropriate density with no new public transit support as would be required in a development of this size.

In rapid response the neighborhoods that surround the 'White Flint' sector banded together to provide to the county government a vision for a new, green, sustainable 'White Flint.'

The Coalition recognized these issues with the proposed 'Plan.'

61,000 More People, No Plan to Increase Public Transit: According to the Board, the number of people living and working in White Flint will swell by 242% from 25,000 to 86,000 people, and this does not include tens of thousands of visitors and shoppers. This increase is equivalent to adding the entire population of Rockville to our community, yet the Planning Board has no plan to increase capacity for Metro, buses or Bus Rapid Transit.

Increased Congestion, Cut-Through Traffic: Despite the promise of overcoming “auto-centered” development, the projected increase in population and the failure to expand public transit will inevitably result in more traffic. The Planning Board projects a 53% increase on Old Georgetown Road and 68% on Edson Lane. Congestion at Strathmore Avenue and Rockville Pike will increase by 24% and will exceed the current standard. There will be greatly increased cut-through traffic in your communities.

Overcrowded Schools; Redistricting As a Solution: 37,000 people will live in the new White Flint, but the Board failed to provide a coherent plan—or funding—for an elementary school. Overcrowding of existing K-12 schools will occur. The Planning Board raises the specter of redistricting—including redistricting of Walter Johnson High School—as a possible solution.

300-foot Building Heights: The Board will allow buildings taller than the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and JBG’s new Whole Foods building.

High-Rise Sprawl: The Board says the tallest buildings will be concentrated at the White Flint Metro station, but the plan in fact permits 300-foot buildings for nearly a mile along Rockville Pike, replacing today’s auto-oriented suburban sprawl with high-density, auto-oriented “high-rise sprawl.” From your backyards you will look out at a 30-story concrete and glass canyon up and down the Pike.

Rockville Pike Developed Last, If At All: The Board’s phasing plan does not envision redeveloping Rockville Pike until approximately 2030. As the main traffic artery through White Flint, the Pike should be re-built first with development to follow.

Tall Buildings, Dense Development Don’t Make A Community: Despite promises to create a vibrant, urban community, the Plan does not require a full-sized library, community center, theater, senior center, or child-care facility, nor does it protect much-loved local businesses that will be unable to afford increased rents. The Board’s “Midtown on the Pike” makes no provision for the civic and cultural amenities that in fact make cities livable.

No Environmental Plan: The Board makes bold statements about creating a greener community, including stream restoration, carbon emission reductions, forest planting, and increased tree cover. But these are not requirements; developers are awarded increased density if they choose to pursue them. The plan provides no details or timeline for accomplishing any of these aims.

No Plan To Pay For It All: The Planning Board says substantial public and private investment in infrastructure and public facilities will be required, but fails to provide the financing plan or specify the public entities that will implement the plan. It says that these must be created within 12 months of adopting the plan! It is not prudent—especially in the current economy—to begin redevelopment before figuring out how to pay for it.