Growth and Development

Growth and Development

Growth and Development are not an end in themselves! How well we manage the growth of new home, retail, and office construction has a major impact on our ability to address other important issues, such as schools, traffic, the health of cities and older neighborhoods, the quality of the environment, and services like fire, police, and public works.

To understand the source of our problems in the County today, read:

Unbridled Growth: Part of the Problem, Not the Solution

In the past four years, I've testified at hearings and written editorials about numerous growth and development issues. Here are some of them:

More Construction, More Jobs, More Tax Revenue, and Less Traffic (about growth in the County)

A Bad Case of Smart Growth (about development in Friendship Heights).

Neither Anti-Growth nor Hysterical (about Pay and Go, a 1988 law that let development proceed before basic infrastructure was in place. The law was repealed with the help of a citizen group Marc help start in 1989.)

Pay and Go: Possibly the Worst Legislation in 50 years (testimony to the Montgomery Co. Council)

No Go to Pay and Go (also about Pay-Go)

The American Dream: Getting It Wrong Again (about a development scheme proposed for Silver Spring, which Marc helped to defeat)

The Wrong Way to Establish Development Districts (about a proposal in Germantown)

To make growth and development serve the interests of Montgomery County citizens, I believe that we need to take the following steps:

Slow down growth. Make sure it only proceeds where the infrastructure supports it and that it pays impact fees that are adequate to build the infrastructure.

Modify the Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance so that it does what it's supposed to do -- protect schools from over-crowding and roads from horrific levels of congestion. Past changes to the law have permitted growth where neither classrooms nor road capacity exist. It's time to put the teeth back into the law.

Take environmental protection seriously. We have some of the worst air quality in the country, and a dwindling supply of clean water. We are losing precious open space at an alarming rate. If we don't act, we will increasingly face adverse health consequences and destroy an important part of our quality of life.