For those of you who are not familiar with “Thrive Montgomery 2050,” a brief introduction is in order. The on-line publication “DCist” tells us: The Montgomery County Council is preparing to vote on a final version of Thrive Montgomery 2050, an update to the jurisdiction’s 52-year-old general plan that has been in the works since 2018. Planners say the blueprint will guide the county’s future decision-making on housing development, transit, environmental resilience, and other key policy areas for the next three decades.
But a foundational policy outlined in the plan — a proposal to open up some single-family neighborhoods to a mix of housing types, such as duplexes and triplexes — has ignited furious opposition. Neighborhood associations and homeowners have published op-eds, approved resolutions, started petitions, waged comment wars on social media and online forums, and submitted public testimony raising alarm about what they believe “upzoning*” (see definition below) could do to their neighborhoods.
Some worry the plan will raise property taxes and worsen traffic congestion; others spread unfounded rumors about a “social engineering” plot to wipe out single-family homes and replace them with low-income apartments.
The reader should make no mistake – the rush to pass this “concept” by the County Council, being led by Hans Riemer and Will Jawando …
… is tied directly to the Federal government’s “Green New Deal” plan currently languishing in the House of Representatives. While it is never spoken, it is clear that if one connects the dots from the federal down to the state and eventually the county level – if you review the “Green New Deal,” that part that addresses the needs of the country’s Human Infrastructure, you will find … buried in there … the impetus for the actions being taken by the Montgomery County Council.
So why the rush, you may ask … and just what is it that Riemer expects … other than a campaign issue for his anticipated run for County Executive? A brief look back in history tells us what we need to know. In the on-line publication Bloomberg City Lab, there is an article written by Amanda Kolson Hurley, dated February 11, 2019, from which we learn that: … Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Ed Markey introduced a resolution that gives the heady vision of the “Green New Deal” some broad policy outlines—although the specifics are still up for grabs.
Their resolution calls for a national, 10-year mobilization that would repair and upgrade infrastructure and switch the country over to 100-percent clean energy, among other goals.
As its name makes clear, in scope and ambition, the Green New Deal has strong parallels to the original New Deal, with its massive public-works projects like the Hoover Dam and jobs programs such as the Civilian Conservation Corps. But, amid calls for the Green New Deal to address wasteful land use, a smaller, more obscure initiative of the old New Deal is also worth revisiting: the Greenbelt-Towns Program, undertaken by the short-lived federal Resettlement Administration (RA).
With that program, the U.S. government threw its weight behind a progressive approach to urban planning and offered an alternative to helter-skelter suburban sprawl. The government could do so again, and work to fix suburbia’s lack of sustainable, affordable housing, and car dependency. A 21st-century agenda would learn from the New Deal’s failings, prioritizing racial and social equity and working with existing communities rather than imposing a top-down plan.
… the RA’s town-building program was inspired by the “Garden City” movement that swept across Europe at the turn of the 20th century. A British autodidact named Ebenezer Howard envisaged a network of “Garden Cities” being built on the outer periphery of London to relieve the population pressure on the metropolis. Each would have about 30,000 people and combine the best of urban and rural life, with shops and cultural venues for social and intellectual stimulation, but also fresh air and greenery, protected by an encircling “green belt.”
The Garden City would be a sort of anti-bedroom-suburb, a place not just to live but to work, with factories sitting at a healthful distance from homes (unlike in Howard’s soot-choked London). It would be compact enough that residents would be able to stroll across it in 20 minutes or so, and linked to other Garden Cities and larger cities by rail. The land beneath the Garden City would be publicly owned, and rents would fund public services.
We have heard these very words given to us by Han Riemer himself: … and combine the best of urban and rural life, with shops and cultural venues for social and intellectual stimulation, but also fresh air and greenery, protected by an encircling “green belt.” The article goes on to say: “The Garden City would be a sort of anti-bedroom-suburb, a place not just to live but to work, with factories sitting at a healthful distance from homes (unlike in Howard’s soot-choked London). It would be compact enough that residents would be able to stroll across it in 20 minutes or so and linked to other Garden Cities and larger cities by rail. The land beneath the Garden City would be publicly owned, and rents would fund public services.
So, we can clearly see that the “utopian plan” for improving the land use across the County, to achieve affordable housing as outlined in the Thrive Montgomery 2050, is not new and the things the Council is promising have all been tried before --- in both America and Europe. The “New Deal’s” Resettlement Administration (RA) will re-emerge as a new federal bureaucracy, an agency or department specifically telling you, through your own County Council, how the land you currently own and the house you live in WILL be re-purposed in the name of equity.
This has been in the works for a very long time, but it has taken on a new sense of urgency with the emergence of the far-left members of Congress as a power base in the House of Representatives. If the “Green New Deal” passes and is signed into law, Hans Riemer et. al. want to be at the front of the line when the federal money starts to flow. The public hearings are just political theater at this point.
If you want to preserve the life you have made in Montgomery County, you will need to make your voice heard.
Civil, peaceful protest may be the only way to get these actions delayed so further study of the issues can be made and the voice of the people … your voice … heard on the issues.
__________________________________________________________________________
*What is upzoning and why are lawmakers proposing it? In response to the growing housing affordability crisis, policymakers in many cities and states are trying to figure out how to add more housing. The challenge is that buildings occupy most of the land in cities. Upzoning opens up the capacity of this land for more housing. There’s also a climate case for upzoning: Building housing closer to transportation and jobs means people have to travel shorter distances to work and shop, lowering vehicle miles traveled and potentially allowing them to use public transportation and walk in lieu of cars.
Upzoning means changing the zoning code to allow taller and/or denser buildings. (This is different from a rezoning, which, in addition to allowing bigger construction, changes land use, like the New York City rezonings of the Williamsburg and Greenpoint industrial waterfront to residential.) It increases the buildable capacity of land, creating the opportunity to increase supply.