Posts about Agricultural Reserve
Public Spaces
Wedges & Corridors: The country’s first sustainable growth plan?
The biggest determinant for carrying the Wedges & Corridors vision into the future is land. We are not making any more of it and, in fact, we have restricted its availability by placing a growth boundary, the Ag Reserve, around the top third of the County.
Did the plan authors realize there would be a time when we would be forced to look in a more limited fashion within Montgomery County to maximize the infrastructure to achieve their vision? They must have known we could not grow out forever. I like to think they thought about this and said to themselves, "We have created a framework that will challenge future community leaders to rethink our growth, leverage what we have built and at that point, become the one of the most sustainable suburbs in the country."
Wedges and Corridors was Strategic growth on former strip malls will strengthen existing communities by creating new services and raising land values. We already know in Bethesda and Silver Spring that residential neighborhoods near mixed-use centers see higher home values because they are close to the amenities people want. Surrounding communities enjoy both convenient services and the preservation of their established neighborhoods.
Ask folks around Dale Avenue in Silver Spring or in the Luxmanor neighborhood of White Flint if they love their new grocery stores. Those stores are made possible through the kind of redevelopment that creates an incentive for property owners to create desirable new projects.
The large number of foreclosures over the past four years shows that neighborhoods isolated from services and jobs are susceptible to high rates of foreclosure, even in MoCo. These neighborhoods are sensitive to fluctuations in the cost of transportation, mainly gas. The average homeowner in MoCo spends over 18 percent of household costs on getting around.
Strategic infill near these neighborhoods, such as a small strip mall converted into a mix of housing and services, can help reduce transportation costs. Housing around office parks can bring people closer to work with the added increase in affordable housing.
To preserve the quality of life of our residential areas, we must generate new thinking for the areas we have left. The following maps show what little land we have left to effect change. Is this a function of Wedges and Corridors? I think it is more due to the zoning we created over the past 50 years. Clearly, we have not designated enough land in which to accommodate the growth that was expected to happen in Wedges and Corridors.
With 70,000 new households expected in the next 20 to 25 years, the need is pressing. Land for new single-family housing is almost gone, and we expect nearly 80 percent of the new housing to be in multi-unit buildings on smaller infill sites (about 5 percent of the County).
We expect 155,000 to 165,000 new jobs. Where we put those jobs and how people get to them is critical. We cannot price out our workforce from our jobs and force them to live outside the County.
This means attracting new services and housing to strategic areas. Our master planning efforts in White Flint, Kensington, Wheaton, Silver Spring, Takoma and Burtonsville all address the issues left to us by the founders of Wedges & Corridors.
While we have been handed a legacy, our thinkers of 50 years ago left us with new challenges. Limited resources, with the challenge to create a sustainable network of neighborhoods from what appears to be a network of suburban sprawl. It is up to our generation of thinkers and those who follow, to create a sustainable network of connections focused on mobility, design and the environment that will set the stage 50 years from now for the next evolution of the Wedges and Corridors.
Roads
Zombie road rises from the dead in upcounty Montgomery
Montgomery County DOT has resurrected an expensive and environmentally destructive extension of Mid-County Highway in Gaithersburg from a dotted line on a 1960's map.
M-83 threatens Great Seneca Creek tributaries. Photo by Gleb Tulukin on Flickr.
Codenamed M-83, the highway would waste scarce money from the county's Capital Improvement Program (CIP), destroy valuable parkland and wetlands, take people's property, and induce more traffic congestion than it solves.
The proposed highway extension would go all the way to Clarksburg. It would run roughly parallel to MD 355 and I-270.
This area is currently built out with car-dependent subdivisions and strip malls. Consequently, the road wouldn't induce much new tax revenue through greenfield development in the county. It would simply be yet another attempt to make it more convenient for drivers from Clarksburg and points north to drive to Rockville, Bethesda, and DC.
In reality, the existence of another through-road would increase the pressure to open up the county's Agricultural Reserve for more car-dependent sprawl.
M-83 would become congested like every other new road due to induced demand while being very expensive to maintain. More money will be taken out of the county's general funds that could go to transit, police, schools, etc. We'll be paying for environmental destruction yet again.
Just like the zombie outer beltway in Virginia, M-83's route was selected years before planners began taking environmental issues into consideration. Over the years, local residents have killed plans for this road multiple times.
The Army Corps of Engineers and the EPA have denied federal funding in the past because many of the alternatives would pave over protected, undeveloped parklands that contain tributaries to Great Seneca Creek.
Because each alternative includes widening existing sections of surface roadway to highway standards, local residents would lose private property. The Coalition for Transit Alternatives to Mid-County Highway Extended (TAME) has arisen to oppose the misguided plans to build M-83. TAME comprises mid-county and upcounty environmental groups, religious organizations, and civic associations.
While presenting to the August 9 Action Committee for Transit meeting, a representative of TAME described how some people attending the public meetings on M-83 originally angled to have someone else's yard taken for the road widenings. The representative noted that once the different stakeholders began talking with each other, they came to a consensus that no one's yard should be taken for a road that is expensive, environmentally destructive, and unnecessary. Stakeholders also agree that M-83 should be eliminated from the county's Master Plan and CIP.
Currently the M-83 project is funded exclusively with county money. Why is there money for M-83 when the county executive's office refuses to add boulevardizing Rockville Pike in White Flint to the CIP? Likewise with adding a second entrance to the White Flint Metro Station or funding the Corridor Cities Transitway?
This current mentality, where the county happily pays for any road project yet requires outside funding sources for transit projects, is selling our future short and must stop.
Just like TAME's vision, I implore Montgomery County to defund the cost-ineffective and environmentally destructive M-83 project in favor of projects like White Flint's urban retrofit, the Corridor Cities Transitway, and possibly the county's BRT vision.
Politics
For Montgomery County Council
I've found the Montgomery County Council frustrating. On important issues around growth, development and transportation, many councilmembers don't take much of a stand and vote in unanimous or near-unanimous numbers even on controversial and vital issues.
Many seem to prefer finding a consensus where they can vote unanimously or nearly-unanimously, regardless of the merits of that consensus. The I-270 battle was a good case in point, where advocates' opposition to SHA's plan got the Council to postpone a vote, then meet for a work session to agree on a compromise, which passed unanimously. As a result, most members avoided ever having to really stick up for or against something.
The County Council needs a strong advocate for Smart Growth and sustainable transportation issues. That would likely be Hans Riemer, if he is successful in his bid for one of the four at-large seats. Hans is a longtime Smart Growth proponent and an active member of ACT. He set out clear and excellent positions in his interview with Cavan.
The four incumbents are all definitely superior to the rest of the challengers besides Riemer. Those incumbents each have their pros and cons.
Marc Elrich has been a strong proponent of a Bus Rapid Transit network, pushing the idea tirelessly and making it a signature issue. However, he's also the strongest defender of traffic-based tests that in effect hinder walkable development.
Nancy Floreen pushed through the White Flint plan, one of Montgomery's biggest opportunities for meaningful transit-oriented development, and opposes the traffic-based tests that Elrich likes. On the other hand, she also opposes most rules that would limit development in rural areas far from transit. She generally advocates building in the county and is less discerning about what or where.
George Leventhal has been a leader in the fight for the Purple Line, and for transit in general in the county. Yet he also strongly supported widening I-270, and basically favors any transportation project of any kind in any location. Duchy Trachtenberg has been good on the environment and transit issues as well and not a road booster, but hasn't shown as much leadership on growth and transportation issues generally.
I'd recommend Montgomery residents (like my in-laws) vote for Mr. Riemer and decide among the other candidates based on the other issues, like schools, budgets, labor relations and many more. If you're not sure of some of the candidates, it's also fine to vote for only two or three. Leaving a blank or two on the ballot makes the votes you do cast count even more, as the top four total vote-getters win the seats.
Two district seats are also contested, which happen to be the two that had Montgomery's greatest development debates in the last few years. District 1 includes Chevy Chase, Bethesda and Potomac, and has significant numbers of residents who oppose the Purple Line and/or White Flint. Roger Berliner, the incumbent, has championed both projects a good future for his area despite the short-term political risk. Meanwhile, his challenger, Ilaya Hopkins, has chosen to throw her lot in with the antis. Mr. Berliner should be reelected to prove that anti sentiment doesn't drive Montgomery politics.
In District 2, the suburban and rural northern part of the County, former Planning Board Chair Royce Hanson is the best choice for the open seat. He's been a strong proponent of Smart Growth on the Planning Board, and was largely responsible for the Agricultural Reserve, the large belt of (mostly) protected land at the County's edge, much of which is in that district. His support for the sprawl development at Gaithersburg West was more of a disappointment, but his multi-decade track record warrants your vote.
The other district members, Phil Andrews, Nancy Navarro, and Valerie Ervin, do not have primary challengers.
Roads
On Tuesday, Montgomery Council can avoid "ICC 2.0"
Montgomery County debated the Intercounty Connector for decades. Just as construction began, rising gas prices meant fewer people were driving, the economic crash bankrupted the State of Maryland, protecting our environment became even more urgent, and new research demonstrated the health hazards of freeways, which get worse the larger the road becomes. Today, most County residents know that if we knew what we know today, we'd have dedicated our resources to other transportation priorities like the Purple Line, Corridor Cities Transitway, MARC, and rapid buses.
Image by taberandrew.
On Tuesday, the County Council has the opportunity to make the very same mistake again, or to choose a different path. They will vote on whether to recommend widening I-270 to 12 or even 14 lanes between Rockville and Clarksburg, and adding two new lanes from Clarksburg to the County line. This whole mess would cost almost $4 billion, and plunge the region into yet another very expensive mistake.
Adding vehicle capacity will drive even more auto-dependent housing sprawl in Germantown, Clarksburg, and Frederick County. The last time we widened I-270, the new capacity filled right up, 11 years ahead of when planners predicted. That's because they didn't account for "induced demand," where widening a road encourages people to live even farther from their jobs, and before long, the road is as crowded as before. The engineers pushing this concept are ready to make the same mistakes they did in the 1980s.
Sprawl farther and farther from our region's jobs and existing infrastructure will put pressure on the Agricultural Reserve, the County's bold and very successful 1980 plan to preserve much of the rural, agricultural land at the County's edge. It'll also fuel sprawl in Frederick County, which will push housing even farther out and create more traffic and pollution inside Montgomery County without the benefits. One-third of our emissions come from transportation, and this project would add more cars and harm our air quality by making people drive farther and farther.
There's a better way to spend $4 billion. Improve MARC to add all-day, two-way service to Frederick and Harper's Ferry. Build a light rail link from Rockville or Shady Grove to downtown Gaithersburg, Germantown and Clarksburg. Make Route 355 a walkable, urban boulevard from White Flint to Rockville and Gaithersburg. Study congestion pricing on the existing lanes to keep traffic moving, instead of building new ones.
None of these options were part of the Maryland State Highway Administration's study of 270, because their toolbox consists entirely of adding lanes, adding HOV lanes, and adding HOT lanes. If you live, work, shop or drive in Montgomery County, please ask the County Council to reject any new lanes and insist that the State of Maryland evaluate other, better options for moving people in the 270 corridor and improving the lives of people along 270 and across Montgomery County.
Roads
Gaithersbungle, part 2: Old, tired formulas generate old, disastrous solutions
The Montgomery Planning Department just recommended widening I-270 between Rockville and Clarksburg to 12 lanes, and adding two new lanes north of Clarksburg. The project would cost $3.8 billion, and would be a disastrous move for the County. The analysis relies on antiquated Level of Service analysis that downplays the side effects of the widening on sprawl, and ignores other alternatives such as pricing existing lanes which would alleviate congestion more cheaply and with much less damage.
Bye, bye Md. countryside. Photo by bettinche.
Widening 270 would fuel the greatest expansion of auto-dependent sprawl in Montgomery County in over a generation. In 1980, foresighted Montgomery County leaders created the Agricultural Reserve, protecting 90,000 acres of farmland in the county's rural area. They created a program to transfer development rights from agricultural land to the denser, downcounty areas, to focus growth around existing infrastructure and existing jobs.
The Reserve excludes several large areas around Clarksburg and Germantown, and as the Planning Board notes, the County has added significant amounts of new housing there, as well as in Frederick County. However, the report ignores the huge, real effect of induced demand. New lanes would spur even more auto-dependent single-family homes out in these areas, homes very, very far from jobs. The development would put pressure on future County leaders to narrow the Reserve. And, most of all, it would drive even more sprawling growth in Frederick County.
Instead of seeing freeway expansion as driving demand, the Planning Department report simply takes development as static and focuses almost entirely on vehicular Level of Service (LOS). That's entirely the wrong measure.
Planning Staff have taken a small bite out of LOS-centrism in the proposed Growth Policy, recommending a change in the standard from D to E. But if you're only designing a transportation network with the goal of moving as many cars as possible as fast as possible, you end up with distorted answers. As the saying goes in transportation planning, "If you plan for cars and traffic, you get cars and traffic. If you plan for people and places, you get people and places."
The staff report dismisses the "no-build alternative" simply because it will not relieve congestion on the roadway. But it doesn't challenge the basic assumptions that speeding the drive from Frederick during rush hour should be the County's priority with $3.8 billion.
Worst of all, the staff never consider better options, like congestion charging on existing lanes. FHWA itself concluded that charging tolls on 270 during peak periods could move enough "discretionary" car trips to other times to alleviate the congestion problems on 270. Freeways behave somewhat paradoxically, where very small changes in demand cause big changes in congestion. Brookings just released a paper recommending a road-use pricing system.
Next: Another way to improve transportation in the corridor, for less than $3.8 billion.
Taxis
Breakfast links: Make a difference
Live in Montgomery County? Park and Planning is surveying residents on "how we manage growth, ... [and] enhance quality of place in our communities." Weigh in for more walkable, mixed-use places over auto-dependent sprawl. Also, there's just one more week to submit public comments to MTA Maryland in support of the light rail Purple Line.
Photo by Sean Robertson on Flickr.
Live in DC? This Thursday, the Sustainability area of the DC Zoning Update will discuss Land Use and Mobility, especially how our zoning code can encourage mixed-use TOD. If there's any topic for the zoning rewrite most relevant to this blog, this may be it. It's 6:30-9 pm at 441 4th Street (One Judiciary Square), 11th Floor, Room 1107 and open to anyone.
Live near North Capitol? Very apropos of our recent North Capitol discussion, Office of Planning, DDOT and NCPC are starting a North Capitol Street Urban Design and Transportation Study for the Eckington, Bloomingdale, McMillan Sand Filtration, Washington Hospital Center, and Armed Forces Retirement Home area. It's Tuesday, January 13th, 6:30-8 pm at an as-yet-undetermined location. According to the announcement (not online), the study will look at "including civic spaces, memorials, and enhancing the public streetscapes, ... alternative intersection configurations for the cloverleaf at Irving and North Capitol Streets and automobile ramps at Michigan and Irving, and ... improving safety, connectivity and transportation operations."
Yet another bike sharing program: The National Park Service is launching a bike sharing program for their employees in the DC area. Why couldn't they simply add three SmartBike locations, asks WashCycle? Now we have three incompatible systems.
It would mean listening to economists: A Freakonomics guest post makes the case for congestion pricing. So far, the author argues, we're "little nearer to solving the congestion problem" than in Julius Caesar's day. Via Ryan Avent.
And: Ryan Avent weighs in on the taxi rate regulation debate we had in Monday's comments; a judge forces Montgomery County to allow new houses in the Agricultural Reserve; another car hits a pedestrian in Chinatown.
Development
Montgomery County: America in microcosm
Montgomery County, and most of the Washington region, is far from typical of the United States in many ways. Both Montgomery County and the region as a whole have higher education and income levels than the nation on average, and even the less affluent parts of the county have a median income that is well above the national median income. However, on land use, the county is grappling with the very same issues as many other communities throughout the United States.
Montgomery County Agricultural Reserve, from MNCPPC-Montgomery
Two weeks ago, Montgomery County Planning Board Chairman Royce Hanson told the Montgomery County Civic Federation that the county "needs to adopt an urban development model to handle growth, demographic changes and a diminishing supply of developable land." Many inner suburban communities throughout the nation are grappling with questions about how to plan for future growth. Most would like to preserve some agricultural land uses, as Montgomery has with the Agricultural Reserve. Most would like to preserve some undeveloped land. At the same time, most would like grow their tax base to keep up with increasing demand for services. It's impossible to maintain agriculture and undeveloped land and continue to expand a tax base using car-dependent development patterns. But many residents of Montgomery County, and counties throughout the nation, also resist a shift toward denser, more walkable development.
Montgomery County is ahead of most of the other inner suburban counties in the United States because of its wealth, its legacy pre-World War II towns, and its eleven Metro stations, plus two more on the DC border. Those elements conditions allowed the county to construct Bethesda at a time when most of the nation (and the rest of the county) was building edge cities. Just as it took a lot of political will to change the zoning and create tax incentives for smart growth in Bethesda, it will also take a lot of political will for the next generation of suburban-to-urban retrofits around the White Flint, Twinbrook, Shady Grove, and Glenmont Metro stations. In Montgomery, and in the nation at large, necessity will be the mother of invention. From the Gazette article:
As planners work to create a new growth policy recommendation for the council to enact next year, Hanson says they need to rethink and reinvent the way development is planned and put less emphasis on roads because little more traffic capacity is likely to be added after the Intercounty Connector and Montrose Parkway, now under construction, are built. ..."Drive 'til you qualify" was okay when that drive was ten miles. It's not so great when that drive is 50 miles. Will Montgomery County and other communities across the nation muster the political will to build something different from the traditional exurban housing developments as they grow?"Time and costs of commuting and home maintenance are making big homes on big lots in the exurbs out of favor, [Senior Vice President Stephen] Nardella [of single-family house developer Winchestor Homes] said."
Earlier this month, the Montgomery County Council approved an Avalon Bay development on the northern border of downtown Wheaton. The project will include 310 housing units and a new modern Safeway, which will move from its current location at the intersection of Reedie Drive and Georgia Avenue, above the Metro Station. Moving the Safeway will greatly improve downtown Wheaton, and the housing units in the development will be attractive to prospective buyers while the store will have a large customer base in close proximity.
Still, before approving the project, the County Council reduced the density from 100 units per acre to 50 and then again to 40. "Montgomery County can't decide whether it wants to be urban or suburban," said Councilmember Nancy Floreen (at-large). Perhaps Floreen herself can't decide, either:
"I think the vast majority of residents bought into a suburban lifestyle, [and] some of these planning initiatives are urban and require massive amounts of infrastructure," she said. "The real frontier in Montgomery County is in paying for these changes," and with the economy slumping it is "not the ideal time to address that," Floreen said, although she agrees with much of what Hanson is advocating. ...Some of that political will means resisting the arguments of nearby residents who argue, as they successfully did recently in Kensington Heights and Rockville, that three-story townhouses or four-story apartments will "tower" over their homes and "destroy" their neighborhoods.It takes political will to make such a change [for higher density], and usually surrounding communities oppose higher density, [Hanson] said.
Our nation had a big suburbia party (except no one came because no one knew their neighbors) these past six decades. We're now starting to feel the effects of the hangover, such as a lack of affordable housing near jobs, foreign oil addiction, and an exponential acceleration of open land being paved over.
Montgomery County has been creating the blueprint for other suburban jurisdictions to follow in order to assure their own long-term viability. It is slowly (and I do mean slowly) coming to terms with the fact that it is no longer some sort of fringe bedroom community. It is an economic dynamo and home to a couple of centers of culture and vitality that rival the downtowns of some American "cities." However, I fear that Montgomery, and most of the other suburban jurisdictions across the United States, won't have the political will to stand up to all the super-local selfish interests until it's too late.
@ggwash
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Greater Washington
District of Columbia
