FLOG - the Friends of White Flint Blog

The Board of Directors of Friends of White Flint is made up of equal numbers of representatives from three classes of members: Residents and Community Associations; Business; and Property Owners and Developers. Each class has one seat open for election each year. Nominations were solicited in February and nominations closed yesterday.

Residents and Community Associations:

     Paul Meyer, from the Wisconsin Condominium

     Todd Lewers, from the Forum Condominium

Business:

     Michael Springer, from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (incumbent)

Property Owners and Developers:

     Mike Smith, from LCOR White Flint (incumbent)

Nominees’ pictures and election statements will be published in the FLOG in the next few days.  

Ballots for the contested seat (Residents) will be sent out on April 5, and must be completed, signed and returned by MAIL with a postmark of no later than Monday, April 19.

Final elections and seating of the new Directors will take place at the Friends of White Flint Annual Meeting, April 26, at 4:30. The Annual Meeting will be held at the offices of Lerner Corporation, 2000 Tower Oaks Blvd, 8th Floor; this is a LEED-certified building and one of the greenest in Montgomery County.

If you have any comments or questions about the election process, please contact me at bzall@friendsofwhiteflint.org.

Barnaby Zall

Politics Daily’s Delia Lloyd thinks so. Her newest column points out that car sales are down, and not just because of the recession. Part of the change is that other options are becoming more mainstream, as in Google adding intelligent bike routes to its maps. And to some degree, the climate change message is hitting home.

One thing she doesn’t mention is that many areas are now turning to New Urbanism and other transit-oriented planning, so people simply don’t need as many cars. And that trend will accellerate in the future, when new carbon reduction laws kick in. Car costs will rise, and as the recession showed, Americans may still love their cars, but if the dating cost is too high, they’ll cut back.

You can read Lloyd’s column here: http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/03/12/as-the-auto-industry-sputters-is-car-culture-dying/

Barnaby Zall

Ouch! You’re happily driving along, singing karaoke to the radio/MP3/whatever, when suddenly the ground drops out from under you like a Kings Dominion ride, there’s huge BANG, and you realize that you’ll need a new wheel alignment, or maybe a new tire or rim.

It’s pothole season. Don’t just curse about it. Report it. On-line pothole reporting:

http://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/apps/dpwt/pothole/Pothole.asp

Barnaby Zall

One of the continuing fights over the last several months (years, really) has been the relationship between Montgomery County’s existing automobile-oriented “Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance” or Growth Policy, and the emerging New Urbanism, transit-oriented plans being developed for places like White Flint. Put simply, should quality of life in a pedestrian-friendly, walkable community be measured by how fast cars move through intersections?

The development of the White Flint Sector Plan — the most innovative and pedestrian-oriented of the Master Plans now being developed in Montgomery County — was held up for months by the County Council’s Planning, Housing and Economic Development Committee, as it wrestled with the contradiction between the automobile-oriented tests (still mandated by law for White Flint) and the new pedestrian vision.

The whole problem boiled down to the fact that a car traveling on Rockville Pike in 2030 would take 32 seconds longer to go through White Flint. But the Council staff was stuck: the car-oriented tests couldn’t just be ignored. Even after the Committee made major shifts in thinking — realizing the solution was not to speed up the cars, but to get people OUT of their cars — the rules were still in place.

So the Committee drafted a compromise. The regional traffic test, Policy Area Mobility Review (or PAMR), would be dropped from White Flint completely. The local test, Local Area Transportation Review (or LATR), would remain in place until a suitable replacement was developed, either through a development district or some other monitoring and infrastructure financing mechanism.

The Council staff has now drafted the legal “amendment” to implement the Committee’s proposal. The draft can be found here:

http://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/content/council/pdf/agenda/col/2010/100316/20100316_12.pdf.

It appears to be exactly what the Committee voted on as its proposal. The amendment will be introduced tomorrow at the regular Tuesday Council meeting at the County Council Building in Rockville. The Council will then hold a public hearing on March 23, with public comments being accepted for the next two weeks. This is a shorter comment period than normal, because this amendment has been discussed for many months. Final Council action is expected on April 6.

The Council is also expected to vote final approval for the White Flint Sector Plan on March 23. All members of the Council have now voiced support for the Plan.

Barnaby Zall

On Wednesday, Friends of White Flint member organization Action Committee for Transit lost one of its founders and pioneers in viewing Montgomery County’s future as transit-oriented. Harry Sanders passed away at the Casey Hospice in Rockville at age 63. ACT was founded in his living room in 1986 to support transit between Bethesda and Silver Spring. Sanders’ original vision gradually broadened, as he championed transit throughout the area close to D.C.

(ACT Founder Harry Sanders; picture from ACT) 

Sanders was before his time in thinking about reducing Montgomery County’s suburban focus on automobiles. He was a walker, and at a time when people were mostly thinking about driving to the Metro, he thought about sidewalks and pedestrians as part of a transit system that served everyone. He saw transit as a way to help individuals, not just communities, especially to help lower-income residents participate more fully in their neighborhoods without having to drive. 

Eventually, Montgomery County adopted the Purple Line, a 16-mile light rail system to connect the Metro lines in Montgomery and Prince Georges County. And now Montgomery County is moving to recognize the value of building transit-oriented communities on a New Urbanism model, with density centered on transit stations, the way Arlington County did with the Rosslyn-Ballston corridor.

Sanders, like me, came to the Washington area during the Vietnam War to work with the National Security Agency, the code-breaking and computer research arm of the U.S. Department of Defense. He retired as a computer analyst for the House of Representatives in 1997.  He was quiet and preferred meetings to public speaking, but his self-confidence blazed through in his choice of colorful shirts. 

ACT has a brief statement on its home page: www.actfortransit.org. “How you reached the goal was just as important as where you arrived. . . . Through good times and bad, he pursued a vision of people working together on behalf of the community.” The Washington Post obituary is here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/11/AR2010031104513.html?sub=AR.

Barnaby Zall

White Flint has its full share of public utility responsibilities, particularly when it comes to providing water to the surrounding area. There is the huge water tower on the Lutrell property just south of Nicholson Lane, which also carries one of those enormous 5-foot diameter concrete water pipelines. This pipeline, which is the same age and construction as the one which failed and flooded River Road last year, had a slight . . . glitch a few months ago, as a sinkhole (bigger than a pothole) developed under Tilden Lane (which is the western extension of Nicholson Lane after it crosses Old Georgetown Rd.).

Now a new WSSC “Bi-County Water Tunnel” is being bored down Tuckerman Lane, and connecting up to one in Rock Creek Park at Stoneybrook and Beach Drives. This is an even bigger pipeline than the one under Nicholson Lane: 7 feet across. The pipeline, which will serve Prince Georges County, has been in planning since 2004, and the WSSC has a section on its website explaining the project: http://www.wsscwater.com/Bi-CountyWaterTunnelJuly2009.pdf.

The project map shows the tunnel essentially following the 270 spur, which will take it south of the White Flint Sector boundaries, but near a variety of White Flint communities. The tunnel will be 200′ below ground, in part to minimize community disruptions. The WSSC notes that dust and noise will be problems and helpfully adds: “Noise and vibration from blasting activities at the shaft will be noticed by the adjoining community. Nearby residents will be notified of these activities and construction will comply with all blasting regulations.”

It appears construction is about to begin at Old Farm Creek, north of Tuckerman Lane and east of 270. Crews had half the road blocked yesterday, and today WSSC sent out a warning letter announcing the beginning of this phase of construction.

Barnaby Zall

Just a reminder: all members of Friends of White Flint should have received (in early February) a membership notice, which included your membeship renewal date, information on the upcoming FoWF Board elections, and a Board nomination form. (Only FoWF members may be nominated; if you’re not a FoWF member, please join us by visiting our main web site: www.whiteflint.org.)

Under the FoWF election schedule, nomination forms must be RECEIVED by next Monday, March 15. If you have any questions, please contact me immediately: bzall@friendsofwhiteflint.org.

Barnaby Zall

Many months ago, I sat with Phil Andrews, who was then the President of the Montgomery County Council, and several White Flint residents at the opening of the new Marriott tower on Marinelli Avenue. A festive atmosphere swirled around us, fueled by some really weird finger foods, and an equally-strange Joan Rivers who greeted people in the lobby (this was before her odd turn on the Apprentice TV show). But our residents’ conversation with Andrews was kind of intense, since we were talking about the White Flint Sector Plan and the future of White Flint.

(Councilmembers George Leventhal (left) and Phil Andrews)

Andrews was not then, and apparently isn’t now, the most vociferous proponent of the White Flint Sector Plan. He said he was reluctant to commit to support the White Flint Plan because he wasn’t sure that the Plan was crafted with enough community input. (This was back when a few residents were still complaining that their concerns hadn’t been considered; actually they had been heard, but just not been accepted by the broader community.)  John Fry (a Friends of White Flint Residents’ and Community Associations’ Board member from the Fallstone community), Karl Girshman from the Wisconsin, and I spent some time discussing that very point with Andrews, explaining the process and how residents had helped shape the Plan from the beginning. Andrews said he’d reserve his decision until the Council consideration of the Plan, which he accurately predicted was more than a year in the future.

Well, since then, we held LOTS of meetings with White Flint residents (really – Evan Goldman and I counted more than 200 residents meetings). And had a full set of Planning Board, Council and Committee meetings. And public opinion polls showing 82% of respondents in favor of the Plan. And public hearings where residents supported the Plan by a 4-1 margin. And long, long reports (some from Friends of White Flint – at least the longest ones were) about public participation and the Plan. And urban planning awards based on the high level of public involvement in the White Flint Plan.

Andrews was necessarily absent from the recent unanimous Council straw vote in favor of the White Flint Sector Plan, so we didn’t know, for certain, until today how Andrews would come down on the White Flint Plan. Andrews was telling people in private meetings he supported the Plan, so we had a good idea, but he wasn’t public with his support. Now he is. 

Today’s Gazette has a column in which Andrews has changed his mind, both about citizen participation, and the White Flint Plan:  

Ask North Bethesda residents about the proposed White Flint Sector Plan and they will say the plan was done with them. . . . In White Flint, there was a meeting of the minds . . .

Major property owners and community residents were partners in the White Flint Sector Plan, a transit-oriented development around a Metro station. The vision for White Flint includes an attractive urban center with plazas, a street grid, and excellent pedestrian and bicycle connections to neighboring communities. The Sierra Club, the Action Committee for Transit, the Coalition for Smarter Growth, business owners, and many civic groups support it.

You can find the Gazette column here:

 http://www.gazette.net/stories/03102010/montlet174923_32597.php

The Andrews op-ed is actually about something else: the contrast between the White Flint process and the process for the new Gaithersburg West Plan. But as the quote above shows, it appears that Andrews has made up his mind to vote for the White Flint Plan.

So the County Council debate on the White Flint Plan on March 23 should be pretty quiet, and the vote in favor of the White Flint Sector Plan may be unanimous.

Barnaby Zall

Live-blogging from the Montgomery County Council on March 2, 2010. The Council just approved the CR Zone, and is now moving into consideration of the financing of the White Flint Sector Plan.

Council President Nancy Floreen announced that there would be a final vote on the White Flint Sector Plan on March 23.

Council staffer Glenn Orlin explained his latest staff memorandum for the Council on financing. The memorandum can be found here: http://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/content/council/pdf/agenda/col/2010/100302/20100302_9.pdf

The staff memo points to Council bill 1-10, the Trachtenberg/Knapp bill discussed several weeks ago, to designate a special County Executive official to serve as the focal point and expediter for White Flint. The bill will be considered by the PHED Committee on April 5. The staff said that such an employee would be essential.

Councilmember Roger Berliner noted that the development district will take the place of the “traditional” transportation infrastructure requirement tests, and so it was important to have the development district portion of the Plan. Councilmember Mike Knapp, Chair of the Planning, Housing and Economic Development Committee, discussed the monitoring and review process, and said the Committee had determined that it was important that the Council have information before it takes action on infrastructure funding requests. This would be a partnership, working with the property owners, residents and the government. This is a bit of a different kind of animal. People putting a lot of money on the table, counting on the government. So everyone needs to be able to check on things.

Jennifer Barrett, for the County Executive branch, said that the development district would not be privately funded, but public. The bonds would be paid for by tax dollars.

The Council then moved to the staging issues.

Council staffer Marlene Michaelson presented the staff memo prepared for the Council on staging. The memo can be found here: http://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/content/council/pdf/agenda/col/2010/100302/20100302_10.pdf

The first item was deleting “Stage Four,” which would take place only after the first three stages are complete. It is unlikely that development in White Flint would ever reach that point, so the staff recommended deleting Stage Four and the PHED Committee agreed.  The Committee also addressed the “mode share” goals for each phase (mode share is the percentage of non-car trips in White Flint; the increase in mode share was the key to conforming the White Flint Plan with automobile-oriented tests otherwise required by law).

Councilmember Roger Berliner asked about the monitoring of “traffic issues.” “What does that mean? Can we be more specific? Can we include intersection impacts?” Michaelson said it includes intersection impacts. Berliner said the communities would be happier if the language would include “intersection impacts” within the phrase “traffic issues.” The Council agreed to this clarification.

Orlin then discussed the mode share goals again, with Michaelson adding that the mode share goals have superseded many of the specific things recommended in the original draft Plan, such as parking districts. “We’ll need to use every tool in the box,” Orlin said, “anything that’s legal will be used.” Michaelson noted that LATR (one of the intersection-speed tests) was discussed in committee, but would be introduced on March 16. So the Council will review that question before the final vote on the White Flint Plan on March 23.

Berliner then discussed the Advisory Committee, and asked that “current residents” be expressly included. “If we are identifying property owners, we should identify residents.” The Council added that clarification.

Berliner asked whether there would be an opportunity for public comment on the movement between phases (i.e., from stage one to stage two). Planning Board Royce Hanson said it was inconceivable that in Montgomery County that the Planning Board would do anything without public comment. Staff will monitor and prepare a report, discuss the report with the Advisory Committee and the Board, and would provide an opportunity for public comment before it is sent to the Council. “You don’t want to go too far in identifying a detailed administrative process in a Master Plan.” It’s unlikely that any findings made by staff or Board will go unchallenged. this would be an Action Item for the Board, and so would be the subject of a public hearing. Michaelson: we’ve haven’t stated that public hearing requirement in any other master plan.

 Berliner: changing the timing of the consideration of the placement of Bus Rapid Transit. Earlier had said we would get a report in a month, but now it appears that six months is more realistic. orlin: After a public hearing and not later than six months after the Plan.

Berliner: cut-through traffic. P. 5. Community has forwarded to staff alternative language with respect to calming and other measures. Strengthen this language a bit. Orlin: letter passed around, but we have a few concerns. Often these elements do not result in consensus. This comes up all the time. Berliner: the community appreciates that. But they are concerned that it will be initiated and then will languish, even if everyone is in agreement. We want it implemented, not initiated, where the community has signed off. Diane Schwartz-Jones, for the County Executive: this is already covered in existing law, and unless we want to address that part of the law, we need to stay within the law. This recommendation doesn’t comply with existing law. Orlin: one of the reasons we took away that recommendation is that we didn’t want to tie it to that legal procedure. In Silver Spring, this was done pro-actively with the community. Give us some time to work out these conflicts. Berliner: if everybody signed off on it, let’s get it done. Orlin: calming is different from other elements, and there are specific requirements and procedures. Not part of this Plan. It’s a neighborhood issue regardless. Berliner: ok, if staff would work on this. Councilmember Duchy Trachtenberg: my community abuts the Sector. Cut-through traffic is raised on a daily basis. We do have a problem.

Michaelson: we will prepare a resolution with all your changes. We’ll have a draft by the end of next week, so comments can get back to us before this goes to Council on March 23.

Council President Nancy Floreen: tremendous community involvement, even a blogging section in the back row. This will be an interesting spring. This is an advance in our community’s future.

Floreen then called for a straw vote on the Plan with the language the Council had agreed on. The vote was unanimous (Councilmember Phil Andrews was absent). Floreen then thanked everyone involved and the meeting adjourned.

Barnaby Zall

Live-blogging from the March 2, 2010 meeting of the Montgomery County Council. Three relevant topics on today’s agenda: revisions to the Commercial/Residential (CR) Zone; financing of the White Flint Sector Plan; and staging (timing of implementation) of the White Flint Plan.

The CR Zone became a bit more controversial last week, as detailed in a post below, when some organizations suggested that the Zone be revised to increase the amount any development proposal would have to pay to support the Agricultural Reserve. The staff memorandum on the latest changes is available here: http://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/content/council/pdf/agenda/col/2010/100302/20100302_8.pdf. The Council discussed the two revisions discussed in the staff memo. One of the sharpest discussions was over the sustainability incentives which the PHED Committee recommended for removal (e.g., stormwater retention, bio-remediation, LEED office building rating). Councilmember Roger Berliner moved to restore the list of sustainability incentives. Other councilmembers pointed to increasing complexity and unending lists of amenities. Councilmember George Leventhal said “Not every worthy goal needs to be achieved through zoning mechanisms.” Berliner noted that the underlying rationale for the removal was avoiding duplication, but the PHED Committee had already handled that problem. Planning Board Royce Hanson pointed out that language could be added to avoid giving incentives for something already required by federal law (such as substantially-increased federal requirements for stormwater management). PHED Committee Chair Mike Knapp said that the Committee was trying to reduce the list of incentives. “These are all lofty goals, but we had to draw a line somewhere, and these were things that didn’t make the list.” Councilmember Marc Elrich said that the removed items were all things people thought would be in the White Flint Plan. The Council voted 5-4 against Berliner’s motion, but voted to add the language suggested by Planning Board Chair Hanson on federal requirements.

Council President Nancy Floreen then expressed her appreciation for the hard work of both the Planning Board and the PHED Committee. Elrich then said he would not introduce an amendment he had planned on the Agricultural Reserve, which apparently was the BLT issue discussed in the last few days. “So it’s back to the drawing board for those of us who want to extract BLTs, because this is not the end of this.” Elrich then moved to approve the CR Zone bill. The Council voted unanimously to approve the CR Zone.

[UPDATE: Here’s a Washington Post story on the Council action: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/02/AR2010030201791.html?hpid=newswell.]

Barnaby Zall