Will Montgomery County go over the "Zoning Rewrite Cliff?" Stay tuned.
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Meredith Wellington
Dec 31, 2012, 9:42:03 AM12/31/12
to neighborhood montgomery
Dear Neighbors,
As 2012 comes to an end, we want to bring you up to date on the status of the zoning rewrite process for an entire new zoning code in Montgomery County.
First, you should be aware that on December 21st, Staff placed a new “Planning Board Draft” of the new code online that supposedly compares all of the changes the Planning Board has made this fall to a Consolidated Staff Draft issued by the Staff last July. The Planning Board Draft is at http://www.montgomeryplanning.org/development/zoning/documents.shtm.
However, this Planning Board Draft is not final. Indeed, each section of the Planning Board Draft contains the caveat that “This document is a preliminary version of the Planning Board Draft. The Planning Board will continue to review several issues. Therefore, elements of this draft will change.” Thus, the Planning Board Draft is very much a work in progress.
Moreover, there is still no document comparing the proposed new code provisions with the existing code, and we have found changes to the July Staff Consolidated Draft that are not highlighted in the redlined Planning Board Draft. As a result, stakeholders in the County’s zoning processes cannot be certain of the content of the proposed new code, how it differs from the prior Staff Draft, or how it changes the current code.
Second, you should be aware that that the Planning Board is tentatively planning to approve its draft for transmittal to the County Council on January 10th, following a final work session on January 7th. See the schedule at http://www.montgomeryplanning.org/development/zoning/interact.shtm#Planning <http://www.montgomeryplanning.org/development/zoning/interact.shtm#Planning> . At that work session it intends to complete the Administration and Procedures section of the new code, and then move to the proposed Introduction and Definitions sections. This is a very compressed schedule to discuss and evaluate some of the most technical provisions of the new code.
Third, to put these developments in perspective, we are attaching two memos that we recently sent to the Planning Board on December 13th, commenting on Staff materials discussing the proposed Administration and Procedures. The memos noted as a general matter that it was impossible to provide substantive comments on any of the various draft sections of the new code inasmuch as the provisions were constantly changing.
The memos also noted specifically that the Staff report discussing the proposed Administration and Procedures section consisted of nearly 70 pages (50 of which were double-column, single-space, and hyper-technical), which were issued late Monday afternoon, December 10th, with comments due by Thursday, December 13th. Yet again, there was inadequate time for stakeholders to provide meaningful input into the zoning rewrite process, a situation that had become the rule in the zoning rewrite process, not the exception.
Finally, we hope to be able ultimately to comment on the Planning Board Draft and changes by the PHED Committee once it reaches the Council. However, it is possible, as with the PHED Committee’s review of the Commercial/Residential (CR) zones last year, that the new code will similarly be a moving target on a fast track before the Committee and then the entire Council.
If that occurs, Montgomery County will be denied the zoning tools that it and all its stakeholders need. The Council as well as us needs time to be able to analyze and understand how this new code with its new zones will differ from our current code, and what the changes will mean on the ground in Montgomery County where all of us live and do business.
We will see what happens. In the meantime, Happy New Year to all,
Neighborhood Montgomery
A Neighborhood Network for Sensible Growth
http://groups.google.com/group/neighborhood-montgomery
As 2012 comes to an end, we want to bring you up to date on the status of the zoning rewrite process for an entire new zoning code in Montgomery County.
First, you should be aware that on December 21st, Staff placed a new “Planning Board Draft” of the new code online that supposedly compares all of the changes the Planning Board has made this fall to a Consolidated Staff Draft issued by the Staff last July. The Planning Board Draft is at http://www.montgomeryplanning.org/development/zoning/documents.shtm.
However, this Planning Board Draft is not final. Indeed, each section of the Planning Board Draft contains the caveat that “This document is a preliminary version of the Planning Board Draft. The Planning Board will continue to review several issues. Therefore, elements of this draft will change.” Thus, the Planning Board Draft is very much a work in progress.
Moreover, there is still no document comparing the proposed new code provisions with the existing code, and we have found changes to the July Staff Consolidated Draft that are not highlighted in the redlined Planning Board Draft. As a result, stakeholders in the County’s zoning processes cannot be certain of the content of the proposed new code, how it differs from the prior Staff Draft, or how it changes the current code.
Second, you should be aware that that the Planning Board is tentatively planning to approve its draft for transmittal to the County Council on January 10th, following a final work session on January 7th. See the schedule at http://www.montgomeryplanning.org/development/zoning/interact.shtm#Planning <http://www.montgomeryplanning.org/development/zoning/interact.shtm#Planning> . At that work session it intends to complete the Administration and Procedures section of the new code, and then move to the proposed Introduction and Definitions sections. This is a very compressed schedule to discuss and evaluate some of the most technical provisions of the new code.
Third, to put these developments in perspective, we are attaching two memos that we recently sent to the Planning Board on December 13th, commenting on Staff materials discussing the proposed Administration and Procedures. The memos noted as a general matter that it was impossible to provide substantive comments on any of the various draft sections of the new code inasmuch as the provisions were constantly changing.
The memos also noted specifically that the Staff report discussing the proposed Administration and Procedures section consisted of nearly 70 pages (50 of which were double-column, single-space, and hyper-technical), which were issued late Monday afternoon, December 10th, with comments due by Thursday, December 13th. Yet again, there was inadequate time for stakeholders to provide meaningful input into the zoning rewrite process, a situation that had become the rule in the zoning rewrite process, not the exception.
Finally, we hope to be able ultimately to comment on the Planning Board Draft and changes by the PHED Committee once it reaches the Council. However, it is possible, as with the PHED Committee’s review of the Commercial/Residential (CR) zones last year, that the new code will similarly be a moving target on a fast track before the Committee and then the entire Council.
If that occurs, Montgomery County will be denied the zoning tools that it and all its stakeholders need. The Council as well as us needs time to be able to analyze and understand how this new code with its new zones will differ from our current code, and what the changes will mean on the ground in Montgomery County where all of us live and do business.
We will see what happens. In the meantime, Happy New Year to all,
Neighborhood Montgomery
A Neighborhood Network for Sensible Growth
http://groups.google.com/group/neighborhood-montgomery
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