Will This Be Our Future
It seems the development issue is becoming a huge factor in the Montgomery County elections. Now any of us who have ever driven through Montgomery County understand why voters there might be mad. There are few better contrasts between the well thought out planning in Howard County and the sprawl, traffic congestion, and unnessisary reductions in the quality of life of Montgomery County and Northern Virginia. The residents there are angry about this and now they are putting out campaign videos that go after the politicians that side with the developers over the community. Check out this video.
Will our candidates and elected officials learn this lesson before creative and pissed off citizens start doing similar videos here? I hope so. I have never liked to follow Montgomery County in anything. Let us show that Howard County plans effectively and our electeds and candidates are smarter than those that are contributing to the mess in Montgomery County.
Will our candidates and elected officials learn this lesson before creative and pissed off citizens start doing similar videos here? I hope so. I have never liked to follow Montgomery County in anything. Let us show that Howard County plans effectively and our electeds and candidates are smarter than those that are contributing to the mess in Montgomery County.
posted by Evan | 2:27 AM
8 Comments:
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Nice to see that the view from the outside matches the view from inside.
-- "MoCo" of MoCoProgressive
First of all, please do not take the opinions of NeighborsPAC as representative of the County as a whole. They are a small and sadly rather influential group of people who are opposed to any sort of meaningful growth.
Second of all - Montgomery County is way ahead of Northern Virginia when it comes to planning. While Jim Rouse was buying up land in Howard County, we were creating a comprehensive plan directing how the county would grow and, forty years later, I think both Rouse's and our visions are coming to fruition rather well.
How's Route 1 looking, by the way? We don't have anything that could quite compare to Jessup, thank you.
I can hardly wait for the ICC-related sequel. Too bad "Highway to H*ll" is still under copyright.
Howard County isn't demeaning Montgomery County. Montgomery County's development and congestion woes are demeaning Montgomery County. Can you blame wise folks in surrounding areas for taking it as a cautionary tale of what not to let happen elsewhere?
Please reference text ISBN 0394823370 for further information.
I think Montgomery County's situation speakers for itself and most people who live there understand the congestion problems all to well. Now of course if you want to compare yourself against Northern Virginia you will come out on top, but that isn't much of a standard. I invite you up to Howard County to see what good planning can be achieve.
As for Rt. 1 we are developing the first real plan for that area. It will be interesting to see how it comes out. And I should point out that just because an area like Jessup is a little more industrial/service oriented in areas than Montgomery County doesn't mean it is as poorly planned as Rockville Pikes constant congestion.
I'm sorry, but Montgomery County has a reputation for good planning. The Clarksburg scandal has shaken a lot of people's faith in our Planning Department, but over the past forty years, we have had a good record. Why is traffic the only marker of quality of life? Why is a giant Homeowner's Association the only marker of a sense of "place"? When I drive around Columbia I might as well be in Rockville or Fairfax. Cul-de-sacs, strip malls, parkways - it all looks the same.
I don't disagree that Howard County was well-planned, but then again, it's predominantly composed of Columbia, which is a giant development. For a place that has grown piece by piece over a century, Montgomery County has been planned out pretty well.
Montgomery and Howard are different creatures. In terms of planning, they are incomparable. If Howard had a million residents, do you think it would look as pristine as it does now?
Traffic isn't the only benchmark of good planning, but when traffic is bad it's a symptom of bad planning and begets congestion, pollution, longer commute times, impetus for sacrificing sensitive environmental areas, and cutting corners in pursuit of solutions.
Of course Howard wouldn't look as pristine as it does now if it's population increased to one million. That's the point. Who in there right mind thinks 1/300th of the country's population needs to be in Howard County when there's 3140 other counties out there?
And Howard's land preservation planning effectiveness pales in comparison to Baltimore County's program. Obviously, there are many lessons to be learned, both positive and negative, both intracounty and intercounty.
Howard's giant Homeowner's Association (obviously CA is pretty much a Columbia-specific thing) is an asset, along with the purposeful community planning that shaped Columbia.
I'll take another helping of purposeful community planning, effective land preservation, and development regulation review, thanks.
95% of Columbia residents drive to work and you want to complain about Montgomery? Does Howard county have an Agricultural Reserve with over 48% of their land preserved from development? Not to mention you have a long way to go before reaching our Economic strength.
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