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Montgomery Cop-Out
Saturday, November
8, 2003; Page A26
By a vote of 6 to
3, the Montgomery County Council voted to lift
controls on growth for the next two years [Metro,
Oct. 29]. Council member Steven A. Silverman (D-At
Large) called it "a gesture to working families
who want a place to live." But the council has
failed to enforce the county law requiring that
12.5 percent of new homes to be affordable for
moderate-income families.
In July the
Montgomery County Civic Federation asked the
council to put a stop to the developer tactic of
paying a nominal fee in lieu of providing the
required number of moderately priced units in new
developments. The council has not done so. In
project after project, developers continue to
provide on average only half of the affordable
units the law requires. Because of this loophole,
fewer affordable units were created last year than
in any year since the program began in
1976.
The vote to ease
rules for approving new-home construction will
benefit developers, who donated more than $1.7
million to council campaigns last fall. But using
the need for affordable housing as an excuse for
this developer giveaway, while not enforcing the
law that would provide that housing, is
repulsive.
JIM
HUMPHREY
Bethesda
The writer is
a vice president of Montgomery County Civic
Federation, a nonpartisan organization of
neighborhood civic associations, municipalities
and
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