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In this newsletter you will find updates on some of the important issues I’ve been engaged in around the county. There are many more issues we are working to address. As always, I welcome your thoughts, suggestions and comments.
Sincerely,
Marc Elrich Councilmember At-Large
I am delighted to report that the County Council unanimously approved my Bill 19-15 that will improve landlord-tenant issues in a variety of ways. Councilmembers Tom Hucker and Nancy Navarro were co-sponsors.
This Bill will improve protections for tenants and impose a more rigorous housing inspection regime. Historically, tenant voices have been quiet, if not silent, for many reasons, even though tenants make up more than one-third of our County’s residents.
Some of the important provisions in the Bill include increased and improved inspections that will result in better living conditions for many residents. My staff and I have visited units that were in disrepair and had not been inspected for years. In some cases, tenants feared contacting management and the County to address the situation. We also have heard about problems that go unfixed despite County citations directing the owners to make repairs. Expanding the number of units inspected and improving the process will relieve some of the pressure on tenants who are reluctant to take an active role to ‘complain’ about problems in their units and the building and push management to make the necessary repairs. Now efficient repairs will be less reliant on individual and random complaints and requests and more driven by a timely inspection process.
This law will also give tenants more notice about upcoming rent increases. While the Bill can’t prevent rent increases, even those that are beyond what tenants can afford, it does require that they have 90 days’ notice of the increase. The bill also requires that tenants be offered the choice of a one-year or two-year lease at each renewal.
While some of the provisions I proposed were not included in the final Bill, I believe it is an important step for tenants. I am appreciative of the work of the many people and organizations involved in this process for quite a long time—the County Executive and his staff, including the director of the Department of Housing and Community Affairs; my colleagues on the Council and Council staff; the Renters Alliance; CASA; individual tenants; Board of Education member Jill Ortman-Fouse; Congressman Jamie Raskin; and countless others.
Councilmembers Elrich and Hucker with Tenant Legislation advocates at the Renters Alliance Gala.
More information on Bill 19-15 can be found via the following links:
Article in The Washington Post, November 29, 2016, by Bill Turque: Montgomery Council approves package of new protections for tenants
In light of recent executive orders from President Trump, many of us have been fearful and concerned about what will happen to immigrants who live in our communities. Montgomery County continues to have the same policies regarding immigration as we have had in the past. It is longstanding County policy that County police do not enforce federal immigration law. They will not ask about immigration status when individuals are stopped, nor target individuals based on their ethnicity, race, or religious beliefs.
Similarly, our correctional facilities do not inquire about an arrested person’s immigration status. Everyone who is arrested and brought to the County Central Processing Unit will have their fingerprints recorded, which are then sent to Criminal Justice Information System Central Repository and the FBI. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) does have access to those fingerprints once they reach the FBI. Although ICE may send a civil detainer notice to the County asking us to hold an individual for up to 48 hours past his or her scheduled release, Montgomery County will not do so. The only exception is in the case of offenders where there is sufficient probable cause provided to believe that they are violent criminal offenders, having been convicted of certain offenses. This has been our policy for years, and is consistent with policies in most “sanctuary cities.”
Ultimately, our policies and practices reflect the understanding that instilling fear in our communities is not the best approach to building safe, secure and just communities. Much of the work done by the police and our schools relies heavily on trust between us and our immigrant residents. The vast majority of immigrants don’t come here to commit crimes; they come here to find a better life for their families and themselves.
Last November, the Council approved a resolution reaffirming community safety and trust and denouncing anti-immigrant activity, racial bias, and discrimination. Those continue to be our values and inform our practices and policies.
My proposal (Bill 12-16) to raise the minimum wage to $15 passed the Council 5 to 4. (Councilmembers Berliner, Floreen, Katz, and Rice voted against the bill). Although the cosponsors and I amended our own bill to address the concerns we had heard regarding small businesses, the County Executive vetoed the bill, and six votes are needed for an override.
I continue to believe that the gradual increase of the County minimum wage is absolutely essential so that people who work earn a decent wage that allows them to meet their basic needs and enjoy greater financial stability. It is also a win for the local economy, since folks will have more money to spend. For these reasons and more, I plan to introduce a revised bill in the near future designed to prevent or overcome a veto. Please see my website to read my statement on the bill, watch my remarks during the discussions in the Health and Human Services Committee and at the full Council and get more information on the bill.
I continue to be concerned about the direction of planning and land use in Montgomery County. Many of the master and sector plans arriving at Council recommend density and height increases at odds with the surrounding communities whose participation in the Planning Department’s decision making process has been marginalized over the years and is frequently mischaracterized as being anti-development. To the contrary, I have found that most communities welcome the improvements that new growth can bring, as long as it is compatible with their neighborhoods and comes with meaningful amenities such as parks and open space and the infrastructure improvements necessary to prevent a worsening of traffic congestion and overcrowded schools. Unfortunately, in my view, the Council loses sight of this when we approve “cookie cutter” urbanization through the CR zones, sometimes in areas where it doesn’t belong. And while another councilmember expressed the view that “traffic is an indication of a healthy economy,” I believe that ever-increasing traffic congestion is a result of poor planning. I would like to extend my thanks to the many individuals and community groups who continue to raise questions and suggest changes to the master and sector plans – I welcome your comments and will continue to advocate on your behalf for sustainable growth and maintenance of quality of life in your neighborhoods.
The following plans were recently approved or are currently under Council review.
The Council made substantial changes to the Planning Board draft, preserving industrial zoning in key areas and removing additional densities along River Road. To hear my comments on the plan – and on the larger issue of community involvement in planning decisions – go to this clip from the Council session. I also talked about the importance of community involvement in a memo to councilmembers regarding the Bethesda and Lyttonsville plans (see here). Although I have not received any support from my colleagues for reinstating Citizens Advisory Groups as part of the planning process, I intend to continue to push for this.
I generally supported the recommendations of this plan to preserve industrial zones and allow for redevelopment of properties immediately adjacent to the proposed Purple Line stations. However, I voted against adopting it because my colleagues did not go far enough toward protecting naturally occurring affordable housing. The Lyttonsville area offers a supply of two- and three-bedroom rental units – even some hard-to-find four-bedroom units – that meet the needs of low-income people who cannot afford rental rates in other parts of Montgomery County. I believe we will lose a significant number of these units as properties redevelop to the higher densities allowed in the plan, with many of the larger units being replaced with efficiency and one-bedroom units renting at much higher monthly rates. Because every projection of housing needs we have seen shows the long-term continuing need for affordable housing, we should not adopt plans that diminish the stock of affordable housing in places like Lyttonsville. I disagree with my Council colleagues’ assessment that there is nothing we can do to preserve these units. We protected naturally occurring affordable housing in Long Branch. We protected naturally occurring affordable housing in White Oak. We protected naturally occurring affordable housing in Glenmont. There is no reason why we could not have done the same in Lyttonsville.
During the Council’s discussion of the plan, I also repeatedly pointed out that the greatest densities were not zoned along 16th Street, which is near both a future Purple Line station and the existing Metro station; rather, they were placed in an area of existing residences not served by a major road and whose only access to transit will be a single Purple Line station. In my view, this puts an unfair and inequitable burden on Lyttonsville’s residential area. For these reasons, I did not support the plan.
There has been considerable press coverage of this plan as it has made its way through the Planning Board and to County Council, highlighting the tensions between planners and the edge communities. The Council’s Planning Housing and Economic Development (PHED) Committee has begun reviewing the plan. Many community organizations have expressed concerns about recommended heights and densities as well as the “canyonization” of Bethesda, overcrowded schools, worsening traffic, and a lack of public open space. This is another example of the Planning Board developing a plan without any meaningful input from the communities, except for developers, resulting in yet another plan where the residents whose community they are ostensibly planning feel they have not been heard. The Planning Board should not be sending us plans that are offensive to the community and require significant modification by the Council.
Although I am not on the PHED committee, I am attending the committee sessions, and will continue to be engaged in ongoing conversations about and review of the plan.
I am often asked what we can do at the local level to fight climate change, and while many of the solutions are national and international in scope, there are areas where local governments can lead by example. I am proud to be a cosponsor of Bill 44-16, which would direct the Board of Investment Trustees and the Consolidated Retiree Health Benefits Trust Board of Trustees to divest within five years all holdings of the 200 largest publicly traded fossil fuel companies and purchase no new holdings in those companies.
Climate change is real and is one of the most urgent issues of our time. We all have a responsibility to do what we can. We cannot and should not support companies’ efforts to extract fossil fuels from the ground. The International Energy Agency calculates that, in order to keep warming below 2 degrees Celsius (a target agreed to by the United States and 194 other countries in the “Paris Agreement”), the fossil fuel industry will need to not burn about 80% of their reserves of coal, oil and gas – currently valued at about $20 trillion globally. If governments regulate carbon dioxide as a pollutant, the reserves that can’t be used become “stranded assets” and will likely have a negative impact on the companies’ stock prices. It is fiscally prudent for us to divest now. Multiple studies have demonstrated that divestment does not sacrifice financial performance. (This information and much more is available at the MoCo 350.org website.) But even more important, we at the local level must lead wherever we can. Hundreds of colleges, local governments, investment funds, religious institutions and other organizations have committed to divestment. It is time for us to do the same.
Another action that our state can take is to ban Unconventional Gas Development and Production, done through hydraulic fracturing known as “fracking.” One of the many of the disastrous effects of fracking is the leaking of methane from fracking industry sites. Methane is a potent contributor to climate change. We have prohibited fracking in Montgomery County but it should be banned across the state. Currently, the state has a moratorium on fracking until this fall when permits could possibly be issued to allow fracking. The evidence is clear and growing that fracking is bad for public health and the environment. We need to be very clear and strong in our opposition to fracking, which is why I introduced a resolution calling for a statewide ban on fracking. I am very pleased that the Council voted unanimously to approve that resolution this past Tuesday, February 14. You can read more about the resolution and the many problems with fracking, in my statement about its passage.
Last spring, as part of Montgomery County’s annual “Economic Development Week”, I hosted a community conversation at the Silver Spring Regional Services Center called “Rethinking Economic Development.” I was delighted to be joined in the conversation by Michael Shuman who is an economist, attorney, author, and entrepreneur, and a globally recognized expert on community economics.
Mr. Shuman’s most recent book is "The Local Economy Solution: How Innovative, Self-Financing Pollinator Enterprises Can Grow Jobs and Prosperity." In it, he contends that economic development works best when it focuses on local business, local self-reliance, high social standards and entrepreneurship. We are fortunate to have him living in Montgomery County.
I invited him to kickstart a conversation with me because I believe we need more attention and focus on how to sustain existing small businesses, promote new local business, and encourage employee ownership of businesses. Our audience included people from around the county and region interested in and experienced with these issues and they also raised some important and provocative issues. Below are some of the points raised during the freewheeling discussion.
L-R Sara Mussie, Tebabu Assefa, Councilmember Elrich, Michael Shuman, Lorig Charkoudian
Mr. Shuman “went local” in Montgomery County, calling for an overhaul of the County’s economic development priorities. He pointed to the County’s “Comprehensive Economic Strategy” (CES), emphasizing that it “misguidedly” focuses on business attraction rather than assessing how to help existing local businesses and local business aspirants. He had some strong concerns about the CES, stating that it “misunderstands how to diversify the Montgomery County economy and how to grow local business.”
I talked about using local resources like the Agricultural Reserve to promote a local wine industry. With the development of a processing facility for grapes, local farmers would have reduced costs and easier access to wine production. The Universities of Shady Grove could be another partner and catalyst with classes in winemaking and related topics to support the nascent industry.
Cherie Branson, the County’s Director of Procurement, joined us for some of the discussions and outlined some of her department’s work to reach out to smaller local and minority-owned businesses. She explained that procurement historically has tended to favor larger companies because it is easier to contract with one big company rather than multiple small ones; she’s working to overcome that obstacle. She gave the example of snow removal, saying "there will always be snow" and minority and small businesses should be identified as contractors and subcontractors.
Leonor Chavez, representing small businesses in the Lyttonsville area, highlighted the importance of appropriate zoning to protect small businesses. Lyttonsville businesses worried that their area would be rezoned from light industrial to a zoning that would entice developers to redevelop their properties, pricing the current business owners out of their locations. I talked about the Planning Board’s position on the Westbard sector plan – their view was that the light industrial zones in the area were "tawdry" whereas I saw them as essential. The industrial space in both Westbard and Lyttonsville are actively used and occupied as light industrial and serve an important function in these areas of the County.
Tebabu Asefa of Blessed Coffee, a benefit corporation that works with coffee farmers in Ethiopia to source their coffee, discussed the need for better, local financing. He talked about the obstacles small businesses face.
I also appreciated hearing from the County's Chief Innovation Officer, Dan Hoffman, Yanique Redwood of the Consumer Health Foundation, local developer Bruce Lee, micro-business entrepreneur Rosemary Skirble, Steve Dubb from the Democracy Collaborative and Dennis Olson of the United Food and Commercial Workers.
It was clear from the discussion that there is a lot of support for rethinking economic development with an eye to our local communities. I intend to continue the conversation in a variety of formats and would welcome your comments, suggestions and participation.
I have heard your concerns about how Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) class fees affect students who are unable to pay them. Currently, these fees are charged for certain classes, field trips and extra-curricular activities. While MCPS has scholarships and other financial mitigation for families who cannot afford the fees, the mere presence of the fees can prevent students from signing up or showing interest in these important activities. This and other concerns led me to ask MCPS Superintendent Dr. Jack Smith and the school board to look into the feasibility of eliminating the fees all together. Dr. Smith previously served as Superintendent of the Calvert County Schools, where the fees were completely eliminated. The recently adopted FY17 recommended operating budget by the Board of Education eliminated fees charged to middle and high school students to participate in extracurricular activities such as sports and clubs, at a cost of $700,000. The school system is still gathering information about the cost of absorbing the other fees.
Dr. Smith and the Board of Education have stated that they want to tear down barriers to education and school engagement for low-income students and families. In the coming months, I expect to hear how they plan to eliminate the fee system, as well as what can be done in the meantime to remove the intimidation factors and encourage low-income students and families to sign up for classes and extra-curricular activities.
Last spring, I organized and participated in a panel as part of the Planning Department’s annual conference, “Makeover Montgomery 3”. Our panel, “Making the Most of What We Have: Preserving and Enhancing Existing Communities” included transportation and planning experts who offered their thoughts and expertise on appropriate planning strategies that facilitate new communities while also preserving and supporting our existing communities. The panel included WMATA's Shyam Kannan, who directs Metro’s strategic planning efforts, and supervises long-range planning, sustainability, and smart growth; Fred Ducca, Director and Senior Research Scientist for Transportation Policy Research Group at the National Center for Smart Growth Research and Education; Piera Weiss, land use planner and landscape architect with 30 years experience, including having served as Deputy Director of the Planning Department; Chao Liu, Faculty Research Associate at the National Center for Smart Growth Research and Education (NCSG) at the University of Maryland and myself. Andrew Fellows, former mayor of College Park and currently at the National Center for Smart Growth’s National Finance Center, moderated the panel.
I convened this panel because I believed there are some important missing voices and forgotten information in our current planning process. During my presentation, I reviewed Montgomery County’s General Plan: what had been envisioned via wedges and corridors and why the plan has not played out as envisioned. The county allowed development outside of the planned areas, where it was cheaper, making it more difficult to develop in the planned areas thus encouraging sprawl. An absence of policies to prohibit sprawl meant that it was actually cheaper to develop in sprawl areas. The county needs more than zoning; policies are also needed to prevent sprawl.
I also explained that we must understand that even with increasing urbanization of suburbs like Montgomery County, there will always be a suburban element, at least partly because no one is building apartments that can house families. So people who come to Montgomery County as singles and want to stay in Montgomery County look to single-family homes because they are big enough for families. So the question we need to ask is not, how do we eliminate all single-family homes (which is unlikely, undesirable and impossible) but how do we handle suburbia better than we’ve been able to so far? We are not going to build more roads, or widen existing ones - we want pedestrian friendly roads, not massive highways. But we need to accommodate our population, which is why I proposed a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system as a way to alleviate some of the congestion in an efficient, affordable manner, not simply as a tool to enable development. I believe infrastructure must precede development.
Chao Liu gave a presentation on the relationship between land use, demographics and transit proximity and use. She explained that the "gold standard" is a walk shed of a 1/2 mile from a metro station and showed some of the differences between density within a 1/2 mile of metro stations and ridership at those transit stations.
Piera Weiss gave a brief history of some major planning moments, linking national events to local ones, and she emphasized the importance of understanding the past as prologue. She also advised that the first step in planning be "Do no harm": understand what we are doing rather than just slapping on a smart-growth name. Fred Ducca discussed the need to understand why people will (or won't) use transit and where the greatest congestion is - afternoon peak, which combines work trips with school and errands.
Shyam Kannan talked about Montgomery County's "cupcake problem", using the example of a baker who has enough dough to make six great cupcakes or 24 mediocre ones. A smart baker makes the six, sells them at a good price that enables the baker to make more and build an empire. Montgomery County is making 24 cupcakes. Rather than chasing every development in every location, focusing on areas where capacity has been built and is not being used makes more sense. He cited the empty Wheaton garage as an example of an area with infrastructure that is not being used. If the county chooses "traffic generators" in areas that can't handle it, "be prepared for the effects." If an area is not transit served and has insufficient road capacity, then don't create problems. He also pointed out that Silver Spring didn't just happen because of market forces; government, using economic development, helped Silver Spring prosper. Public planning and economic development can focus on certain areas to get the greatest bang for the buck.
We had a lively and informative discussion. Follow this link to listen to the entire panel discussion.
I was pleased to both sponsor and speak at the Safe Silver Spring legislative forum on criminal justice legislation. The forum, held at the beginning of the Maryland legislative session, addressed public safety measures and criminal justice reforms under consideration this year by the Maryland General Assembly and by the County Council.
Other speakers at the forum include State Delegate Kathleen Dumais, Vice Chair of the House Judiciary Committee; State Senator Will Smith, a member of the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee; and Amy Cress of Marylanders to Prevent Gun Violence. For more information on initiatives supported by Safe Silver Spring’s board after discussion at the Legislative Forum, see their document on legislative proposals.
After serving nearly eight years as Chair of Safe Silver Spring, Tony Hausner is stepping down from his leadership role there. We are grateful for his hard work on behalf of public safety these past eight years. You can learn more about Tony and his plans here.
State legislators had some important successes last year in Annapolis, including passage of Noah’s Law to combat drunk driving and the Justice Reinvestment Act, which will aid thousands in turning their lives around. As elected officials we need to continue to work with advocacy groups and concerned community members to make more progress, both locally and at the state level, including bail reform and keeping guns out of the hands of domestic violence abusers. Together we can make our community a more just place to live.
L-R Senator WIll Smith, Tony Hausner, Delegate Kathleen Dumain, Councilmember Elrich
Every year the Council hosts at least one Youth Town Hall Meeting, which gives local middle and high school students an opportunity to meet their councilmembers, voice their concerns, and connect with other engaged peers in the County. This is an excellent way to encourage civic activism in our kids and I strongly encourage you to bring the young people in your lives to one of our next meetings. The evening normally starts with a reception at 6:00 p.m., then the Town Hall meeting will begin at 7:00 with councilmembers taking questions and suggestions from the young people in the audience.
The meetings have been so well-attended that we’re planning to do two this spring, one in the up-county area, and one in the down-county region. Details are still being worked out, but we will host one on Wednesday, April 19th and another shortly thereafter. Please check back on the Council’s webpage for more details.
Often it may feel that our county government is a large, bureaucratic entity that makes decisions that impact our lives without residents’ involvement. But you are the government, and I am here to be your advocate. County government affects our lives in many ways, from the roads and buses we use each day to our children’s schools, our local parks, and our taxes. If you have an issue, concern or suggestion, please take a moment to let me know, and I will do my best to serve you. My staff and I look forward to hearing from you.
Dale Tibbitts is my Chief of Staff and handles the budget, rapid transit and environmental issues, as well as happenings Up-County; Tiffany Ward focuses on Health and Human Services and Education Committee issues, as well as Mid-County; Mara Parker follows the Public Safety Committee and the East County and also handles my schedule; Debbie Spielberg focuses on transportation, environmental issues and landlord/tenant issues, Silver Spring and Western Montgomery County; Claire Iseli handles planning, land use, environmental and zoning issues. Please don’t hesitate to contact our offices at 240.777.7966 or via email at councilmember.elrich@montgomerycountymd.gov.
Marc Elrich, Councilmember At-Large 100 Maryland Avenue, Sixth Floor Rockville, MD 20850 Phone: (240) 777-7966 councilmember.elrich@montgomerycountymd.gov