Who am I?

I found myself asking that question this morning after reading this:

Two candidates for the Howard County state delegation called for more local housing, while another said no to more newcomers as the county braces for the job explosion at Fort Meade.

Howard County has a limit of 1,750 new residential units per year. Pressure from the relocation of 5,300 defense jobs to Fort Meade because of the federal Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) initiative could create an increased demand — and price tag — for these houses.

“We should loosen up” the limit, said Del. Gail Bates, R-District 13, at a candidates’ forum Wednesday. “As demand increases, our homes are going to be less affordable.”

The average new house in Howard County is $650,000.

Del. Elizabeth Bobo, D-District 12B, said increasing housing is not the answer.

“Are we saying we want as many people as possible to move to Howard County? That would be a mistake,” Bobo said. “As people move here, schools will be a big social issue.”

Judging from what I've said in the past about affordable housing, my views seem more in line with (gasp!) the Republicans than my own party (at least according to this two person sample, anyway). Couple this with the fact that I'm sounding like Steve Forbes and my whole perspective on the world has just been turned upside down.

Seriously, I'm sure Bobo has ideas about how to create more affordable housing in Howard County, but the Examiner's stories, which are more like blurbs, rarely provide the opportunity for one to expand on the nuances of an issue. That said, Democrats definitely need to do a better job of providing ideas for affordable housing, which is component of what should be one of our party's core principles -- namely, ensuring help is there for those who need it most.

We must not abandon this principle -- even at the local level -- for the sake of expedience.

A couple questions...

I'm trying to get a million (well, maybe, like, 10) things done before I got out of town on Saturday and I don't have time for much writing these next two days. So, I'll just post a few questions and see what happens.

The first comes to us from a letter to the editor in today's Howard County Times. There were three similar letters (and the cynical side of me thinks they may have been related/coordinated), but only one writer offered some possible solutions to our county's zoning problems.

Mr. Ulman says he needs ideas. How about these: 1) Hire an attorney to represent the citizens of Howard County through their associations to make sure the zoning laws that exist are followed. 2) The zoning board might actually consult with the public and listen to what the public wants. 3) Once zoning decisions are made, make sure that the developers and the county follow them.

Well, what do you think?

My quickie take is that 2 and 3 aren't really specific enough to be considered solutions but are instead good guiding principles that to a large extent already exist (but this is subjective and I'm sure some of you will disagree -- our experiences are different). Meanwhile, the first one presents a host of problems that I think doom the idea; for instance, how do we decide which groups get representation and for which cases? Seems like the answers to these questions would be a full-course meal for cynics.

Finally, I've been thinking a lot about the home mortgage interest deduction.

What if we just got rid of it?

Total federal spending on housing assistance for poor people (less than $20 billion) is dwarfed in comparison to the amount of tax revenue forgone each year (around $120 billion last I checked) because of these deductions, and that's to say nothing of the impact it has on home prices and development in general. And it covers houses worth up to $1 million.

Ben Folds and the BSO...

An interesting night at Merriweather. Piano rocker Ben Folds and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.

The pavilion was full and there was a decent crowd on the lawn. It was, not surprisingly, a very non-raucous evening.

Which is not to say there was an absence of rocking out, however.

A referendum denied...

This has surely upset several people…

A citizens referendum challenging scores of rezoning cases has suffered a major, and perhaps fatal, setback now that Maryland's second-highest court has invalidated the ballot measure on grounds that it gave residents too little information about what the measure would do.

The decision, by a three-judge panel of the state Court of Special Appeals, will stand without a successful last-minute appeal to the Court of Appeals, Maryland's highest court. Because the referendum was scheduled for the November ballot, the case is being handled on an expedited basis, giving the Howard County Board of Elections until July 6 to appeal.

…The ruling by the Court of Special Appeals, made June 21, addresses neither the county's process nor its approval of the rezoning cases, but only whether citizens were properly informed of Comp Lite's provisions when signing a petition seeking the referendum.

Maryland law, the judges wrote in their opinion, requires that a referendum petition contain either an accurate summary of the provisions being challenged or the full text of the legislation enacting the zoning changes.

I’ve always thought petitions were somewhat suspect. Legal notifications aside, it seems to me that many people sign petitions almost reflexively or in an effort to placate the person holding the clipboard.

Regardless of my petition misgivings, it’s not surprising that adequately informing signers of the Comp Lite referendum presented problems.

The Comp Lite legislation, approved by the County Council last year, contains 38 separate and distinct map amendments and 49 pages of text amendments, totaling 91 pages, the court's opinion notes.

The opinion also points out that the organizers of the petition drive had considerable difficulty in writing a summary of the Comp Lite provisions. The Board of Elections, the court noted, rejected their first five attempts as legally insufficient.

In the final version, the organizers used essentially the title of the Comp Lite legislation, which the board accepted.

Even that language, critics of the ballot measure claimed, was "not comprehensive in scope" and thus could not meet state requirements. The court agreed. "We conclude . . . [the petition] does not satisfy the 'fair and accurate summary' requirement imposed by state law," the three-judge panel ruled.

Was there something prohibiting the petitioners from attaching a copy of the legislation to the petition forms? To be sure, a 91-page report is a lot to carry around on a clipboard, but it would guarantee that your signatures pass muster, right?

Well, I’m not sure how I feel about this. While I wasn’t necessarily a supporter of this (or really any, for that matter) referendum, I’m sympathetic to COPE and others who worked so hard to get signatures and put the Comp Lite decision up to the voters. That said, I did find this bit revealing:

Chief Judge Joseph F. Murphy Jr., who wrote the opinion, said previous courts have held that the public must be informed of whether rezoning "upzoned" or "downzoned" property, and he noted that the petition's summary failed to tell voters that few of the Comp Lite cases were controversial and faced no opposition from nearby residents.

I understand that it’s hard to engage potential signers in a lengthy discussion about the good and bad parts of Comp Lite and certainly when you’re advocating you want to paint your side in the best possible light. But laws like these serve to ensure that those with only a momentary interest in an issue at least have some objective idea of what's going on.

Meanwhile, here’s a round up of reactions from various players.

"I've been saying this all along," said County Councilman Charles C. Feaga. "This decision is a good one. I hope it stands."

But Angela Beltram, a former councilwoman and a principal in the organization that pushed the ballot measure, said future referendums would be jeopardized if the ruling is not overturned.

…"The Board of Elections approved it, and it seems to me they have to appeal," she said. "I hope they would appeal, or when are you going to have a referendum?"

Frank Martin, a frequent critic of the county's planning process, denounced the ruling.

"How are my rights being fairly represented by this decision?" he asked. "The clear majority knew exactly what they were signing. ... I don't know what will happen ... but COPE has learned, don't fight city hall. We're all learning that the hard way."

There’s definitely some anger. Is it, given the circumstances, warranted? To whom will it ultimately be directed? How will this affect the elections?

For the best take on this whole thing, let's turn to the most maligned bureaucrat in the county.

Regardless of the outcome, Marsha S. McLaughlin, director of the Department of Planning and Zoning, said she believes the county and public will benefit from the controversy.

"For better or for worse, it has called a lot of attention to the planning process," she said. "I think you'll see changes that will make the process more transparent."

Always look on the bright side of life...

Finally, Howard County Blog’s entry on this topic is a rundown of irrelevant quotes by Ken Ulman, yet no mention of Feaga’s quotes, which are actually relevant to this story and when compared to what Ulman said in the past are abjectly anti-citizen. But as a newly-potential candidate for Republican Central Committee, one must not risk offending any true blue party-mates. Combine this with his absurd posting of a commenter’s even more absurd conspiracy theory and it’s a good old fashioned Ken Ulman bashing over there today.

So much for treating everyone equally poorly, eh?

Don't you just love this weather?

I’m being totally serious.

Storms like this only happens once every few decades, we should enjoy it or at least stand in awe of it while it’s here. Sure, bad weather disrupts our lives, causes headaches, and all that bad stuff, but it also helps you appreciate the incredible forces of nature.

Over 8 inches of rain in Columbia since Sunday (as of this morning). That so much moisture can be squeezed out of our atmosphere is such a short time is mind boggling, is it not? And there’s more on the way!

On a related note, combining this storm with the February snowstorm and the big rain we had last October, is Columbia becoming a “sweet spot” for precipitation? In each of the three cases, we got wetter (or snowier) than almost every other spot in the DC/Baltimore region. I know three data points does not a trend (or even a sample) make, but seemingly minor, localized phenomena can often have significant effects on rainfall rates, making it not entirely unreasonable to think there’s something about this area (topography, perhaps) that contributes to our higher-than-the-regional-average precipitation totals for individual storms.

Just conjecture.

Anyway, I just wanted to say today that, while I will try to post something everyday this week, the posts will likely be short. I’ve got a lot to do before leaving Saturday for a vacation (during which I’ll probably put up a few posts and pictures).

See post below for an ongoing discussion about growth and stuff.

Banana Pancakes

"Can't you see that it's just raining. There ain't no need to go outside."

It's a good day to make some banana pancakes, if you haven't already.

Anyway, the news is slow. There are the requisite Lake Elkhorn tot lot stories, including one about the CA board's decision to not make a decision. Also, take note, non-Columbians: CA does not want to hear from you.

Then, there's the issue of what we call senior housing. And finally, a three-page profile on the owners of seemingly every office building in Howard County.

Reading these stories produced no sparks for me. And when blogging, it's all about the spark.

There was, however, some spark on Friday while I was doing some research for work.

I've been thinking about this post and the responses to it a lot the past few days. Despite arguments to the contrary, I still think we have growth pretty well controlled in this county. However, this assertion rests on my assumption that growth is inevitable, that we're never going to not grow in some form or another -- at least on the county level. On the global level, it would be nice if we strove towards a more ecological, sustainable, develop-rather-than-grow economy (shoutout to an old professor), but I don't think the Howard County Executive or Council has much say on that.

As for what we do have a say in, here is a rundown of the county's average annual growth rates for the last 50 years.

1950 - 1960: 4.57%
1960 - 1970: 5.53%
1970 - 1980: 6.71%
1980 - 1990: 4.68%
1990 - 2000: 2.84%
2000 - 2005: 1.85%

This list and the story about school non-overcrowding are what I back my claim that growth seems fairly well controlled.

But whether growth is controlled or not was only the subject of half of that post. The other half discussed housing affordability and the impact county growth policies have on housing prices. I argued that limiting supply accounts for at least some of the increases in price. And here's what I found at work on Friday from the Harvard University Joint Center for Housing Studies' new report, The State of the Nation's Housing 2006:

While explanations vary, evidence is mounting that the two principal forces behind housing affordability problems are restrictions on residential development and the growth in low-wage and part-time employment. Local land use regulations that limit lot size and density have helped to drive up housing prices and rents relative to incomes. As a result, affordability problems are most acute in housing markets with the strictest land use regulations.

Just some food for thought. Now time for some pancakes.

Slow day...or so I thought...

...Until, thanks to David Wissing, I found out that Doug Duncan has dropped out of the race for governor. In announcing his decision, Duncan admitted that he was recently diagnosed with clinical depression, which he has been struggling with for the past year.

Although I was leaning towards O'Malley anyway, I can't say that I'm in any way happy about this news. Depression is a terrible disease that goes untreated far too often. That Duncan has campaigned this long under its grip is admirable; his decision to seek treatment is even more so. Maybe it inspires someone who's almost given up to find help, or maybe it changes the antiquated mind of someone who still believes those suffering from depression are just "moody."

While Duncan's exit is certainly best for him, it's bad for Maryland voters, even those already staunchly aligned with one of the candidates. We benefit from debate, especially debates within parties. The rhetoric, the politics, the posturing, the attacks, now they will all be so predictable, so devoid of substance, so mindlessly partisan. Alas.

Growth controlled?

Controlling growth is a messy, contentious exercise, full of unintended consequences and counterintuitive outcomes. Which is why I’m heartened to read this:

The latest enrollment projections, beginning in 2009, forecast only Manor Woods Elementary will be chronically overcrowded, or "closed," meaning home construction will be sharply restricted in that part of western Howard County.

And that school is expected to slip into the "open" category the next year because of an expansion program that will add room for 100 more seats.

While officials might never formally declare victory over the problem, their progress in easing school overcrowding in the past six years has been extraordinary.

Two factors have driven the improvements:


• A sharp reduction in the rate of growth in the schools. For the academic year just concluded, for instance, there were 350 more students, compared with about 1,900 a year the system had in the 1990s.
• An aggressive, multimillion-dollar expansion program that will have produced eight schools in as many years.

What’s not said in that first bullet is that reductions in school attendance growth is a direct result of drastic reductions in the rate of residential growth.

I’m well aware that these are projections and they are bound to change, but as a preliminary signal, the data indicate that growth in Howard County – despite perceptions to the contrary – is pretty well under control.

And, with respect to school overcrowding, our growth control measures – namely, the allocation limits – should be applauded. However, to say they have been unmitigated successes fails to acknowledge the broader, unintended side of things.

While we’ve made things better for students today – classes are less crowded, teachers can spend more individual time with them, etc – tomorrow could be a different story. Although many will move away, those who decide to stay in Howard might look back and wonder if lower enrollments were worth the tradeoffs.

When discussing growth controls, it’s easy to point out why they’re good: less traffic, less students in our schools (or decreased need for new schools), less degradation of “natural” land.

But what the negative side of things? “Residential units,” in the parlance of planners, are in reality homes for families that want to be a part of our community -- not traffic-generating, child-producing earth destroyers. When we restrict residential growth, we restrict entry into our community, perhaps to the point of keeping out people we’d otherwise value as neighbors. Growth restrictions don’t just limit the construction of new units, they increase the prices of existing ones.

I’ve long tried to point out the connection between our growing affordable housing problem and our growth control measures on this site. To be sure, a significant portion of the increased unaffordability of housing was the result of a super hot real estate market, which has since cooled. And though the affordability issue over the last few years was illustrated dramatically by these rapidly rising home prices, the problem will continue to simmer, albeit with less dramatic anecdotes, until something meaningful is actually done, which, fortunately (hopefully), could be soon:

The Robey administration is taking one more stab at the complex problem of providing affordable housing at a time of sky-high home prices with a 25-member citizens task force named yesterday. 

The group is to come up with creative suggestions by Nov. 1 -- one month before County Executive James N. Robey leaves office.

Robey said the failure to find ways of providing homes that low- and middle-income people can afford was his "greatest disappointment" after his first term in office and remains so today.


Prices for all ranges of housing have more than doubled since 2001, he said yesterday at a news conference, and only about 5 percent of the homes for sale in Howard are affordable for nearly half the county's households.



His efforts to raise salaries for police officers, firefighters, teachers and other county employees have not helped them find homes they can buy where they work, he acknowledged.



"The more they earned, the more housing costs increased," he said. Now, with the federal base-closing program due to bring thousands of new employees to Central Maryland, the impetus to do something is also greater, he said.

Of course, a similar task force last year basically accomplished nothing. But, perhaps, the community will wasn’t strong enough then, whereas now it might be. Or maybe the committee make-up was all wrong. Whatever the case, I’m optimistic that this committee will make good on its charge.

My hope, as it has always been with respect to affordable housing, is that we don’t settle for small things, for marginal increases in percentage set asides or miniscule, developer-funded “trust funds.” Instead of targeted, small-minded approaches, we need to address affordable housing not as an issue separate from growth, but as an integral part of our entire housing and community development landscape. As such, the committee, I believe, must address the impact controlling growth (i.e. limiting supply) has had housing affordability. Perhaps they can even recommend changes to the process that will bring about positive results – without cramming our schools.

More housing, with some zoning on the side...

I'm really not sure how I feel about this...

A Howard County council member hopes to dispel fears tonight that his plan to create affordable housing at the Guilford Gardens complex in Columbia could leave some without a home.

If a bill sponsored by Council Member Calvin Ball, D-District 2, is passed, 100 town houses and apartments rented by low- and moderate-income residents will be converted into affordable condominiums for purchase.

“If they want to capture the dream of home ownership, they can,” Ball said.

But, “this is one of the few affordable developments left in Howard County for moderate-income families. That’s important to protect,” said Esther Drake, president of the Guilford Gardens board.

Residents who can’t or don’t want to purchase the units will have to move, said Leonard Vaughan, director of the county department of housing and community development. Renters can stay for at least five more years, and the county would help them relocate.

On one hand, I think it’s great to extend the benefits of homeownership to as many as possible, especially if it can be done in a neighborhood they know and like. On the other, affordable rental housing is as scarce as homeownership opportunities are and I’m wary about removing these homes from the rolls if there is not a plan to replace them. Also, there are some people for whom owning a home is a bad idea, and we shouldn’t marginalize them because homeownership has become an overarching American value.

What do you think?

Meanwhile, this sounds like a bad idea...

A simmering controversy over a proposed office building next to the historic Woodlawn Manor in Columbia is now a fierce fight between a developer and preservationists -- with Howard County Council members in the middle.

The focal point of the clash is a bill that would allow office buildings or their parking lots to be 10 feet from open space or multifamily developments instead of 30 feet, which is the current standard. If the bill passes, it would apply countywide, though the current argument is over one project. The County Council is to vote July 3.

County planners believe the bill is a way to push a building to be located off Bendix Road a bit farther from a historic house and closer to a nearby industrial building. But preservationists emphatically disagree.

Doesn't our open space system already put up with enough from us? And why throw in multifamily developments? Are residents there less worthy of adequate setbacks than the rest of us?

Mary Catherine Cochran, president of Preservation Howard County, also assailed the bill as overkill -- changing setback standards countywide when a specific waiver for this one project might be more appropriate.

"What eludes us is why the council would even consider this bill," she said. "Rewriting law to address a single site design issue for a single property is bad business. It is the slippery slope to bad planning and zoning."

That's my concern, too. Why change everything for this one site? Why not just grant a waiver for this property and be done with it?

Tuesday Round Up: Truncated Edition...

Nothing good ever happens in an introduction, so let’s just get on with it…

YEE…

When I first read this headline -- "“Lawyer drops his client accused of cheating the elderly, disabled" --– I thought," “wow, a defense attorney with a sense of morality."” Then, I read that the lawyer in question represented Linda Tripp, and I thought, “"OK, everyone makes mistakes."” Then, I read this: "“'The defendant has failed to make any effort to satisfy the financial obligation that he agreed to ... .' [Attorney Josheph] Murtha wrote.”" Turns out the guy accused of scamming money from seniors and disabled people wrote his lawyer a bad check. I'm neither surpsied nor saddened by this development.

HoCoBlog is asking readers "Who will be the next county executive?" Vote here. The results, thus far, are pretty surprising.

And now, a few off topic things that caught my eye...

Not that it really matters to shoppers in our county, but Whole Foods is going to stop selling lobsters and soft shell crabs because, according to The Sun " it “could not guarantee the crustaceans are treated humanely on their journey from ship to supermarket aisle."” Ha! Does this mean that plucking a lobster from its natural habitat and throwing it -- alive -- into a boiling pot of water counts as "humane" treatment?

Finally, as if you needed it, another reason why dogs are better than cats.

Taxing fairness...

Among the myriad impediments to creating an even remotely adequate supply of affordable housing in Howard County, one stands out for being dumb...and unfair.

An idea to lower the property tax burden for buyers of subsidized homes in Howard County has support from several candidates for county executive and the County Council.

The proposal, backed by the Association of Community Services (ASC), an umbrella group of 150 social service and health agencies, would have homebuyers under the county's Moderate Income Housing Unit program pay property taxes on just the portion of the house that they own - typically 51 percent to 60 percent. The county Housing Commission owns the rest.

Buyers now pay taxes on the full market price of the house, a heavy burden in Howard's high-price real estate market.

Yes, that's really how the system works. Families own half the house, the government owns the other half, and yet they're forced to pay the government's share of taxes, even though by qualifying for the program the government has acknowledged that they could not afford a house without assistance. Although the homeowners in this program enjoy the full use of their house, the real benefit of homeownership -- wealth creation -- is something they have to split with the county upon selling it.

All the taxes, half the returns.

Why shouldn’t the county also be liable for its share of taxes, especially considering the large tax bill some homeowners face?

A recently sold home in the program included a monthly mortgage of $1,448, plus real estate taxes of $375 a month, according to county housing officials. The change could cut that tax bill nearly in half.

In this case, the homeowner was paying more than $1,800 a month for housing (affordablilty is clearly relative), but could have reduced those payments by almost $200 if the county paid its fair share. I don't know anyone who couldn't use an extra $200 a month.

The good news is: changing this backwards provision seems to have support from public officials.

"I think it's a great idea," Councilman Ken Ulman, a west Columbia Democrat running for county executive, said at a candidates forum on human services last week in Columbia.

… [O]thers, including independent executive candidate C. Stephen Wallis, Republican council candidates Tony Salazar and Gina Ellrich and Democratic council candidates such as Mary Kay Sigaty and Joshua Feldmark, said they support the concept.

"It seems fair to me for us to support such an initiative," Wallis said.

Unfortunately, it doesn't enjoy unanimous support.

Council Chairman Christopher J. Merdon, a Republican candidate for county executive, said after the meeting that he would have to study the issue.

"Property taxes are to pay for services," he said. "We have to pay for our services somehow."

He also stressed his support in a housing bill approved by the council June 5 for allowing lower-income people to qualify for moderate-income housing.

This argument would carry more weight if we actually had a large supply of affordable housing. But considering the housing program has only been around for a few years and in that time it has had a minimal impact on affordability (read: it has produced a handful -- again, relative -- of houses), I don't think allowing residents to pay taxes only on what they actually own is going to have a noticable effect on county revenue.

However, at least Merdon supported a housing bill that lowers the income threshold for particiaption in the program, a measure that gives us a larger pool of qualified applicants who won't be able to afford their affordable house after the tax man visits.

Laziest Post Ever...

Because of musical commitments, I got home really late last night...er, early this morning. The bright sun, meanwhile, also got up really early this morning, and despite the favorable orientation of my bedroom window, reflected rays brightened my day far earlier than I hoped.

After fumbling around for a while, I read a host of great articles in The Sun today that I wanted to say something about, even just a sentence or two (ala Round Up). Alas, my prolonged fumbling and decreased mental capacity made it difficult to accomplish this goal in the time allotted, and now it's time for me to leave.

So, I'll put it on you. Any thoughts on the stories in today's Sun? As for me, I like that the paper has finally named Larry Carson's weekly column. They chose "On Politics," while I'm sticking with the name I gave it months ago: "Politics, Shmolitics." Also, the county government's harassment of The Pack Shack, Ellicott City's "adult bookstore," is more unseemly than the establishment itself.

Wishful thinking...

It's been almost exactly three years since a friend of mine -- who happens to hate Macs -- and I sat on his deck and decided to rouse some rabble in hopes of keeping Merriweather Post Pavilion open. As part of this long strange trip, we talked often in public and private about what's wrong with Town Center, and Columbia/Howard County in general. Many of these discussions focused on what's missing.

To be sure, there is plenty of stuff that we should have but don't. And our conversations often came back to something that was emblematic of our plight and our (well, my) preferences. Namely, a place where I can buy guitar strings.

You see, I play guitar with the same finesse and delicacy of a jackhammer crunching pavement. As such, I'm frequently changing and, by extension, buying strings. In order to meet this need, however, I'm forced to drive to Catonsville -- like I did today -- which inexplicably has three places that sell high quality guitar strings (Martin SP 80/20 bronze Mediums, please) within walking distance of each other. Howard County, on the other hand, has none that I have found in 15 years of living and playing music here (Music and Arts Center doesn't count -- their prices are twice that of a reputable dealer).

I'm sure you can say something about the free market and a lack of demand. But, come on, we've got almost 300,000 people living in this county, there has to be enough musicians in the mix to support such a store (I, alone, could keep them afloat with my string purchases, at least for a time).

But that's just me. What about you? What type of businesses or attractions do you think we should have but don't?

Ring any bells?

Beneath a BRAC story in the Post today is this little blurb:

In trying to create a more vibrant and pedestrian-friendly Town Center, General Growth Properties Inc. is getting its inspiration from places near and far.

The Chicago-based mall developer, which owns most of Town Center's undeveloped and commercial properties, has visited towns comparable in size to Columbia from Charlottesville to Racine, Wis. -- to gather ideas, said Douglas Godine, the vice president and general manager overseeing Columbia's development and redevelopment.

"We're trying to collect a repository of what works," Godine said at a meeting of the Columbia Association board last week. "Some of those things may not work at all."

Since General Growth purchased the Rouse Co. nearly two years ago, it has been engaged in a spirited debate about downtown's future. Godine said the company is setting up a panel of experts in various disciplines to generate ideas for Town Center. The task force should be meeting in two to four months, and some of those meetings will be public, Godine said.

First, I really like that they’re looking elsewhere to see what works and what doesn’t. Nothing good every comes out of a vacuum (trust me, I’ve looked).

More intriguing, however, is the part I’ve bolded. Does that sound familiar? I know it’s taboo to say nice things about General Growth, but using the “panel of experts in various disciplines” approach -- the same one that Jim Rouse used in planning Columbia -- is a good move on their part. I think it shows that maybe, perhaps a little, the old Rouse principles survive. Godine, after all, was around back then, too.

So, do these efforts garner GGP at least a little good will or a little more trust from the community?

I would say so. But I’ve also been called an apologist.

What say you?

Endorsements for all...

Now this is just silly…

The Howard County teachers union wanted to endorse Democrat Guy Guzzone in his bid for a seat in the House of Delegates, but state union rules wouldn't allow it.

Instead, the union is endorsing one of Guzzone's opponents, incumbent Del. Neil Quinter, also a Democrat.

See. I told you. Now, what's the cause of this silliness?

When the Howard union submitted its endorsements to the state union, state officials denied Guzzone's endorsement. A Maryland State Teachers Association policy dictates that incumbents receive the union's automatic endorsement if the incumbents' voting record falls in line with the union's agenda, De Lacy said.

Quinter won the endorsement because 94 percent of his votes supported the union's legislative agenda, De Lacy said. Pendergrass and Turner also won endorsements with union-friendly voting records of 100 percent and 94 percent, respectively, De Lacy said.

"I argued for (Guzzone) for about an hour, but I didn't get my way," she added. "Guy Guzzone has been extremely kind to us. We want everyone to know that even though we can't officially endorse him, we're going to do everything we can to let people know we support him."

Quotes from Guzzone and Quinter make it sound like they’re both taking this well. What lies beneath the surface, I’m sure, is a whole other story.

Good intentions, bad ideas...

An editorial in the Flier today applauds Democrats for not rushing with their proposed changes to the zoning process. Then, there’s this:

We have long advocated reworking the way the county does its zoning, including the long-overdue move of creating a Zoning Board that does not comprise the members of the council. Having that much power in the hands of five people is a detriment to the public good.

I hear this a lot, that the county council should no longer serve as the zoning board. The main argument goes councilmen take money from developers during campaigns and then approve developer projects as the zoning board, creating a possible conflict of interest. I’m sympathetic to this argument -- there appearance of impropriety is there – but I’m not convinced that removing the zoning board role from the council will do any good. In fact, I think it could be bad. Very bad.

Where would the Zoning Board’s powers go? To the Planning Board? To another, not-yet-established body? An independent zoning officer? The one problem all of these share is that they lack public accountability. Members are not voted into office. They are appointed.

As unseemly as it may seem to have elected representatives (who get contributions from developers) make zoning decisions, leaving such decisions up to the will of a board that has no incentive – and often no desire – to listen to citizens is several orders of magnitude worse. It’s undemocratic and antithetical to an open, community-driven zoning and development process.

Unless we’re talking about replacing the Zoning Board with another elected body, which is full of pitfalls of its own, removing the County Council from this important oversight position diminishes the role citizens play as well.

More on the fence...

David Wissing has the best summary of the whole Lake Elkhorn tot lot fence imbroglio that I’ve seen. http://www.hedgehogreport.com/index.php/5846

Meanwhile, the Post and Flier have stories today, and the Flier’s editorial includes this gem:

Anyone who wants to know why many Columbians have little confidence in the board of directors at the Columbia Association need look no further than the board's nonsensical decision to rip out the playground on the north shore of Lake Elkhorn and move it to a site near the Hopewell pool.

The board has now spent nine months spinning its wheels on a decision that should have taken far less time.

And, it got that decision about as wrong as it could.

The editors are certainly not holding back, as they shouldn’t. The more I think about this, the more stupid it seems. And the post vote posturing from some of the board members just doesn't make things better.

Oh wait, then there’s more:

With public outcry intensifying after the no-fence decision, the board, in what must have been an outburst of either petulance or irrationality, decided to move the playground altogether, a decision that would cost many times more than it would to install a sturdy and aesthetically acceptable fence.

Petulant. That’s just about the most perfect use of an adjective I have ever seen.

At this point, CA can quell most of the outrage by building the fence. But this whole process, particularly the vote early last Friday morning, won't soon be forgotten.

(Zoning) Knowlege is power...

At the root of our ineffective zoning system is a failure to effectively engage and include citizens. If we could only get citizens more informed, more involved and the process more open, many other concerns likely could be put to bed.

But how?

Things like public notification about zoning cases in their neighborhood would help. So would improved signage. So would more convenient meeting times. And all of these are addressed in the Democrats’ zoning change proposal, even though the provision for creating community planning districts has been dropped (for now).

All of these are cosmetic changes that would make participation somewhat easier for the stretched-thin masses, but wouldn’t fundamentally alter the way citizens participate. Citizens would still be left reacting, fighting and, most likely, marginalized.

A major impediment to increasing involvement is the amount of time required just to monitor development in Howard County. The papers do a good job of covering the controversies and the Department of Planning and Zoning website has a lot of good, if somewhat disparate, information, but despite the availability of this, connecting and collecting all of it can be a full-time job, especially if what’s going on in your neighborhood is not one of the hot-button issues, like Town Center.

Groups like COPE, Howard County Citizens Association, League of Women Voters, Preservation Howard County and others are effective at conveying relevant information to their constituencies, but there is still a large portion of the county not involved with any of these groups. What’s more, the information is still compartmentalized and disconnected.

Which is why I think we should strive to create something like this in Howard County.

The site is PlanNYC.org, a New York City Planning Information Portal, and it was constructed by an NYU graduate student. On this site, visitors can access all of the relevant information about planning and development in the city. This information – news articles, planning documents, meeting calendars and other resources – is available on a neighborhood specific format. That is, you can type in your address and with one click learn about all that is happening, development-wise, in your area.

Clearly, we don’t have an urban planning school of graduate students capable of building and maintaining such a site for us. So, the model doesn’t fit perfectly for us. But we do have a need for this and I’m sure the will to make it happen exists, whether in the nonprofit sector or as a project for the county to oversee.

Take a tour of the site and let me know what you think.

My take is that this planning portal should be just the beginning of how utilize technology – particularly the web – to better engage and inform citizens. In the near future, I can envision interactive features that allow citizens to engage in planning from their homes, similar to Sim City (only real); coupled with the county's publicly available GIS mapping features, this could actually make planning and participation fun. Short of that, we could also make it easier for citizens to comment on zoning cases by creating online forums, a county planning blog, and perhaps allow for testimony to be submitted via the web.

What else?

Wednesday Round Up: Flag Day Edition...

No intro today. Too many news items.

Tower Appeal Denied: Something tells me this isn’t the end of the fight, however. And that "something" would be the words of one of those bringing the appeal. 


Not that it matters, but: The Columbia Association Board of Directors is hosting a meeting tonight to get feedback from residents before...er, after deciding to remove the Lake Elkhorn tot lot. Funny, I always thought there were no “redoes” in life. I guess I didn't learn everything I needed to know in Kindergarden.

PATH Recap: Discussions of the first meeting of People Acting Together in Howard, attended by over 400 people (wow!), are available from The Sun and The Examiner. An affiliation of several groups – mostly churches – PATH will spend the summer focusing on issues related to youth, transportation and affordable housing. They will present their findings and proposals at a meeting on October 8. I’m not aware of a website for the group but will post a link as soon (if) I find one.

It’s about time: As part of its effort to connect our existing pathways, Howard County has received over $300,000 from the state’s Transportation Enhancement Program, which funds non-traditional transportation projects like pathways. The first project to be built is a 4,000-foot path along the west side of Broken Land Parkway, from the southern intersection with Cradlerock to Snowden River Parkway. The path will then cross BLP and head north along the east side to Lake Elkhorn.

I say it’s about time because as I was driving by there the other day I noticed a Howard Transit bus stop on a grassy island between BLP, SRP, and an exit ramp. There are no sidewalks to this stop and obviously no crosswalks. It struck me as just about the stupidest place for a bus stop ever, and I’m glad to see this pathway will at least make it a little less dangerous for riders to catch their bus.

So long, farewell: Kings Contrivance bids farewell to the Safeway that no one – except an anonymous commenter – seemed to like.

Funny intro, predictable politics: State Senator Sandy Schrader has the style, but there’s little substance, besides the usual Democrats-just-want-to-raise-your-taxes, in her anti-Robey claims. Of course in politics, like with most things, style is what matters most.

COPE Awards...

Although I attended the COPE Forum last night, I don’t have that much to say about it. So instead of trying to string together a narrative in the short amount of time I have now, I’ll just give out a few awards:

Most Newsworthy Item: Ken Ulman announced that he would not be introducing legislation this month to change the comprehensive rezoning process but will wait until the community has had more time to discuss possible changes our universally loathed system. He repeatedly emphasized, however, our need to exchange ideas, not just criticism, something he has received a lot of since announcing his proposal.

Most Appropriate Comments Given the Setting: Chris Merdon stressed repeatedly the fact that he voted against comp lite. Since this forum was sponsored by an organization that formed in response to perceived comp lite injustices, COPE, he could say exactly what they wanted to hear, at least on that issue.

Best Bipartisan Moment: A question was asked about conflicting rezoning votes for the same parcel. Apparently, Ulman voted in favor a rezoning a certain property in the comp lite process but voted against it during a subsequent piecemeal case. He mentioned that it was because the processes and criteria are different depending on the type of rezoning petition. Merdon’s response reiterated almost exactly what Ulman said.

Worst Bipartisan Moment: Merdon read aloud an email from a prominent elected Democrat – but didn’t mention her name – that was highly critical of Ulman’s zoning proposal. I read this email earlier in the day, as I received it from a listserv I subscribe to. I had always thought that discussions on this listserv were for members of the group only. Does that mean I can now start quoting these messages on this site? I don’t like the precedent.

Most Entertaining Aspect: Harry Dunbar.

Rudest Moment: Ulman was interrupted by an audience member when responding to a question about the Plaza tower in Town Center. I think he handled it well. He wasn’t rude in reply and he corrected he heckler’s misperceptions about the issue.

Most Insightful and Possibly Prescient Comment: Though I didn’t stay long into the council candidate portion, I was struck by something Joshua Feldmark said. In commenting about needed changes to the zoning process, he discussed his efforts as a CA Board Member to improve the governance process and allow for more citizen involvement. Ultimately, the reforms failed in large part because the process for changing the process was broken. This experience, I think, will serve him well if given the chance to work for changes to our planning and zoning system.