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Gazette article: Growth, traffic, affordable housing

Below is an article published in the Gazette today.

As the article describes:

"The Gazette interviewed roughly 30 people who live throughout Frederick County to find out what bothers them and what they love about living in the area. Growth, clogged highways, overcrowded schools and affordable housing topped the list of issues that came up in most conversations with these residents."

Below the article, I've excerpted a few passages and made a few comments.

From the GAZETTE: Growth, traffic, affordable housing From Emmitsburg to Brunswick, Burkittsville to New Market, residents have a variety of concerns about Frederick County and plan to take those issues into consideration at the polls this fall http://www.gazette.net/stories/070606/frednew194223_31939.shtml Thursday, July 6, 2006 By Sherry Greenfield Staff Writer Monday was the deadline to file as a candidate in the race for Frederick County commissioner, but the traditional campaign rhetoric and abundance of bright signs have yet to blanket the county’s landscape. As campaigning heats up this summer, the county’s 123,786 registered voters will be watching. Many county residents say they don’t keep up with the daily politics and decisions made by the current five-member Board of County Commissioners, but it is clear residents have plenty of concerns they want county leaders to address. The Gazette interviewed roughly 30 people who live throughout Frederick County to find out what bothers them and what they love about living in the area. Growth, clogged highways, overcrowded schools and affordable housing topped the list of issues that came up in most conversations with these residents. The county’s population explosion has greatly impacted quality of life, many residents say. Growth in the county dramatically increased in the 1980s and has continued to climb during the last two decades. In 1980, the county’s population was 114,792, representing a 35 percent jump from 1970, according to the county’s planning department. The latest numbers show that as of January, the county’s population was roughly 226,476 — an increase of 111,684 residents since 1980. By 2011, the county’s population is estimated to climb to 245,000. Many county residents to whom The Gazette spoke said fighting heavy traffic on a daily basis weighs on their minds. Though county commissioners have only a small role in improving state roads and federal interstates, voters are looking to them for help, nonetheless. ‘‘They need to do something about the road system here,” said Sylvia Goodnough, 72, of Thurmont. ‘‘I’m one of the few seniors that travel down the road and the county is at least 10 to 20 years behind in new road construction.” According to Denis Superczynski, transportation planner with the county’s Division of Planning, the county partners with the state and federal governments to improve many of the major interstates that run through the area. They include Interstates 70 and 270, U.S. Route 15 and Md. Route 85 (Buckeystown Pike). ‘‘We often partner with the state to kick off the planning, which defines the scope of the [highway] project,” Superczynski said The county has contributed funding to improve Route 85 and build a new ramp from Md. Route 26 to Route 15. Each year Superczynski and the county commissioners develop a list of secondary and primary roadways they consider to be in need of improvements. Primary roads are federal interstates that include Interstates 70 and 270, Route 15 and U.S. Route 340. Secondary highways are state-owned and include Route 26 and Route 85. Convincing the state to provide money to improve highways that run through the county is not easy. Each year, officials here find themselves competing with other counties around the state for highway money. ‘‘There’s a very limited pool of funding,” Superczynski said. ‘‘Everybody is competing for federal and state resources for these types of projects.” With limited money, planning, designing and constructing highway improvements can take years. For residents, this means that traveling around the county will continue to be frustrating as road improvements move at a snail’s pace. The endless building of new homes and school crowding as a result concern Donna and Ben Tucker of Woodsboro. ‘‘Homes just keep going up,” Donna Tucker said. Many residents said they think elected officials will make decisions on growth regardless of residents’ concerns. Jim Gugel, chief planner with the county’s Division of Planning, insists residents must continue to offer input to each region plan update because their participation does make a difference. Region plans detail the use of land and designate areas of future growth over the next 20 years. The plans identify where development will occur and what type of growth will take place. ‘‘We’ve always encouraged people to participate whether by attending a public hearing or open house,” Gugel said. ‘‘Throughout the process we send out two or three mailings to residents in the particular region and at the beginning of the process. It’s become our standard practice for a number of years.” The county is divided into eight different planning regions. The Urbana and New Market Region Plans were both recently updated and adopted by the county. Gugel said the county is now in the middle of updating the Walkersville Region Plan and beginning preliminary work on the Thurmont plan. Middletown and Brunswick will follow. Many people The Gazette spoke to said though the county has its faults, it also has many benefits. For 48-year-old Yvonne Ison, a housewife who lives in Frederick, life here is just fine. ‘‘I think it’s a lot better than Montgomery County,” said Ison, who moved to Frederick in January.

"As campaigning heats up this summer, the county’s 123,786 registered voters will be watching."

Unfortunately, not nearly that many people will actually vote. And a sizable percentage of those who will vote will not have been "watching" enough to make the connections between the problems of traffic and affordable housing (among other things - crowded schools with portables, inadequate parks, higher taxes...), the real reasons these problems continue to get worse, and the candidates (including some incumbents and some new challengers) who will continue to support the business-as-usual policies that have made these problems much worse than they had to be.

Candidates like incumbents Cady and Lovell, and challengers Shreve and Jenkins, offer more of the same thing, even though their rhetoric and websites and campaign slogans promise something different. Over the last year or two, I've spoken with a great many people who voted for Cady (who promised "balanced" growth, and that he would listen) and Lovell (who promised "measured growth," even though he never really described what that meant), and have since come to regret having done so.

In fact, just this evening, I received an email from a that included the following:

"In the last election for county commissioners, we voted for Cady and Lovell, not knowing they were being sponsored by the developers and realtors. When I vote this year, I would love to see Mr. Thompson, Ms. Gardner and Mr. Hagen as a majority. Who else of this year’s candidates do you think has a vision for Frederick’s thoughtful growth that will be a benefit for its citizens? I don’t want to see my vote go once again to a stealth candidate!"

When I reply tomorrow, I will encourage them to add David Gray and Richard Floyd to their list.

And I will hope – and do everything I can to ensure – that more people will not be expressing the same regret about having voted for Shreve or Jenkins.

But...

"Many county residents say they don’t keep up with the daily politics and decisions made by the current five-member Board of County Commissioners, but it is clear residents have plenty of concerns they want county leaders to address."

There is no doubt that many or most of us share a sense of the problems. We know that growth isn't happening in a way that provides all the benefits we have been promised by some politicians, the Frederick County Builders Association and others.

But will enough voters see through the all-too-easy promises?

"In 1980, the county’s population was 114,792, representing a 35 percent jump from 1970, according to the county’s planning department. The latest numbers show that as of January, the county’s population was roughly 226,476 — an increase of 111,684 residents since 1980.

By 2011, the county’s population is estimated to climb to 245,000."

Let that sink in for a moment.

Then ask yourself how a serious candidate for county commissioner – Billy Shreve – could say, as he did, that Frederick County has had twelve straight years of "no-growth boards."

To put that comment in perspective, Frederick County has added roughly 55,000 people in the last twelve years (close to the number of people who live in the city of Frederick today).

"Many county residents to whom The Gazette spoke said fighting heavy traffic on a daily basis weighs on their minds.

Though county commissioners have only a small role in improving state roads and federal interstates, voters are looking to them for help, nonetheless."

Traffic is awful. And it's getting worse.

Gone are the days when a Frederick County driver could feel smug while listening to the traffic reports from Washington.

But, while it is true that the "county commissioners have only a small role in improving state roads and federal interstates," it is not true that the county commissioners have only a small role in creating the traffic problem. And it is not true that it is inevitable.

Our county commissioners make all the major decisions about growth and development outside of our municipalities.

Too often, that has meant supporting the sort of development that requires far more road improvements and new roads than we will ever be able to afford, and far more than the state will ever provide to cover the state roads.

Frustrated drivers demand relief. But it won't every come – as it hasn't, so far – if we keep doing things the way we have been.

Not only has the current board been making the same mistakes, they have been making them bigger and faster.

In an effort to fend off criticisms about the impact of the recently passed New Market Region Plan on traffic, and the estimated $370 million price tag to upgrade old roads and add new roads sufficient to prevent gridlock, Commission Cady said:

“I’m relying on the state to live up to their responsibility in this area.”

It would extremely polite to refer to that comment as simply wrong or misleading. Because he knows better.

It's a fact that the state will never be willing or able to cover the costs of upgrading state roads to accommodate ill-advised sprawl in Frederick County. And it's a fact that the county will never have enough money to upgrade the county roads enough to meet the extraordinary requirements of poorly planned, sprawl development.

So, when a candidate says, as Billy Shreve does on his campaign website, that "Road Construction will keep pace with development. Public Transportation will improve and become a realistic option," he should explain just how he plans to do that, especially if he is going to support and accelerate sprawl.

"Many residents said they think elected officials will make decisions on growth regardless of residents’ concerns.

Jim Gugel, chief planner with the county’s Division of Planning, insists residents must continue to offer input to each region plan update because their participation does make a difference. Region plans detail the use of land and designate areas of future growth over the next 20 years. The plans identify where development will occur and what type of growth will take place.

‘‘We’ve always encouraged people to participate whether by attending a public hearing or open house,” Gugel said."

Having closely watched the Board of County Commissioners during the last four years, including attending a great many worksessions and public hearings, I can understand why many people would think that their elected officials "will make decisions on growth regardless of residents concerns."

That is exactly what a three-member majority of the current board has been doing – almost completely ignoring the citizens of the county.

There have been situations where a great number of people have testified in front of the commissioners, where many dozens have emailed the commissioners, where numerous letters to the editor have been published on the particular subject, where a clearly overwhelming majority of all of those have expressed great concern about and strong opposition to a particular proposal, where the proposal was not thoroughly or thoughtfully examined by the commissioners, where the proposal was economically unsound, where much of the opposition was informed, and even eloquent, and where, quite literally, there was no visible support from anyone other than a few developers and their land use attorneys, yet this board voted with the developers.

How many times can anyway observe that before they start to think expressing their concern is a waste of time?

During the process of drafting the controversial New Market Region Plan, some commissioners – Commissioner Cady, in particular – referred to the length of the process, and the many opportunities citizens and other stakeholders had to offer ideas, feedback and criticism. What he invariably failed to mention, however, is that the vast majority of that input was completely ignored.

That's no way to run a local government.

Former commissioner David Gray, who has decided to run for the board again this year, made the same point during his remarks at his announcement earlier this week (excerpted from the News Post article) :


He's absolutely correct.

The county is divided into eight different planning regions. The Urbana and New Market Region Plans were both recently updated and adopted by the county.

Gugel said the county is now in the middle of updating the Walkersville Region Plan and beginning preliminary work on the Thurmont plan. Middletown and Brunswick will follow.

It will be a terrible thing for those areas of Frederick County if the same sort of process, and the same sort of priorities, and the same sort of irresponsible planning happens in those regions as we saw in the New Market region.

Many people The Gazette spoke to said though the county has its faults, it also has many benefits.

Indeed.

We live in a wonderful place.

And we do not have to trade what we love about where we live for something that diminishes the quality of our communities, and life in Frederick County.

It is too much to ask – to insist – that development that happens be planned and implemented in a manner that actually benefits the people who are here, and preserves the best of what we have already?

I don't think so.

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WHY I'M VOTING FOR KAI!

Sally Familton
Yellow Springs

I support Kai because he is smart and understands the issues that matter most to Frederick County right now. Kai recognizes that growth and infrastructure needs require thoughtful examination, and that they're parts of a whole, not separate issues. Kai is forward-thinking and believes strongly in the value of citizen participation in governance. And he understands that determining the county's future and continued quality of life will require...

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