Abridged Testimony by Amy Waychoff, 11 March 2025
I understand the desire to find a way to provide more affordable housing for county residents struggling to make ends meet. However, I see some faults with specific details of the proposal and the way in which it has been presented to the community:
Too Fast, Too Soon. The speed of this proposal raises concerns about whether the focus is on long-term solutions or short-term political gains. A more reasonable, slower method of addressing our housing issues is through the Master Plan process. This tried and true method is the only way to ensure buy-in from the surrounding community. And that community, by the way, is your voter base.
Is it Fair? While ZTA 25-02 may only affect about 2,500 lots in the county, that is still a lot of real estate. There are people living in those houses who worked hard to achieve the American dream. Given the nature of the lots chosen — along major corridors — many of these houses are considered naturally occurring affordable housing. If some of these houses get torn down, gentrification will inevitably ensue, displacing the very lower-middle class people you were trying to help.
Putting the Cart Before the Horse. Opponents of this proposal have repeatedly raised the issue of whether more housing is actually needed. County Executive Marc Elrich stated last fall that “our master plans have enough zoned capacity to house more people than are projected to come here through 2050.”* I welcome the Planning Department’s decision to do a thorough analysis of why so many projects remain in the development pipeline. Shouldn’t we wait until that analysis is complete before we try to add to our housing stock?
Insufficient Infrastructure. Even the Planning Department acknowledged in its discussion of the development pipeline that new housing should only be built in “the places that have the infrastructure to support it.”**
I urge the council to slow down this process, conduct the necessary studies, and ensure that community voices are heard before making significant zoning changes.
*Weekly Update Message, 4 October 2024.
**Lisa Govoni, “Montgomery County’s Development Pipeline,” The Third Place, 27 February 2025.
Montgomery County Council Members Email Addresses
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Amy Waychoff is a member of the Executive Committee of the Montgomery County Republican Party.