Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1937-07-22
AS WE SEE TT
By MoNTco

municipality, empowered to enact zon-
ing laws. In the interim, plans should
be formulated which will provide
property owners some measure Of
protection against undesirable build
ing projects. Community planning will
solve the problem for the present.
Community planning stabilizes values,
but it is not effective unless public
sentiment is crystallized to provide
for its accomplishment.
COMMUNITIES OF ALL sizes and
types can benefit through well con-
ceived planning, but the most effec-
tive work can be done while neigh
borhood is still small and in a forma-
tive state. Districts can then be set
aside for special uses without unduly
affecting property rights. Owners of
land now recognize the influence of
community planning, realizing that its
intelligent application will mean
greater returns in money as their land
is improved and sold, or more de-
sirable neighborhood in which to live.
AT A RECENT MEETING of the
Community Council of the Sandy
Spring Neighborhood, a committee
was appointed to study the zoning
problem. This committee should be
encouraged by all property owners.
NO COMMUNITY in the country
has been more thoughtful in the past
than Sandy Spring. The writer, who
has lived nearby and attended school
in the neighborhood, has always been
impressed with the Quaker spirit
good roads and neighborly coopera-
ton. These progeritors of a hardy and
enterprising stock always seemed to
be looking ahead, to be thinking of
their children and generations yet un-
born. 1t is the old pioneer spirit which
actuated men and women to take a
chance on the wilderness-to move
and build so that ambition and vision
might be encouraged and perpetuated.
WE ARE INDEBTED to the chair
man of the publicity committee of the
Community Council of Sandy Spring
for furnishing good idea. Montco
cannot too strongly urge the adoption
Of the sentiment therein expressed. 1t
is well nigh criminal to build and ex-
pand without careful though of future
growth. We see this demonstrated,
not only in the closely settled COM
munities of those areas near large
cities-but also portrayed in the vast
expanses of the West, where narrow
mindedness and lack of vision have
almost depopulated regions due to bad
planning. Trees were cut down-pas-
ture lands were ploughed and hill
sides neglected-all because selfish
individuals, and, in some cases selfish
governmental agencies couldn't see
the solution to what should have been
relatively simple problem.
ON THE OTHER HAND, some
times coming restriction is carried too
far by jealous souls who overlook
practical issues. For instance: there Is
always a.ikick when some enterprising
concern seeks to establish cemetery
In Montgomery County. Now it so
happens that modern cemeteries and
mausoleums are Q work Of art. Where
land is properly drained there can be
no question of pollution. Certainly
there can be no question of the en-
hancement of beauty. After all, peo-
pie have to die and we can't leave
them lying out in the woods or throw
them in the river. Common sense
should prevail in these cases of which
the burial ground problem is an out
standing example.
OUR PET ANATHEMA, when it
comes to unsightly effects along the
highways, is the billboard. why 10
people insist on erecting signs at
curves and other dangerous points
when such an advertisement provokes
more resentment than it incurs new
business? Aside from the grotesque
art work used-IT rs POSITIVELY
DANGEROUS TO DRIVERS-espec-
Tally those luminous arrangements
which'cause you to think another car
Is approaching ont of nowhere. The
C'ate Roads Commission should ban
such sisnSaandsths people who adver-
use shOalfshave enough public spirit
!" cooperate in the matter. We have
70 i've IN this world a. neighbors and
sne more we recognize the other fell
lows rights the more apt we are to
get things done we desire.