Evening star., 1955-02-11
Planners VS.. Women Voters

The recent letter from Mrs. Thomas
Lee Smith, president of the Montgom-
cry County League Of Women Voters.
on county planning. showed an amaz-
ing lack of knowledge of what Is going
on in her own county.
The erroneous statements appearing
in the letter are all the more surpris-
ing since Mrs. Smith is on the COM
missions mailing list and has received
all of our technical reports and pub
lications listing the dozens Of plans
prepared and adopted by the COM
mission since it was established by the
Maryland General Assembly in 1927.
Apparently, she has failed to read
them.
It would be helpful If Mrs. Smith
would take advantage of the commits
sion's practice of taking interested or
ganizations and individuals on bus
tours of the area under our jurisdiction
so that she could get first-hand, &C
curate view of present conditions. We
will be happy to take Mrs. Smith and
any other league members on such q
tour at any time convenient to them.
We had understood that the League
of Women Voters was dedicated to the
purpose of obtaining the facts about
government and then making those
facts available to the public. Mrs.
Smiths letter, however, shakes our be-
lief in this proposition, unless it may
be that she does not speak for all the
members of the league.
When Mrs. Smith says. for example,
that this commission has never pre-
pared a comprehensive plan, she COM
pletely ignores the fact that the es-
sential parts of such plan have been
completed and made public. They in
clude the master plan of highways, the
master plan of parks the county zon-
ing ordinance and zoning map, master
zoning and street plans for major COM
mercial and residential communities
and up-to-date population studies OF
both Montgomery and Prince Georges
Counties.
And her statement that taxpayers
dollars are being "siphoned of for
widening too-narrow streets" just isn't
true. The fact is that, in almost every
case, the rights-of-way for future
street-widening projects and for en-
tirely new roads are reserved by this
commission through its subdivision
control regulations. That means that
when the county or State comes in to
widen existing streets and to build new
ones, the taxpayers don't have to pay
cent for the additional land required.
This commission was one OF the first
in the country to adopt regulations
prohibiting the erection Of any build
ing in the right-of-way of any proposed
street. This has saved the taxpayers
millions of dollars in the past and will
save additional millions in the future.
Mrs. Smiths argument that this COM
missions functions should be taken
over by the county has been answered
in the past to the complete satisfaction
of the peoples representatives in the
Maryland General Assembly.
We stand ready at all times to meet
with any organization or individual and
to answer any questions they may have
concerning the commission. Our meet
ings are open to the public and we have
recently appointed Citizens Advisory
Council to advise us and to tell us what
the people want.
Unfortunately, in the past. the Mont
gomery County League of Women Vot-
ers has avoided asking any commission
representatives to their meetings to ex-
plain what we do.
Sidney M. Oliver,
Acting Chairman, NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
Capital Park and Planning Com
mission.