Evening star., 1961-08-04
Montgomery Zoninq

AC a recent JOINT meeting
of the Montgomery County
Council and the Montgomery
County Planning Board the
master plans for the Rock
Creek and Northwest Branch
watersheds and the Gath
ersburg- Rockville area were
formally presented to the
council. Only the Rock Greek
watershed plan was discussed
at any length. An obvious
fault of this plan. noted by
Council members Werner and
Cahoon, is the recommended
tion for the retention of some
5000 acres of R-R 100000
square-foot LOTS zoning ip
the entire northern portion
of the watershed-even in
the area designated for a
proposed extension of Rock
Greek Park-and extending
all the way from Olney to
Gaithersburg Cboth desig-
mated as satellite towns and
north to Laytonsville. Mrs.
Werner questioned the plan
ming board and not one of
the members was able to give
a good reason for this other
than the fact that a previous
council had zoned the area
R-R. Further questioning of
members of the planning
staff gave the distinct i'm
preston that the staff had
been overruled by the COM
mission in retaining this en-
tire area in the 10000
Square-foot zone. No one
asked what Mr.. Bartholomew
(the commissions consult
anti thought about this.
If GaithersbUrg and Olney
are to be satellite towns, one
wonders how the planning
commission can justify con-
tinuous 10000 square foot
minimum lot zoning in al
most the entire area be-
tween these communities and
extending all the way up to
LaytonSville. This is COM
pletely inconsistent with the
National Capital Planning
Commissions year 290O plan
which provides for satellite
towns, along the major trans
portation corridors, separated
by low density open spaces.
In addition, with all the
flooding problems now exist
ing in the lower county due
to too dense development near
Rock Creek and other streams,
how can the planning board
Justify R-R zoning in almost
the entire Rock Greek water
shed up stream of two pro-
posed flood controI dams?
Certainly, if R-R Zoning is
approved by the county coun-
Gil and the area develops in
20,000-square-fo lots, even
if the proposed dams are built
they will soon fill up with
silt and be useless to con-
tain flood water.
1t appears that the plan
ming board is influenced more
by the desires of some of the
large Upper Montgomery
County landowners than by
their own professional plan
ming staff or consultant in
making planning decisions.
Since, according to the plan
ming commission, for at least
the next 20 years we are 60
ing to have much more land
than people to occupy it on
20.000-square-foot lots, these
farmers" and land specula-
tors may eventually discover
that they can make as much
money selling their land for
small farms, estates and large
lot country homes q acres
and up) as they can trying
to hold out for small lot
subdivisions. Then and only
then will they be serving the
stated public purpose of the
farm assessment law which
grants Maryland farmers spe-
cial low tax assessments,
namely: The preservation Of
open spaces.
Many citizens of Mont
gomery County will be watch
ing to see if the county
council is strong enough to
resist pressure from the land
spectators and potential de-
velopers by requiring low den
sity RIA (2-acre minimum
LOTS zoning in a large part
of the Upper Rock Greek
watershed as we'll as in other
areas where good sense and
good planning dictate low
density zoning.
H. B. Atkinson, Jr.