Roads Should Come Before Development

The intersection of Cashell Road and Bowie Mill Road is the intersection of two small two-lane roads, with only a four-way stop sign to control traffic.

Yet there's an astonishing amount of traffic, even at 1:30 in the afternoon!

Here's why:



It's not just one McMansion, it's not just a small development of McMansions, it is



a couple of hundred McMansions, or McTownhomes, or McSprawl. Whatever you want to call this sort of thing,



there is about to be a lot more of it:



This is one of the last remaining stretches of undeveloped land to the southwest of Olney:



But it's not going to be undeveloped for much longer:



As you can see from the image above, MD Route 108 westbound towards Laytonsville is only two lanes wide. Built atop the roadbed of an extremely old farm-to-market road, and not significantly improved since about the 1960s (if that recently), it is still a very strong and high quality road suited for heavy traffic from tractor-trailers right up to large military vehicles.

As for the part of the development already completed, it -- along with the new development -- will have only four ways in and out, with two of them opening onto MD-108 and with two of them opening onto Bowie Mill Road. Bowie Mill Road itself ends at MD-108, if you are headed north. One of the exits from the community, at Cashell Road, offers a route almost directly south, but that is a two-lane road through an established community, and it will not easily be widened or improved. It has a 30 mile-per-hour speed limit along most of its length.

Like MD-108, Bowie Mill Road is also a rather old road which hasn't been significantly improved in about a half century.

One reasonably might presume that most of the residents work, and commute to those jobs, which one might reasonably presume are in Rockville, Gaithersburg, or points south such as Bethesda, Chevy Chase, or even Wheaton or the District of Columbia.

There is Ride-On bus service to the community, and I would imagine that those buses are packed at rush-hour. Yet how much Ride-On traffic can old Bowie Mill Road handle?

Bowie Mill Road is the only route out of this community which leads toward the I-270 Corridor, connecting with Muncaster Mill Road -- also very old and only two lanes -- and that road connects with Redland Road, also only two lanes wide and another old road.

If much more development is to occur here, very significant upgrades to existing roads will be necessary, unless you want to propose the currently unthinkable: a freeway spur into the community, running from the ICC up along the upper branch of Rock Creek Park.

The present County Council, in approving the long-planned Montrose Parkway East, might in fact be very likely to propose the unthinkable, and without any opposition, approve the proposal. This is why it's important to elect someone who will oppose the unthinkable.

As it is, by allowing all of this development, the Council and the planners are effectively forcing the issue.

By grossly overpopulating a hard-to-reach area, they create a captive audience who will scream for relief to the congestion. With all of the constant complaining -- that they themselves would have effectively created -- it will be easy for them to demand, and get, a freeway right up the length of the headwaters of Upper Rock Creek.

I will oppose overdevelopment of this area, and will oppose any freeway running up Rock Creek into Olney.

Rural Preservation v McMansionization

I was out yesterday, driving around and taking pictures in the northern part of District 4. That's such places as Brookeville, Ashton, and Sandy Spring.

Sandy Spring is one of Montgomery County's oldest communities, with the oldest Civic Association in the county. I happen to like Civic Associations, and was on the board of directors of the Aspen Hill Civic Association, Inc. Citizens organize themselves and can influence the government through such civic associations, and if you're a candidate hoping to connect with communities of activists and dedicated participants in the political process, that's where you want to go. I'll be at a candidate's forum on Sunday April 6th at 3:00PM at Sherwood HS, come and see and hear us!

Brookeville is a lovely place with a long history, as you can see from the plaques and architecture:



It's right at the edge of the Rural Heritage Preservation area. If you go driving through it, north on MD 97, you'll think that you're out in the country and that there's probably nothing around but farms and more farms.

There are in fact some farms, elegant established places full of history and representative of the historic pride of America in its productivity:



That's a lovely farm on Brighton Dam Road, east of Brookeville. But literally a stone's throw away there is the so-called "infill development", sitting cleverly out of sight of the main highway that passes through Brookeville, All along Bordly Drive and the other roads in the associated development, is an eruption of "McMansions":



Now, I have nothing against the wealthy living in such luxury as they can afford. However, my tastes are more traditionalist. Older homes that are well suited to and in continuum with the environment are what I prefer:



Astute observers of this campaign will have noticed that I do in fact see a crying need all over Montgomery for more Affordable Housing. Now, I am curious as to whether this structure below is a single-family home, or an apartment building?



This building is one of several of the same size and type which are located along Batchellor's Forest Road, not far from W.H. Farquahar Middle School, which I attended for three years in the very early 1970s.

I wonder, could it be possible to change zoning regulations and the affordable-housing or moderately-priced dwelling units ("MPDU") regulations to require: that if such large buildings are built on lands that previously were semi-rural or mostly undeveloped, one of six such buildings should be zoned for multiple-family occupancy? Thus, if there were six buildings of the size of the one shown above, one of those six could be home to rental tenants or condominium residents.

I do not at all suggest that such large buildings with MPDUs be subsidized at taxpayer expense to house the indigent amid the wealthy. I am proposing that such large buildings could house established small working-class families or families of young professionals just embarking on their careers.

Environmental Policy?

I like the environment. It provides me with air to breathe, and food to eat, and it used to provide me with drug-free drinking water, but recent tests by the Associated Press found that most major cities have trace amounts of drugs in their water supplies.

I don't just like to drink water, I like to fish for trout in healthy small streams. Let's for the moment not digress into the matter of whether or not the trout have all been eaten by Invasive Snakehead Fish. Let's talk about the sort of streams that trout need.

Trout need scrupulously clean streams that run at a constant cool temperature. Clearly, hot summer parking lots collecting and then discharging into streams, without stormwater catchbasins suitable to fully cool the water isn't going to promote trout. Therefor, I promote starting a long slow process of retrofitting all of our stormwater drain systems with cooldown facilities, at a rate that won't bankrupt the taxpayers. Let's also think about getting most of this done with volunteer labor, or ideally with student community-service hours. Also, we want to promote Riparian Forest Buffers to help our streams be good for trout.

I have some other thoughts on the environment, and also on the future in general -- dealing with issues such as over-harvesting the oceans, global warming, and overpopulation --
located on another site. It's something I wrote a few years ago for a college course.

In general, my ideas about the environment are "let's not Pave the Bay", and in fact, let's be pretty aggressive with anyone who wants to Pave the Bay. The State of Maryland and Montgomery County already have excellent environmental policies, let's keep what works and refine what needs refinement.

Let's tend to our smallest streams and our largest rivers may take care of themselves. Let's increase the county's promotion of "green" lifestyles, and let us carve into stone a responsible population growth policy.