Montgomery County Council members are considering legislation that would create a team of development czars to help the county manage its facelift.
Introduced by Duchy Trachtenberg, D-At Large, and supported by development committee chairman Mike Knapp, D-Germantown, the legislation would force County Executive Ike Leggett to designate a top staff member for every major development project in the county.
Trachtenberg said on her Web log that the bill “provides further coordination and oversight of master-planned development … and further coordination and oversight of development districts.”
The council is wrestling with several big-ticket development projects that will change the face of the county for generations to come. Legislators have already voted on, or are considering, a light rail system for the Purple Line, the remodeling of the area around Bethesda Naval Hospital, a high-density shopping-and-living project near Metro’s White Flint station and the gigantic “Science City” proposal.
But progress has been spotty and the Leggett administration has sent mixed signals on key projects like Bethesda Naval. Every elected leader in the county talks about “smart growth” — high density, mixed use developments that create “walkable” urban centers around transit stations — but leaders have approached development piecemeal.
The county council, for instance, has voted to approve the massive Inter-County Connector highway, which will allow for sprawling, driving suburbs and at the same time put the brakes on the White Flint development.
County leaders are throwing away a pearl richer than their tribe, Brookings Institute real estate analyst Christopher Leinberger said.
“Most of the high-value development is along the Red Line,” Leinberger said, referring to the Metro rail line. “The Red Line is essentially what is putting a fiscal foundation under Montgomery County.”
Every dollar toward a big road project like the ICC is a dollar away from further development along the Red Line, Leinberger said. And the Red Line itself needs help.
“It’s the oldest on the system, it’s got serious maintenance issues and it’s at capacity,” he said.
