Elected officials in Montgomery County have nothing to fear, least of all the peddlers of fear

For the better part of a decade, we in Montgomery County have been progressing – at times stumbling – down a path toward better housing and transportation. The county council’s unanimous passage of Thrive 2050, a long-overdue updating of the county’s general plan, should ease the way for zoning for more housing and denser development, especially near transit hubs. The Purple Line, however delayed, is being built.

We have miles to go, but let’s take a moment to acknowledge how far we’ve come, and, especially, the favorable political environment. Local politicians who support zoning plans aimed at more housing, development, and smart transit get elected and re-elected, including but not limited to some local leaders we mention below.

Planning for change is a winning platform

Critics of projects like Thrive 2050 have shown little ability to extract a political price from politicians they oppose. Yes, they can light up a listening session, organize demonstrations, and pack public meetings. But the loudest critics lack any notable political impact.

For example, newly-elected District 6 councilmember Natali Fani-González, who helped write Thrive while at the Planning Board, stomped to victory over her opponents with 56 percent of the vote in an 8-person primary; opposing Thrive did nothing for them. In District 1, councilmember Andrew Friedson, a Thrive champion even as the legislation faced frenetic opposition in the Chevy Chase-Bethesda area, won re-election after facing no primary opponent. And he’s plunging ahead already with a bill to promote building housing on public land.

No jurisdiction in Montgomery County has more to live down than Takoma Park, where no new apartment buildings have been built in the last 40 years. It also has a tough – too tough? – rent stabilization law and an appetite for lengthy debates.

But consider that former Mayor Kate Stewart pushed the project to revitalize Takoma Junction (the intersection of Carroll Ave. and MD-410) for eight long years – one of us, Dougherty, was there every step of the way – in the face of loud but ultimately toothless opposition. The project ultimately ran aground due to political interference at the state level, but it did not damage Stewart’s political prospects.

A group founded to oppose the project, now called Community Vision for Takoma, waged a years-long battle against Stewart. Stewart stuck to her guns, even as the group seized on other issues to try to manufacture a sense of crisis. Also, under Stewart, the Takoma Park City Council endorsed Thrive and the county accessory dwelling unit legislation, while using a city fund to help first-time buyers of modest means acquire homes.

Community Vision then sought to end Stewart’s political career by backing Stewart’s opponent in 2020. She won by nearly 2-to-1. Two years later, the same group backed a candidate against Stewart-endorsed Talisha Searcy for mayor. That candidate came in third; Searcy was inaugurated mayor this month. The former Mayor Stewart is now Councilmember Stewart, representing District 4.

Time to quit the habit

Why do some candidates embrace NIMBYs? An aspiring elected official, casting about for support, meets a group of homeowners that (incorrectly) argue they represent those of the community as a whole, and are willing to endorse a candidate who embraces their cause.

But the evidence suggests that these critics of smart growth have little to offer politically and seem unable to persuade people who don’t already agree with them.

The elephant in our room is County Executive Marc Elrich, who never wavered in opposing Thrive, undercutting realistic proposals for housing at the library in Chevy Chase, or opposing a broadly progressive vision of more housing and development. Elrich also, rather condescendingly told Fani-González in 2014 “straight to my face” that she was unqualified for the Planning Board; she rallied her supporters and won the appointment, which became a springboard to a Council seat.

Yes, Elrich got reelected, but only by 32 votes in the primary. And his opponents, businessman David Blair and now-former Councilmember Hans Riemer, were firmly on the side of more housing options, together garnering 59 percent of the vote.*

Riemer, by forcing the issue as head of the council committee working on Thrive, surfaced what is clearly a pro-smart growth majority in this county over his 12 years on the council, with the current electorate firmly supporting Thrive and related housing reforms. And he managed the heroic task of guiding Thrive to unanimous approval after the primary, following three years of constant invective and outright disinformation from Elrich.

The Council president, Gabe Albornoz, pointedly slapped down Elrich on the eve of the Thrive vote when the executive doubled down on his criticism. Then Thrive passed the council unanimously. Councilmember reticence here was awfully hard to detect.

Growth 101: some lessons from Thrive

We should take away a few lessons from Thrive vote and the 2022 elections.

After you sweat blood to write and pass the first update of the county’s general plan in 50 years, carpe diem! Your effort must not go to waste. The “general” before the “plan” obscures the slog ahead, namely that Council must pass into law the concrete changes (in technical terms: zoning text amendments and other zoning changes) that will let architects design so that developers can get permits and builders can put shovels in the ground.

There’s an added layer of complication. These changes demand cooperation between the Council and the Planning Board, since moving ahead requires political signals from lawmakers and technical expertise that resides at the board and Planning Department. But owing to the intrigues at the Planning Board last year, the Council first needs to approve full-term members. It should choose people who support Thrive unreservedly.

With good reason, politics often breeds cynicism about what can be accomplished. But in this case, we can reasonably look at Montgomery County and see that the political conditions have emerged for doing what needs to be done to ease our terrible housing shortage and provide better transportation.

Thrive is an outline, not an implemented plan. Politicians who would like to see themselves cutting ribbons at new apartment buildings and the like still have work to do. Happily, they have the political wind at their backs. It’s time to sally forth.

*This article was updated on 2/2/2023 to reflect that the vote total was 59% rather than 73% as recently stated.