Montgomery County is rewriting its zoning code (for the first time since 1977). This is a major undertaking, lasting for about 3 years. The process should end in the fall of 2010, hopefully with adoption and implementation in early- to mid-2011. The hope of the Planning Commission is to create a simpler, progressive, workable code.With over a hundred zones - some of which apply only to a single property - the county's Planning Department has made it a goal to streamline its hefty zoning code. In January, staff produced Zoning Discovery, which recommended having fewer, less prescriptive zones; matching zones more closely to the places they cover; and creating a set of easy-to-understand "fact sheets" for each zone, complete with pretty pictures and diagrams.
And we want input from the public.
We've hired a consultant team to assist with the writing of the new code. They'll be in town in a week and a half for "Zoning Week."
We're having a public listening session on Wednesday September 30 at 7PM in the Planning Board Auditorium, 8787 Georgia Avenue (at Spring Street), Silver Spring, MD 20910. This session is for the public to come and tell the Planning Commission and our consultants what they think of the code and the rewrite.
But apparently the Fortress of Planning doesn't have a very good photo library, because many of the pretty pictures in Zoning Discovery come from Google StreetView. One of them is even a photo I took of this dopey-looking house that appeared in a JUTP post three years ago.I'd be all like, "Hey, Park and Planning, could I get some compensation - or even a photo credit - for that?" But why get mad when you can get even? What they don't know is . . . the house isn't even in Montgomery County! So take that, Planning Department! Putting photos of houses in Cross Creek Club over a block across the Prince George's County line in your documents? You just got punk'd during your very own Zoning Week.
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