Information about the Montgomery County Planning Board’s Attainable Housing Strategies Initiative (AHS) (aka AHSI)
Rollingwood Citizens Association provides this reference source relating to MoCo Planning Board’s Attainable Housing Strategies Initiative (AHS), the MoCo Planning and MoCo Council’s plan to upzone most of Montgomery County. This is a crucial issue for all Montgomery County communities, including Rollingwood. Its ramifications are radical and extensive. Citizen engagement is encouraged.
RCA’s AHS Explainer: [link to pdf]
Channel 7 News Report: Montgomery County considers replacing single-family homes with multi-unit buildings
Channel 5 News Report 9/15/2024 parking wars - AHS advocates more cars on Streets -Already too many cars on streets: https://www.fox5dc.com/news/parking-wars-silver-spring-spur-police-action-future-permit-rules
Alissa Pier-actual Experience of Minneapolis with AHS-like upzoning
Little Known Tax Breaks proposed for AHS multiplex developers
Bibliography of research demonstrating failures of upzoning: [link to pdf]
Skiba article reflecting research showing that upzoning HURTS those it claims to help and actually helps finance companies/developers: https://stopbtownupzoning.org/2021/01/25/who-benefits-from-upzoningon-housing-affordability-and-equity/
Pagnucco article stating that MoCo’s housing data is totally corrupted: https://montgomeryperspective.com/2024/08/07/will-we-ever-know-whether-we-are-building-enough-housing/
Link to the AHS Final Report: Click on View the Planning Board’s Final Report – it is 98 pages and takes a good 60 seconds to download; Alternatively click on https://montgomeryplanning.org/planning/housing/attainable-housing-strategies-initiative/; then scroll down to where it says in a blue oblong “View the Planning Board’s Final Report”.
Link to related AHS resources: Click on https://montgomeryplanning.org/planning/housing/attainable-housing-strategies-initiative/attainable-housing-strategies-initiative-resources/ (this often doesn’t work so alternatively click on https://montgomeryplanning.org/planning/housing/attainable-housing-strategies-initiative/; then scroll down to where it says in a blue oblong “Resources” and click on that.
RECORDING OF ZOOM TOWN HALL BY MCCF with Marc Elrich (2.5 hours) and others
Montgomery County Civic Federation, Inc. Community Town Hall re Attainable Housing held on 9/5/2024 with with County Executive Marc Elrich who is opposed to AHS: https://www.montgomerycivic.org/recordedmeetings.html; also available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LaDEVNUUFfI
EMAILS TO COUNCIL MEMBERS
It is recommended that to make our voices heard, we need to flood the Council Members and Planning Staff with emails. To that end, below are the email addresses of both in a format easy to copy/paste into an email. The best way is to copy the whole group and then paste it into the “To” (sendee) box, or better yet, into the BCC box.
Councilmember.friedson@montgomerycountymd.gov
Councilmember.Stewart@montgomerycountymd.gov
Councilmember.Albornoz@montgomerycountymd.gov
Councilmember.Balcombe@montgomerycountymd.gov
Councilmember.Fani-Gonzalez@montgomerycountymd.gov
Councilmember.Glass@montgomerycountymd.gov
Councilmember.Jawando@montgomerycountymd.gov
Councilmember.katz@montgomerycountymd.gov
Councilmember.Luedtke@montgomerycountymd.gov
Councilmember.Mink@montgomerycountymd.gov
Councilmember.Sayles@montgomerycountymd.gov
Lisa.Govoni@montgomeryplanning.org
Jason.Sartori@montgomeryplanning.org
mcp-chair@mncppc-mc.orgIf you wish to keep Council President Elrich apprised of your efforts, you can include his office too:
marc.elrich@montgomerycountymd.gov
Meredith.Wellington@montgomerycountymd.gov
Claire.Iseli@montgomerycountymd.govAlso, the MoCo Council has also provided a site where comments can be communicated: https://mcgmd.wufoo.com/forms/z823ui90z2ksvq/
OTHER RESOURCES
Link to interactive AHS MoCo Planning Map: https://montgomeryplans.org/portal/apps/instant/basic/index.html?appid=528296a7aead4348a5a1c26198d3bc83
EPIC’s (Empowering People In Communities of MoCo) information re the AHS: https://epicofmoco.com/attainable-housing
Report from Council Executive Marc Elrich’s office: https://img1.wsimg.com/blobby/go/ee9171d8-de4d-44c5-b012-bf9e7e3e04b7/downloads/Attainable%20Housing%20Strategies%20Recap%20from%20CEX.pdf?ver=1724466541031
Petition from CCCFH & MCCC: (The Citizen's Coordinating Committee for Friendship Heights) represents 18 communities with 20,000 residents in southwest Montgomery County and The Montgomery County Communities Coalition that represents communities across Montgomery County. https://www.change.org/p/protect-single-family-zoning-in-montgomery-county?utm_medium=custom_url&utm_source=share_petition&recruited_by_id=d45fc6a0-e495-11ed-9bef-8906207a502c
What’s Next?
AHS Outreach sessions will be held in the Fall of 2024 throughout the County:
also see : https://montgomerycountymd.gov/COUNCIL/resources/AttainableHousingStrategies.html
The in-person and virtual listening sessions are scheduled on:
• Monday, Sept. 23, from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Germantown Community Center (18905 Kingsview Road, Germantown, MD)
• Wednesday, Sept. 25, from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Regional Services Center (4805 Edgemoor Lane, Bethesda, MD – Wisconsin Room)
• Wednesday, Oct. 2, virtual on Zoom 12-1:30 p.m.
You MUST sign up for these Listening Sessions at: https://mcgmd.wufoo.com/forms/z1x6zubk1qub83c/
RCA hopes this helps inform you about this vital and complicated issue.