I'm here at the Kojo in Our Community event about Unpacking Montgomery County's Housing Crisis. The panelists are County Executive Marc Elrich and Councilmember Will Jawando. It should be an interesting evening! wamu.org/event/kojo-in-…
WAMU's General Manager kicks off the event. "I hope we leave tonight's event... more aligned. I want us to have a really civil civic dialogue." WAMU knows what a contentious topic housing and land use is.
The man, the myth, the legend: #Kojo! He tells the audience that @wamu885 and @DCist are publishing a series about homelessness and affordable housing this week. 
"Given recent news, the panel we have today isn't the one we first envisioned," says Kojo, referencing the current Planning Board drama.
BTW, it's basically a full house here tonight!
Renters vs. homeowners (a lot more homeowners)
Most people in the room know what #Thrive2050 is
People who are worried about the housing types being built in the neighborhood (not as many hands as I would've thought)
Kojo asks what type of housing takes up the most land. Answer: single family. Jawando answers and says we need both more housing and more affordable housing — a refrain I expect we'll (correctly) hear a lot tonight.
How do you define affordable housing and housing that is attainable to the average resident? "I don't define it the way Park & Planning defines it," says Elrich. He doesn't like that their definition of attainability focuses on market-rate housing.
(This is a Jane question) Why is a project focused on making market-rate housing more affordable a bad thing?
Tanya Stern, acting planning director, in response to Marc's comments about the Attainable Housing Strategies Initiative, says that that is far from their only program or study around housing. It's only a part of their work.
Matt Losak from @RentersRights says nearly 40% of MoCo residents rent. "We have to stop looking at housing as a common commodity, like fancy sneakers."
He says "the Thrive report" talks about the thousands of people coming to the county, but what about the people who already live here? Lots of cheers for that.
Also many cheers for Takoma Parks rent stabilization. Now Marc is talking about zoning in Bethesda and how it's racist. Planning had a great blog post recently about how Bethesda now has more subsidized and affordable units than it did 20 years ago. Will link later.
"We are setting it up so that only certain people live in certain places" by allowing high-rises in Bethesda, saying Elrich. I don't disagree, although I think *not* building high-rises in Bethesda would only gentrify other places. We need more subsidized housing in Bethesda.
Everyday Canvassing Executive Director Mady Nadje: "Housing quality is the concern. It's the main concern."
Resident Brenda Freeman says rent stabilization and says we should increase the number of condos we built here.
Matt Losak: "One of the narratives that seems to be displacing the rest of the conversation is that we can build the way out of the housing crisis." Also says the Renters Alliance is not anti-development.
Cell tower question! Take a drink and mark off your MoCo public meeting bingo. Kojo cuts her off.
Elrich says he's going to propose changes to the MPDU law that would either 1) result in less overall developer and/or 2) result in fewer MPDUs but the ones that would be built would be more deeply affordable. (I'm editorializing.)
Classic Marc argument that we've already zoned for more housing and it isn't getting built. Mark another square off your bingo card! It is true that there are plenty of plans that need to be implemented, but also true that... [insert classic @MoCoMikeE thread here]
Jawando: "We still have to use zoning but we might have to do other things."
Liz Joyce from Civic Fed says that #Thrive2050 has been stripped of all specificities. "I call it the Trust Me Plan." "Developers shouldn't expect us to be a charity for them." I guess she's saying zoning a charity for developers?
Elrich says Thrive should be postponed. Talks about racial equity report. "I would've done public hearings." There were six public hearings and many other public meetings.
Tanya Stern defends the Planning Department's outreach and talks about how the County Council charged them to finish the plan by April 2020, so they had to stay on track.
Brian Ditzler, homeowner, brings up that single family homes make up 2/3 of residential land. He says this makes it harder for people of color to buy a home, leading to segregated schools. He says we need more smart growth.
Lots of cheers!
"You didn't ask who's a developer or landlord." (Looks like about 3 people, including someone who I know is an affordable housing developer.) "Or a lobbyist!" yells someone else... 🙄
"You need to have multiple types and sizes of houses," says Will Jawando to cheers. The same person who made the comment about lobbyists yells to ask how big the councilmember's house is.
Doug Ryan, Bethesda homeowner and HOC employee, says "We need to pass #Thrive2050. We need to build more housing." Whitman is a segregated school, we need more opportunities. "You can only do that in a county like this if you rethink land use." 🔥🔥🔥 #kojo
Jawando talks about how East County has had decades of disinvestment and #Thrive2050 tries to create a path from investment in the future #kojo
"Mr. County Executive," asks a resident. "You've made it clear what you won't support. What will you support?" Elrich says again that we've zoned for the things we're talking about. #kojo
Rob Goldman of Montgomery Housing Partnership (a supporter of Thrive!) talks about the Purple Line and the potential for gentrification. He says we must invest more in the HIF, strengthen Right of First Refusal, and using PILOTS. (A lot of wonky language, but much applause!)
How do we prevent gentrification? Jawando talks about a myriad of strategies and policy tools, and says that we have to use those policies intentionally with every project and plan. #kojo
An MCPS employee says they'll never be able to afford a home in MoCo, even at 30 years old. Says it's shameful that educators can't live in the county they serve. Is against Housing Near Metro Act. "What affordable housing do you know near Metro?" #kojo
A DTSS renter and veteran is concerned that he won't be able to continue to live where he lives. Elrich says rent stabilization is the answer. I agree! #kojo
Kim Persaud of EPIC of MoCo says she lives between two Metros and property taxes are making housing unaffordable. Says "Blacks were excluded from the table" when it comes to #Thrive2050 and that Jawando failed when it comes to community engagement.
Richard Hoye, retired firefighter, wants to know how we can get more affordable housing near transit, which would boost the tax base and help keep his property taxes low. #Kojo says he's just summarized the event.
Diane Cameron says she's a part of a coalition of 36 orgs asking for #Thrive2050 to be paused, she points out the Black-led orgs, homeless orgs, and Poor People's Campaign who are a part of that. Both boos and cheers to that.
Jawando points out that 73% of Black residents who were surveyed with Npspiregreen outreach were supportive of #Thrive2050. #kojo
Michael DeLong supports Thrive and building more housing. He asks, "What's your plan to build more apartments near transit?" Again, Marc talks about how we have master planned for that already. This time he brings up a lack of job growth as well.
#Kojo asks what happens next after #Thrive2050 is passed, assuming that it's passed. Jawando says that there will be public outreach for anything that happens next. "It's going to take a lot of different approaches... I'm not going to take an ideological bent."
And that's it! Time flies when you're having fun. In this house we love contentious conversations about housing land use, which is good because they're not going away anytime soon. #kojo
amendment to earlier tweet
https://twitter.com/douglaslryan/status/1579988536052547584?t=oPAk1D3Cj5SMFGVOoWE3Aw&s=19
My analysis: the room was about 50/50; basically the same faces as always. Nothing new was said that Elrich & Jawando haven't said before. There was plenty that *everyone* cheered for, mostly the goals. Big difference on how to make it happen and who is trusted to make it happen.
Also, credit where credit is due. Elrich is a great public speaker. He's straight-forward and relatable. There's a reason he has a dedicated following, and I don't think it's just due to his politics. What he stands for/against is clear and he isn't trying to make everyone happy.
It is not necessarily strange that we don't get all of the housing we're zoned for, especially in the county writ large. Places like downtown Bethesda where the market is hottest are very close to hitting their zoned capacities.
https://twitter.com/allyschweitzer/status/1500893290803216385
In some farther out places, the market just isn't there yet, which is why the Council has passed things like the WMATA PILOT to help spur the market and why MNCPPC moved to Wheaton. DTSS took a ton of government investment to spur private development.
Gov't investment is key, but so is playing to our strengths (aka, the places where the market is already hot). We're also now in a highly inflationary environment, with sluggish job and wage growth to keep up with rising construction costs. These are factors beyond local control.
From @montgomeryplans' Residential Development Capacity Analysis: "Zoning rules... do not guarantee future residential development and are subject to a variety of factors that can affect the number of units built." montgomeryplanning.org/planning/housi…
Another great follow-up read after last night's #Kojo discussion: Building market rate housing in Bethesda reduces displacement elsewhere greaterbethesda.homes/p/building-mar…
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