MARYLAND IS PLANNING A NEW SETTLEMENT PATTERN STRATEGY — OR NOT
The AntiSmart Growthers (those who have consistently supported Business-As-Usual / dumb growth) are turning hand-springs of joy over the ‘news’ that, in spite of best intentions, the much ballyhooed Maryland ‘Smart Growth’ program has not panned out.
As noted in an earlier post, this is really OLD news. EMR and others suggested almost two decades before the legislation was enacted that there were not enough teeth in the ‘priority funding area’ ideas being explored to achieve success in the face of THE ROOTS OF THE HELTER SKELTER CRISIS. Of course, that was 30 years before EMR evolved a Vocabulary and Conceptual Framework to articulate his concerns.
Now a county in Maryland that prides itself on being at the cutting edge of intelligent settlement pattern evolution has taken a step that has more promise. Perhaps.
In the 11 November WaPo, a front page story trumpeted the passage of a new initiative: “Montgomery redraws its blueprint for development: Council approves plan that supports dense but car-free growth.”
The idea is a good one – intensive development in METRO station areas WITHOUT parking requirements. Just what Dr. Risse ordered (“A Picture is Worth a Thousand Lies” 8 September 2008). Right?
Well yes, BUT…
In the SAME issue of WaPo a second report by the SAME reporter tells a different story. In a Metro section there is a story titled “Montgomery officials back I-270 HOT lanes: Council also picks light rail over buses for transit way project.”
What is going on here? Well, for those in the dark, read David Owen’s new book Green Metropolis: Why Living Smaller, Driving Less Are the Keys to Sustainability.
While the METRO station-area strategy is a good one, the HOT lanes will provide an incentive for developing scattered Urban (primarily residential) developments in Frederick County, MD (and beyond). The residents will drive to jobs and services in the I-270 Corridor of Montgomery County and inside the Beltway.
Making things worse, the light rail line will open new opportunities for lower intensity land use which will compete for dwellings, jobs and services that might otherwise land in the METRO station areas, further leveraging scatteration.
Owen does a fine job of outlining why HOT lanes and light rail lines will not support sustainable settlement patterns at the SubRegional scale.
What is the fundamental problem here? It is a matter of quantification. Long ago EMR demonstrated that if the vacant and underutilized land at half the METRO stations was used to create Balanced development – just the sort of development that Montgomery County’s the new station-area strategy is intended to facilitate – this building envelope could accommodate all the ‘growth’ projected to 2030 in the entire National Capital SubRegion. And that was before The Great Recession put a big question mark on ALL ‘growth’ projections.
Will the bright shinny METRO station idea work? Time will tell but the initial indications are not encouraging.
EMR