Group: Take away power to alter site plans

Wednesday, August 31, 2005

The authority given to county planners to make changes in site plans for new developments — in consultation with developers and out of the public eye — should be eliminated, the Montgomery County Civic Federation said Tuesday.

Following the scandal over altered plans in Clarksburg’s new town center, the federation studied eight projects about which residents had complained that developers did not follow approved plans.

The federation said that some site plans were changed by staff planners who have authority to make ‘‘minor” changes in approved plans. In the aftermath of the Clarksburg revelations, the planning staff has been prohibited from changing site plans without permission of the chief of the department.

‘‘Planning and [Department of Permitting Services] staff functions as enablers in the development approval and implementation process,” according to the report.

‘‘Rather than working with community representatives and developers as a three-part team to insure that proposed projects fulfill the vision set forth in an area’s master plan, county staff instead aggressively strives to facilitate developers’ projects, delaying community involvement until late in the process. ...

‘‘Residents are often treated as a nuisance by developers and county planners,” the report says.

Instead, all site plan amendments should require a public hearing and approval by the planning board, the report recommends.

The federation suggested creating an Office of Site Plan Investigation and Enforcement to bring together representatives from the county’s departments of Planning, Permitting Services and Housing and Community Affairs to ensure that, after the Planning Board approves development, requirements are being met before the next permits needed for the project are issued.

Homes were built taller or closer to the street than allowed or without the trees, amenities or allotment and integration of lower-cost housing required by site plans or the county code, the federation volunteers found.

The review by the federation, an organization made up mostly of neighborhood civic associations, is the first of several examinations of the county’s planning process.

The County Council’s Office of Legislative Oversight is reviewing all site plans approved over the past two years.

The county’s inspector general and the state prosecutor also initiated investigations after a county planner on the Clarksburg project admitted to altering a document that set height limits to make it appear that the homes complied.

The planner, Wynn Witthans, first said the change was made in 1998, but later admitted that she made the change at the end of 2004 after activists complained of height violations.

Witthans has resigned, and the planning and permitting departments have said they will hire an independent investigator to review their processes after OLO releases its findings.

The County Council’s president and the chairman of the council’s Planning, Housing and Economic Development Committee praised the civic federation for its work.

‘‘We’ll be looking at all the concerns raised,” said council President Thomas E. Perez (D-Dist. 5) of Takoma Park.

Perez said he was troubled by a pattern of builders delaying or not constructing required moderately priced housing (MPDUs) that was highlighted in the report.

‘‘We need to make sure that MPDUs are not always an afterthought [and] ... I need to know whether we need to change the law or change existing enforcement,” he said.

PHED Committee Chairman Steven A. Silverman said that while he disagreed that planners treat the community as a nuisance, ‘‘it is clear that public involvement in staff level discussion with developers has not been adequate.”

Silverman (D-At large) of Silver Spring said he agreed that the public should be notified and have a chance to comment on any site plan amendments.

Perez agreed with the federation recommendation that all documents need to be available online to increase access.

The Planning Department has begun working to load more documents into its computer system to improve public access and control, spokeswoman Nancy Lineman said.

Lineman also said Planning Department measurements of 10 percent of buildings in Clarksburg Town Center suggest that about 100 of 433 buildings thought to have exceeded height limits may not be too tall.

Silverman said his committee will push the Planning Department to make sure that it immediately remedies systemic problems that may have led to a rash of inconsistencies discovered among planning documents.

Staff Writer Douglas Tallman contributed to this report.