MoCo's Battle Over Building Height Limits // Maryland Juice Makes Cameo Appearance at Rockville City Council Hearing

UPDATE: A reader provides more context to the development battles in Rockville, by way of a recent Gazette article. The City Council is currently weighing changes to their "Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance" -- which creates standards linking infrastructure with development.

A couple days ago, the Rockville City Council held a public hearing to discuss proposed mixed-use development at the Twinbrook Metro. As is becoming the norm, building heights were the topic of much of the discussion. Coincidentally, the February 27th hearing came only days after Maryland Juice published an article lamenting that activists too often fight density near Metro -- and that this could unintentionally thwart environmental and social justice goals.

The fact that Montgomery County is now more expensive to live in than New York City and San Francisco triggered this discussion on Maryland Juice, and we hope that the dialogue continues among policymakers throughout Maryland. But in the meantime, we are humbled to note that a reader reports that our article was invoked by a citizen activist at the hearing. A Rockville juicer testified in favor of the development project in question and for greater height limits near Metro stations.

We provide a short clip of the hearing below (Note: it begins with bits of testimony from an opponent of greater density at Twinbrook Metro):





Keep drinkin' the Juice!

The O's vs. The Mayor: Should Baltimore's Economic Development Focus on Building Offices or Filling Them?

An anonymous coward source tipped Maryland Juice off to an interesting debate going on in Baltimore City: should economic development efforts be geared toward encouraging new office construction or should they encourage tenants to rent already-built but vacant office space? The Baltimore Brew blog has a well-done piece summarizing the loud debate between Baltimore Orioles owner Peter Angelos and newly-elected Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake:

The general public knows little about PILOTs, TIFs and other obscure financing tools, but they are a source of controversy and turf battling within the city’s power elite.

And at the top of that elite stands lawyer and Baltimore Orioles owner Peter G. Angelos, a man who isn’t afraid to confront what he considers “handouts” to developers by Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake.

Angelos and Rawlings-Blake have been feuding over various city developments for some time. The lawyer, who owns One Charles Center and other downtown properties, has tried to block, through lawsuits he’s funded, the State Center and “Superblock” projects championed by the mayor.

While the lawsuits center on various procedural issues, the thrust of his opposition is this – why is the city doling out tax breaks to new developments when about 25% of downtown’s office space (including some of Angelos’ own properties) lie vacant?

The Brew article above is related to similar tensions we are hearing about around the country, as policymakers attempt to influence the basic laws of supply and demand. TIME Magazine, for example, highlighted the new and increasing phenomenon of banks and cities bulldozing housing to lower the supply:

Granted, in Baltimore the development projects in question are likely not simply 100 % residential  or 100% office projects, and are therefore probably more likely to be mixed-use with amenities. But still, the debate is intriguing.