SILVER
SPRING – The public is invited to join a panel of planning experts,
developers and civic activists in a community growth policy forum and
discussion moderated by Montgomery County Planning Board Chairman Royce Hanson
on Saturday, May 5 from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at Park and Planning
Headquarters located at 8787 Georgia Avenue in Silver Spring.
The
forum is part of a series of hearings and public events to help the Planning
Board gather public input and answer such questions as: how the county should
grow, where growth should take place and what public officials can do to
sustain and build upon the county’s high quality of life.
Next
month, the Board will send recommendations to the Montgomery County Council on
ways to direct new development to areas in the county where taxpayer-funded
services – such as public transportation, water/sewer, and police and fire
services – are already in place. The recommendations may include improving
analysis of traffic patterns, restructuring development impact taxes and how to
improve community design.
Confirmed
panelists include:
· Leonard Bogorad, a national
real estate analyst and managing director of a Bethesda consulting firm
· Ralph Bennett, president of a Takoma
Park architecture firm
· Georgette “Gigi” Godwin,
interim president and CEO, Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce
· Jim Humphrey, a volunteer advocate
who consults on zoning and development issues and serves on the Montgomery
County Civic Federation
· Pam Lindstrom, an urban planning
advocate at the Sierra Club
· Stuart Rochester, chair of the
Fairland Master Plan Citizens Advisory Committee
· Jim Soltesz, president of an
engineering consulting firm, who has served on many committees dealing with
transportation, school financing and more
· Bob Spalding, a land development
project manager for a homebuilder in the tri-state area and a former
transportation and land use planner
· Chris Weber, a director at a real
estate investment trust that specializes in development of retail and mixed use
real estate
Preliminary
staff reports about the growth policy recommendations are available at www.mcparkandplanning.org/development/agp/agphome.shtm.
Those interested in county growth issues may listen to
a diverse slate of nationally renowned planning experts during the Planning
Board’s growth management speaker series that
continues through the spring and early summer.