Developers battle White Flint plan to require purchase of farmers' rights
By: Bill Myers
Examiner Staff Writer
October 20, 2009
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| (PHOTOS.COM) |
Deep-pocketed developers are using the debate over White Flint's redevelopment to reopen old arguments about Montgomery County's one-of-a-kind agriculture reserve policy.
Since the 1980s, county law has forbidden property owners from developing on land within the designated agriculture reserve.
As compensation, the law let farmers sell their development rights — called "building lot terminations," or BLTs — to builders for projects outside the reserve.
Under the plan, more than one-fourth of county's 323,000 acres have been kept lush farmland. It also has given developers the option to expand otherwise tightly zoned projects by buying farmers' rights.
Now, the county wants to revamp the area around the White Flint Metro station with high-rise shopping-and-housing developments that planners hope will make it a vital hub for county life.
Desperate to finance the public part of the development, county planners have suggested requiring developers to buy the farmers' development rights before any construction in White Flint can begin.
The County Council is now weighing that proposal.
Supporters say the requirements are central to preserve the county's green space because the poor housing market has hit area farmers hard and the BLTs are the best way to keep them afloat.
In a collapsing economy, though, developers aren't in the mood to open their wallets.
They are asking for an exception in White Flint and are raising broader questions about the entire policy.
"It's a property rights issue," said Raquel Montenegro, a lobbyist for the Maryland-National Capital Building Industry Association. "It's important to get this right."
Many developers say the formula for the cost of the rights is too rigid and doesn't account for fluctuating property values.
On the other side are a vast array of preservationists who have shallower pockets but broader popular support.
"It's absolutely critical," county Sierra Club President Pamela Lindstrom said of the BLT requirement. If developers are able to beat back the plan, "it would be the absolute ruination of the agricultural reserve."
Caught in the middle are the county's leaders, who are facing an election next year, after a winter in which several high-cost, high-controversy development projects will have to be vetted.
"People get nervous," said Councilman Roger Berliner, D-Bethesda, whose district includes the White Flint area. "We support BLTs conceptually. But now we have to figure out if it works here."
The Montgomery County Council originally planned to hold a public meeting on the White Flint redevelopment this week. But builders have complained enough to make the council add a second session.
