Montgomery County Council Member Roger Berliner has committed to introduce legislation within the next six months to address what is commonly referred to as the “McMansion” problem, which dominates his district.
But some community members are worried relief won’t come soon enough and that in the months it takes to craft changes to the county’s zoning laws, even more oversized residences will go up while trees will come down.
Discussion surrounding the development challenges faced in Bethesda, Potomac and other portions of District 1 came up during a well-attended Glenmore North Community Association meeting Monday night.
Francesca Grifo, president of the 238-household group, said residents gave a presentation about their concerns regarding the overabundance of infill construction in the area, from loss of trees to noise pollution.
Infill construction in established residential neighborhoods can apply to different situations: when one home goes up quickly after another has been knocked down; additions to existing homes; or the construction of a new structure on a vacant lot.
“We have large, oversized houses still being built on small lots … developers are literally usingevery inch of what the code will let them do,” she explained. “Clearly this zoning code is not working … at least for the smaller lots we have in our neighborhood.”
A recent legislative oversight report backs up these fears and states that a whopping 75 percent of infill construction is occurring in just District 1.
Berliner has been drawing attention to the issue himself recently, saying that overdevelopment is a top priority and that the situation has become so “traumatic people have been forced to become land-use attorneys.”
But he also told The Examiner he doesn’t want to be hasty about changing Montgomery County’s development rules without a full examination, which could take up to half a year.
“I have made it clear to neighborhoods and to the infill builders that I do intend to introduce a legislative package … but I don’t believe it’s a simple fix,” he said Tuesday. “There are seven to 10 issues that really affect this — slope requirement, setbacks, mass. If you fix the building height thing only, you could create an incentive for mass. And I don’t think we can do that again.”
