Ed Robinson moved to Montgomery County a decade ago for a better quality of life. And that’s the same reason he left it.
Robinson, 41, said that when he and his family left the county for neighboring Frederick in 2005, they “upgraded everything.”
Robinson isn’t alone. As Montgomery approaches a population of 1 million, it is still losing more residents to other Maryland counties than it gains from them. And state planning officials say that rate of departure has been growing for a decade. Other reports show that the county’s share of the state’s wealthiest residents is dropping.
This comes despite Montgomery’s reputation as a dream destination for affluent families and national accolades for everything from its schools — Forbes magazine says it is the fifth-best school district in the country in terms of bang for the buck — to its jails — the county’s detention centers were recently named the two best in America by a national jail review board.
Those who leave often depart for Howard, Frederick and other nearby counties, statistics show. From 2005 to 2006, roughly 4,400 more Montgomery residents relocated to Frederick than chose to leave Frederick for Montgomery, according to Internal Revenue Service migration data that trace the movement of people’s income tax returns. The same data show that similar trends held for Howard and Washington counties.
Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett says the reasons for the movement are the same as those facing other established metro-area suburbs: People canget more house for their money, combined with less traffic and congestion, in counties farther from Washington.
“Peace, quiet and enjoyment are not the same as being caught in traffic that is keeping you away from all the things you would love to do,” Leggett said. “People are attracted to places that are cheaper and easier to get to.”
Despite bleeding residents to neighboring counties, Montgomery’s population continues to grow by other means.
County planning officials estimated Montgomery’s population in January to be 956,000, up from 873,341 in 2000, and predict it will reach 1 million by 2010. County officials say the increase is mostly due to a rising birth rate — a record number of babies were born in Montgomery County last year, fueled in part by the county’s growing Hispanic population — and because many immigrants are choosing Montgomery County as their first point of entry in the U.S. In 1990, 18.6 percent of the county’s population was foreign-born, according to census data. By 2006, 29.3 percent of county residents had been born in other countries.
While council members wrestle with developers over growth-related problems such as traffic congestion, overcrowded schools and a lack of affordable housing options, school planning officials say new enrollment is coming from more families moving into existing houses, sometimes multiple families to a home. Some leaders doubt new policies of taxing developers for increasing infrastructure needs will actually control the county’s growth.
The most crowded school districts, Council member Valerie Ervin says, are not typically in developing areas, but rather in her district, one of the most densely populated in the county, which includes Wheaton and Silver Spring.
The result is a changing demographic landscape and different needs.
» Nearly one in four students in the public school system are now receiving free or reduced-price meals, the largest fraction since 1990.
» At least four Washington-based charities have established Montgomery County offices since 2003, citing a growing need among the area’s residents.
» County officials say complaints about overcrowded homes in Montgomery are up 20 percent this year. There had been 426 complaints by October of this year, according to housing officials, compared with 352 complaints in all of 2006. Tax officials haven’t overlooked the potential ramifications.
In 1998, Montgomery residents produced 13.3 percent of Maryland tax returns from people with no taxable income. In 2005, Montgomery County generated 14.6 percent of all state tax returns with no taxable income, according to information from the state comptroller’s office.
“There has been a very steady, very noticeable increase of the number of Montgomery County tax returns at the lowest income level,” said Sen. Rona E. Kramer, leader of the county’s Senate delegation.
Meanwhile, the county’s share of the state’s wealthiest residents decreased. In 1998, Montgomery residents were responsible for 41.3 percent of state income tax returns of people earning more than $200,000 in adjusted gross income. In 2005, the county was generating only 37 percent of those returns. Leggett acknowledged his concerns about the income shifts and said keeping the jurisdiction an attractive home for the wealthy led him to lobby state legislators to temper a recently approved income tax increase for upper-income brackets.
“We are in a competitive struggle with Fairfax County and other communities,” Leggett said. “And we need to make sure we have a realistic income tax plan and other opportunities to attract higher earners into Montgomery County.”
But longtime Montgomery County residents who have left say it isn’t as simple as taxes.
“Gaithersburg had changed considerably from the time we moved there inthe 1970s,” said Joe Blauer, who also recently left Montgomery County for Frederick County. “At that time it was a farming area, and then it became very built up and congested and urban.”
Roxanne Pugh, 34, a co-owner of a Gaithersburg beauty salon, saw so many customers moving up Interstate 270 and out of Montgomery that she recently opened a Frederick location of O’Hair Salon and Spa to accommodate them.
“They all said people in Frederick were nicer and more laid-back, and I always thought we [in Montgomery] were nice and laid-back,” Pugh said. “I’ve been working in Frederick since March, and I realized, ‘Oh, I get it, this is what everybody was talking about before.’ I feel like in Montgomery everybody is so busy commuting and working that we just don’t have time for community.”
Pugh and her husband themselves recently moved to Frederick.
