Testimony before the Montgomery County Council on the

Implementation of the Ad Hoc Working Group Report

July 19, 2007

I am Constance Tonat, 1st Vice President of the League of Women Voters of Montgomery County. Tonight I am speaking for our more than 600 members. As you are aware, the League has been an active commentator on land use issues in the county for many years and since 2000 has been particularly interested in issues relating to agricultural land in the county.

The preservation of workable tracts of farmland in Montgomery County has the support of our members, a largely down-county group. We firmly support the goals of the Master Plan for the Preservation of Agriculture and Rural Open Space. Our members have studied the recommendations of the Working Group and we strongly support the recommendation to clarify the TDR easement’s limitation of development to only single- family residential and agriculturally-related uses. Making residents in agriculturally zoned areas more aware that farming is the preferred activity is appropriate.

We see the Transferable Development Rights (TDR) program as the most effective tool for preserving farmland in the county and are disappointed that some of the major recommendations regarding that program have not been addressed as top priority. We are particularly concerned that the utilization of excess TDRs be limited to residential development. It is important that only the TDR which translates to a building right should be made equivalent to space in non-residential development. This work needs to be accomplished before new land use plans are adopted.

The League supports the minority report (Comment 1 of the Report) of the Ad Hoc Committee on the question of child lots. While it may be necessary to exceed the current zoning restrictions on lots to accommodate a family’s children, in no case should market lots in addition to child lots be allowed to exceed the zoning limitation. We support a minimum of 5 years as a holding time for child lots.

Since the BLT program is implemented primarily by executive resolution, we will comment only briefly on that program. We do support the concept, but its implementation must be via a transparent process of setting value and selecting properties. The availability of funds to support the program is a matter of major concern. Sewage treatment capacity for the lot must be firmly established and the program must be implemented to be consistent with septic regulations.

We presume there will be a later opportunity to comment on the use of sand mound sewage treatment technology in the RDT zone but want to be on record as favoring restrictions on its use in that zone.

Thank you for allowing us to express our support and concerns regarding agriculture land issues tonight.