Planning and Infrastructure

Montgomery and Prince George’s Counties share a unique planning agency - the Maryland National Capital Park and Planning Commission (the “Commission”), also known as "Park and Planning". Unlike other planning agencies across the State, and country, it does not answer to the County or State Legislature.

Park and Planning’s website states that it was empowered by the State in 1927 to acquire, develop, maintain and administer a regional system of parks within Montgomery and Prince George's Counties, and to prepare and administer a general plan for the physical development of the two counties.

Park and Planning is responsible for planning all of our County’s growth and its policies dictate when and where the majority of our infrastructure will be built.

The County Council appoints the Planning Commissioners to the Planning Board, and appropriates nearly one hundred million dollars per year to fund it. Nevertheless, the Council subscribes to an unwritten rule that it shall not exercise its oversight capability upon its Planning Board Appointees. The Planning Board is responsible for overseeing the Planning Staff.

The traffic we all endure, the development that is approved, and the associated lacking infrastructure is all a function of plans made by and/or approved by Park and Planning.

The Problems

1) The Maryland law enabling Park and Planning is unique in that it: a) places Park and Planning beyond the reach of the State Ethics Commission, b) prevents Montgomery County’s Ethic’s Commission from having any jurisdiction over it, and c) is cloudy enough that, despite an annual budget appropriated by the County Council of nearly one hundred million dollars, Park and Planning claims it is not required to cooperate with our Inspector General – the person responsible for detecting waste, fraud and abuse in County government operations.

The Inspector General reports that, despite the billions of dollars of development business that Park and Planning controls, it has never had a performance audit. That means that not once has its operations been audited by anyone outside of Park and Planning.

2) Park and Planning, despite being a planning agency, lacks any automated records management system. This means that files can disappear, documents can be pulled from files, or inserted after the fact, and there is no audit trail.

3) Many of Park and Planning functions overlap with functions within the Montgomery County Department of Permitting Services. This creates a wide range of problems from endless delays for builders to disparate treatment of applicants seeking permission to build.

4) The County Council has chosen to take a hands-off approach to overseeing its planning appointees and Chairman. Consequently, there is no practical recourse for persons and entities who have difficulties with Park and Planning.

5) Park and Planning permits development to move forward in areas where there is insufficient infrastructure to support it.

6) Our existing infrastructure in many respects has been neglected. This results in additional traffic delays, service outages and lost work hours.

The Solutions

As a Councilmember, Steve will work to:

1) Transfer Park and Planning’s park operations to the control of the Montgomery County Department of Parks and Recreation. This will result in increased efficiencies and costs savings. It will also provide oversight of all park related operations by an elected official - the County Executive.

2) Implement a quarterly review process for all Appointees. Appointees serve at the pleasure of those who appoint them and should be subject to quality review procedures as well as having consequences for poor performance.

3) Begin an orderly transfer of the planning process to the Montgomery County Government.

4) Legislate requirements on the approval of new construction such that it not be permitted in areas where there is insufficient infrastructure, including but not limited to roads and school classroom space, to support it.

5) Amend Article 28 of the Maryland Constitution to explicitly give the Montgomery County Inspector General authority to audit any agency with respect to how it spends Montgomery County tax dollars, including but not limited the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission ("WSSC"), the Montgomery County Public Schools ("MCPS") and Montgomery College.

6) Include the condition of existing infrastructure as a condition of development approval.

7) Require that all impact and other development taxes be spent on associated infrastructure rather than being diverted to General Fund.

Click here to view a copy of Park and Planning's budget.

Steve would like to know your thoughts on these issues. Click here to share them with him.

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