The Home Stretch

Data on Montgomery County foreclosures now available

The Research & Technology Center of the Montgomery County Planning Department has created a new website to track foreclosure events in the County. The site includes links to digital maps plus key information about the foreclosure process—including recent changes in State law intended to give homeowners more time to cure a default.

The website is part of a broader initiative of the Research & Technology Center to serve as Montgomery County’s central resource for foreclosure-related data. Combining quarterly foreclosure data that it obtains from the Maryland Department of Housing & Community Development (DHCD) with its own property-level data, the Research & Technology Center creates detailed data sets and digital maps to track foreclosures in Montgomery County. This data is provided to staff at the Department of Housing & Community Affairs (DHCA), the Housing Opportunities Commission (HOC) and other Montgomery County Government agencies.

Is Your Community "Walkable?"

Chris Leinberger, a leading land-use strategist and developer, will address that very issue tonight at 7:30 p.m. at the Montgomery County Planning Board (8787 Georgia Ave., Silver Spring, MD 20910) as part of our “Excellence in Planning” speaker series with a presentation: “The Pent Up Demand for Walkable Urban Places; Ironically, in the Suburbs.”

In addition being a land-use strategist and developer, Leinberger is a teacher, consultant and author, focusing on alternative methods of building the built environment. He is currently a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC, doing research and developing strategies to develop or redevelop “walkable urban” places and develop strategy and management models for metropolitan areas.

He is a professor of practice and director of the Graduate Real Estate Development Program at the University of Michigan. In addition, he is a founding partner of Arcadia Land Company, a progressive real estate development firm, which has active projects in Independence, Mo. and the Philadelphia metropolitan area.

He’s written award-winning articles for publications such as the Atlantic Monthly, Wall Street Journal, Urban Land magazine, and has been profiled by national broadcast and print media such as CNN, Today Show, National Public Radio, Progressive Architecture, and Urban Land. His most recent books are The Option of Urbanism, Investing in a New American Dream (Island Press, 2008) and Strategy for Real Estate Companies (Urban Land Institute, 2008).

Guest Blog from Bernadette Hanlon: Are "Inner-Ring" Suburbs Becoming a New Problem?

Suburbia is becoming increasingly more complex with the pronounced out-migration of middle-class blacks from central cities, the development of ‘ethnoburbs’ because of large-scale immigration, and the emergence of new pockets of suburban distress. Just as the nation witnessed the widespread decline of cities, there is now a mounting crisis of decay in certain U.S. suburbs.

This is particularly the case in many older suburbs. Often characterized as inner-ring suburbs, these areas are deemed most at-risk of decline as they now face an aging housing stock, severe fiscal problems, slow population growth, increasing poverty, and struggling local economies. Yet, "inner-ring suburbs" are in what scholars refer to as a ‘policy blind spot,’ caught between attempts to lure jobs and population back to central cities and, at the same time, rein in development on the suburban fringe.

Suburban politics are frequently caught up with issues of growth rather than decline and there is currently a lack of federal, state and regional initiatives aimed specifically at solving problems among our older, inner-ring suburbs.

Do you see this happening in suburbs in Montgomery County?

To hear Hanlon speak more about this issue, attend the Montgomery County Planning Board's "Excellence in Planning" speaker series, Thursday, May 22 at 7:30 p.m.

Guest Blog from Margery Austin Turner of the Urban Institute

After several years of exceptionally fast-paced expansion, the Washington region’s growth has moderated, and housing market pressures are easing. Nonetheless, the regional economy remains strong, and average sales prices are high. For low- and moderate-income residents home prices and rents remain out of reach, and housing affordability pressures continue to place too many people at risk of homelessness. Finding a suitable and affordable place to live is especially difficult for people who need special design features or supportive services, such as people with physical and mental disabilities, elderly people who can no longer live independently, and individuals and families who have been homeless.

Today, the Washington region stands on the brink of an impending surge in the number of residents with special housing needs. As the region’s population with special needs expands, growing numbers are likely to struggle to cover unaffordable costs for in-home care, and will face long waiting lists for publicly-funded services or supportive housing units, and become institutionalized unnecessarily, and even experience periods of homelessness. But if the region’s leaders begin to plan and work together now — in anticipation of the coming wave of special housing needs — they can expand the range of linked housing and service choices offered by the private sector, develop more effective public programs, and ensure that options are affordable for people of all incomes across the region.

-- Margery Austin Turner

Do you see affordable housing for people with special needs becoming an issue in Montgomery County? Or is the County already tackling the problem effectively?

To hear Turner speak more on this ver issue, come to the Montgomery County Planning Department's "Excellence in Planning Speaker" series, tonight, May 8 at 7:30 p.m.

Come Hear Margery Austin Turner Present: “Time is of the Essence: Housing for People with Special Needs”

A double crisis – housing those with special needs in the current housing economy. Margery Austin Turner, director of the Metropolitan Housing and Communities Policy Center at the Urban Institute, will present “Time is of the Essence: Housing for People with Special Needs” to the Planning Board on May 8 at 7:30. The public is welcome to attend and will have a chance to ask questions.

Commissioners Hanson and Bryant Suggest Need to Break the Mold with Housing Policy in Master Plans

On April 17, Montgomery County Planning Department staff presented a memo to the Planning Board which was intended to spark conversation about the relationship between master plans in the County and housing. In it, staff provided observations and recommendations related to housing in master plans as well as a review of the housing components and strategies in all master plans that have been approved and adopted since 1993.

During discussion, Commissioner Hanson echoed staff recommendations which called for a periodic review of how each master plan is doing, perhaps as part of the biennial growth policy review. He suggested an inventory and assessment of how housing objectives in Master Plans have been achieved in order to help inform future policy decisions.

Commissioner Bryant called for a potential corrective overhaul of master plans in the County, citing a lack of balance in where master plans have called for affordable housing. He suggested adaptive reuse of buildings as a potential source of affordable housing, and requested that staff look into this along with accessory dwelling units. He also referenced an apparent contradiction between how the County relies on developers to provide affordable housing through new development, while at the same time, eschewing development in the County. How should the County deal with the apparent contradiction of developer-supplied affordable housing in an environment that is shirking additional development?

To listen to the audio recording of this housing discussion, visit http://www.montgomeryplanningboard.org/meetings_archive/master_archive.shtm.

Cues from Miami

Can Montgomery County be as hot as Miami? How can we encourage better design in development? Miami is doing so through innovative zoning. As we begin a rewrite of our zoning code, we’ve invited Marina Khoury of one of the nation’s leading planning firm, Duany Plater-Zyberk, to describe Miami’s new zoning overhaul that promotes well-balanced neighborhoods and rich life quality.

On April 24th at the Montgomery County Planning Department, she presented “Miami of the 21st Century” as part of our 2008 "Excellence in Planning" speaker series. Watch the video of her presentation.

Planning for Housing

On Thursday, April 17, the Montgomery County Planning Board continues their discussion of the Housing Policy Element of the General Plan. The worksession will focus on the tretament of housing in master plans, including observations and recommendations by the Planning staff. Click here to read the staff report.

Housing Inventory Slideshow

This slideshow shows examples of the various types of housing information, such as housing foreclosures, housing values and lots sizes, the Planning Department is mapping and analyzing for the Housing Policy Element of the General Plan.

NOTE: To pause, just click on the pause button (second icon) at the bottom of the slideshow.

MPDU Program: We’re Doing Great, But We Can Do Better

On March 20, urban policy author and consultant, David Rusk spoke about affordable housing to an audience that included the Montgomery County Planning Board. Addressing a county that, in 1973, adopted one of the first—and arguably the most successful—inclusionary zoning programs in the country, he focused mainly on Montgomery County’s MPDU (moderately priced dwelling unit) program. He was persistently positive and supportive of the County’s efforts to address housing affordability thus far, but opened by saying that as one of the early pioneers of this program, mistakes were bound to be made. In commending the County on work to date, he also presented recommendations for improving the program by looking to other cities and counties that use mandatory inclusionary zoning. Out of the more than 400 cities and counties with mandatory inclusionary zoning, Rusk stated that of the 90,000 to 95,000 total inclusionary units, approximately 12,000 (roughly 1 out of 8) units were created in Montgomery County. Despite serving what he called “more extremely low income families” than any other inclusionary zoning program and having “the best urban government in America,” He highlighted room for improvement in the County.

In particular, he provided seven concrete recommendations for Montgomery County to improve its MPDU program, concluding that “You’re doing great, but you can do better”:
1. Revisit the 20-unit minimum for the MPDU program.
2. Provide a density bonus to all developers who are required to build MPDUs.
3. Eliminate payment in lieu of building affordable units.
4. Maintain every effort to get mixed income housing built onsite. If it must be done offsite, ensure that it is at least in the same elementary school attendance zone.
5. Revisit the set-aside percent for major rezoning.
6. Issue revenue bonds for the purchase of individual MPDUs.
7. Reanalyze the County’s workforce housing need.

One of the most interesting connections Rusk made was between housing policy and school policy, stating “housing policy is school policy.” He cited statistics that supported a direct correlation between mixed income communities and better school performance. In concluding, he recommended taking the payment in lieu of building affordable units off the table to ensure that mixed income communities get built.

In a county that ranked 18th out of the top 25 jurisdictions across the country for median rent in 2000, will Rusk’s seven recommendations for the MPDU program help ensure that Montgomery County remains affordable?