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Meeting to discuss workforce housing

Residents want to keep site near Tilden Middle School undeveloped

by Patrick Dunne
Gazette Newspapers
September 19, 2007

County officials and residents have different opinions on the future of a 1.75-acre lot on Edson Lane in North Bethesda.

Montgomery County planners want to build 15 affordable housing townhouses on the land east of Old Georgetown Road and north of Tilden Middle School, 11211 Old Georgetown Road, along Edson Lane.

Plans for those townhouses will be discussed at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 26 at Luxmanor Elementary School, 6201 Tilden Lane.

‘‘No development is welcome here,” said Beatrice Chester, a resident of the Old Georgetown Village neighborhood and long-time opponent of the project. ‘‘We just want to keep the trees, it’s a quality of life issue for the children, for the school and parents that live out here.”

The meeting, according to county planners, is to introduce the community to the Housing Opportunities Commission, which will develop the site, and for the commission to get information from the community on the best way to develop the houses.

Montgomery County Public Schools owned the land for several years before donating it to the county in 2005, said county planner Lisa Rother.

Despite opposition from residents, county officials say the site would be appropriate for 15 workforce housing units and moderately priced dwelling units (MPDUs).

Infrastructure like roads, water and sewer lines and utilities already exist and are capable of handling the homes, Rother said.

According to the county, affordable housing units are to be sold or rented to people earning up to 60 percent of the area median income, but workforce housing is earmarked for people earning up to 120 percent of the area median household income, which is roughly $94,000 annually.

The units address a need not met by a county law that requires the construction of MPDUs in large residential developments.

‘‘Part of the high cost of housing is the high cost of land,” Rother said. ‘‘If someone doesn’t have to purchase [land], if it’s given to developers, then the housing costs go down.”

For residents near Tilden Middle School, the fact that the development is for affordable housing makes no difference. They don’t want anything built on the site.

‘‘It doesn’t matter to us if it was a million-dollar mansion, we don’t think any housing is appropriate there,” Chester said.

©2007 Housing Opportunities Commission, All Rights Reserved. Information current as of 4/21/2008.
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