Montgomery Candidates Shying Away From Growth

"We have people in this community who go beyond NIMBYism," said Richard Parsons, chairman of the Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce. "They want to get in everyone else's back yard. They're bananas, and that stands for Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anyone."

In 1990, the slow-growth message played well for county executive candidate Neal Potter (D), who defeated pro-growth incumbent Kramer.

Four years later, Potter's slow-growth message no longer resounded in a community in recession. Voters wanted more jobs and revitalized neighborhoods, which Douglas M. Duncan (D) promised to deliver by aggressively promoting the county as pro-business.

The Clarksburg controversy exacerbated existing concerns about growth and fed criticism that Duncan and council members had let developers, many of them generous contributors to their political campaigns, run amok.

"The pendulum does swing back and forth," former council member Nancy Dacek (R) said, "and I don't think the pro-growthers are going to get a lot of help on that score."

In this environment, Leggett has sought to portray himself as a reasonable moderate on growth issues and Silverman as being in the pocket of developers. Silverman has responded by suggesting that their records are virtually identical. Leggett "is running away from his pro-growth voting record on the council," Silverman said in an interview.

Leggett disputed that. "You can make a case on an individual vote here or there, but I don't think anyone would rationally view me as ever in history being pro-growth," he said.

Leggett said he has been consistent. "This is not something that started recently for the campaign. This goes back 20 years," he said.

Yet some political observers say Leggett's rhetoric has changed.

"He is talking much more controlled, restrained growth than I've ever heard him talk about when he was on the council," said Gail Ewing, a former council member.

In 1999, Leggett joined Silverman in voting against the elimination of a policy known as "pay and go" that allowed developers to pay a fee and build projects even in areas under a growth moratorium. Also that year, the two voted against tightening rules for special exceptions to zoning laws because they felt the proposal was too broad.

And in 2001, both candidates voted against expanding an impact tax on new development to the entire county. They later voted for a weaker version of the tax.

In 2003, after Leggett left, Silverman led the charge to impose Maryland's highest taxes on development. But he also backed the elimination of "policy area review," which used formulas to determine whether certain communities can sustain new housing. Critics charged that it saved developers millions of dollars.

The two have made decisions that have pleased slow-growth advocates. Silverman voted with the rest of the council last fall to ban public water and sewer service to churches and other nonprofit organizations in the agricultural reserve. All other institutions already had to adhere to the ban, which limits development.

Leggett voted against the Friendship Heights master plan in 1998 because he believed it would bring too much housing. He also opposed building a megamall in Silver Spring, which residents said would increase traffic.