By Ann E. Marimow and Nancy Trejos
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, July 18, 2006; B05

Three Montgomery County Council members said yesterday that they would back Royce Hanson, a blunt-talking, nationally recognized land-use expert, to rehabilitate the troubled planning agency in the county's most powerful appointed role.

Although most of the nine council members have yet to name their pick, Hanson emerged as the leading candidate from a pack of contenders for the job of Planning Board chairman.

Council President George L. Leventhal (D-At Large) declined to say yesterday whom he supported or to speculate for whom the council would vote when it formally considers the issue July 25. But he said he had "a sense of where the council is going to end up, and if you're calling around today, you can probably do the math."

The outgoing chairman, Derick P. Berlage, delivered a parting note to the council yesterday that acknowledged problems at the agency while praising its efforts to fix them.

County Council member Steven A. Silverman (D-At Large), chairman of the committee that oversees planning issues, was joined yesterday by council members Phil Andrews (D-Gaithersburg-Rockville) and Nancy Floreen (D-At Large) in rallying behind Hanson. They said he could restore public confidence in the Department of Parks and Planning, which the board oversees, and morale among staff members.

Four council members said they were still sifting through community comments or resolving outstanding questions. One, Michael Knapp (D-Upcounty), called Hanson a "leading candidate, if not the leading candidate."

Another, Tom Perez (D-Silver Spring), said it was premature to coalesce around a single candidate and expressed frustration with his colleagues.

"That's unfortunate," said Perez, a candidate for attorney general. "Nobody on the council is doing Hanson or anyone else -- or the public, for that matter -- any favors by stating or suggesting during this process that effectively the fix was in."

Hanson, 74, is one of nine candidates the County Council has interviewed for the full-time, four-year position, which pays up to $150,000. If Hanson is selected, he would return to a position he held more than three decades ago, from 1972 to 1981. He is considered the architect of the county's agricultural reserve program, which protects 93,000 acres -- more than one-fourth of county land.

Hanson is well known to the council, having issued a blistering critique of the planning department in January that outlined systematic problems that he said stemmed from a "sustained lack of institutional and intellectual leadership."

A George Washington University research professor, he was retained by the council as an unpaid adviser to assess the agency after construction irregularities were discovered in the community of Clarksburg. Five high-ranking planning officials, including Berlage, have announced their resignations since the controversy stung the department's credibility.

Floreen said Hanson would be a "stabilizing force" because "you don't want someone who has to learn it all over again."

Silverman, a candidate for county executive who pushed for Berlage's appointment four years ago, said Hanson would bring "the stature and unique combination of experience and fresh approaches that these times call for."

Hanson has the support of many environmentalists, including the Sierra Club and the Audubon Society, and he was one of three candidates identified by Allied Civic -- a group of citizens organizations in the mid-county -- as "most qualified." The group also named William R. Dodge of Bethesda, a former planning director in Allegheny, Pa., and current board member John M. Robinson, an attorney with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

The Montgomery County Farm Bureau has endorsed Michele M. Rosenfeld, the former lead counsel in the planning agency who resigned this year, saying the agency had become "dysfunctional" and increasingly politicized.

Vincent Berg, a bureau board member, said the agricultural community wants "someone who will at least listen, rather than already have made up their mind" about land use.

As he prepares to leave office, Berlage issued a report yesterday chronicling Clarksburg Town Center and subsequent reform efforts.

"With my tenure coming to an end, I believe I have the latitude to be extremely frank and candid, and I tried to do that," he said.

The report was largely upbeat and emphasized that only about a half-dozen of the 116 site plans audited after the Clarksburg controversy were found to be deficient.

Much of the seven-page report focused on the 79 reforms put in place to make the planning agency more transparent. Among them: requiring developers to hold community meetings to describe their projects, televising Planning Board hearings and requiring a licensed engineer or land planner to certify site plan signature sets in writing.