Voters Asking How Quality of Life Will Be Maintained -- and Who Will Pay for It
By Miranda S. Spivack
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, September 4, 2006
It took only a few minutes for the candidates' debate in Columbia to zero in on what has become a defining theme in Howard County politics this year: How should the county grow?
Should it have a height limit on new buildings? Should construction be slowed? Can the community pressure developers to pay more for roads and schools?
Residents at a meet-the-candidates night last week peppered the candidates for county executive and the council for almost two hours about growth and development and their impact on the quality of life in one of the nation's most affluent counties. Howard, which sits between Washington and Baltimore, is ripe for more development because of its location and its highly rated school system, residents say.
Managing growth is emerging as a signature issue in many Maryland suburbs as residents prepare to vote in the Sept. 12 primary.
Drop in on candidates' forums in Montgomery and Prince George's counties -- communities years ahead of Howard when it comes to burgeoning populations and new home construction -- and you'll hear a similar refrain: Growth needs to be more closely regulated, and developers should pay the costs of absorbing new residents.
"It is Topic A for a lot of us," said Phillip Wright, a middle school teacher in Columbia who moderated the candidates' forum, which attracted more than 300 residents.
In Howard, where four of the five County Council seats are being vacated by incumbents -- and two of those seats have crowded primary fields -- most candidates, regardless of political party, are talking about curbing development.
"We need to strengthen the process for redeveloping downtown Columbia," said Christopher J. Merdon (R-Northeast), chairman of the Howard County Council, who is running unopposed for the Republican nomination for county executive.
Former county police chief G. Wayne Livesay, in a three-way contest for the Republican nomination for a west Howard council seat, said he wants to carefully manage growth, including keeping the rural areas on well water and septic systems, which limits development. His primary opponents, Jim Adams and Greg Fox, sound similar themes.
On the Democratic side, Harry Dunbar, one of two people seeking his party's nomination for county executive, urged voters to examine his Web site for more details on his stand. That would be http://slowgrowthdunbar.com.
County Council member Ken Ulman (D-West Columbia), another candidate for county executive, proclaimed himself the rightful heir to the careful-growth mantle after his work leading the county's land-use committee. He told the audience that Merdon had only recently embraced the cause.
In Prince George's, where crime and lagging schools always top residents' concerns, candidates have also emphasized slowing development. More houses, they argue, mean building more schools and hiring more police officers in a county where such services already are stretched thin.
"We seem to give the developers carte blanche to do anything," Prince George's County Council hopeful Phil Lee (D) said at a candidates' forum this week. Many in the crowd nodded vigorously.
In Montgomery, the interest in moderating growth, fueled by last year's revelations of lax county oversight of development at Clarksburg Town Center, has attracted bipartisan support and may have contributed to a decision not to revive the "End Gridlock" slate.
The council's lone Republican, Howard A. Denis (Potomac-Bethesda), who is running for reelection, recently stood with several Democrats to accept the endorsement of the slow-growth Neighbors for a Better Montgomery. Denis also points proudly to his efforts to win passage of the county's first law to clamp down on mansionization in older neighborhoods.
Democrat Roger Berliner, his likely opponent in November's general election, said the Clarksburg experience shows that the "county, including [Denis], utterly failed us."
Members of the End Gridlock slate, who ran four years ago with the help of contributions from County Executive Douglas M. Duncan (D) and the development industry, this year are campaigning separately.
The slate -- Michael Knapp (D-Upcounty) and at-large Democrats Nancy Floreen, George L. Leventhal, Michael L. Subin and Steven A. Silverman -- backed the intercounty connector and lifted some restrictions on development.
Silverman is seeking the Democratic nomination for county executive and has won backing from many in the development industry, as have the others, but none is flaunting those connections.
Last week, Silverman, who is locked in a tight race with Isiah "Ike" Leggett, began broadcasting a television ad that portrays him as eager to "limit and manage growth."
Knapp said there had been no formal decision to disband the slate but added that he wasn't sure it was particularly helpful to run together.
A new political action committee -- the Committee for Responsible Growth, whose chairman is Mark Scott, a prominent builder -- sent out a mailing last week endorsing the former members of the slate.
Council member Marilyn Praisner (D-East County), who is often on the opposite side from the End Gridlock team, said there are signs of a backlash.
"People are talking to me about inadequate infrastructure and other consequences" of a 2003 council vote to lift some restrictions on growth, she said.
In Howard, the slow growth advocates also are watching the candidates carefully. At the forum, several suggested that the best path might be the one laid out by James Rouse, who developed Columbia in the 1960s and '70s by carefully plotting open space, recreation, bike paths and swimming pools and setting up a system of small villages.
"We must take the gift he gave us and move forward with it," said Howard school board member Mary Kay Sigaty, who is facing Joshua Feldmark and a candidate who lists himself on the ballot as X UNcommon in the Democratic primary for a council seat that includes Columbia. Feldmark, too, is a Rouse partisan.
Rouse's vision is important, Sigaty added, "so the next generation and the next generation and the generation beyond that will be proud to say they live in Columbia and in Howard County."
Staff writer Rosalind S. Helderman contributed to this report.
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