Council Members Bring Home Global Warming, Trans Fats

By Miranda S. Spivack
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, March 22, 2007

New Montgomery County Council members are jumping out in support of some increasingly popular positions on big issues: trans fats and global warming.

County Council member Duchy Trachtenberg (D-At Large) has introduced a bill to ban trans fats in Montgomery's hundreds of restaurants.

She quickly won the backing of the big guy on the block, Marriott, which announced last month that it will ban trans-fat cooking oils from its more than 2,300 hotels in North America.

Fellow newbie Roger Berliner (D-Potomac-Bethesda) last week sponsored a seminar, moderated by several of his colleagues, to discuss how the county could do its part to reduce global warming, increasingly viewed as harming the environment (see onetime presidential hopeful Al Gore's flick "An Inconvenient Truth" for visuals).

"We were trying to get leading experts to come and share their thoughts with us as a prelude to legislation," Berliner said. "The next step is to move it to legislation."

Among the possibilities, he said, are looking at ways to provide low-interest loans to homeowners who could refit their homes with energy-efficient products. He also wants to encourage the school system and other big government users of diesel fuels to look at soy-based diesel, something he said Arlington already is using.

Meanwhile, the county's library system is getting into the global warming issue, sponsoring an eight-part series beginning next month at the Rockville Library, 21 Maryland Ave.

The series will begin at 7 p.m. April 12 with Save the Planet: What You Can Do About "An Inconvenient Truth" featuring a presentation by Lise Van Susteren, a Bethesda resident and spokeswoman for Gore's traveling global warming show.

Eric Coffman and Susan Kirby of the Montgomery County Department of Environmental Protection will present "Taking the First Steps in Applying Energy Efficiency and Clean Energy in Your Life." As a reward to those who show up, Coffman and Kirby will hand out energy-saving, compact fluorescent light bulbs.

Council Bill Could Clarify Policy on McMansions

The debate over mansionization in Montgomery County shows no sign of slowing. As officials continue to hear complaints about builders tearing down older houses and replacing them with bigger ones, two County Council members are proposing a bill they say will help clarify county policies.

The bill, introduced by Berliner and council President Marilyn Praisner (D-Eastern County) is aimed at spelling out the distance between houses on lots laid out in 1928 or earlier.

It's significant because many new, larger homes are replacing smaller, older houses on older lots, and residents frequently complain that they are too close, block sunlight because of their proximity and occupy too much of the lot.

It's not clear how many lots would be affected, though many are thought to be in the county's southern area in Bethesda and Chevy Chase. Council staff and the staff of the Montgomery County Department of Park and Planning are trying to determine a precise number by combing through land records.

The bill restates what its sponsors say already is law, but which a judge in January brushed aside in a ruling over a home being rebuilt by Marc and Marianne Duffy in Chevy Chase.

Neighbors had complained the house was a tear-down and should be sited differently on the lot with more room between it and surrounding houses. The Duffys said they were engaged in extensive renovation, not a complete rebuilding, and should be allowed to keep the house, built in 1923, where it is.

The bill attempts to address which set of rules applies to houses on lots drawn up before the county's first zoning law was approved on March 6, 1928.

Last month, county Circuit Court Judge Nelson W. Rupp Jr. said the county's Board of Appeals erred in the Duffy case and should have used a 1930 zoning ordinance, which would have allowed the house to stay where it is.

Berliner and Praisner, advised by the council's zoning expert Jeff Zyontz, decided to make clear for future cases that the 1928 zoning ordinance should have been applied in the Duffy case, which means the house, as now constructed, is too close to homes on either side of it.

"We believe the 1928 law was intended" to apply in such cases, said Berliner, a lawyer. "We hope to eliminate this controversy from arising in the future."

In a memo to the council, Zyontz said the council should step in because of conflicting rulings by the Circuit Court, the regulatory Department of Permitting Services, which issues building permits, and the county's Board of Appeals, which hears zoning disputes. The legislative proposal pushes the council into territory that many members apparently wanted to avoid last year. A few weeks before the November elections, the council refused to back the Board of Appeals in the Duffy case, upon the recommendation of council attorney Mike Faden. Only Praisner had wanted the council to intervene. Now she has a second vote, at least, with Berliner's election.

The council is planning a hearing on the issue at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Leggett Sees Potential In More Political Positions

When he got into office in December, Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett learned a sobering truth: There are fewer ways than one might think for a new county executive to reward political supporters. "There really aren't a lot of political appointments," Leggett noted recently. He gets to hire about 40 department-head types and a few others.

So he is asking the County Council to expand the opportunities for political appointments. A bill to do just that is scheduled for a 1:30 p.m. hearing Tuesday.

''I believe that the county executive needs flexibility in filling senior-level positions in the Executive Branch to create a cohesive and efficient management team," Leggett (D) said in a memo outlining his rationale.

The positions include assistant chief administrative officers; director of Go Montgomery! in the Department of Public Works and Transportation; executive directors of the Commission for Women, Office of Human Rights and Office of Consumer Protection; five Regional Service Center directors; the chief technology officer in the Department of Technology Services; and the executive director of the Criminal Justice Coordinating Commission.

Most recently, the coordinating commission's tasks were managed by Joe Beach, an assistant chief administrative officer for the county (and not a political appointee, but one whose job eventually could be one of those the council decides to include in the political list). Leggett broke off the position, which had been a separate job before Beach absorbed it into his portfolio, and has appointed former County Council member Mike Subin to the post, which still is subject to county civil service protection. Subin will be paid $86,000 annually for the part-time job.