American Dream

Planners seek audit after lies uncovered

by Margie Hyslop and Douglas Tallman
Staff Writers
July 1, 2005

Quotes:

Montgomery County planning officials are calling for a stem-to-stern examination of how the county oversees development following allegations that a staffer falsified documents to make it appear builders did not violate construction limits in the massive Clarksburg Town Center.

More than 500 homes have been built too tall or too close to streets, according to a report from Rose G. Krasnow, chief of the planning department's Development Review Division.

The report found that the county did not police height standards for the Town Center development and that a staffer altered a document to make it appear that the homes met those standards. The employee, who resigned, first said that the change was made in 1998 before construction began, but later admitted that she changed the document last year after neighbors raised questions, Krasnow said.

Krasnow, who joined park and planning director Charles Loehr in calling for the independent review, said part of the problem is that the county's departments of planning and permitting services each thought that the other was checking to see that buildings complied with height restrictions.

"That's the planning department's response," said Montgomery County Chief Administrative Officer Bruce F. Romer, who said an audit "strikes me as a good idea."

"We were certainly aware that there were problems," he said. "It was our own permitting services department that found problems with the height."

In fact, it was an ad hoc group of Clarksburg Town Center residents who researched files and discovered that most buildings in the Newland development were taller than the 35- to 45-foot limit specified in a key document.

The drawings that the developer submitted to permitting services showed the actual height of the buildings rather than the required height and that permitting services and the planning department "didn't say anything," Krasnow said.

Four hundred eighty-nine homes violated height limits and 102 violated setback requirements, the report found.

Krasnow suggested that such problems would be limited to special cases such as "neotraditional" developments where builders are allowed shorter setbacks and other allowances.

Clarksburg has the first neotraditional developments to fall under the county's planning and permitting authority. King Farm in Rockville and Kentlands in Gaithersburg fall under those cities' rules.

See also these articles in the Washington Post:

Montgomery to Probe Alteration of Site Plan and Clarksburg Intentions Vary From Its Reality

Official Defends Altering Site Plan
Clarksburg Homes May Violate Codes

Montgomery Gazette - 2005-07-08:
Town Center violations rampant

New inspector general sees role in investigation

Washington Post - 2005-07-08:
Hundreds of Homes Violate Montgomery Size Limits

And official responses from the staff of the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission (M-NCP&PC) to be presented to the Montgomery County Planning Board on 7 July 2005:

RECONSIDERATION of Alleged Height Violations CONSIDERATION of Alleged Setback Violations (Adobe Acrobat .pdf, 152 KB) and PLAN OF COMPLIANCE for Height and Setback Violations (Adobe Acrobat .pdf, 26 KB)