PHED Committee Meeting February 25, 2010

Live-blogging from the hastily-scheduled continuation meeting of the Planning, Housing and Economic Development Committee of the Montgomery County Council. Today’s topic is “staging” in the White Flint Sector Plan, which is the timing of the implementation of various infrastructure projects required as part of the renovation of White Flint. Yesterday’s hearing ended with a request from Councilmembers Marc Elrich and Roger Berliner for clarification of the role of a particular traffic test, known as the Local Area Traffic Review, or LATR. Some observers had thought that LATR was removed from the White Flint Plan along with a broader regional review (known as PAMR). LATR is one of the “balance” tests which measures how fast cars move through intersections, which may not be appropriate in a transit-oriented, pedestrian-friendly community such as the planned White Flint.

But the Councilmembers’ questions indicated that there was still some confusion about the use of LATR in White Flint, or in some cases, the use of the test outside of White Flint to block development or road improvements within the White Flint Sector. When the Committee ran out of time yesterday, today’s hearing was hastily scheduled. Discussions, some of them quite heated, continued after the hearing adjourned, in which the sense of confusion and ships passing in the night multiplied.

Barnaby Zall