Mo-Co Alliance
  • Home
  • About Us
    • What We Do
    • A Brief History
    • Board & AC
    • Staff & Volunteers
    • Contact
    • Buy MCA Gear
  • About Ag Reserve
    • Growing Legacy Film
    • History of the Ag Reserve
    • Benefits of the Ag Reserve
    • Agriculture Education
    • Farm Facts
    • Threats to the Ag Reserve
    • A Place with Purpose
  • News
  • Events
    • Local Events
    • Royce Hanson Award
    • Ride for Reserve
  • Support Local
    • Agricultural Guide
    • Local Food Connection
    • Good Fences Grant
    • Community Supported Agriculture
    • Restaurants & Retail
    • Artists of the Reserve
  • Community Resources
    • Land Link >
      • Labor Link
    • Re-leaf the Reserve
    • PLENTY Magazine
    • Producer's Resources
    • BIPOC Farmer Guide
    • Directory of Local Services
    • Friends of Ten Mile Creek
  • Membership
    • Sponsors and Partners

News

MoCo Parks - More Important Than Ever - Get Full Budget Funding

5/28/2020

 
Picture
Though catastrophic, the Covid 19 Pandemic has re-connected us with some essential things - the importance of local farms, and the importance of areas to get outside and recreate. Many of Montgomery County's Parks have made alterations to allow residents more space to get outside safely including closing streets to car traffic.  Even without the pandemic, parks offer respite, recreation, connection with the natural world and environmental benefits such as water filtration and air purification. No wonder the park system is cited as a reason to re-locate to Montgomery County. 

That is why park advocates, including MCA, promoted full funding of this year's proposed budget for MoCo Parks. 
The budget was approved. 
​
From the Montgomery Parks Foundation:
The loss in tax revenue resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic made this a difficult time to fund new initiatives, but our elected leaders recognized the value of parks and approved a budget that allows us to maintain existing levels of service and – in a few areas, at least - to make some important improvements.
The County Council, which makes the final decisions on our budget, recognized the critical role that parks play in providing a healthy and safe outlet especially when residents are unable to participate in many activities and have come to depend on our parks system to get outdoors and get some exercise. That’s why the six-year capital improvement program includes investment of $19 million to build and improve athletic fields, $10 million to construct and renovate trails, and $3 million to achieve the goals of Vision Zero. These figures represent significant increases over the prior budget.
Among the new projects included in the budget is “Legacy Urban Space” (LUS), which is modeled after the visionary $100 million Legacy Open Space program that has preserved thousands of acres of the county’s best natural areas. The LUS program includes an $18 million down payment over the next six years to acquire parkland in the county’s most densely populated areas.
We also received a small increase in our annual operating budget that will allow us to begin to catch up on maintenance backlogs in parks and provide staff to support ongoing and recently completed projects, such as the Josiah Henson historic site, Silver Spring Intermediate Neighborhood Park, Columbia Local Park, Battery Lane Urban Park, Wheaton Regional Park and Edith Throckmorton Neighborhood Park. These funds will allow us to continue providing access to nature, fresh air and exercise, historic and cultural resources, and the opportunity to take a break from the stress of the world around us.
Those wanting to do a deep dive into the county budget can do so here. 

Take Action: Planning Board Breaks Ten Mile Creek Protection Promise With No Public Input

5/19/2020

 
Picture
Update: For the second time in as many weeks, the Planning Board has again taken up a developer requested proposal to weaken sound planning rules. All while the pandemic is stifling public participation. This time it is adequate school capacity- a metric that keeps new development at levels that will not overcrowd classrooms. A bitter irony as school officials are trying to find around 65 square feet per student to open safely under Covid regulations.  Please take action by 5pm on July 10th. 

​ Planning Board Breaks Promise to Protect Ten Mile Creek Watershed and our Back Up Drinking Water Supply With No Public Input-Take Action Now
Update: A coalition of civic organizations has again banded together to seek science based protections for the Ten Mile Creek watershed, the backup drinking water supply for 4.3 Million in the DC region. This draft proposed "Clean Water ZTA" has been transmitted to the Council in hopes that the critical minimum water quality protections promised in the 2014 Clarksburg Master Plan are not altered. 

Montgomery’s Planning Board, under the leadership of Chair Casey Anderson, voted to allow developers to increase impervious surfaces (concrete/asphalt) in the Ten Mile Creek Watershed in violation of the Master Plan. This vote was taken early during the Covid 19 quarantine shut down, with no public participation (an action criticized by the County Executive). We are grateful to Friends of Ten Mile Creek for alerting us to this issue.

Next the final vote will be taken by the County Council. Your action is needed to put this vote on hold until the Covid 19 pandemic is over to ensure full public participation. Further, urge the Council to reject this Zoning Text Amendment as a violation of the Ten Mile Creek Limited Master Plan Amendment and its main enforcement regulation – the caps on impervious surfaces in the Clarksburg Environmental Overlay Zones.
MCA has joined 13 other local civic organizations to urge the Council to reject this ZTA. See the Letter Here. 
Take Action
​Backstory:
In 2014 MCA, Audubon Naturalist Society and 30+ other local civic organizations partnered with local leaders to pass a Clarksburg Master Plan to guide development in Clarksburg while protecting fragile Ten Mile Creek - a pristine stream that is part of the backup water source for 4.3 Million in the DC region. This plan set hard limits on the amount of impervious surface allowed in the development near the creek based on water quality science.

Hard fought science based protections for Ten Mile creek are being eroded by the Planning Board and Developers: A cap on impervious (paved) surfaces was set as part of the Clarksburg Master Plan in 2014 but now the developers are coming back and asking that the cap not apply to the bike lanes they are required to build. In response, on March 26 the Montgomery County Planning Board voted to recommend that the County Council amend the Zoning Text Amendment (ZTA) in order to exempt impervious surfaces of planned bikeways from the Ten Mile Creek protections. Scientists tell us that each addition of pavement to this sensitive watershed threatens both the quality of Ten Mile Creek, and the health of our region’s only nearby back-up drinking water supply, Little Seneca Reservoir.

Both the science based caps that limit runoff to the creek and the requirement for bike lanes to benefit local residents were established in 2014 by the County Council and Planning Board. Because Ten Mile Creek is a unique, high-quality stream and drinking water supply, the amount of runoff the stream can take remains unchanged and last we checked, water continues to run down hill. The caps on impervious surfaces must remain in force as well.


The choice is not between clean water and bike paths. We can, and must, have both. The mandate of the 2014 Clarksburg Master Plan Amendment set clear caps to protect the creek. Another mandate  was to install bike paths. Developers have known this from the very beginning, but are pushing back to increase their bottom line. We must insist that they achieve both goals while staying under the impervious cap.

In Montgomery County, we demand that development proposals honor Master Plan mandates especially regarding important environmental and community safeguards. There should be no end runs for developers. Any proposed weakening of these protective limits should be rejected.

Take a moment to add your name to a letter to the Council right here.

See background posts on Ten Mile Creek
    Picture

    Categories

    All
    Action
    Barnesville Oaks/Greentree
    Bike
    Climate Change
    CSA
    Development
    Education
    Energy
    Events
    Fun!
    Growing Legacy
    Land Link
    Local Food
    Master Plan Update
    Mega Church
    Montgomery Council
    News
    Open Space
    Outer Beltway
    Parks
    Planning
    Potomac Bridge
    Racial Justice
    Recent Accomplishments
    Recipes
    Reducing Waste
    Regenerative Ag
    Releaf
    Rocklands
    Rural Schools
    Sewer
    Solar
    Take Action Now
    Ten Mile Creek
    Thrive 2050
    Transporation
    Water

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    August 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2012
    September 2012
    November 2010
    October 2010

ABOUT US
What We Do
A Brief History
Board & AC
Staff & Volunteers
Contact
​​Buy MCA Gear
ABOUT Ag RESERVE
History of the Ag
Benefits of the Ag
Farm Facts
Threats to the Ag
​A Place with Purpose
NEWS
EVENTS
Local Events
Ride for the Reserve
Royce Hanson Award
SUPPORT LOCAL
Ag Guide
Local Food Connection
Community Supported Agriculture
Restaurants & Retail
​Artists of the Reserve
COMMUNITY RESOURCES
​Land Link
Producer's Resources
Directory of Services
Picture
Montgomery Countryside Alliance
P.O Box 24, Poolesville, MD  20837
301-461-9831  •  ​info@mocoalliance.org
Picture
Picture
Picture

Picture
MCA is proud to announce that we have been recognized for a third time as one of the best small charities in the D.C. region by Catalogue for Philanthropy: Greater Washington. A panel of 110 expert reviewers from area foundations, corporate giving programs, and peer non-profit organizations evaluated 270 applications.

​MCA is known as an effective and innovative non-profit whose efforts to preserve and promote Montgomery County’s nationally recognized 93,000 acre Ag Reserve have brought increased public and governmental support of local food production and farmland and open space preservation. Most importantly, MCA’s efforts are putting more farmers on the ground and keeping them there.
COPYRIGHT © MONTGOMERY COUNTRYSIDE ALLIANCE 2008