Webb Tract Vote

Councilman Leventhal,

Subject: Webb Tract Vote

Thank you for following up on my Citizen-Centric Consensus Report to the County Council. I do appreciate learning that this served to inform you on the issues.

However, you stated incorrectly that I had seen the “letter that the Council received from the MidCounty Citizens Alliance which represents the neighbors of the Webb Tract”. I had not seen the letter before you sent it to me. You need to understand that MidCounty Citizens Alliance may represent some of the neighbors of the Webb Tract, but it does not represent all the neighbors of the Webb Tract. Notably absent from its representation are at least the Montgomery Village Foundation and its Webb Tract Committee, East Village where the signatories of the letter reside, Whetstone which has traffic concerns along Centerway Road and Goshen Road, and Hunters Woods which possesses no HOA structure.

Needless to say I was disappointed in the 6-2 vote taken by the County Council in favor of immediately purchasing the entire Webb Track both Phase I and Phase II. Beyond that I was especially disappointed in the failure of the process. The flip in the position of several Council members including yours was astonishing.

At the September 17 TEI committee meeting, it was decided to recommend option 2 to purchase just the East side now and to wait until December to act on the West side since the County Executives representative when asked could identify no harm in waiting.

Just prior to the September 22 session of the full County Council, Miller & Smith changed the game at the last minute by offering the County $225,000 in incentives to consummate an immediate purchase. These incentives were composed of a price reduction of $75,000 and the Miller & Smith carrying costs for September to December of $150,000. The carrying charges of $150,000 are now the burden of the County and its taxpayers; therefore, this portion does not represent a cost reduction that delivers any savings to the County at all. We are left with a miniscule price reduction of $75,000, an insignificant savings of about a quarter of one percent of the Phase II purchase.

In another last minute move, the County Council on September 22 chose to react to the MidCounty Citizen's Alliance Webb Tract Development Resident's Concerns and Questions report as if it were breaking news. George, the report dated September 14 was available to you earlier at the September 17 TEI committee meeting and its contents would have served to inform the committee recommendation to the full County Council. The report stated, “MCAA and the communities surrounding the Webb Tract recognize that development will take place on the property and we are in agreement that the county will be a better neighbor than others who could build there.” This statement did not mention or press for the Phase II purchase at this time yet it was improperly exploited to garner the vote by some and to justify the vote by others.

We have established that there was no harm in waiting until December, but what is the harm in this premature purchase?
1. The County Council has taken an action that presumes at least in part the outcome of the Gaithersburg West Master Plan decision process.
2. The MCCA and the citizens of Montgomery Village have lost negotiating leverage and power with the County Executive’s office.
3. In the event that the $100M PSTA relocation project is dubbed unaffordable with a scaled back Gaithersburg West Master Plan implementation depreciating the expected sales value of the land or Gaithersburg West Master Plan decision making becomes tangled and protracted, the County may choose to abandon its plans to relocate the PSTA and cast about for another County facility to populate the Webb Tract.
4. The consideration of alternate facilities was alluded to by the County Council at the September 22 meeting. The motivation for doing this lies in the need to vacate the Shady Grove Metro Development area along Crabbs Branch Way and this would place the dreaded bus depot back on the table.

This was not Montgomery County government at its best. Throughout all this, the only saving grace for the County has been Council President Phil Andrews whose integrity and common sense stood out among all others.

Best Regards,

Don O’Neill
Montgomery Village
Whetstone