{
"type": "rich",
"version": "1.0",
"provider_name": "Action Network",
"provider_url": "https://actionnetwork.org",
"html": "",
"author_name": "Montgomery Countryside Alliance",
"author_url": "https://actionnetwork.org/groups/montgomery-countryside-alliance",
"title": "Thrive2050 - The Changes Still Needed",
"thumbnail_url": "https://actionnetwork.org//images/generic_facebook.jpg",
"description": ""Too Important To Rush Through" Years of planning, many of them overshadowed by the pandemic, have led to the final stages of approval for the Thrive 2050 plan. In the worksession on February 15, the Council struck a thoughtful tone and agreed to expand outreach to reach wider populations on the plan as suggested by the Office of Legislative Oversight (OLO) when OLO staff found the plan not yet ready for the Racial Equity and Social Justice (RESJ) analysis required of all bills and ZTAs under consideration by the County. With the welcome time and space to get Thrive right, what changes are needed? Your voice is needed to make this a plan that takes our County forward. As written, this plan can not chart the future for our County. Click "Start Writing" to contact the Council before March 1. MCA along with our partners have been advocating for a number of changes to Thrive through this process. With Thrive in the home stretch, it is time to pare down and simplify the the changes. Many thanks to all those that have taken action to strengthen the plan. The following common sense provisions are not a do-over but the minimum changes needed to make this a comprehensive and equitable document that behaves like a master plan should. To add your name to a letter to the Council asking for the following changes, click "Start Writing" For more background read on. (For full info on all this check out our post here) 1. Comprehensively Address Concerns Raised by the Office of Legislative Oversight's (OLO) Racial Equity and Social Justice review (RESJ) In 2019 the Council established a process of racial equity and social justice (RESJ) analysis for each proposed legislative item submitted for council approval. In undertaking the RESJ analysis for Thrive 2050, the Office of Legislative Oversight (OLO) has identified ways that the Thrive plan must be edited before a proper RESJ analysis can take place. These include much more outreach to residents of color and low income residents and specific equity issues the plan seeks to solve laid out along with the equity impacts of each proposed solution. Generally, the plan needs better structure to allow a full RESJ review, the OLO finds the current draft to be an "amalgam of aspirations, goals, policies and practices that do not follow a consistent format." 2. Restore the Environmental/Climate/Food System Chapters The Working Plan draft released for public comment in 2020, while not perfect, had action items that would provide climate and food system resilience, water and forest protection along with equity and more. The draft sent to the Council - did not- whole chapters - notably about the environment, were stripped from the plan. One would ask, who asked for the environmental chapters to be removed and to what end? Without these chapters taking on critical concerns, Thrive is a shadow of the general plans of neighboring jurisdictions. A word count between drafts quantitively shows the deficiencies of the plan in front of the council. We actually had a proponent of the current draft say, "Well, the environment chapters of Thrive were taken out as it is more of a housing plan." This is a stunning misunderstanding of the process. Thrive is not a housing plan - it is an update to the general plan and needs to tackle all topics. Environmental protection left on the cutting room floor does not make for a plan that meets our moment. 3. Return of Master Plan language to the Main Thrive Document While on it's face a seemingly wonky request, the Thrive working plan draft made clear that Thrive must work with the local area master plans that undergird County protections for water, forests, farmland and other critical resources. Like many other good parts of the plan, this part was stripped in the final plan. County initiatives from climate action to local food security to Ag Reserve protection are enshrined in these plans and without tacit support from the master plan these efforts become harder or directly challenged. Example: Thrive identifies Darnestown (and other Rural Cluster areas) as a "growth area" when RC zones are on water and septic by design - not the ideal place for large scale development. 4. Fully Explore The Ramifications of Residential Upzoning on Both Equity and Environmental Quality Upzoning - changing the zoning for a particular area to allow for more mixed-use denser development in areas and more multi-family homes where currently only single family homes are currently allowed - has proved the most controversial part of Thrive. Residents who agree that affordable housing is a critical need but disagree about how to achieve it have been verbally attacked (and threatened with worse), a climate that has stifled open discussion. Thrive is not the first plan to consider Upzoning as a tool and data is now available from cities that have already put these plans into place. The consensus is clear, Upzoning is a tool to be used sparingly and is not a panacea for affordable housing creation. Without strong policies to ensure the resulting new density is kept affordable, upzoning can instead harm the low income people it was meant to house. The final deliberations on Thrive will be happening in the coming weeks and months. the Council needs to hear from you before the next planned worksession on March 1.",
"url": "https://actionnetwork.org/letters/thrive2050-the-changes-still-needed"
}