A quick follow up to our story about the draconian, anti-free speech Maryland House Bill 333, co-sponsored by Montgomery County based delegate Jheanelle Wilkins (Democrat, representing part of Silver Spring). It passed. Unfortunately, it is now headed to Governor (and sometimes fantasy baseball player) Wes Moore’s desk. It’ll be signed and become law. The good news? …
In Part 1 of this series we described the background to removing deed restrictions, in Part 2 we described some of the immediate impacts on existing property owners, and in Part 3 we exposed who is responsible for the circumstances leading up to this legislation. In this final post we discuss what options remain for…
The premise of Bill 2-24, introduced by Councilmember Will Jawando, is flawed. He states that consent searches of motor vehicles during traffic stops disproportionately affect Black and Brown residents. Data from the Maryland race-based traffic stop dashboard shows, however, that there are no real disparities in consent searches by race. 13-14% of all races consent…
In Part 1 of this series we described the nature of deed restrictions, and in Part 2 we described some of the immediate impacts of unilaterally removing those restrictions. In this post we discuss the conditions leading to HB1300 came to be, and who is responsible for those conditions. Recall that HB1300 voids restrictions appearing…
In Part 1 of this series we described the background and potential extent of HB1300 and its intent to void restrictions on multi-family housing. In this part we’ll describe some implications of this legislation, one of which was articulated by a resident of Olney to an Annapolis delegate (redacted). “I am writing this note to…
A deed is a set of conditions that are part of a sale of real estate. The buyer undertakes to uphold the deed’s restrictions, covenants, and agreements. As the property moves from owner to owner, the conditions of the deed survive. The purpose of some deed restrictions is to provide predictability to buyers of the…
Human relationships are fickle. Probably the most fickle are high-school romances (for those of you who were lucky enough to have had one or two or three). Another example is bloggers on local politics such as myself. We can love our elected leaders, and we can just as easily hand them demerits. Such is the…
There are reasons I don’t get invited to parties, the most obvious being my enthusiasm over liberalization in zoning laws. A typical conversation when I meet someone new at a wedding goes like this. “What are your hobbies?” “Pushing for removal of height restrictions. Yours?” “I’ll go get myself another brewsky. You stay here.” Just…
We ended Part 2 of this series with CM Evan Glass’s motivations for Zoning Text Amendment 23-10: Reducing parking near transit is a commonsense approach that will make housing more affordable, help us reach our housing goals, and move us toward a more sustainable, green future. Let’s examine the motivations individually. Make housing more affordable…
In Part 1 of this series we mentioned that Zoning Text Amendment 23-10 exempts residential construction from any parking requirements within a one-half mile of Metro, Purple Line, and Bus Transit Centers. Where are these sites, and what is within a half-mile radius around them? I drew circles around each of the county’s Metro, Purple…