HoCo Planning Board: If it ain't broke, change it?

Hi kids!  Back again!  I took a break for several days because what's gone on in Baltimore has really sent me through the roof.  So much lack of political will and courage, and so much shown by "average" citizens who are so much more than that.  And back to the political and elected class in Balto-- it's so hard to write a post that adequately and ably separates the wheat from the chaff, so I have delayed writing on it.  Plus, I simply don't believe in some of the popular assumptions right now. Like Marilyn Mosby is some sort of savior.  But more on that later.

And it's been kind of a dull week in the county.  Although later this week I'll write on my first (and only) event attended as a member of the Oakland Mills Village Board-elect, and on Calvin Ball's attempt to bring the unsweetened back!  But neither shall be my topic this evening.

Instead-- anyone know the name Josh Tzuker? No?  How about the name Susan Garber?  No?  OK, because the former is the current chair of the Howard County Planning Board, who is eligible to serve another term on this apolitical, quasi-judicial board, but who is NOT being reappointed by County Executive Kittleman.  Instead, Allan is planning to appoint Susan Garber, President of the Savage Community Association, a dedicated special ed teacher and advocate for assistive technology to help the disabled (kudos for that!), and friend and ally (whether she is a member I don't know) of the Citizens to Fix HoCo, and frequent participant in HCCA goings on.

Oh, and she also wrote this kinda nasty letter about Jon Weinstein.  Apolitical, she is not.

I think it's bizarre where, in a county where we're trying to find people to serve, that the Kittleman administration is telling Josh Tzuker to go take a hike and thanks for your service and go hang out with your family and go work your job. Reappointments are generally given unless if the person is a real screw-up, and having attended several Planning Board meetings that Josh chaired, this is not the case.  So my question is: why can't Susan Garber wait for a vacancy on the board?  Is being on the Planning Board some sort of dream that she's afraid she will never fulfill?

Or, is this an effort by Allan Kittleman to manage process rather than outcomes?  Are we going to see a Planning Board that is more critical of the Department of Planning and Zoning's methods, as opposed to their products?  Because I have heard Planning Board members get into DPZ a little for their provision of information.  Rather, lack of.

But I kinda know how the Citizens to Fix Howard County roll.  In their world DPZ is in the pocket of the developers and so is the Council and so the developers will build houses on top of each other until the whole place looks like a town in a Dr. Seuss book.  And THEY are the only people who can stop them.

Except, DPZ isn't.  Neither is the Council.  And the Citizens to Fix HoCo are just as agenda-driven and selfish as any other lobby in Howard County.  And frankly, they see conspiracies that simply don't exist.

So, County Executive Kittleman: what problem in the Howard County land use process is Susan Garber fixing?  Because the current guy on the Planning Board has done a lot to support managed, reasonable development and growth in Howard County.  Which is your agenda, right?  Except, if it isn't?  But wait... you told us it was?  I'm confused.  And I don't think I'm alone.

#hoco #kittleman

Happy Cinco de Mayo?

Let's be careful out there.

Comments

[Barb Krupiarz]

You obviously don't live in the Eastern part of the County, where schools are already over 115% capacity without even a plot of land to build a new school, but with new development signs going up all the time.

[Marshmallow Man]

In fact, I do live on the eastern side of the county, and in fact, I'm a native to Elkridge. I know full well the challenges in development in that part of the county, in fact all over Howard County.

Unfortunately, as someone I think you know would say..... YOU JUST DON'T GET IT!!! I fail to see why Ms. Garber's appointment to the Planning Board has to be done now, and at the expense of Mr. Tzuker. If someone could please speak to that point, I would be appreciative.