| MAY 2021 Supplement
Newsletter of the Kensington Heights Civic Association
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| KHCA Virtual Spring Meeting -- May 25, 7:30 pm
As a reminder – we will be holding our KHCA Spring Membership Meeting virtually on May 25 at 7:30 p.m. Join us with your own refreshments using the link below:
Join Zoom Meeting May 25, 7:30-9:00 pm: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88484765143?pwd=MlhBN0pZSDNPdXJ4dHFXRXdaUEU1dz09
Meeting ID: 884 8476 5143
Passcode: 935982
One tap mobile
+13017158592,,88484765143#,,,,*935982# US (Washington DC)
+19292056099,,88484765143#,,,,*935982# US (New York)
Thrive Montgomery
We will be talking about the County’s planning document with its vision for the next 30 years or so -- Thrive Montgomery 2050. The last such comprehensive plan was back in 1994, so it’s clearly time to update the picture. With such a long lead time and with so much to cover, this document doesn’t try to get way down into the weeds, rather, it’s more of a big picture look at the entire forest. It is broken into six main topics:
-- compact growth, focusing on development along major corridors;
-- complete communities, developing centers with a mix of uses and forms so that residents can find pretty much all they need without having to make long trips;
-- design, arts, and culture, as a way to build community;
-- transportation and communication networks, to connect people, places, and ideas
-- affordable and attainable housing, looking to the future needs for housing and meeting them in a mix of forms
-- parks and recreation, meeting the needs of an increasingly urban and diverse community.
The entire document is available here. For everything that it covers, it’s “only” 160 pages and it’s got lots of pictures and charts so it’s a reasonably fast read (or a skim at least). While, as noted, it doesn’t try to propose specific buildings or projects, it does set a framework for how the County expects to move forward over the next three decades, so it’s definitely worth hearing about the current thinking. Public hearings and time for comments will be coming up over the next few months, so this meeting is intended to let folks know now about the proposals so they can ask questions and start thinking about what feedback they’d like to give. County Planning Acting Area 2 Division Chief Khalid Afzal will present an overview of Planning Board’s current draft and answer questions. Attainable Housing Strategies
The other part of the meeting will be a chance to hear some more about proposals to accommodate the wide variety of housing needs in the county through what is now called the Attainable Housing Strategies Initiative. This has also been referred to as “Missing Middle” housing with the idea that, in between, standard single-family housing and large apartment complexes, there is room for duplexes and triplexes within the existing building footprints in those zones as well as small townhouse or garden apartment complexes if several lots are bought and combined. If done right, there is a lot of promise in those ideas; if not properly implemented, such proposals raise many concerns for existing neighborhoods where such new proposals may be allowed. This area is part of the Thrive Montgomery draft; it’s also been the focus of a Zoning Text Amendment (“ZTA”) introduced by Council Member Jawando earlier this year and a discussion draft ZTA discussion by Chair Hans Riemer. The Planning Department has been assigned to make recommendations to the Council by the end of June – so it naturally set up a task force to receive additional detailed feedback on these ideas. KHCA President Karen Cordry is on that task force so she’d love to hear from the community as to what they think about these ideas so she can pass that input on to the County.
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Cicada Costume Contest Image Credit: Richard Leung
EXTENSION of DEADLINE: MAY 24
It’s finally happened! The cicadas are out of the ground, climbing the bushes and the trees and getting ready to start making an infernal racket. Below are some early pictures in KHCA as they start their brief time above ground before they disappear for the next 17 years.
Don’t forget – it’s not too late for your kids to enter the KHCA Cicada Costume Contest. Since they seem to have been a little slow showing their faces this year to inspire everyone, we’ll extend the time for costume pictures to May 24, which will give us just enough time for the KHCA Executive Board to review the submissions before the General Meeting. If we can figure out how to make it work on Zoom, we may just leave the final choice up to the audience for a vote at the meeting! In any case, let’s see what inventive minds and fingers we have out there in KHCA. Time is short so better get going!
To honor the cicadas, KHCA is hosting a home-made CICADA Costume Contest for KHCA residents 12 years and under. Let loose your creativity for a surprise prize!
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DOWNTOWN WHEATON NEWS
After our last newsletter item about developments at Westfield Wheaton, someone wrote in to ask about what to do about shopping carts that had escaped the mall and were roaming freely through the neighborhood. Mall Manager Stuart Amos says they are happy to send their maintenance people over with their truck, to pick them up and return their wayward children home. Just use wheatonshoppingcarts@urw.com to let the Mall know exactly where the carts are and they'll take care of it quickly. Thanks Stuart! Same thing if you see any particularly messy areas around the forest buffer or anywhere around the mall, let Mr. Amos know at stuart.amos@urw.com. (I think/hope he’s okay with me handing out his name – he’s been most helpful and interested in being a good neighbor so if you see something you like, pass on some kind words to him as well.)
The County is also planning on installing a couple of mid-block “flasher” lights on Grandview and Reedie (near the new County Planning Building) to help pedestrian traffic in that area. And speaking of that building, it is one of 23 finalists nationwide for the Urban Land Institute’s Americas Awards for Excellence in building design based on criteria such as design, technology, community engagement, innovation, and sustainability. Its former site in downtown Silver Spring is being replaced by a 400-unit residential facility with an urban grocery store all within walking distance of the Silver Spring transit facility. Now that things are getting ready to start opening back up again, we’ll be able to enjoy the Town Square space there, with a fountain and public art.
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COVID-19 -- We're Winning
Montgomery has the highest rate of fully vaccinated residents in the state (woohoo) but let’s get that number to 100%. We’ve been told the fully vaccinated can take off their masks without risking their health – and we trust that our unvaccinated friends will be acting swiftly to bring themselves in that number as well. Here’s some more info from the County on the much greater ability to get your vaccines quickly and easily for everyone in your family as early as age 12. Please help everyone in the community and do your part – get your shot.
You can pre-register your child in this age group now at govaxmoco.com. Residents 16 and up are now able to directly schedule their own appointments online at any mass vaccination site in the State, including the Montgomery College Germantown site, and at multiple County-run clinics, including the White Oak Community Recreation Center, the Wheaton Community Recreation Center and the Silver Spring Civic Building. If you don’t have a chance to make an appointment, they are also accepting walk-ins. Extended evening and weekend hours are also available at select sites.
In the meantime, as we push to the end, we’d like to encourage everyone to get their shots, so we found these flags on Amazon. We think we can get the flags shipped to us for about $5 if we buy in bulk (20 or more). Would you be interested in displaying one on your front yard? Please email Karen (karenc425@aol.com) if you’d like to reserve one or more. (They don’t come with the stand but we could order those too on Amazon if people need them – let us know that in your email as well (probably about $8 to $10 or so). We’d love to see these all across the neighborhood and more every day, so let us know ASAP if you’d like one for your yard!
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| Support KHCA - Pay Annual Dues
To carry out our many activities, KHCA needs your support -- both through your volunteer efforts and also, your financial donations. All residents of Kensington Heights are members of KHCA, and all members are welcome to attend and speak at KHCA meetings. However, to be a voting member, and to help support our activities on your behalf, KH residents are asked to pay annual dues of $10 per adult resident (18+ years) to a maximum of $30 per address. These monies are much appreciated and help to ensure that KHCA remains financially viable. Thank you!
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VISION ZERO 2030 PLAN
The Montgomery County Executive released the Draft Vision Zero 2030 Action Plan & Fiscal years 2022-23 Work Plan for public review and input. There will be two more listening sessions on Zoom. These sessions allow Montgomery County residents to learn about the draft plan and offer feedback. Please consider joining one of the two remaining sessions to provide feedback. To learn more, register for a review session and/or complete a survey to provide input, click HERE.
NEXT LISTENING SESSION - MAY 19, 2021, 7:00-8:30 pm, Register here.
LAST LISTENING SESSION - MAY 26, 2021, 7:00-8:30 pm, Register here.
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MOCO SCHOOL BOUNDARIES REALIGNMENT REPORT
A very interesting report commissioned by the County Public Schools has just issued which analyzes the current school boundaries with an eye to furthering the County’s objectives to “facilitate equitable and optimal outcomes in facility use, student diversity within schools, student proximity to schools, and stability of student assignments.” The bad news at the moment is that about half of the County’s schools are overutilized while a number of others are underutilized. The County’s demographics are also changing but many schools do not reflect that diversity and, at the same time, many students are not able to attend their closest school. The good news is that, with relatively small revisions to current student assignments (less than 10% overall and, in some cases, substantially smaller numbers), it is possible to bring almost all schools very close to optimal utilization. And, at the same time, this can be done with quite minimal changes in the average distance students must travel to school and still improve diversity statistics across the County. The Report is available here
The report will be studied over the 2021-2022 school year (while everyone is drawing a sigh of relief as students are returning to those schools after the COVID insanity), but it does present a variety of potential approaches for the County and parents to look at in deciding the best way to use the resources the County has allotted to the schools. This could well be an interesting topic for a general meeting this fall as the School Board, the County as a whole, and parents have time to start to digest the findings.
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SUMMER COUNTY PROGRAMS
The County recently issued its guide for summer activities in its parks, nature centers, and other recreational facilities. See guide here . There are literally dozens of pages of activities ranging from ice skating (!) to golf (miniature and otherwise), archery and tennis to horseback riding and much more. Or visit one of the numerous nature centers and other programs. Check out a new activity or place you haven’t visited before. Summer’s a great time to do something new!
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History Chair: OPEN
Land Use Chair OPEN
Safety Chair: OPEN
**Elections were held in November 2019.
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| KHCA is a non-partisan neighborhood organization dedicated to representing the interests of all homeowners and residents of the Kensington Heights neighborhood in maintaining and enhancing the quality of life in our community.
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| Thank you to our Newsletter Sponsors
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Kensington Heights Civic Association
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