| JULY 2021
Newsletter of the Kensington Heights Civic Association
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| Report from Beautification Chair
When the Covid-19 pandemic mandated a national lock down in 2020, I found greater comfort in being outdoors and gardening. The youth on my immediate streets (Decatur Av., Stella Ct. and Drumm Av.) expressed interest in gardening. With the support of their parents, we started Kensington Heights Youth Garden Club. They learned how to pot seedlings. You might have seen or taken one of the free seedling giveaways that they potted on your pandemic walks. We even got molecular and learned how to extract strawberry DNA.
In spring 2021, we installed a native plant-focused pollinator garden on the hellstrip (land between sidewalk and street). We learned that native plants are resilient and can withstand high heat and low water conditions. Two of the members wanted their own plot to grow their favorites, so they learned how to amend soil and design a garden plot.
Check out “ Gratitude Garden” (Decatur, between Hobson & Drumm) and see which native plants are deer-resistant. If you have questions or are interested in forming your own garden group to beautify your area, email Vasna Nontanovan here.
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KHCA Directory - Round II
We are still working on getting a complete listing of KHCA residents and hoping to have block captains for all of our streets. First thing you can do to help is to click button below to "Update Contact Info."
We have a list of all of the streets in KHCA, broken up into one or two block chunks with the number of houses in each group. Click HERE to view the list. The listings that are in bold already have a block captain. Please consider becoming a Block Captain (you can even put that on your resume). This won’t be an overly burdensome job – we’ll ask your help in working with our effort to get everybody’s name and contact information on your designated block.
If you have questions or would be interested in being a “block captain” for your block, please email Karen Cordry here.
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| Support KHCA - Please Pay Annual Dues
If you haven’t paid your membership dues for the year yet, please do so by clicking on the “Pay Dues Here” below
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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NEW NEIGHBORHOOD PROJECT
Many of our KHCA neighbors are involved in fighting hunger as volunteers, donors. Jackie DeCarlo works at the Manna Food Center, which is interested in piloting a Little Free Pantry in KHCA. This is a concept much like the Little Free Libraries we have around the neighborhood. By giving and/or taking nonperishable food items from a central, open location, neighbors are able to decrease barriers to healthy food, especially among seniors or others with transportation or income constraints. Manna will be providing a “start-up” kit to construct and stock the pantry. Manna is interested in our neighborhood because about 75 individuals from zip code 20895 have sought its services recently and the surrounding zip codes have from 4 to 818 neighbors needing food. If you are interested in supporting a trial effort of Little Free Pantry in our area, please contact Jackie here (jacq.decarlo@gmail.com). This sounds like a great effort, so hope a lot of folks can jump in to help her with this effort.
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WHAT’S NEW IN WHEATON
Earlier this year, the Wheaton Gateway project (located at the site of the former Ambassador Hotel at the corner of University Boulevard and Veirs Mill Road) had its initial sketch plans tentatively approved for an 800-unit development. They are working to refine those plans based on comments on the original drawing and, as of now, a hearing is set for September 16, give or take a few days. This will be a huge project and will add a lot of additional housing units and families to this area so it’s a matter we are keeping an eye on. In the meantime, though, the development team for the project has worked with seven local artists to produce a stirring new art project on that corner to highlight community and celebrate diversity. The theme of the work is Connection as a Cornerstone to a Strong Community. The project has four banner and three murals and spans more than 500 feet at that corner! Below are some shots of the art. Take time to visit it yourself and scan the QR Codes located near each piece to find out more about the artists or click here to learn more.
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Marion Fryer Plaza
And, if that’s not enough new art, last week, the County official dedicated the Marion Fryer Town Plaza in the space directly adjacent to the Metro and across Reedie Drive from the new Park and Planning Building. It was a fun event with a lot of good remembrances of Marian, who was a long-time activist in Wheaton – often referred to as Wheaton’s unofficial Mayor. She left us in 2017 at age 79 and there’s still a big hole for all of us to fill to make up for what she used to do. But, in the meantime, when we walk by and through the Plaza and use its spaces as we get back to normal, it’s a wonderful reminder of a great friend. (And, in fact, with those high vaccination rates in the County, we actually had a “meet and mingle” without masks!)
And, to highlight the space, the County commissioned a fun piece, entitled “Meet Me at the Triangles” in honor of Wheaton’s defining space at the large triangle of Georgia, Veirs Mill and University Boulevard, and the smaller areas at Reedie, Grandview, and Triangle Lane. The two large triangles are covered with images referring to many aspects of Wheaton so we can all remember the good times we’ve had and think about lots more to come.
And, if that’s not enough, you can visit the Mall through July 25 and see a display at the Wheaton Arts Parade Gallery with art displayed from a couple dozen local artists. Click here to see what’s available, or you can take a stroll through the Mall and look at what’s on display.
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| Save the Date - Wheaton Arts Parade & FestivalSunday, September 19, 2021, 10:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Click here to learn more.
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WHAT’S GOING ON IN THE COUNTY
Despite it being summer and the still-lingering efforts of the pandemic, the County Council has been working busily on a number of very important projects that will affect all of us. One, which is just getting underway, is the effort to carry out redistricting in the County (which is being done by an independent commission). This process will be especially complicated this year in that it will require taking into account not only the new population data from the 2020 census, but also the fact that in last year’s election, the voters decided to expand the Council from 9 to 11 members, with two new Districts being added. As a result, all of the districts will be sliced and diced in new ways. The Commission is charged with trying to create reasonably compact and contiguous districts that, to the greatest extent possible do not divide up existing communities and neighborhoods while also ensuring that no ethnic, racial, age group, or the like is unduly disfavored by the results. KHCA is currently divided between two districts but the Commission chair promised to try to keep us in one district going forward. To say the least, this is not an easy process but the Commissioners do seem to be interested and dedicated to their task. The Mongomery County Civic Federation held a special meeting to hear from them on July 12. A recording of that session is available here and the PowerPoint presentation is here.
The County is also moving ahead with its review of its Master Plan – referred to as Thrive 2050, and its Attainable Housing Strategies Initiative. Many of us still have a number of concerns with the latter proposal in particular – its goal is to produce “more” housing, but it is far from clear whether the idea is to produce more housing density near transit, or more housing that is available to the middle range of incomes, or just “more housing” period. The problem is that those goals are not the same and trying to satisfy one – such as placing housing near transit, may make it difficult to make the housing affordable, and so on. The Planning Board held its first work session on the staff report a week or so ago. Unfortunately, at this point, it is not clear that they are paying a lot of attention to the comments they have gotten to date. While there clearly are a number of “smart growth”/environmental groups that are supportive of the proposals as is, there are a substantial number of other groups, including a number of towns and civic associations that are vehemently opposed to at least the current structure.
KHCA President presented the attached testimony to the Planning Board on behalf of KHCA making the same sort of points that we have discussed in some of the prior newsletter reports. The basic viewpoint in the letter is that there needs to be more clarity about what the County is actually trying to accomplish and then a great deal more definition and hands-on effort by those working on these issues to make sure that we get what we want to see built and not just what builders find the most profitable. And, it is those extra efforts that we are not yet seeing reflected in this work product. There will be another Planning Board work session next week and then they expect to forward a draft Zoning Text Amendment to the Council after Labor Day. We are continuing to monitor this and participate in the discussions because KH is pretty much “Ground Zero” for where all of these efforts are focused.
One other area being worked on at the moment is another Zoning Text Amendment dealing with proposal to authorize installation of small cell towers used to bring so-called 5G wireless connectivity throughout the County. There are certainly advantages in terms of speed and band width to the use of the new technology. There are a variety of concerns, though, that have been addressed by many parties ranging from possible (but not well-defined) health effects in humans and or animals, the need to cut trees to provide “line of sight” access for the towers; the higher power usage to provide services through wireless connections rather than to maintain the wired connections the service providers were supposed to supply. Moreover, while this is touted as a way to give everyone access, there is no clear requirement for this in the proposals.
As KHCA President, I wrote to the Council expressing some of these concerns on my own behalf, rather for KHCA as such. The bottom line suggestion was to support County Executive Elrich’s suggestion that there should be a working group to spend more time trying to work through the issues.
Council Member Sidney Katz provided an update on the Council”s discussions on July 15 in which he indicated he supported that position but that it did not seem to have the support of most Council members. There was no vote taken on these proposals this week, but it will likely be coming up soon, so if anyone wants to support his approach, they can contact him here or via councilmember.katz@montgomerycountymd.gov. It could also be useful to send similar messages to the other members as well.
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| Montgomery County, MD Civic Federation Meeting
NEXT MEETING: MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2021
Time: 7:30 - 9:30 p.m.
Location: IN PERSON or Online Zoom Audio/Video Conference
Topic: TBA
Please click here to access the current newsletter and here for information.
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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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