Contributor Opinion: Carl Henn On RORZOR

This contributor opinion is by Rockville Central friend Carl Henn:

Tomorrow, January 23, 7:30 at City Hall is the Planning Commission's hearing on the proposed zoning ordinance revisions. Its been thirty years since the last big rewrite. This revision makes a much more understandable document. It also makes substantive changes such as creating mixed use zones in some areas, allowing residential where only commercial is currently allowed for instance. It mostly leaves the residential areas alone, but does address mansionization and would block you from paving your entire front yard.

This is your chance to weigh in on the changes and hear your neighbors concerns. One controversial element is that the proposed revision would make many of the businesses on Stonestreet into nonconforming uses, such that if they had a fire and couldn't get back in business for 6 months, they would be out of business for good. I think they ought to allow the current light industrial in the new zoning, while adding the ability to have residential mixed use. These businesses serve Rockville well and ought not to be zoned out of existence.

Another element that ought to be addressed now is the underlying zoning of Rockville's country clubs. Currently if they chose to develop, they would be one acre lot homes. This would result in a few mansions and a big loss of open space. Better to change their zoning to recreation/agricultural. Recreation to allow their current use to continue and agriculture to meet our future needs in a world with declining oil. Modern agriculture is a way to use soil to convert oil into food. We will need local food production after the oil goes into decline. These large open areas will serve us far better with fruit and nut trees and community supported agriculture rather than a few mansions. Further, its clear that land can serve both for agriculture and for golf. Sheep can do the mowing after oil gets expensive, just as they did in the years between the invention of golf and the lawn mower.

I'll have to e-mail these comments in because I have a prior commitment on Wednesday evening. [But] . . . I urge you to go to the Planning Commission hearing.

Carl Henn, Hungerford

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