moratorium!

Whoa. I might have to go home, walk over to Council President Marilyn Praisner's house and ask what's going on, because she just threw a moratorium on large development into the new County Council session that started yesterday. Yet earlier that day, while swearing in as County Executive, Ike Leggett said "the shouters have dominated the conversation [about growth] . . . It's time for us to banish from our lexicon shorthand words and phrases such as 'greedy developers' and 'NIMBYs.' "

What gives? We've decided not to cave in to either the pro- and anti-development crowds by calling a moratorium on development in the County? While still far from taking effect, the way Praisner's proposal works out is that projects as small as the expansion of this Giant at Plaza del Mercado would be put on hold through 2008. But what's stopping a grocery store do for Beltway traffic? For school crowding? For affordable housing in a County where the average new home costs nearly $500,000?

One day and we've already learned two things about the new Montgomery County Council: 1) that they are scared to death of Neighbors for a Better Montgomery and the NIMBY crowd (sorry, Ike) who dominated this year's elections, and 2) as a result, we're willing to throw a forty-year legacy of innovative planning aside to blindly follow the lead of Prince William and Loudoun counties, who also made efforts to stop growth yesterday.

But I think Nancy Floreen, one of three remaining council members from the "End Gridlock" slate, put it best:

"It's a political statement here, and I respect that," she said. "But the implications for affordable housing, for churches, is very significant, and without giving anyone any direction as to where we're going on this."

Crossposted at Just Up The Pike.