ezStorage
Preliminary Plan
Hearing Results
continued, page 2
Chairman Royce
Hanson:
“There is a difference … between
the use that is
indicated at the
time when the
Preliminary Plan
arrives … the
compatibility issue
for site plan are
more stringent than
… we make at
subdivision.”
Motion:
Commissioner Roberts made a
motion to accept the
recommendation of
the staff report as
amended by counsel.
Commissioner Joe Alfandre
seconded the motion
“with a real caveat.
It is one of
the last chances I
will have.
I am glad
that I haven’t lost
the desire to see
something good done
here.
At this point
am very worried that
this is not going to
happen.”
Commissioner John
Roberts:
“Self storage is really not an
automobile oriented
use because the
volume of cars that
come to it is very
low. …It is not a
pedestrian use for
sure. …It doesn’t do
anything to promote
retail. …It has faux
windows, not real
windows, and it is
not a pedestrian
use…”
“It is going to have a very hard
time at Site Plan
[review] even if it
can pass the
Preliminary purpose
of C2 zone.
If you can
count, it should be
clear to the
applicant that just
on zoning issues
before you it will
probably barely just
going to make it.”
Commissioner Jean
Cryor:
“I vote no and I would like to
explain my vote.
Mr.
Dalrymple,
you just finished
saying to us that we
must apply the law.
There is a
certain irony in all
of this today in
that if the people
had applied the law,
we would not be
looking at the
historic
significance of this
very area.
The law is
the law.
But what we
know about this area
is that people chose
to look and say ‘no,
this law [slavery]
is wrong’.
Everyone
sitting at this
table and in this
room knows that this
is inappropriate and
wrong for this
particular area.
Now, you can
go to court and you
can argue it and all
the rest of it.
In the final
analysis we all know
here it this is not
going to happen
because something
this
dumb is not going come into an area like this.
That I don’t
understand is how
you gentlemen
sitting here today,
listening to this,
wouldn’t turn to
each other and say
‘we ought to do
something else;
we’re smart enough
to figure out
something else to
do’.
To do
something that a
whole neighborhood
does not want, that
goes against
everything of this
area for decades and
decades and decades,
that goes all the
way back in our
country’s history,
at a time when we
are caught in the
history of the
United States
presidency at a time
that we have never
been before, and you
are here today -
this is your moment
to say ‘I hear the
voice of the past
and I am willing to
respond to it and we
will make change.
We will not
try to put an
ezStorage place in
such an historic
area.
We recognize
everything people
have said.’
It has not
been exaggerated
what they have said.
What you need to do
is to look in your
own heart, not look
into the law books.
Look in your
own heart and say
‘who is it I am?
what do I
want to do?
what do I
expect to do with
myself?’
This is your
decision.
Frankly, we
all know what is
going to happen: you
are going to come
back for site plan
and it is going to
be lots of struggle.
You know you
don’t have to do any
of that.
You can
stand up today and
say we heard it.
We heard the
voice of history and
we said to
ourselves:
We are
Americans. We are
going to do the
right thing on this.
You have a
chance to do this.
How many
times in a lifetime
are you going to
have a chance to do
a something like
that.
That’s the
most significant
thing that can
happen to you.”
Commissioner Amy
Presley:
“I also am opposed. …
I was going to claim
to the scrap of the
law that I could. …
I cannot possibly
find that this
substantially
conforms to the
Master Plan. …
When you come in and you try to
present something
and you are already
showing how to
disguise it, that
tells me that you
know that the thing
in its form doesn’t
belong where it is
or you wouldn’t have
to disguise it at
all.
So I think
it’s better for you
if I say no now
rather than waiting
until the site plan
to come back and
find out that
someone is going to
tell you that it has
to be chopped in
half, reconfigured,
retail added, and
all these other
things which you
have already
acknowledged this is
your smallest plan.
So it doesn’t
make any sense at
all and I am
opposed.”
Chairman Royce
Hanson:
“I think that this is just an
awful proposal.
You are sure you want to proceed
with this?”
C. Robert
Dalrymple:
“Mr.
Chairman, we have a
zoning system in
place in Montgomery
County and frankly
some of the comments
that I just heard to
me are shocking,
that I don’t have
the ability as a
zoning lawyer to pay
attention to the
laws of the county.
Yes, I am
sure we want to
proceed.”
Chairman Hanson:
“Very good.
I am going to
vote for the motion.
I do it with
the most
extraordinary
reluctance.
I do it
because I think that
it is necessary, in
this case, to
separate the
approval of the
subdivision and the
use from the
standards of
development that
will apply at Site
Plan.
I agree very
much with what
Commissioner Cryor
has said.
I believe
this is about as
unfortunate a use
for this property
that can be
imagined.
This is in a
very important
location in the
Sandy Spring/Ashton
area.
It will set
the tone for the
place.
And I think
that when we review
the site plan for
this, we are going
to have to be
extraordinarily
careful and we will
expect that the
issue of
compatibility with
the community, with
its historic
character, and with
its surrounding uses
will be attended to
with the utmost
care.
So, I think
it is our duty at
this point, given
what the law is, to
approve the
subdivision, but I
don’t want to have
any inference from
that decision that
that means a sort of
illustrative plan
presented today will
meet the necessary
standard of site
plan.
With that, the vote is 3 to 2 in favor of the
staff
recommendation.”
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