The Slumburban Asphalt Jungle

This Wednesday we were treated to a Washington Post article with a photo featuring a familiar sight from Connecticut Avenue Estates here in west Wheaton:  an ugly parking slab that used to be a front yard.

The Post article covers the county’s proposed measure to prohibit people from converting their lawns into paved parking lots.  Here’s an excerpt:

“The Montgomery County Council began considering a proposal [on Monday, May 4] by County Executive Isiah Leggett (D) to limit pavement in front yards and restrict who could park there.  Violators could be fined as much as $500 a day for each offense, potentially rising to $750 a day for repeat offenders.  No matter how small your lot, however, you would always be allowed to have at least 310 square feet of pavement, enough for two short, tightly parked cars.

The proposal also would forbid parked vehicles on grass in the front yard, forcing drivers to either park on pavement, gravel or stone in the yard or park on the street.  But it doesn't mention the back yard, which means that still could be paved over in most single-family neighborhoods.”

—“Montgomery Council Considers Limits on Front Yard Pavement,” Washington Post, May 6, 2009

What the article doesn’t mention is that people here often pave over their front lawns so they can cram more renters/boarders in these houses.  Residential overcrowding is rampant in Connecticut Avenue Estates.

For example, my next-door neighbor uses her house as a cut-rate motel and dive lounge with cheap beer and cheaper music.  Her “patrons” rely on her ample parking lot to store their wheels while they carouse at her tacky slumburban dive.  They can fit four vehicles in her lot, but they often manage to accommodate six when they park in front of our lot as well.

A fair number of households have four to six automobiles, a lot of which are large vehicles, such as work vans and trucks.  Many of them are commercial/company vehicles, often unmarked.

The county has had so many complaints about oversized vehicles in residential neighborhoods that MCPD will start enforcing a new code prohibiting street parking of oversized vehicles starting on July 1, as mentioned in the article.  But before you start plotting to flag your obnoxious neighbor’s pickup or van, you should know that this covers only very large commercial and recreational vehicles, with gross vehicle weight (GVW) of 10,000 lbs. or greater, measuring at least 8 feet high and 21 feet long.  (For details on the new law, click here [PDF, 238K].)

As far as the Post article and comments in reaction to the county’s consideration of the measure, I was somewhat surprised at the passionate “don’t-tread-on-me” style mini-diatribes defending the right to pave over one’s patch of suburbia.

All I can say is that neighborhoods like Connecticut Avenue Estates make HOAs look very attractive.  I realize how arbitrary and inflexible these groups can be, but it’s a slippery slope to slumburbia, and libertarianism works much better out in the wilderness.

In the article’s comments section, Aspen Hill blogger Thomas Hardman eloquently articulates the position of residents like me:

Thank GOD!

In the recent District 4 Special Election, this was the cry that I delivered for Aspen Hill, the cry against people who cut down all of their trees, pave their yards, and illegally park their work fleets on their paved yard, and give the neighborhood the appearance of an industrial park illegally renting out their shop spaces to families of illegal aliens.

It is an offense to the neighbors, to the neighborhood, to the Chesapeake Bay watersheds, and to the aquifers under Maryland.

It has to stop.

Thank you, Montgomery Council.

If you learn nothing from this Special Election, learn this:

Stop PAVING MONTGOMERY.  Stop trying to PAVE the BAY.

I leave you with my own photographic illustration of the phenomenon of paved front lawns.  This is a section of Valleywood Drive in Connecticut Avenue Estates.  Here we have three different parking lot substrates in front of four different homes.  During the height of summer this area is an unwelcome miniature heat island.  Valleywood Drive runs right next to a stream that is part of the Rock Creek watershed.

The county council will hold a public hearing on this issue on Tuesday, June 9 at 7:30 p.m. at the Council Office Building (100 Maryland Avenue, Rockville 20850).  The measure under consideration is called “ZTA 09-03, Home Occupations and Residential Off-street Parking.”  To give testimony, call 240-777-7931.