{"id":3204,"date":"2025-01-25T10:50:32","date_gmt":"2025-01-25T15:50:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/takomatorch.com\/index.php\/2025\/01\/25\/no-way-to-address-housing-crisis-says-county-that-makes-building-housing-impossible\/"},"modified":"2025-01-25T10:55:46","modified_gmt":"2025-01-25T15:55:46","slug":"no-way-to-address-housing-crisis-says-county-that-makes-building-housing-impossible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/takomatorch.com\/index.php\/2025\/01\/25\/no-way-to-address-housing-crisis-says-county-that-makes-building-housing-impossible\/","title":{"rendered":"‘No Way to Address Housing Crisis’ Says County That Makes Building Housing Impossible"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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MONTGOMERY COUNTY, MD – After years of expanding zoning restrictions, increasing development costs, and blocking bills aimed to increase housing production, county leaders have issued their most heartfelt statement yet on the region\u2019s escalating housing crisis: there\u2019s just no way to fix it.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re doing everything we can to address housing affordability,\u201d Elrich stated at a recent press conference, flanked by a model of a sprawling, six-bedroom single-family home. \u201cHousing prices are sky-high, rents are unaffordable, and young people are fleeing the area. But what more can we do? We\u2019ve already said we care.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elrich\u2019s steadfast opposition to “missing middle” development has led to the proliferation of what locals now dub \u201cMarcMansions.\u201d These massive single-family homes, starting at just $1.5 million, dominate the county\u2019s landscape, leaving little room for affordable multi-family housing. Critics have drawn comparisons to \u201cHoovervilles,\u201d the shantytowns of the Great Depression, noting that MarcMansions are a fitting tribute to the man whose policies have all but guaranteed housing scarcity in one of the wealthiest counties in the nation.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elrich dismissed such criticisms, saying, \u201cIf people can\u2019t afford to live here, they\u2019re always welcome to move to counties like Frederick or Prince George\u2019s. I hear that’s where our jobs are headed anyway.\u201d\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Councilmembers Will Jawando and Kristin Mink echoed Elrich\u2019s sentiments. \u201cWe\u2019ve had dozens of community listening sessions all over the county about the housing shortage, and the message is clear: Chevy Chase said ‘no.'”  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe real issue is these outlandish ideas to build apartments,\u201d said NIMBY Coalition spokesperson Cheryl Yardsworth, sipping kombucha in her 5,000-square-foot home. \u201cAffordable housing sounds nice until you realize it could be next to me. I didn\u2019t move into my MarcMansion to share my sunsets with someone in a duplex.\u201d\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Proposals to allow multi-family units near public transit or introduce accessory dwelling units have repeatedly been blocked by homeowner associations concerned about \u201cpreserving neighborhood character.\u201d When pressed for solutions, Elrich said the county was exploring \u201cinnovative ideas,\u201d such as hosting town halls to let residents voice why nothing should change.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite repeated promises to address housing, Montgomery County remains a bastion of exclusivity, where the average resident\u2019s solution to the housing crisis is \u201cmove somewhere else.\u201d But don\u2019t worry\u2014the county assures residents it will continue doing exactly what it does best: holding workshops, scheduling listening sessions, and then building more excuses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, MD – After years of expanding zoning restrictions, increasing development costs, and blocking bills aimed to increase housing production, county leaders have issued their most heartfelt statement yet on the region\u2019s escalating housing crisis: there\u2019s just no way to fix it.\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019re doing everything we can to address housing affordability,\u201d Elrich stated at…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3203,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,17],"tags":[400,403,1754,114,389,1836,1018,184,1830,724,836,208,183,516,264,95,701,482,1009,1251,1111,1101,551,24,969,970,1130,373,319,370,140,489,371,368,979,386,1838,1224,340,141,1789,490,1288,1807,537,1593,317,1848,189,501,993,640,1849,399,309,1837,1351,405,638,130,1733,339,6,116,805,581,94,98,162,1183,542,137,93,111,136,4,1397,1278,2,1771,719,718,716,104,38,387,967,615,313,406,115],"class_list":["post-3204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-local-news","tag-adu","tag-affordable-housing","tag-all-are-welcome-here","tag-amazon","tag-apartments","tag-attainable-housing","tag-baltimore","tag-bethesda","tag-bethesda-news","tag-bethesdafication","tag-build-more-housing","tag-building-permit","tag-chevy-chase","tag-cnn","tag-co-op","tag-comedy","tag-community-vision-takoma","tag-dc","tag-dc-humor","tag-dc-jokes","tag-dc-metro","tag-dc-news","tag-dc-politics","tag-dc-satire","tag-dmv","tag-dmv-news","tag-dmv-satire","tag-ebay","tag-elrich","tag-facebook","tag-fake-news","tag-funny","tag-gmail","tag-google","tag-google-news","tag-housing","tag-housing-crisis","tag-housing-shortage","tag-hulu","tag-humor","tag-joke","tag-jokes","tag-kristin-mink","tag-laugh","tag-local-news","tag-local-satire","tag-marc-elrich","tag-marcmansion","tag-maryland","tag-maryland-general-assembly","tag-maryland-news","tag-maryland-satire","tag-mcmansion","tag-missing-middle","tag-moco","tag-moco-housing","tag-moco-news","tag-moco-politics","tag-moco-satire","tag-montgomery-county","tag-montgomery-county-satire","tag-netflix","tag-news","tag-nimby","tag-olney","tag-onion","tag-parody","tag-political-satire","tag-politics","tag-r-maryland","tag-reddit","tag-rockville","tag-satire","tag-satirical-news","tag-silver-spring","tag-takoma","tag-takoma-humor","tag-takoma-news","tag-takoma-park","tag-takoma-park-humor","tag-takoma-park-news","tag-takoma-park-satire","tag-takoma-satire","tag-takoma-torch","tag-twitter","tag-urbanism","tag-virginia-satire","tag-washington-dc","tag-wheaton","tag-will-jawando","tag-yimby","wpcat-9-id","wpcat-17-id"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/takomatorch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/rdt_20250124_23270645938924005168346246189926169618170171.jpg?fit=1511%2C1004&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paPZSG-PG","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/takomatorch.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/takomatorch.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/takomatorch.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/takomatorch.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/takomatorch.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3204"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/takomatorch.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3204\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3205,"href":"https:\/\/takomatorch.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3204\/revisions\/3205"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/takomatorch.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/takomatorch.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/takomatorch.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/takomatorch.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}