The View from MVF...
At the May 22 MVF Board Meeting, MVF President John Driscoll made the following comments: “In November, the golf course will be closed and the future use of that space will not have been determined. The golf course going fallow is bad enough, but the uncertainty of how that space is going to be used is even worse. I believe that homes on the golf course which will be put on the market in the next six months will have lower market values because potential buyers will not know how the golf course space will be developed. It looks like they will have to wait for the Master Plan. Yes, Monument has developed a concept plan for that space, but we have no idea if that concept plan will be built. The breaking of the Montgomery Village Master Plan from East Gaithersburg is good for the Village, but the delay of the golf course development is bad for the Village. At the June Board meeting, I will ask the Board to allow me to press the County Council for a zoning text amendment that will allow Monument to go forward with the development of the golf course.”The Reality Check on MV Realty Prices.
Could it be that homes neighboring the golf course being sold over the next several years could have lower market values because THEY MAY LOSE THEIR BEAUTIFUL VIEWS AND PEACEFUL BACKYARDS? Could this happen ONLY if the MVF board and County Council support and approve this horrible concept plan to build 430 townhouses over all the fairways? So much for the views driving along Montgomery Village Ave. After Lake Whetstone it will resemble Route 27, with a potential Walmart move into the Village Center and hundreds of townhomes aka Clarksburg Village. This is supposed to help increase our property values?????
The “Bloom” marketing campaign claims that the new homes will somehow make our 40 year old homes look better in comparison. It will not. New homes in the middle of Montgomery Village will only make the surrounding area homes look even more old and shabby. Six seasoned real estate professionals stood up and told this to the MVF Board. This “bloom” is clearly fading, and could be renamed “Doom in Montgomery Village” if sustained.
Some members of the board have even claimed that the opposition to the development of the property comes from a small number of residents. This is also not true, since the Village Citizens organization is collecting a large number of signatures from village residents that oppose the current developer’s plans. At the April meeting the ratio of speakers opposed to the plan outnumbered those in favor of it by about 2:1. How many residents need to come tell the board that this is a bad idea before they start to listen to them instead of the development company?
Find out what's happening in Montgomery Villagefor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Legal Issues Remain.
The MVF Board continues to avoid the legal issues involved in changing the use of this property. They have not had a public discussion of the issues of Real Covenants, reciprocal negative easements, and how to compensate the neighboring residents and salvage some of the lost investment value that is being transferred to the builder that wants to change the usage rules for the land. The plans for our community clearly show a golf course. The builder built a golf course. The builder charged premium prices for golf-view homes. The county collected higher taxes on those homes. Undoing these conditions with a simplistic zoning change without compensation to the neighbors and residents is a transfer of wealth would not only be grossly unfair but a reckless breach of fiduciary responsibility and governance.
Get Involved! Make your View Heard!
Come to the MVF Board Meeting next Thursday June 26 and share your views. And if you think that the MVGC should not be developed, and hundreds of new townhomes and traffic should not be added to Montgomery Village, you can visit http://www.VillageCitizens.Org web site to add your name to their petition to limit growth smartly - to the village center instead!