Planning board let crooked contractor off hook, homeowners say

After allowing widespread illegal development activity at Clarksburg Town Center and trampling local homeowners who fought the project, Montgomery County officials are now letting the crooked developers off the hook.

Neighbors aren't impressed with the county recently slapping the developers with token fines, saying officials are interested only in regulations and not in correcting their own lack of oversight.

"You cannot rectify what has gone wrong at Bethesda Crest, at Clarksburg and elsewhere, and you cannot deter this kind of misconduct in the future with that kind of self-imposed myopia," James Gilligan, a federal attorney and local citizens association member, told the Washington Times.

"Despite all the politicians' talk about reforming the planning process, today's decision ... shows that nothing has changed and that real reform is going to require new political leadership in Montgomery County," he said.