National authority calls county zoning laws 'a mess'

Former Montgomery County Planning Board Chairman Royce Hanson, a nationally recognized expert and the father of MoCo's land-use policy, calls the county's zoning laws "a mess" and says they must be changed. He also urged the council to update the zoning laws.

(Note: County officials reportedly have waived the building height and density restrictions on the Seven Locks Elementary School yard on the corner of Seven Locks and Bradley Boulevard in Bethesda, in apparent preparation for a long-planned but officially unacknowledged high-density housing project. Under the still-secret plan, the land would be re-zoned despite neighborhood opposition.)