Urgent: Council to Vote on Limiting Your Time to Present Your Case to OZAH

The Council is to vote on Tuesday on a proposed amendment to the OZAH Rules of Procedure. (the proposal to amend Rule 4.2 e) will  authorize the Hearing Examiner to limit the amount of time for parties’ case presentations. 

 OZAH is the Office of Zoning and Administrative Hearings. It is where you go to present your case when something is proposed that will effect you in the county- like a commercial business next to your home in a residential area or a cell tower in your front yard. 

It is not unusual that there are multiple parties (individuals and organizations) in opposition to an application and limiting the total amount of time for the presentation of ALL opposition testimony/evidence to the total amount of time used by the applicant will cut short the amount of time that individual opposition parties will have to present their different perspectives and issues.


The Council will consider adopting the new OZAH rule on Tuesday, and we urge you to contact the Council ASAP in opposition to this rule change.  

Email them at 
Councilmember.Berliner@montgomerycountymd.gov,councilmember.Leventhal@montgomerycountymd.gov,Councilmember.Navarro@montgomerycountymd.gov,Councilmember.Hucker@montgomerycountymd.gov,Councilmember.Katz@montgomerycountymd.gov,Councilmember.Elrich@montgomerycountymd.gov

You can say-- 

Dear Council Member:

You six stood up for the right of citizens to be heard last Tuesday, when you voted that all new cell tower placement in residential areas be treated as a "conditional use" so citizens would have the right to speak at hearings.   Thank you so much for that!

Now it looks as if there is an effort to undermine what we won, by changing the rules at such hearings to restrict the power of our voices.   Please vote against the proposed amendment to rule 4.2 e for OZAH hearings.   This would affect the power of citizens to speak out not only on cell towers, but on almost any proposed development or zoning change.   Sometimes there are multiple parties which have concerns, for many different reasons, and their collective time to speak should not be severely limited as if they had only one voice, and deserved no more time than the applicant has to make its case.     

If you are concerned that the process might become too unwieldy, then at least to take some time to consider more of a scalpel approach, and you should also hold hearings before making any rule change of this magnitude.   Thank you.

Read the proposed new rule here. 

TAKE ACTION NOW
 Email AND Call the Council NOW, leave messages on their message machine so their inbox is filled. Click here to use MC4T's easy tool to send letters to your Councilmembers. 

CALL THE COUNCIL NOW- TODAY

Nancy Floreen D - At - Large, 240-777-7959
Councilmember.Floreen@montgomerycountymd.gov

Hans Riemer D - At - Large, 240-777-7964
Councilmember.Riemer@montgomerycountymd.gov

George Leventhal D - At - Large, 240-777-7811
Councilmember.Leventhal@montgomerycountymd.gov

Roger Berliner D - District 1, 240-777-7828
Councilmember.Berliner@montgomerycountymd.gov

Sidney Katz D - District 3, 240-777-7906
Councilmember.Katz@montgomerycountymd.gov

Nancy Navarro D - District 4, 240-777-7968
Councilmember.Navarro@montgomerycountymd.gov

Craig Rice D - District 2, 240-777-7955
Councilmember.Rice@montgomerycountymd.gov

Marc Elrich D - At - Large, 240-777-7966
Councilmember.Elrich@montgomerycountymd.gov

Tom Hucker D - District 5, 240-777-7960
Councilmember.Hucker@montgomerycountymd.gov