Response to My Howard County Times Letter

Angela Beltram, former County Council member, responded to my letter to the editor from last week.  If you take a look at the comments to that letter posted here, you'll see several of the same points raised as are in Angela's letter.  I responded to the commenter by thanking them for the well-reasoned response.  I'll say the same here as well.  There's reasonable discourse to be had on the subject.

At the risk of being redundant - probably too late for that - my response is consistent with my position.  We agree that CB58 is reflective of a busted process for managing land use and zoning regulations in the County.  In order to fix a busted process, the citizens have to do one of two big things: (1) somehow lobby the Council and the Executive to implement reform and a countywide commerical master plan (not just Route 40 Corridor, or New Town, etc) or (2) elect other persons into positions of power that desire the same transparency we seem to both seek.

My concern with Mr. Norman and Ms. Beltram's approach is that the referendum is simply too piecemeal to achieve the larger goal.  I understand it is perceived as a valuable weapon when it comes to dealing with one particular piece of legislation, and that is why it is trying to be employed.  

The problem is that this has not been and will not be the only battle waged in the war to have better commerical land use practices in the County.  A successful CB58 referendum would not be a Waterloo for transparency.  It would just become one in a series of battles that Ms. Beltram has tried to lead down the path of referendum with mixed success.  It seems ineffective, then, to keep firing from the same gun if it rarely hits the target.  As a weapon on the subject of land use, the referendum is fairly weak.

If Howard County citizens really want to pursue change in their government, then you change the people that govern and the processes by which they govern.  Since it does not appear that the processes are likely to change given the current people governing, it would seem that the citizens should pursue changing the people that govern first.  

Like I said, I understand why referendum supporters feel like they have just one weapon at their disposal.  The problem is that this perspective is short-sighted and untrue.  

I may be thinking from too holistic of a perspective, though.  Perhaps the supporters of the referendum prefer a piecemeal fighting tactic in the hopes that they can target specific zoning changes that they dislike.  Maybe they would prefer to work within the busted system that they know than risk replacing it with a comprehensive system that may fall short of their expectations and ideals.