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Montgomery County Needs More Two-Family Houses
Grass-Roots Demand To Be Heard at County Council Hearing Tonight

Press release issued September 11, 2012

Broad public support for allowing more two-family houses in Montgomery County will emerge at tonight's County Council hearing on so-called “accessory apartments.”

The county currently has 180,000 single-family detached houses, but under the highly restrictive rules now in effect only 380 two-family homes have been approved. The legislation before the council would make it somewhat easier to divide a house into two units, but environmentalists and affordable housing advocates don't think it goes far enough.

“Shared housing, particularly near transit, benefits the environment,” said Ethan Goffman of the Montgomery County Sierra Club. “In today's difficult economy, accessory apartments are also a social boon. They will provide financial relief for individuals seeking to keep up their mortgage payments, thus lessening foreclosures.”

“The legislation takes a step forward by eliminating the onerous and expensive requirement that makes homeowners apply for a special exception,” said Ben Ross of the Action Committee for Transit. “But without additional changes, conversion to two-family houses will remain a practical impossibility for the great majority of homeowners.” ACT's written testimony includes a list of specific changes the group recommends.

The restrictions in the proposed legislation are also grossly unfair to tenants. “Renters in Montgomery County are already vulnerable enough to annual rent increases of any amount or eviction without just cause at the end of a lease term,” said Matt Losak, executive director of the Renters Alliance. “Do we really need to attack accessory apartment renters with outrageous forced eviction because they have a new baby or because their landlord is away on business for more than six months? We need laws that protect renter stability and security, not laws that force renters to live in constant fear of losing their homes.”

The Takoma Park City Council, in a resolution passed in June, endorsed the proposed liberalization of accessory apartment approvals. “There are many accessory apartments in Takoma Park,” said City Council member Seth Grimes, who supported the resolution. “They create an affordable housing option, close to transit, in a community that prides itself on the diversity of its population. The apartments and their residents are a community asset, including in the ward I represent, and I have never received a complaint connected to them.”

Tonight's hearing will begin at 7:30 at the County Council building in Rockville.