Mario Wawrzusin is exactly the kind of person the county has in mind when they talk about expanding the affordable housing program.
Housing costs are continuing to rise, and Wawrzusin, a social worker with the county Department of Health and Human Services, was finding himself with limited alternatives. “I had looked seriously at leaving the state of Maryland,” he said.
Then he found the affordable housing program and the units available in Potomac’s Avenel development. “It was a wonderful place for a Montgomery County person to live,” Wawrzusin said.
Montgomery County’s affordable housing program, sometimes called “MPDU,” for moderately priced dwelling units, started with a law passed in 1973 and amended several times since then.
The basics of the law are that any development of more than 35 housing units must include at least 12.5 percent of the units as affordable housing. In exchange for including the affordable housing, developers are granted a density bonus — the chance to build more units than the zoning of the area would normally allow — so that they don’t lose money on the project.
There are exceptions for zones with a density of one house per acre or less, and in some circumstances developers are permitted to “buy out” of the requirements, paying a fee in lieu of building the units.
Last year, several members of the County Council introduced pieces of legislation and proposed changes to the zoning code that would have changed the way the county administers the program.
Then-Council president Michael Subin (D-At large) thought it would be better to analyze the program as a whole so that the Council could see how the different pieces of legislation would interact.
A staff report was issued in February of this year, and Council member Nancy Floreen (D-At large) put forward a package of different legislative and zoning amendments she plans to introduce this summer.
Since the program started, 11,483 affordable units have been built, but as of the end of 2002, only 3,909 were still under price controls. By 2012, that number will drop to just over 1,500, according to the report.
Floreen, and the Council generally, say that it is important to act to preserve the existing stock and provide for the creation of more affordable units.
“We have families doubling up in parts of the county, and they don’t come to public hearings,” Floreen said.
Several of the changes Floreen is proposing are administrative and close loopholes. She is also proposing to curtail but not end the practice of buyouts, extend the price control period to 30 years from 10 years, and allow the Planning Board to consider affordable housing as a higher priority than environmental and zoning protections (see sidebars).
“This county is 80-percent constructed, so we’re talking around the edges here,” Floreen said.
ONE RESULT of the program is to distribute affordable housing units throughout the county, which is just what it is intended to do. “I think Montgomery County is an inclusive county,” Floreen said. “For anyone to start a sentence that says I do not want a schoolteacher living next to me, I do not want a firefighter living next to me, is an unacceptable sentence. … They are not evil people, and the world will not come to an end. The world will not come to an end if there is an attached unit.”
Some of those who live in affordable units feel that they have found growing acceptance in the community.
“I think I had a perceived notion, but I had to change that outlook myself,” said Edward Polite, a scattered site manager for the Housing Opportunities Commission, who lives in Avenel.
There are 60 affordable units in Avenel, 18 of which are rental, Polite said. At first he had a hard time adjusting to being in the proximity of the large houses in the development, but that has changed. “It was a little like culture shock in a sense,” Polite said.
At first he had the perception that his neighbors and the area school teachers were snubbing him, but that has subsided. “The more involved I got, the less I felt that way,” Polite said. “If I had not adjusted, I would have gone by now.”
“I don’t even think about it,” said Bela Shmirkin, one of Polite’s neighbors. Shmirkin and her husband, Mike, moved here from Russia in 1989. She teaches Russian to diplomats, and he is a salesman in an electrical supply company. She has met neighbors who live in other parts of the Avenel community while making use of the common areas and walking her dog. “They are very friendly,” Shmirkin said. “I don’t have a big house, but I have a friend who has a big house.”
Still, they find there are some problems with their more affluent neighbors. “Will we ever have a person from this community on the [Avenel governing board]? I don’t think so,” said John Gibson, a decorative-finish painter.
“You have some folks that cannot adjust to the difference,” Polite said.
THE MPDU OWNERS have been able to adjust, they said. Wawrzusin pointed to his neighbors seated around the table at Polite’s home, people whose children are Eagle Scouts, and had the opportunity to sing at Constitution Hall during Churchill High School’s graduation. “Overall, I’ve just seen a lot of young people growing,” he said. “This neighborhood has brought to Potomac diversity and talent.”
Wawrzusin himself has participated in cleaning up the Potomac River, he said. “We’ve done a lot for the community. It’s nice to see that we’re a part of the community.”
When the 10-year price control period has ended at Avenel, the houses will be worth far more than the $100,000 they sold for initially.
“They’re very nice brick, colonial homes,” said Bob Moorman of W.C. and A.N. Miller Realtors. “I think the values there are good. … There’s absolutely nothing tainted about them.”
Moorman said that townhouses and condominiums in the area sell for $700,000 to $800,000.