Following a three-year battle with Montgomery County over the requirement to build what Jim Welebir called a “sidewalk to nowhere,” Welebir got his way.
So did the homeowners who opposed the proposed sidewalk on Democracy Boulevard, and the citizens nearby who liked the idea of letting Welebir redirect the funds to a long-sought-after sidewalk project on River Road near the U.S. Post Office.
Just about everyone got what they wanted — which was Welebir’s original point.
The county had asked Welebir to provide a 200-foot stretch of sidewalk on Democracy between Falls Road and Sorrel Avenue as a condition tied to a 2002 subdivision there in which Welebir was a business partner. The sidewalk would not have run along the frontage of the two houses created by the subdivision and would not be connected to or linked any existing sidewalks. It would have required significant regrading and unsightly, disruptive construction, Welebir said, without providing any benefit.
Welebir sought a waiver from the Department of Permitting Services, which enforces such construction requirements, and offered to instead direct the approximately $5,000 that the sidewalk would have cost to help fund the River Road sidewalk or to a general fund for needed sidewalk improvements. County officials repeatedly said that no mechanism to allow such a transfer exists.
Following a story reported in the Almanac last month, [“Sidewalk Offer Exposes Inefficiencies,” May 4-10,] Welebir was granted the waiver and the county has moved to create a framework for such transfers in the future.
IN A MAY 27 letter signed by Joseph Cheung, manager of right of way permitting and plan review at Permitting Services, the county agreed to allow the waiver in exchange for a $4,502 payment from Welebir. “These funds will be deposited in the county’s sidewalk capital improvement program,” Cheung said in the letter. “We will be meeting with DPWT staff in the field with the intent of having these funds used towards constructing a sidewalk on River Road west of Falls Road between the Post Office and the Chevy Chase Bank.”
“There’s no reason if we did it here that we can't do it in other places,” said Sarah Navid, a permitting services specialist who had worked on Welebir’s waiver request. “It seemed like it was a real technicality.”
Navid said that she expects the county will work with its legal counsel to establish a framework to allow such agreements in the future, either where the money is directed to a specific project or to a general improvement fund.
“We basically changed the development rules for sidewalks in Montgomery County,” Welebir said, adding that agreements like the one he finally reached are not unusual elsewhere.
“It’s done all over the country,” he said. “In fact Fairfax County has something called the contribution to the watershed … where basically the money is contributed to a general fund to help take care of storm drainage issues.”
Asked if he had learned anything from the three-year experience, Welebir joked, “Yeah, don’t do business in Montgomery County.”
But Welebir also praised Cheung for bringing the deal to fruition. “Joe is probably one of the most decent people in this county. … He understands it, he’s always responsive, and he finds a way to make things work,” Welebir said. “That waiver would have been in the quagmire forever if he hadn’t gotten it out.”
“[Welebir] is happy, the residents who didn’t need the sidewalk I assume are happy and the residents in the area — [they’re happy] that money can be somewhere else,” Navid said.