The group demanding the County Council put off its final Westbard Sector Plan vote for four weeks is planning to hold protests Friday and Saturday.
Save Westbard, which hosted a meeting of more than 250 people Sunday, is expecting between 75 and 100 people at 4 p.m. Friday and 10 a.m. Saturday in the large parking lot at the Westwood Shopping Center, a property likely to be redeveloped with new zoning in the sector plan.
Jeanne Allen, the group’s leader, said the group opposes even the pared-down version of the plan that won tentative approval from the County Council on March 22. That version, pushed by council member Roger Berliner, would allow a maximum of 1,213 new residential units to be built in the area over the next 30 years.
Allen said that amount is too much and Save Westbard is demanding a limit of 580 new units among other requests outlined in a letter to Council President Nancy Floreen:?
“A majority of the citizens and residents in the Westbard area oppose this plan,” Allen said. “We have to do more to make [council members] understand they are going to be held accountable if they go ahead with this.”
The council could hold its final vote on the plan as soon as its Tuesday session. The Save Westbard group has demanded the council allow four more weeks of review.
Allen also said many residents feel misrepresented by local civic and neighborhood associations that have been actively involved in the sector plan process since it started in fall 2014.
“The citizens and residents have really deferred a lot to people they thought were handling this and working on their behalf,” Allen said. “I think that the recognition that the associations were not working on their behalf is really when we increased our opposition.”
Equity One, the developer that hopes to redevelop the aging Westwood Shopping Center into a 250,000-square-foot retail center with townhomes, has said it plans to begin the project approval process quickly after the sector plan is approved.
The company held meetings with residents in which it outlined its plans in early 2014, before the county Planning Department began its work on the plan.
According to Save Westbard’s Facebook page, protesters are being asked to bring signs and wear red “to demonstrate that the community DOES NOT support the current Westbard plan. Demand that the Council listen to the people who elected them!”
Some residents of single-family neighborhoods around the shopping center have loudly denounced the idea of redevelopment on that site and other properties, arguing more density would ruin the suburban feel of the Westbard neighborhood, add students to already overcrowded schools and attract more traffic to River Road.
One November 2014 meeting devolved into residents shouting criticisms at county planners. During council public hearings in February, opponents urged the council to defund the Planning Board and implied council members were influenced by political contributions from developers.
Some residents in the area have openly supported Equity One’s plans, especially for the Westwood Shopping Center.
And while many opposed to the redevelopment have said county officials should listen to their concerns first and foremost, Planning Board Chairman Casey Anderson has said that’s not the Planning Department’s role.
