Photo courtesy Exclusive Sports Group
The Montgomery County Department of Transportation is making final preparations to begin work on the Hoyles Mill MARC station project. Utilizing land around the Boyds MARC commuter rail station, including the Anderson property the County acquired for this purpose, several upgrades and amenities will be added to the station. These include construction of a new parking lot, a new Ride On bus loop, sidewalks, a shared-use path, and restrooms for bus drivers. The current parking lot has only 15 spaces that typically fill up fast in the morning; the new lot will provide 55 spaces for commuters, as well as new bicycle parking spots.
In addition to the station improvements, the historic Hoyles Mill structure will be stabilized. It is essentially a ruin, but stabilization is needed to insure it doesn't collapse. Montgomery County has received a total of $590,000 in grants from state agencies for this purpose. According to the Library of Congress, much of the mill's sheathing and internal machinery remain intact, and it is one of a few timber-frame mills that remain standing in Montgomery County.
Overall, the goal of the project is to encourage more ridership for MARC from the Germantown and Clarksburg areas. Massive development was allowed in both, but the County Council engaged in a rug pull with new homebuyers who had expected to commute via a new Corridor Cities Transitway rail line, and M-83 Highway. After they purchased their homes, the Council pulled the plug on both projects. The Hoyles Mill MARC station project was approved in 2019, and is only now moving forward.
Delrio has been charged with four counts of peeping Tom, four counts of visual surveillance with prurient intent in a private area, and other related charges. He is free on $5000 bond.
The known peeping Tom incidents were recorded in the store's dressing rooms between May and August of 2025. Detectives believe there may be additional victims. They are asking anyone who shopped at the Banana Republic Factory Store between May 2025 and August 2025 and may have been a victim of Fabio Delrio to call the 4th District Investigative Section at (240) 773-5530, or to visit the Crime Solvers of Montgomery County, MD website at www.crimesolversmcmd.org and click on the “www.p3tips.com” link at the top of the page or call 1-866-411-8477.
Police describe the suspects only as three Black males of unknown age. If you have any information that could assist detectives in closing this case, call police at (301) 279-8000.
When the two fought back, the suspect drew a knife and stabbed one of the them. Police used a drone to search the area, and located the suspect. Alexis Alfaro, 16, of Silver Spring was arrested without incident, police say. He has been charged as an adult in the case. Alfaro was transported to the Montgomery County Central Processing Unit, where he is awaiting a bond hearing.
Around 3:00 PM Friday, a massive explosion was heard - and seen - in front of 7944 Norfolk Avenue in Bethesda. One witness saw a bright flash, and noted that power lines on nearby blocks were shaking. The explosion was so big that Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Services were dispatched to the scene, but according to witnesses, departed after finding no ongoing fire. Another nearby resident told me that the lights in their apartment blinked, but power remained on. Many others were not so lucky, as you can see in the Pepco outage map shown here.
Along with frequent power outages and transformer explosions in downtown Bethesda, where thousands of new residential units have been approved and constructed under the 2017 Bethesda Downtown sector plan, the Westbard area has been impacted by ongoing brownouts and power outages. The latter began in 2017, which coincided with the redevelopment of the "Westwood Complex" properties that was approved a year earlier, in the Westbard sector plan.
We've also seen increased flooding during heavy rains in downtown Bethesda, Westbard, and White Flint, which County officials have tried to blame on "climate change." In fact, it is those very Planning staff members, Planning Commissioners, and County Councilmembers who are personally responsible for the flooding - which has been fatal, in some tragic cases - because they approved the massive development and reduction of green space that has increased runoff countywide.
All of these problems stem not simply from developer greed, but from County government not placing limits and protections on that greed in the planning process. You can't blame developers for seeking the moon, if they can get it - that's their job. It is the planners, Planning Commissioners, and County Councilmembers who are tasked with protecting their constituents.
Instead, we've seen planners and commissioners who represent development interests fully take over the planning process. And developers in the Montgomery County cartel have controlled a majority of County Council seats since 2002, when they funded the "End Gridlock" slate. Today, we have a Council where all 11 members have taken varying degrees of money from developers. Not surprisingly, the Council's planning agenda has mirrored that of the developers who funded their victorious campaigns.
The approach can be summed up with a childish analogy. Developers - and the elected, appointed, and hired officials they support above and below the table - are skipping the vegetables, and going right to the chocolate cake every time. That all-sweets diet has understandably impacted the health and quality of life in our communities. Instead of doing the hard work of providing the infrastructure for the growth being proposed, our officials are simply approving all the growth, and not requiring those who are profiting from that growth to fund the infrastructure upgrades it requires.
Longtime residents know that developer-beholden officials have been a major factor in the economic, environmental, and quality-of-life decline over the first quarter of this century. Those engaged enough to pay attention can keep complaining about it - or we can actually do something about it. Here are just a few action items to consider:
1. Virtually every town, city, and county has an adequate public facilities ordinance. Montgomery County's is clearly in-adequate. It needs to be beefed up considerably. An APFO doesn't limit growth, it simply ensures that the private companies profiting from that growth pick up the tab for the infrastructure their new development demands: electric grid and sewer capacity upgrades, new classrooms, new social services, new police and fire facilities and equipment, etc. Right now, the majority of those costs - like the taxes the Council increasingly exempts developers from - are being pushed off onto the backs of residents in the form of higher property taxes and higher utility bills.
2. Stop the planning-to-profit revolving door. The Council should pass a law preventing planning staff and commissioners from accepting jobs with development companies and real estate law firms for at least 5 years after leaving their County position.
3. Vote smarter. Do you vote somebody else's ballot on Election Day, a ballot that represents someone else's interests, instead of your own? Think about it. The rotten Apple Ballot represents the interests of the powerful teacher's union, which along with developers and other cartel members, is bankrupting the County finances. Endorsements by The Washington Post editorial board reflect the interests of developers, who not only purchase massive amounts of ads in the Post every week, but have actually bought multiple properties from the Post itself, which has profited from those real estate transactions. The Post, in effect, is engaged in property development itself.
Instead, vote YOUR ballot, that represents YOUR interests. The interests of you, your children and grandchildren, your neighborhood, your business.
Do your research. Find out which candidates are funded by developers, and pay attention to which candidates are calling for responsible growth, and which are calling for unlimited growth unsupported by new infrastructure. The developer-funded candidates can often be identified by their use of terms like "abundance," "housing now," "missing middle," "inclusionary zoning," "redlining," "attainable housing," "social justice," "activity centers," "resilience," "growth corridors," "mix of housing," "Thrive 2050," "a variety of housing types," "equity," "duplexes," "triplexes," "quadplexes," and "parking minimums." That final phrase is utilized in calling for those parking minimums to be done away with to expand developer profits, not the enforcement of such adequate parking space requirements.
Remember, the County Council not only determines who sits on the Planning Board, but also controls the budget of the Planning Department. So, while it cannot regulate who is hired by the department or the policies it puts in front of the Board for approval, it can defund the Planning Department if it pushes policies that are contrary to the public interest.
4. Public financing reform. Currently, developer contributions to those Council candidates using the County's "public" financing system get matched by you, the taxpayer. Does that sound fair to you?
Corrupt users and supporters of the current "public" financing system will tout the "small contributions" that are fueling their campaigns with "people power." What they won't tell you, is that a massive number of those "small contributions" are coming from developers, development attorneys, and their family members. This is a huge advantage, as those candidates can take a great haul in checks from those development interests, and then they receive a matching amount from the pot of taxpayer money that has been budgeted for "public" financing.
Real public financing not only would not allow such outsize developer involvement, but would give every participating candidate at least some respectable amount of money to campaign with, instead of rewarding corrupt candidates who are backed by deep-pocketed development interests with six-figure payouts from the taxpayer. The current system represents a brilliant move by developers and their puppet candidates to force you to fund their campaigns.
No suspect is in custody at this time. Detectives are urging anyone with information regarding this case to contact Crime Solvers of Montgomery County. Tips can be submitted anonymously at www.crimesolversmcmd.org by clicking the "Submit a Tip" link, or by calling 1-866-411-TIPS (8477). Tips leading to an arrest may be eligible for a reward ranging from $250 to $10,000.
The first two attempts to break down a rear door of the building failed. On Tuesday, at 3:38 PM, one or more suspects used a rock to bend and damage the bottom of the back door of their facility at 23810 Stringtown Road. They then pried the door open and entered. A second rear door and window were then opened by the intruder(s).
A stapler was used to vandalize two tables, and items were scattered about. So far, detectives and staff have determined that 10 pairs of size 12 basketball shoes were stolen. Clarksburg Closet will have to pay for the repair of the rear door.
Because all of the attempted and successful break-ins occurred between 3:30 and 4:00 PM, and based on evidence of litter indicating juveniles were loitering on the premises outside the building after-hours, the staff believes juveniles may be behind the incidents.
If you can help identify anyone who may have been involved with the break-ins, email info@clarksburgcloset.org, or call police at (301) 279-8000.
Passage of this Master Plan will drive the stake through the heart of M-83, and confirm that once again County officials were lying through their teeth when they promised all stakeholders and residents of the Upcounty that they would deliver the infrastructure needed to support the massive housing development they had proposed for rural Clarksburg and Damascus. As we all know, all of the new housing was approved and constructed. But none of the supporting elements were.
No M-83 Highway. No Corridor Cities Transitway light rail. And no high-wage jobs. All of these items were mandatory, but the Council didn't deliver a single one.
Now the Council is poised to throw away something that, frankly, is not theirs to discard. The highway project, and its right-of-way, belong to the taxpayers of Montgomery County. Planners are giddy to note in the Master Plan materials online that the County may not only remove the highway from the plan, but give the land away for free to the Councilmembers' developer sugar daddies. They've done this many times before, giving away public rights-of-way to developers via a "Declaration of No Further Need" abandonment.
A right-of-way is simply too valuable to waste. The Council is free to go down in history as the deranged and corrupt elected officials responsible for worsening traffic congestion, increased emissions from cars idling in traffic jams, and increased response times for police and fire calls by canceling an essential highway. It won't be the first time, as the Council already canceled the equally-long-planned new Potomac River crossing, the Northwest Freeway, the North Central Freeway, the Rockville Freeway, the Montrose Parkway East, and the Northern Parkway.
But a right-of-way is not theirs to give away. They have a responsibility to preserve it in total. No one can predict the needs of the future. Whether it is a road, or a railway, or some form of transportation or use we haven't even imagined yet, these are the scenarios for which smart governments obtain rights-of-way at great cost. Believe it or not, Montgomery County long ago had smart government.
This Master Plan draft represents a double betrayal of the public trust, first and foremost the trust of residents in Clarksburg, Damascus, and Goshen. People bought houses in Clarksburg and Damascus with the expectation of the M-83 and CCT providing viable options for commuting to the Shady Grove Metro station and beyond. Only to find the Planning Board and County Council pulling the rug out from under them after they had taken on their mortgage, and paid all the hefty fees and taxes to the County. But it is also the latest betrayal by the Council of one of its chief charges, stewardship of County assets and resources, which include planned highways and expensively-obtained rights-of-way. Canceling the M-83 is, quite simply, highway robbery.
