We can't keep growing like this

I am a resident of the small community of Garret Park, adjacent to White Flint. I am greatly troubled how 17,000 new dwelling units will affect our small town.

I have lived in the county for 75 years. I was fortunate to grow up in the 1930s and 1940s when I believe the quality of life here was far superior than it is today.

I am especially troubled that our politicians and planners appear to assume that unlimited growth is both good and inevitable. They establish commissions and committees to study how to cope with problems associated with growth.

I suggest that a commission made up of thoughtful and well-informed county residents be established to study and recommend what is an optimal, sustainable population for Montgomery County and what steps might be taken to achieve it.

Doesn't common sense suggest that we cannot grow forever?

Calvin B. Baldwin Jr., Garrett Park

While I miss the days when Bethesda was more or less a village, I realize we have to give in to progress, but enough is enough.

Each week, The Gazette runs stories on how the County Council, the Planning Board, etc., give in to the developers allowing them†go bigger and bigger.

In a July 30 article, a representative of the company that owns White Flint Plaza said that developers need to be able to build large projects in order to contribute to the new infrastructure, such as roads and parks."

What?†Build bigger so we can get better roads?†What kind of logic is that? How many people do†they want to cram into this county?

Is the objective to build†as many condos and office buildings as possible? Soon we'll look like Tokyo, where the only way to build is up. And those "parks" will†fit only on the rooftops of buildings.†

My kids joke when they see an empty area with trees on it: "Don't tell anybody!†Someone will†knock them down and†put in another office building!"†

Carolyn White, Bethesda