§ 2-136. Findings and declaration of public purpose.

It is hereby found and declared that Montgomery County, the State of Maryland, and other public agencies operating within Montgomery County face very large and continuing expenditures for the provision of highways, schools, health centers, rapid transit lines and stations, and other public facilities to serve a growing population; that the benefits and costs of such major public facilities may be significantly affected by securing the orderly, planned development of land adjacent to those public facilities; that the costs and benefits at issue are (1) efficiency and economy in the provision of public services, both in capital cost and in operating cost, by means of the functional use and usefulness of the public facility plus the impact of the facility upon the overall land and facility development pattern proposed in the general plan of the county, and (2) attractiveness and amenity of the physical environment, and (3) growth in the local economy and tax base. It is further found and declared that these benefits derived from orderly development adjacent to public facilities can be secured much more reliably by a process whereby land adjacent to the proposed public facility is purchased at the time that land for the facility itself is acquired, a site plan is prepared for the public facility and the adjacent land together, and the adjacent land made available at the proper time for private development according to that plan; and that the acquisition of private property for such public facility area development projects is necessary and is hereby declared to be for a public purpose. (1968, ch. 607, § 1; 1970, ch. 471, § 1.)