Board
SILVER SPRING – After reviewing an analysis from their planning staff and hearing testimony from the applicant and scores of residents, the Montgomery County Planning Board last night recommended denial of a proposed special exception to allow a 16-pump Costco gas station at the Westfield Wheaton Mall. The Board will forward its recommendations to the Hearing Examiner for a hearing and a final decision by the county Board of Appeals.
A special exception permits a use that is not allowed by right in a given zone, but may be approved if certain conditions are met. The public hearing by the Hearing Examiner is scheduled for March 11, 15, 18 and 22.
Planning Board members, voting 3-2 to recommend denial of the special exception request, stated that a large gas station would run counter to the one of the main goals of the Wheaton Sector Plan, which is to encourage transit-oriented development. Led by Commissioner Casey Anderson, who made the motion to recommend denial, a majority of the Board agreed that the Costco gas station encouraged automobile use and development tied to vehicular travel rather than moving toward making development compatible with the Wheaton Metro station and planned rapid transit lines.
Anderson said transit is “the cornerstone” of the sector plan, which sets zoning, land use and outlines a 15-year vision for how Wheaton should grow and change. “We’re trying to go toward transit-oriented development, not away from it,” he said. Although the sector plan did not change most of the mall’s commercial zoning, Anderson said a mega-gas station near the new Costco store would nevertheless run contrary to the plan’s overall vision and goals by emphasizing car use.
Staff had recommended denial of the special exception request because, they said, the proposed gas station had the potential to create adverse health impacts for nearby residents due to the gas station’s location, size and the expected queuing of vehicles at the pumps. After researching air quality and other data, planners concluded that the applicant underestimated the health risks to nearby residents, citing the potential for idling vehicles to create a hot spot of emissions.
Of the approximately 50 people who testified before the Board last night, the majority requested that the application be denied. Many of those testifying were parents of students at the nearby Stephen Knolls School concerned about the respiratory health of their children. Those in support of the special exception said it would save car trips because they would not have to drive as far to fill up their tanks with discounted gas.
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SILVER SPRING – Starting September 10, the Montgomery County Planning Board will begin an ambitious schedule of worksessions and public sessions to consider the proposed revision of the Montgomery County Zoning Ordinance. The staff will present a consolidated draft of the Zoning Rewrite in sections to the Board from September through the end of the year, with opportunities for public input along the way.
Download the consolidated draft and review the Board schedule.
Throughout the fall, the Board will hold a number of sessions on the draft revisions to the Zoning Code. At public sessions, staff will provide a brief overview, followed by an opportunity for audience input. The Planning Board will then hold worksessions at which they will discuss the draft and any submitted public comments. All meetings are open to the public, and feedback is encouraged at the Zoning Rewrite Project’s online comment board.
The revisions are part of a multi-year effort to rewrite the Zoning Code to modernize antiquated, redundant zoning regulations and create new tools to help achieve goals in community plans. The rewrite effort aims to make the code easier to use. Last rewritten in 1977, the 1,200-page code is viewed as inconsistent and outdated. The revised code is expected to reduce the number of zones, clarify what uses are permitted in each zone, and rethink 1950s-era commercial strips and office parks.
After the Planning Board completes its review, the draft Zoning Code Rewrite will be transmitted to the County Council for consideration in 2013.
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In Last Session Before Summer Recess, Montgomery County Planning Board Approves Far-Reaching Plans
SILVER SPRING – In one of its most action-filled and significant meetings of the year, the Planning Board last week approved a countywide growth management policy, a neighborhood plan for Burtonsville and guidelines for implementing a new mixed-use zone.
At its July 26 meeting, the Board also approved five development applications, including a 470-unit project in the Great Seneca Science Corridor area west of Gaithersburg. Learn more about the meetintg.
By law, the Board must deliver a draft of the Subdivision Staging Policy (SSP), formerly called the Growth Policy, to the County Council by August 1 of every fourth year. The SSP manages growth by setting policies and establishing infrastructure tests to ensure transit service, roads and schools keep pace with development.
The 2012-2016 SSP differs from previous growth policies by introducing a new Transportation Policy Area Review test, which calculates the effects of new development over different periods on transit and roads. The transportation test analyzes congestion and provides tools to match improvements of transit service and/or road capacity with the needs of development.
The County Council will review the policy in September worksessions and act on a new countywide policy in November. The policy will both set payment rates for developers as well as standards for determining whether transportation and schools are adequate in each of the county’s 32 policy areas.
Also at the meeting, the Board approved its draft of a vision for the Burtonsville Crossroads and sent that plan to the Council for review. The plan emphasizes a complete community with a main street, public green and village center while retaining the area’s rural character in the community’s northern tier. The plan envisions a mix of uses in the town center and connections that move local traffic and encourage walking and cycling. It also recommends new mixed-use zoning, a series of street and trail connections, and parks and open space to protect the headwaters of the Patuxent River.
Planners develop master and sector plans to create a framework for each community designed to last 15 to 20 years. Those visions help planners and policy-makers – such as the Planning Board and County Council – develop land use strategies and decide on proposed development.
The Commercial Residential Zones approved last fall are designed to allow a mix of uses to encourage jobs and services where people can live, work, shop and play within a given neighborhood. Planners wrote implementation guidelines for developers building in the CR Zone that will bring about dynamic building projects, handsome streetscapes, public spaces and affordable housing.
The Board approved the new document, which establishes guidelines that detail the standards and requirements for public benefits such as affordable housing or public art, on July 26.
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SILVER SPRING – Since October 2010, planners have been revising sections of the Montgomery County Zoning Ordinance as drafts for consideration by county officials, residents and members of an advisory panel. The revisions are part of an ambitious effort to rewrite the Zoning Code to modernize antiquated, redundant zoning regulations and create new tools to help achieve goals in community plans.
Now, planners have released a consolidated draft that combines all of those sections and addresses many of the comments received so far. Their goal: to solicit more input before taking a revised draft of the Zoning Rewrite to the Planning Board for consideration in September and throughout the fall.
Download the consolidated draft at or review a reference copy at the Park and Planning Headquarters Information Counter, the Silver Spring Regional Center, the Mid-County Regional Center or the following libraries: Marilyn J. Praisner (Fairland), Rockville Memorial, Germantown, and Davis. Feedback is encouraged at the Zoning Rewrite Project’s comment board.
The rewrite effort aims to make the Zoning Code easier to use. Last rewritten in 1977, the current 1,200-page code is viewed as inconsistent and outdated. The revised code – which will be considered by the Planning Board in a number of work sessions before going to the County Council for review early in 2013 – is expected to reduce the number of zones, clarify what uses are permitted in each zone, and rethink 1950s-era commercial strips and office parks.
The draft Zoning Code covers what’s permitted in each zone, how one can build, and the process by which development is reviewed and approved. It also reduces or consolidates 123 existing zones into less than 40 proposed zones, working to ensure consistency with current height and density rules as well as recommendations in each community master plan.
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SILVER SPRING – In the just-released staff draft of the Chevy Chase Lake Sector Plan, county planners outline strategies that build on the character of this well-established, primarily residential community by enhancing the town center with new housing to support local businesses, adding public spaces, and improving connections.
On Monday, July 16, the Planning Board will consider the draft sector plan, the result of three years of work with the community, property owners, and other stakeholders to develop recommendations for a future Chevy Chase Lake.
The plan focuses on preserving the overall residential character of this 380-acre community along Connecticut Avenue, with its tree-lined streets, local businesses, and historic sites. Planners recommend retaining all residential zoning outside the proposed Town Center and setting standards for compatibility between new development and the existing community.
In the enhanced Town Center, which will be served by a future Purple Line station, the plan recommends new zoning that would allow about 1.5 million square feet of mixed-use development, including 1,000 new dwellings and new public space. Planners are proposing that new development be phased to coincide with the implementation of the Purple Line.
The plan also recommends new alternatives to improve access in the community, including pedestrian and bicycle paths, a new road, and accommodating future transit, like Rapid Transit Vehicles, in the Town Center.
Sign up in advance to speak before the Board. Full testimony is encouraged at a public hearing the Planning Board is expected to schedule in September.
Planners develop master and sector plans to create a framework for each community designed to last 15 to 20 years. Those visions help planners and policy-makers – such as the Planning Board and County Council – develop land use strategies and decide on proposed development.
Download the plan and plan appendix at or view a reference copy at the Chevy Chase Library, Town Hall, Village Hall or the Planning Department Information Counter.
WHO:
Montgomery County Planning Board
WHAT:
Chevy Chase Lake Sector Plan staff draft
WHEN:
5 p.m. (time approximate) Monday, July 16
WHERE:
Park and Planning Headquarters auditorium
8787 Georgia Avenue, Silver Spring
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SILVER SPRING – As Montgomery County continues to grow, planners are devising a set of policies that ensure new and existing residents have adequate roads, transit, schools and other infrastructure.
The draft 2012-2016 Subdivision Staging Policy (SSP), which planners will present to the Planning Board on Thursday, matches services like transportation and schools to serve existing and future growth. It also outlines the way growth should occur to create better communities through economic development, natural resource protection and strategies to create more social interaction and physical activity.
The SSP, formerly called the Growth Policy, manages growth over the next four years by setting policies and establishing tests to measure the impact of development.
In the report, planners forecast a continuing increase in growth, with the number of Montgomery County households increasing by 21 percent in the next 20 years, to 436,202 in 2030. To help grow where infrastructure exists, planners are drafting community plans that direct growth along the I-270 Corridor and in inner-ring urban areas, where nearly 90 percent of job, household, and population growth is expected.
Given the small amount of vacant, developable land in Montgomery County – just 2.8 percent or 9,249 acres – planners are encouraging more efficient development patterns to accommodate new residents and businesses. The recommendation is in keeping with the Planning Board’s direction for at least the last five years: compact, walkable redevelopment in urban centers near public transportation.
Recent master plans in White Flint and Wheaton are designed to achieve that. Plans nearing completion, such as Long Branch, Chevy Chase Lake, Glenmont and White Oak Science Gateway, will set a vision for smart growth and redevelopment to occur.
The 2012-2016 SSP differs from previous growth policies by introducing a new traffic test, Transportation Policy Area Review, which calculates the effects of all new development over different time periods on roads and transit. The traffic test analyzes roadway congestion and transit service and provides tools to match funding of improvements where growth pressure is highest. Road and transit improvement funding would come from a mix of public funds and contributions from developers.
Like the Growth Policy, the SSP continues the same standards for classroom capacity to ensure enough desks for all school-age children. However, it recommends that school facility payments charged to new development be updated to reflect current construction costs.
The Board will review the SSP report Thursday, and schedule a public hearing in late June. After the Board refines the SSP during worksessions, it will deliver its draft to the County Council for review by August 1.
WHO:
Montgomery County Planning Board
WHAT:
2012-2016 Subdivision Staging Policy
WHEN:
10:30 a.m. Thursday, June 14 (time approximate)
WHERE:
Park and Planning Headquarters auditorium
8787 Georgia Avenue, Silver Spring
SILVER SPRING, Md–The Montgomery Parks Foundation Board of Trustees elected Theresa Cameron and Kelly Groff to three year terms on the governing body at its March 28 meeting. The appointments were approved on April 19 by the Montgomery County Planning Board. The Montgomery Parks Foundation, a 501 c (3) charitable organization, is a champion for M-NCPPC Montgomery Parks, promoting the values and benefits of the park system to residents and policy-makers and raising private sector revenue to help it preserve and enhance its award-winning status.
“Both Kelly and Theresa are well-connected in the County, bring an incredible amount of local experience and appreciate well the importance of our parks to what attracts businesses and residents to our county,” indicated Joseph Isaacs, President of the Board of Trustees of the Montgomery Parks Foundation. “Their insights into our community will help the Foundation enormously as we identify private sources of revenue to support the preservation and improvement of our parks at a time when tax revenues are limited and appropriations to parks cannot meet the demands.”
Teresa Cameron
Theresa Cameron is the Manager of Local Arts Agency Services at Americans for the Arts, where she develops and implements programs and services to strengthen the area’s 5,000 local arts agencies. Previously, Cameron served for 10 years as the CEO of the Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County (AHCMC), overseeing the operations of this $4 million quasi-governmental agency. Prior to joining AHCMC, she was manager of corporate and foundation relations at the Association of University Women Educational Foundation and held a post with the National Endowment for the Arts.
Cameron brings considerable board experience to the Montgomery Parks Foundation Board of Trustees, having chaired the Maryland Association of Nonprofits Board, Maryland Citizens for the Arts and the Silver Spring Arts and Entertainment District Advisory Committee. She also served on the Boards of the Montgomery County Conference and Visitor’s Bureau and the Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce. She is a graduate of the Leadership Maryland and Leadership Montgomery programs and was named one of Maryland’s Top 100 Women.
Kelly Groff
Kelly Groff was appointed Director of the Conference and Visitors Bureau of (CVB) of Montgomery County, Maryland in 1994. Prior to joining the CVB, she served as an Economic Development Specialist in the Tourism division of the Baltimore County Department of Economic Development. Groff began her career in 1985 as a travel trade development officer with the Baltimore City Office of Promotion and Tourism. Following this position, she worked as the director of catering and room sales at the Admiral Fell Inn in Baltimore’s Fells Point, and then as director of sales for the new Clarion Inn at Pier 5 at Baltimore’s Inner Harbor.
A native Marylander, Groff was an Adjunct Professor with the University of Maryland Eastern Shore Department of Hotel Management at the Universities at Shady Grove. She taught Eco & Cultural Tourism and Hospitality and Leisure Services Marketing.
The Montgomery Parks Foundation provides opportunities for county residents and businesses to support Montgomery Parks as members, donors, sponsors, and advocates, and actively seeks individual donations, sponsorships, legacy gifts, and endowments to support park operations, development and maintenance.
SILVER SPRING – When an application for new development is brought before the Planning Board for consideration, planners calculate how much impact each proposal would have on area roads and transit.
Last year, the County Council asked planners to develop a new policy area test, the Transportation Policy Area Review (TPAR), that would ensure that transportation infrastructure – roads or transit – would be adequate to serve new residents or anyone traveling to or from a new development. In response, planners developed a draft TPAR test, which will be the subject of a public hearing before the Planning Board next week.
The proposed transportation test would measure the effect of new automobile or transit trips that would be generated by new development in each of the 21 policy areas in Montgomery County. TPAR would replace the Policy Area Mobility Review, or PAMR, that planners have used for the last several years to measure transportation adequacy.
TPAR is based on transportation recommendations that are included in each master plan and take into account regional growth projections. TPAR also would measure automobile and transit adequacy separately to make it clearer for decision-makers to understand how new trips would affect the policy area and make it easier to determine where solutions are needed.
The TPAR test would identify specific road and transit solutions, making it easier to schedule and fund capital projects. Funding is suggested to occur through public-private partnerships linked to county and state transportation budgets.
Under the proposed TPAR guidelines, an annual report would monitor both development and the progress of transportation projects.
Sign up to testify at the public hearing. At the date prompt, scroll to 4/19 and scroll to item 7.
WHO:
Montgomery County Planning Board
WHAT:
Transportation Policy Area Review (TPAR) Public Hearing
WHEN:
2 p.m. Thursday, April 19
WHERE:
Park and Planning Headquarters auditorium
8787 Georgia Avenue, Silver Spring
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SILVER SPRING, MD – Wondering about that sign advertising pending development in your community? Curious about how forest conservation works?
Planning issues touch on many aspects of Montgomery County life. Residents and others with questions about upcoming development, community plans, zoning, transportation, or environmental issues may find the Planning Department to be a virtual maze.
To help guide residents and others to the answers they seek in a timely way, the Department has created a new webpage that features links and phone numbers by name, subject and frequently requested items. The page allows visitors to access links as well as submit questions and comments via an online form.
The HELP page is accessible from the Department’s homepage through the red HELP icon.
The page is intended to help the Department continue to provide exemplary customer service in an era of shrinking resources.
County Officials to Cut Ceremonial Ribbon to Open White Flint Planning Area for New Development
For immediate release:
July 19, 2011
For more information, contact:
Valerie Berton
Communications Manager
Montgomery County Planning Department
301/495-4600
SILVER SPRING, MD – This month, the Planning Board and County Council approved the required planning tools to begin accepting new development applications in White Flint. Located along Rockville Pike north of Bethesda, White Flint is poised for a series of new development projects that will dramatically change the look, feel and function of the community.
With today’s Council approval of the final tool – a transportation analysis program – the planning area is open for new development. To recognize this economic milestone, the Planning Board is hosting a ceremonial ribbon-cutting at 11 a.m. Friday at the White Flint Mall. County Council members, representatives from the County Executive’s Office, Planning Board members, planners, residents and others will be on hand to declare the planning area open for business.
The White Flint Sector Plan, approved last year, establishes prerequisites that must be satisfied at each phase of development to ensure that public services, like roads, are adequate. They include establishing a transportation approval mechanism, a financing mechanism to fund infrastructure improvements, and a transportation analysis and monitoring program.
Opening phase one of development in White Flint allows property owners to submit development applications. The Board approved three sketch plan applications – North Bethesda Market II, North Bethesda Gateway and Mid-Pike Plaza – last winter, but have not accepted more detailed site plans because the staging plan had not been developed. Now that the staging plan has been approved, planners expect applications for those plans as well as others, such as at the White Flint Metro site.
Planners and County Councilmembers have looked to White Flint as an economic engine for the county, given its strategic location along Metro’s Red Line and the availability of re-developable land.
Who:
Montgomery County Planning Board
What:
White Flint Phase 1 Ribbon-Cutting
Where:
White Flint Mall Center Court
11301 Rockville Pike
(enter off Lot 1 next to Cheesecake Factory)
When:
11 a.m. Friday, July 22
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