Residents and property owners invited to sign up to comment on Plan
Silver Spring, MD – The Montgomery County Planning Department, part of The Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, will present an overview of the Planning Board Draft of the Montgomery Village Master Plan to the County Council during the day on Tuesday, December 1, 2015. Following this brief presentation, the Council’s public hearing on the Plan will start at 7:30 p.m. on December 1 in the Council Hearing Room at 100 Maryland Avenue in Rockville.
At the hearing, residents and property owners are invited to comment on the Master Plan’s draft recommendations for land use and zoning, transportation networks, parks and open spaces.
To testify at the December 1 hearing, community members can sign up online or call 240-777-7803. The deadline to sign up is 10 a.m. on December 1.
Speakers should bring 15 copies of their testimony to the hearing and provide a written copy at least 48 hours in advance of the hearing; email to county.council@montgomerycountymd.gov.
Past PowerPoint presentations of the Plan goals and other materials from MV Matters meetings are posted on the Montgomery Village Master Plan webpage.
Master Plan Background
Montgomery Village has not been part of a Master Plan review since the 1985 Gaithersburg Vicinity Master Plan, nor has it been the subject of a discrete County master plan in the past. Although Montgomery Village was within the boundaries of both the 1971 Gaithersburg Vicinity Master Plan and the 1985 Master Plan, neither plan contains recommendations or guidance for this community because the Village fell within the Town Sector Zone, which did not allow the rezoning of properties for a 50-year period that comes to a close in 2015. When the Planning Department initiated an update to the Gaithersburg Master Plan in 2007, Montgomery Village was originally included within its boundaries. However, with large swaths of land on both sides of I-270 presenting different planning issues and challenges, the Planning Department realized the area was too big to be analyzed effectively.
In 2008, the Planning Department divided the large Gaithersburg Master Plan area into two planning efforts – one for the west side of I-270, which became the Great Seneca Science Corridor Master Plan (GSSC) – and one for the east side of I-270 – Gaithersburg East. In 2014, the County Council directed the Planning Department to further refine the Gaithersburg East Plan to have one plan for Montgomery Village and one plan for the remainder of Gaithersburg East. The Council also directed the Planning Director to work efficiently on the Montgomery Village Plan, with the goal of having a draft plan transmitted to the Council within 14 months of the plan start date, because it wanted the zoning to be reassessed holistically before the prohibition on piecemeal rezoning of Town Sector property expired in 2015.