Editor’s note: This article, originally published at 11:38 a.m. on Aug. 29, 2024, was updated at 3:03 p.m. on Aug. 29, 2024, to correct that the location of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration headquarters is in Silver Spring.

To Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich, the future of development and economic vitality in the county lies with the life sciences and technology industries.

But to get a stronghold in those industries, the county must have an economic and development landscape more like Northern Virginia, Elrich said Tuesday evening at an event sponsored by the business platform Bisnow in Bethesda.

The event dubbed the “Future of Montgomery County,” examined the county’s 2024 development trends and brought together architects, county planners, contractors, engineers, developers and business executives.

Elrich said in his opening remarks that after hearing from many developers that “life is better in Northern Virginia,” he decided to investigate the claim himself and spoke with planners and regulatory agencies about how the county differed from that region.

One of the key differences is how Virginia taxes development and commercial property using special taxing districts and laws that allow taxes in those districts to fund transportation projects, such as the Silver Line Metro, he said.

Speaking to the development and business community, Elrich suggested it is time to rethink how the county taxes commercial properties.

“I’m asking people here to be part of a change in Montgomery County to help us move the [County] Council, to help us move the state legislature, to give us authority that the state legislature in Virginia gave to the Northern Virginia counties,” Elrich said, referring to the process it will take to allow the county to change its taxing method.

According to Elrich, Fairfax County taxes commercial property at a rate nearly 50% higher than Montgomery County does. In the county, commercial and residential tax rates are the same.

Elrich also believes the county’s impact taxes, typically paid in large sums at the start of a project, are hindering development.

Development impact taxes are “assessed on new residential and commercial buildings and additions to commercial buildings in the county to fund, in part, the improvements necessary to increase the transportation or public-school systems capacity,” according to the county Department of Permitting Services website.

Elrich referred to Northern Virginia’s commercial taxing method as the “front door” to raise funds from special taxing districts to go toward transportation projects in the county such as the Bus Rapid Transit line.

Changing the taxing method is especially necessary now, Elrich said, because Gov. Wes Moore (D) recently warned counties of upcoming budget difficulties, especially regarding transportation funding, while speaking recently at the Maryland Association of Counties conference in Ocean City in August.

“The No. 1 impediment we have is transportation. And we’ve known about this for a long time,” Elrich said. “People in the early part of the 21^st century were talking about transportation being the key to economic development. And Montgomery County has not been able to make the progress that it needs to be.”

Improvements to the county’s transportation system, Elrich argues, will create a strong foundation for the county’s goal of becoming a life sciences hub and destination for developers.

Andy Altman, a principal and co-founder of Washington, D.C.-based Foursquare Development, said during a panel at Tuesday’s BisNow event that transit-oriented, high-density development is important to developers looking to develop in the county.

“Montgomery County has fantastic assets and these Metro stops … many of them are waiting for the development of that same kind of alignment,” Altman said, referring to Fivesquare’s partnership with the Washington Metro Area Transit Authority (WMATA) on a joint development project at the Grosvenor-Strathmore Metro station.

Sandy Paik, general counsel at Rockville-based The Tower Cos., also spoke on the panel and acknowledged that development environments in Montgomery and Fairfax counties are different.

“[Montgomery County has] been left behind in some areas,” Paik later told MoCo360, “I do think that investing deeply in the transit-oriented development is going to be really critical for [the county].”

During his speech, Elrich noted several projects underway in the county that he hopes will become future life sciences hubs such as the property where the former White Flint Mall was located near the North Bethesda Metro station.

In July, WMATA officials, state and local officials and Maryland Sen. Ben Cardin discussed the future of the White Flint land with plans to construct a research center.

Elrich said he drew inspiration from Boston’s Kendall Square development, a neighborhood and district in the city known for being the home to a cluster of technology and life sciences companies such as Google, Johnson & Johnson, Novo Nordisk and Pfizer.

Other areas Elrich envisions as life sciences hubs are in downtown Silver Spring with the future expansion of United Therapeutics and in Gaithersburg with the expansion of AstraZeneca. Elrich also said the Viva White Oak development in Silver Spring is another area of interest as it is expected to be the future site of the East County campus of Montgomery College.

Elrich said he has been reaching out internationally to raise awareness about the county’s interest in being the next big bio-hub and in the last year has traveled to Taiwan twice and to Vietnam, China, India and South Korea.

On these trips, Elrich said he found that many biotech international companies are interested in the area due to its proximity to the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration which are headquartered in Silver Spring.

“We’re examining all of our life sciences assets. We’re determining what does Montgomery not have that other jurisdictions have?” Elrich said at the event. “We’re ranked No. 3  [in the country] in life sciences … Our goal is to change that, make a mark. And what we’re focused on is making sure that we have everything in Montgomery County that San Francisco and Boston have.”

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Pleasant View Park, a nearly 10-acre park with amenities including a bicycle pump track, community garden and large grassy lawn, is expected to open in Gaithersburg this fall, according to city officials.

The opening of the park at 10901 Darnestown Road comes nearly three years after construction began in November 2021. As of Aug. 21, the park was in the final phase of completion, according to the project webpage. A specific opening date has not been set.

In addition to the bicycle skills course – a circular loop with berms and rollers that cycylists can ride without pedaling – garden and large green space, the park will also have an outdoor fitness zone, walking trails, visitor plaza and pavilions with picnic tables

The land where the park sits originally was used from 1955 to 1975 as a fire control radar site of the U.S. Army NIKE Missile system, according to the city. After 1975 the site was home of the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s National Laboratory Campus, where consumer products were tested.

Named after the Pleasant View community, one of the first free Black communities established in the county after the Civil War, the “park’s name honors the historic significance of that community and the beauty of its natural surroundings,” Gaithersburg Mayor Jud Ashman said Monday in an email statement to MoCo360.

“Pleasant View Park will add to the city’s diverse landscape of parks [and increase] access to outdoor amenities for residents and visitors. We are excited to welcome residents to Pleasant View Park soon,” Ashman said.

The community garden at Pleasant View Park will also be the city’s first, according to Ashman.

Plots are allotted to gardeners on a lottery-based system, according to the community garden webpage. Those interested in renting a plot must submit an application to enter the lottery, although this year the plot allotment has already been finalized.

Eighteen raised-bed plots are available, six of which measure 48 square feet and cost $30 per year and 12 that are 32 square feet and cost $25 per year. Individuals and families are limited to one plot per household/family, according to the community garden website.

The park will have a parking lot and a Ride-On bus stop is located at the park entrance on Darnestown Road.

Here are photos of the park in August:

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Eddie V’s Prime Seafood, an upscale restaurant chain, is looking for approval from the City of Gaithersburg to construct a 10,000-square-foot restaurant fronting Gaithersburg’s Lake Varuna, according to an application filed Aug. 12 with city planners.

If the project is approved and constructed, the restaurant will be the first Maryland location for the restaurant chain. The MoCoShow first reported Eddie V’s proposal to construct the restaurant.

According to the application filed by the property owner, 151 Lakelands LLC, the restaurant is proposed for the corner of Lakeland Drive and Great Seneca Highway next to the lake. The development plan is under review and a public hearing has not been scheduled, according to the City of Gaithersburg’s planning website.

A media representative for Darden Concepts, which owns and operates Eddie V’s, did not respond to MoCo360’s multiple calls and emails for comment.

Olive Garden, Longhorn Steakhouse, Yard House, the Capital Grille and Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse are among some of the restaurants owned and managed by Darden Concepts.

Eddie V’s offers an upscale dining experience with signature cocktails, a jazz lounge and private events, according to its website. At its other locations, Eddie V’s menu includes oysters, Maine lobster bisque, crab fried rice and ahi tuna for lunch and dinner offerings include a shellfish tower, steak tartare, Chilean sea bass, scallops and cold-water lobster.

Eddie V’s operates 30 locations in the United States, with the closest to the county in Tyson’s Corner in McLean, Virginia, according to the chain’s website.

The restaurant’s proposed site has been the subject of controversy in recent years after the property owner applied to build a 12,900-square-foot daycare/early childhood education building, according to city planning documents.  Currently, the site is a forested green area.

The application was “controversial and resulted in vigorous community opposition to what was deemed to be despoilation of a natural area, with an adjacent lake, that had become, de facto, a community-oriented space,” the documents stated.

The city’s planning commission recommended approval of the childcare center to the City Council but in August 2021 the Gaithersburg City Council voted 3-2 to deny the application. The property owner filed an appeal of the council’s decision to the Montgomery County Circuit Court. After oral arguments were heard, a judge affirmed the council’s decision to deny the application in June 2022.

The site remains zoned for a 6,000-square-foot restaurant. According to planning documents, Eddie V’s approached the property owners with interest in the site due to its proximity to the lake for a “water view dining experience,” a large surrounding population and easy access from nearby transit routes.

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Montgomery County’s housing market is beginning to show an increase in the number of new listings but local real estate agents say buyers remain stymied by a lack of inventory.

According to a July housing statistics report from the Greater Capital Area Association of Realtors (GCAAR), “prices and closed sales are up year over year, but there’s stability on the horizon.”

Last Tuesday, the association released its housing statistics for July for the county and the Washington, D.C. region. According to the report, there were 1,524 closed sales in the region, representing an increase of 3.5% year over year, and the average sale price for all residential properties was $836,200, up 6.8% from the same time last year.

Bruce Cotting, a Realtor with The Kensington Group and Chevy Chase-based RLAH Properties and member of GCAAR’s board of directors, told MoCo360 Thursday the county has been dealing with a lack of housing supply for as long as five years.

“COVID exacerbated the situation because everybody had the opportunity to move and now it’s sort of percolating down,” Cotting said. “We’ve got more people moving to the area than we have housing available and certainly we saw a strong uptick in new home sales.”

Comparing the summer to the same time last year, Cotting also said local real estate agents are seeing an uptick in houses going under contract and an increase in listings on the market. “But that demand [for homes] hasn’t caught up to that minimal increase [in listings] just over the last month or so,” he said.

In July, the median sold price for single-family homes in Montgomery County was $635,959, a 2.2% decrease from June but a 5.3% increase from the median sold price of $604,000 in July 2023, according to GCAAR statistics.

The average number of days that single-family homes in the county were on the market in July—17 days–remained the same as in June.

New listings were down from June to July, from 936 to 880 new listings in the county, but showed a more than 5% increase from the number of listings in July 2023.

The regional condo market remained stable from June to July, with the median sold price at $350,000 – a 3% increase from the same time last year. In addition, closed sales increased 12% from July 2023, from 2,201 to 2,465 closed sales, according to GCAAR statistics.

“My personal assessment is that we’re moving in the right direction in terms of seeing more and more listings start to come on the market,” said Cotting, who focuses primarily on the down-county area. “I hope that the sellers recognize that this is a strong push in the right direction, correcting the lack of inventory.”

Among those looking for new homes are families who need more space, Cotting said, and he thinks those buyers are helping by adding their own homes to the housing market.

“But those same buyers are hitting that challenge again. There is not enough out there. We’re finding that county buyers … who want to do the move up, or the reverse of that, [are] downsizing, there’s not enough for them to go after,” he noted.

As has been the case for several years, houses are going under contract as soon as they hit the market. Cotting said he has seen several situations in which a house was listed and “before you could show it, almost as soon as you scheduled a showing, the property was already under contract.”

Typically, in August, Cotting said, the housing market slows down and July’s activity will “erode” away. He suspects that buyers are waiting to see if interest rates will drop and if they do, there will be a “feeding frenzy” of home buyers.

“We’re past COVID now, and the impact that we’re still continuing to live from is the interest rates,” he said. “Interest rates started coming down in late July and in the beginning of August we started to see activity bounce back. But it’s certainly not where it would have been years prior.”

In the report, GCAAR President Christopher Suranna said that the association is “optimistic that lower mortgage rates could be ahead this fall,” providing an opportunity for more first-time homebuyers to enter the market.

“In the meantime, condos still present a more affordable option when compared to single-family,” Suranna said.

The post MoCo housing sale prices, listings increase, but lack of inventory remains appeared first on MoCo360.

Potomac-based developer Willco. Cos. is planning to cut by half the size of its proposed mixed-use development along Executive Boulevard in North Bethesda. The company, which won county planning approval for its sketch plan, cited increases in inflation and interest rates as the reason. [Washington Business Journal]

Potomac’s Olympic swimmer Erin Gemmel receives warm homecoming

Nineteen-year-old Erin Gemmell received a warm welcome at the Potomac Woods Swim Club in Rockville, where she trained for nine years, upon returning home from the Paris Olympics with a silver medal. [WTOP]

MoCo anti-hate task force prepares for new school year

Following the discovery of what police labeled “antisemitic” graffiti at a Bethesda elementary school, a Montgomery County anti-hate task force is looking to protect students from bias-related crimes. The task force is made up of cohort groups representing Jewish, Black, LGBTQ+, Asian American and Muslim communities. [WJLA]

Today’s weather: Partly sunny, with a high near 82

In case you missed it:

Antisemitic phrases spray-painted at Bethesda Elementary, police say

Kura Revolving Sushi Bar and Torchy’s Tacos slated to open in Rockville this fall 

Former police chief clarifies new role and goals for MCPS safety

The post Developer to cut proposed North Bethesda mixed-use project by half appeared first on MoCo360.

Pennsylvania homebuilder Toll Brothers Inc. has purchased a 4-acre site in Chevy Chase and plans to build 63 townhomes on the now-vacant lot once home to Chase Manor, a complex of garden apartments. The company bought the property in May from The Chevy Chase Land Co. for $29.2 million. [Washington Business Journal]

MoCo firefighters help recover body from well

The Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service’s Urban Search and Rescue Team helped first responders recover the body of a man found in a well in Callaway in St. Mary’s County. The man was reported missing Friday by his family after a fire at his home, according to the Maryland State Police, which is investigating the death. [The BayNet]

Mobile NIH exhibit aiming to diversify medical research database visits Wheaton

A mobile exhibit sponsored by The National Institutes of Health in Bethesda that aims to educate people about the need for diversity among medical research participants is visiting Wheaton this week. The goal of NIH’s “All of Us” research program is to collect health information from 1 million people to build a large, diverse database for researchers. [WTOP]

Today’s weather: Showers and thunderstorms likely; high near 85

In case you missed it:

Two teens charged in connection with Silver Spring armed carjackings

Police video shares 911 call, response to May officer-involved shooting

Redeye Rodeo to highlight Montgomery County Agricultural Fair’s 75th anniversary

The post Toll Bros. buys Chevy Chase property approved for townhouse project appeared first on MoCo360.

Members of the Montgomery County Planning Board are questioning the county’s plans to construct a public parking garage on Georgia Avenue in downtown Silver Spring and intend to tell County Executive Marc Elrich about their concerns.

“This is an opportunity site a quarter mile from transit, highly valuable, [a] perfect place to put housing,” Commissioner Josh Linden said during the board’s July 25 discussion of the county’s plans to build the garage. “If you’re going to activate this neighborhood, you’re going to activate it with people. You’re not going to activate it with cars.”

The plans, submitted as a mandatory referral by the county Department of Transportation, propose the construction of a public garage at 8615 Georgia Ave. with 675 parking spaces and 3,000 square feet of ground-floor space intended for retail and commercial use. Currently, the site is a surface parking lot and loading alley for surrounding offices and businesses.

Mandatory referrals are plans that are submitted by government entities for any type of land acquisition, sale, use or development activity, according to Montgomery Planning. The board reviews plans on an advisory basis and can deny a project or approve it with or without comments.

The project is part of a partnership between the county and United Therapeutics Corp. that also would transfer county ownership of the 1,344-space Spring Cameron Garage at 8700 Cameron St. to the biotechnology company whose headquarters are at 1000 Spring St. Through the land-transfer deal, United Therapeutics expects to expand its footprint in downtown Silver Spring by 40% and build a facility that could realize the company’s goal of manufacturing transplant organs, according to a December county press release announcing the partnership.

Under the agreement, United Therapeutics will construct a public parking garage at the site on Georgia Avenue. The company also will provide funding to the county to build a new fiber hub and relocate the county transportation department to a renovated facility at 9150 Brookville Road in Silver Spring, the release said.

The county’s fiber hub is currently located in the Spring Cameron Garage and would need to be replaced. At the July 25 meeting, the board reviewed mandatory referral plans to redevelop a parking lot next to Fairview Road Urban Park to build the new hub.

Once the garage is complete, United Therapeutics is expected to transfer the site to the county. In return, the county will transfer ownership of the Spring Cameron Garage to the biotech company, according to the release. Another term of the agreement requires United Therapeutics to invest at least $50 million in any new facility on the site within 15 years of the ownership transfer, the release states.

While housing is not part of the county’s mandatory referral plans, Montgomery Planning staff have recommended the garage be structurally designed to accommodate future housing development, planning documents state. In the December press release, county officials said the garage site would include a “parcel designated for a future affordable housing development.”

Upon hearing a presentation of the project plans, board members expressed frustration that housing construction was not a key element of the proposal and agreed to send a letter to Elrich outlining their concerns.

“The problem isn’t that it’s not a nice garage, it’s that it’s a garage,” Commissioner James Hedrick said at the meeting.

Planning Board Chair Artie Harris noted the location of the garage is close to the Silver Spring Transit Center Station on the corner of Wayne and Colesville roads and in an “optimal location for housing.” Commissioner Shawn Bartley echoed his colleagues’ frustration with the plan and said the project lacked the amount of commercial space that’s available at the public garage on Ellsworth Place facing Veterans Plaza and was not “ambitious” in housing as well.

Elrich told MoCo360 on Thursday the county tried to negotiate with the property owners of the proposed site for the new garage, Silver Spring-based Lee Development Group, to allow the county to build housing at the site.

“We asked, we pushed, we didn’t give up easily, but at the end of the day, they said, ‘No housing.’ … And that’s where we got stuck,” Elrich said. “We didn’t do this willfully.”

He added that without the Georgia Avenue site, the county’s partnership with United Therapeutics could have fallen through.

“I wasn’t going to blow up a deal like this over that,” Elrich said. “We’ll get what housing we can get.”

Jeremy Souders, acting division chief of the transportation department parking, also told the board at the meeting that the county has the “intention to have affordable housing” at the Georgia Avenue site.

He said the county plans to build housing on a smaller surface lot on the eastern portion of the site and will request development proposals once the county takes possession of the garage.

According to planning documents, the board approved in 2010 plans that proposed a three-story music hall, a 12-story office building and a 14-story hotel with structured parking at the Georgia Avenue site. Only the music hall, known as The Fillmore Silver Spring, was constructed and the office building and hotel were never built.

In the end, board members approved the mandatory referral plans and transmitted their comments to the county’s transportation department.

Harris said he wanted United Therapeutics’ expansion projects to move forward, “but we also want to explain to others” that the board was concerned about housing.

According to the plans, the Georgia Avenue garage would include a green roof or solar panels and decorative fins on the façade to provide screening of the parking.

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The Montgomery County government and the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) announced Monday a partnership to bring a life sciences hub to North Bethesda.

The proposed development is expected to increase the county’s stature as a national center for life science and medical research as well as promote economic development and transit ridership, county and WMATA officials said during a press conference at the North Bethesda Metro station on Monday.

Under a memorandum of understanding signed Monday by Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich (D) and WMATA General Manager Randy Clarke, the two entities will develop nearly 14 acres of land surrounding the station at 5500 Marinelli Road for a new graduate-level life sciences research hub. While a developer has not been selected, WMATA released a request for bids later Monday afternoon. The project is anticipated to include approximately 2 million to 3.7 million square feet of development.

“We’re excited, obviously, about this development. We have an industry-leading strategic plan here at Metro [for the project],” Clarke said at the press conference. 

The plan is for the developer to create a new community along with the life sciences hub, with housing, office, retail and public space, according to officials. The life sciences sector includes medical and bioresearch, health data research, healthcare and manufacturing.

Elrich said Monday it would be “an understatement” that to say he was excited about the partnership. He cited his long-term goal as county executive to redevelop North Bethesda following the closure of the White Flint Mall in 2016.

“When I was first elected five and a half years ago, my goal was to create a development scenario for White Flint because it’s simply the largest redeveloped space on the Red Line,” Elrich said. “There is no place else that you can pack in 15 million square feet in an environment that is basically ready for a lot of stuff on the ground. So this was a very unique place in Montgomery County.”

Elrich said the partnership with WMATA is strategic to create a triangle that would connect the research facilities to the Metro station as well as increased housing, dining and retail options. Several officials who spoke at the press conference Monday likened the idea to Kendall Square, a technology hub in Cambridge, Massachusetts, or Silicon Valley.

“[This is about] reimagining what this transit site could be, not just a stop … but really above the cutting-edge innovation, a vibrant place and space for people to be able to live and to work and to meet all of their needs within walking distance of where they live and where they go to work,” Montgomery County Council President Andrew Friedson (D-Dist. 1) said during the press conference.

The project is being supported by $5 million in federal funding from Congress. Sens. Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) were on hand Monday to present a ceremonial check.

“These funds are really competitive. They’re not easy to come by,” Cardin said. “But your plan, your partnership, set you up for success, and we’re glad to be part of that coalition.”
 

The plan is the latest in similar efforts to expand health technology developments in North Bethesda. In November 2022, Montgomery County, state and federal officials joined partners from University of Maryland’s medical system in North Bethesda to sign an agreement that established a health computing center in North Bethesda.

The $40 million center will be built near the North Bethesda Metro station. According to the memorandum of understanding, the county is providing $15 million in fiscal year 2023 — and $5 million in each of the following years, through fiscal year 2028, plus a total of $3 million from the federal government. Gov. Wes Moore (D) visited North Bethesda in February 2023 to learn how he could support the center.

“We are building a future here in North Bethesda, people are excited to be here now to raise their families, and we’re looking for even more exciting things to happen,” council Vice President Kate Stewart (D-Dist. 4), who represents North Bethesda, said, referencing the multiple life sciences developments.

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Plans for a redevelopment project that aims to preserve the historic dining car of Tastee Diner as part of a 30-story mixed-use residential building in downtown Silver Spring are moving ahead after receiving an initial green light from the Montgomery County Planning Board last week.

The Planning Board unanimously voted July 18 to approve the preliminary and sketch plans from Washington, D.C.-based Roadside Development for a high-rise proposed for 8676 Georgia Ave.

The next task for Washington, D.C.-based Roadside Development will be to submit a site plan for the project. The company did not respond this week to MoCo360’s request for comment.

The company’s plans propose for Tastee Diner’s historic dining car to remain at the corner of Cameron Street and Ramsey Avenue, which was the site of the popular eatery before it closed in March 2023, and at the foot of the high-rise. Another Tastee Diner location in downtown Bethesda remains open.

In May, Roadside filed a preliminary plan for the project, showing the developer’s interest in preserving the historic dining car as part of the redevelopment.

The mixed-use building, proposed for two lots that were most recently home to a branch of Capital One bank and the diner, would include up to 550,000 square feet of residential space, 25,000 square feet of ground-floor commercial space and an internal structured parking garage, according to the plans. The developers expect a grocery store to anchor much of the commercial space.

The building is expected to house up to 525 residential units, 15% of which will be moderately priced dwelling units (MPDUs) as required by county rules.

Board Commissioner Josh Linden said he was excited about the prospect of the development adding 525 units to the county’s housing stock.

“This is the project that we need in this area,” Linden said.

Before voting to approve the redevelopment plans, Planning Board members responded to concerns from residents of the Cameron Hill townhome community, which sits across the street from the proposed development site.

Neighbors told the board they were concerned about the size and scale of the proposed 300-foot building, the proximity of the loading zone to the townhomes lining Ramsey Avenue and the small size of the street that the loading area would utilize.

“Our first major concern is that Ramsey Avenue, currently a peaceful residential street, will be turned into a service alley supporting the tallest building in Silver Spring,” Lee Turcotte, president of the Cameron Hill Homeowners Association, told board members during the meeting’s public hearing section.

“We know from lived experience that Ramsey Avenue is too small to accommodate the requirements of this proposal,” he said. “… We’re talking about tractor-trailers backing within feet of townhomes every day. This is unacceptable and again, as far as we know, unprecedented in Silver Spring.”

Cara Fitzwater, a Cameron Hill townhome resident and real estate agent, said she is concerned the development could cause property values to drop in the townhome community.

“Having a loading dock face our properties is akin to buying a property next to a large warehouse, both of which are unsightly and detract from the visual appeal of this 25-year-old neighborhood,” Fitzwater said. “This will make our residential community less appealing to potential homebuyers due to its industrial nature.”

In response, Planning Board Chair Artie Harris told the development team to consult with the residents about the building’s loading management plan as it works on the project’s site plan.

Developers should “make that garage the prettiest garage you’ve seen–because that’s what they’re going to be looking at–and make sure that … the doors are closed,” he said. “We want to make [this] also a great experience for the people that invested in that community 25 years ago.”

Lira Gallagher, another Cameron Hill resident, said the building’s proposed height was “unnecessarily tall” and “would cast a huge shadow, literally and figuratively, over our community.”

In response to comments about the building’s height, Commissioner James Hedrick said that the building “fits with the character” of the area.

“It’s going to be a large building but one of the things that gives resilience to neighborhoods is having a variety of different types of housing,” Hedrick said.

Linden noted the project’s site plan would be another opportunity for Cameron Hill residents to engage with developers on the loading management plan for the proposed building, such as delivery times and the movement of trucks on Ramsey Avenue.

Harris also told the developers that he would like the building to have a number of two- and three-bedroom units to increase the local supply of units for families.

“It’s really important,” Harris said. “Families also need to live in downtown Silver Spring.”

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Montgomery County is one step closer to allowing duplexes, triplexes, and smaller apartment buildings to be built in single-family home neighborhoods across the county now that the Planning Board has approved a new housing initiative.

The initiative approved Thursday by the board, dubbed the Attainable Housing Strategies project, makes recommendations to the County Council for zoning changes in single-family home zones. The changes, which the council would have to approve, aim to provide more housing options and opportunities, especially for middle-income residents, Planning Director Jason Sartori told MoCo360 Thursday before the board’s vote.

“We have a really diverse county with diverse housing needs, but we don’t really offer a diverse supply of housing options to meet those needs,” Sartori said. “So, with that market mismatch, along with just a general housing shortage, housing prices in the county have grown astronomically.”

Planning Board Chair Artie Harris praised the housing initiative as a “valuable tool” to address the county’s housing shortage by allowing property owners the flexibility to build different housing types.

“I want to be clear on something. This proposed zoning change is not a mandate for people to turn their properties into duplexes or townhomes or small apartment buildings,” Harris said after the board’s unanimous vote. “This simply allows for property owners to have the option to build something else and give more people the chance to call Montgomery County home.”

According to Sartori, the average sales price of a single-family detached home in the county in 2023 was $970,000 and, in the first four months of 2024, that figure had increased to more than $1 million.

The county has also seen a decline in its population of middle-income earners and increases in its low- and high-income populations, indicating a lack of suitable housing options that are affordable or attainable, Sartori said.

According to Montgomery Planning data, the county lost more than 26,000 middle-income residents from 2005 to 2022, while gaining nearly 88,000 low-income residents and 67,000 high-income residents in the same timeframe.

In the county, middle-income is defined as a family of four earning an income three to five times the poverty level, according to Montgomery Planning. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the 2024 poverty level is $31,200 for a family of four. Low-income families in the county earn under three times the poverty level and high-income families earn five or more times the poverty level, according to Montgomery Planning.

The board’s approval of the housing initiative marks the next step in the county’s embrace of “missing middle” housing.

The term refers to “a range of building types that are compatible in scale, form and construction with single-family homes, but include multiple housing units,” according to Montgomery Planning. These housing options were common during the pre-World War II era but faded from popularity with new construction of single-family homes and tall multi-family apartment buildings, according to the planning department.

Due to their smaller size, such “missing middle” housing types can be more financially attainable for downsizing seniors, professionals without children, middle-income and millennial families, and newcomers to the region who can’t afford or may not need a large single-family home, the planning department says.

Harris, the board’s chair, noted the zoning changes, if approved by the council, will impact residents such as public school teachers, some of whom have left the county because “they can’t find or afford a place to raise their families,” as well as residents’ children and grandchildren looking to build careers and start families who can’t find housing that “suits their needs.”

Board commissioner Shawn Bartley said he looked forward to implementing the initiative, which he says aligns with “the American dream of homeownership opportunities for every one of our citizens in [the] county.”

Now that the housing initiative has been approved, the county planning department will send the final Attainable Housing Strategies report to the council. The department then will have three briefings with the council’s Planning, Housing and Parks Committee on June 24 and on July 8 and 22, according to council President Andrew Friedson (D-Dist. 1)

Friedson told MoCo360 Thursday that he was grateful for Montgomery Planning’s work on the initiative and progress toward addressing the county’s housing crisis.

“More housing options and more housing for more people is something that we have been working on through a variety of efforts and initiatives,” Friedson said, noting he has championed the issue while in office.

“It’s one of the reasons why I ran for office in 2018, to make sure that we have a community in Montgomery County that is accessible and affordable for all of our residents and to build on the strengths of [the] county’s historic leadership in creative approaches to housing,” he said.

Councilmember Natali Fani-González (D-Dist.), who sits on the Planning, Housing and Parks Committee, said in a statement emailed to MoCo360 Thursday that she looked forward to reviewing the board’s recommendations in the upcoming weeks.

“I strongly believe that we need to create more housing for families at all income levels, and missing middle housing is a key strategy to do just that,” Fani-González said.

After the briefings, council staff and county planners will prepare a draft zoning text amendment for the council to take up in the fall, followed by public forums and public hearings to allow community members to share input and feedback on the proposed changes, according to Sartori.

As the planning department worked on the Attainable Housing Strategies initiative, Sartori said he has seen a shift in more people expressing “strong support” for relaxed zoning changes in single-family zoned areas.

“Part of that is that we’ve seen over the last three years a lot of other jurisdictions in our area but also across the country, states to small municipalities, making similar types of changes,” he said.

Such a shift would be in stark contrast to the county’s recent history of homeowner opposition to zoning changes. When the county proposed its now-approved Thrive Montgomery 2050 plan to guide growth, many residents opposed and protested the plan. Zoning changes that would increase density and growth in transit corridors, redevelopment of existing properties and the creation of more walkable communities are among the changes included in the county master plan.

In addition, multi-family zoning measures and such plans as the Westbard Sector Plan have been criticized by residents concerned the changes would affect the character of their neighborhoods, increase traffic congestion and impact already overcrowded schools.

To quell some of residents’ concerns about the impact of zoning changes on the character of their neighborhoods, Sartori said proposed developments would have to comply with a “pattern book” created by the planning department.

“The form-based standards within the pattern book will ensure that duplexes, triplexes, and quadplexes contribute positively to the public realm and create safe and attractive streetscapes that are not overwhelmed by parking or that unintentionally look like small apartment buildings,” Montgomery Planning’s website says.

Following the public comment period, county planners said they hope the council will adopt an update to the county code to allow “missing middle” housing by the end of 2024. According to Sartori, if all goes to plan, residents may start seeing triplexes, duplexes, townhouses and small apartments being built in formerly single-family zones in 2025.

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