LAND USE

Vision
Montgomery County is uniquely positioned over the next fifty-years to address quality of
life issues. Significant park land and open spaces will be of great value as the region
grows and land is developed. This land use vision establishes a priority to protect and
enhance existing communities and open space resources, and to confirm the General
Plan, known as “Wedges and Corridors”. The General Plan guides the County’s growth
by concentrating jobs and housing inside the Beltway and along the I-270 Corridor, and
protecting large areas of the County for agricultural and open space uses.

The demand for more jobs and housing within a quality living environment includes pro-
viding easy access to schools, shopping and entertainment with alternative transporta-
tion options and less congested roadways. This land use vision directs growth to mixed-
use activity centers and Metrorail station areas. As an example, by responding to devel-
opment issues associated with the growing high-tech/bio-tech industry job are directed
to the White Oak/FDA activity center in the eastern part of the County, and housing
growth directed to the I-270 Corridor concurrently with job growth. Opportunities to im-
prove the balance of jobs and housing within planning areas will reduce commutes and
enable people to live close to work. Development will be focused in areas with existing
infrastructure and services including transit stations, schools and other community facili-
ties. Master Plans will foster the creation of communities that offer access to a mix of
uses, an interconnected system of local streets, quality streetscapes, and transportation
choices (roads, rail transit, buses, walking and bicycling).

This vision would support transit-oriented development by providing sufficient density at

the County’s activity centers and Metrorail station areas to support a mix of uses served
by a range of transit and vehicular transportation options. This vision includes providing
a range of transportation options for work and recreation activities to reduce the de-
pendence on the automobile. They also include significant attention to issues of com-
munity character and safety.

Agricultural and rural open space preservation will continue. Some future jobs and
housing growth will be shifted from rural areas to designated growth areas.

Principles
The land use and transportation vision focuses on three principles that establish com-
munities that respond to significant challenges. These challenges include responding to
the needs of our regional economy, and our diverse population and demographic trends
in Montgomery County. The following principles are intended to address quality of life
issues and reduce the need and cost for providing transportation infrastructure.

• Create Communities With Jobs Located Near Housing: Balance jobs and
housing in major sub-areas of the County to reduce cross- and up-county com-
mutes which will have a modest, but helpful effect of reducing demands on the
transportation system.
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 • Foster Transit-Oriented Development: Plan communities with a compact range
of housing choices, retail, employment and civic uses with a development pattern
that fosters pedestrian and bikeway activity. Communities that have easy, safe,
and pedestrian access to transit reduce the impact on the road system.

• Improve Corridor Character: Improve the visual and functional qualities of arte-
rials and address traffic congestion of the older commercial strips.

• Enhance Existing Neighborhoods: Maintain and enhance the quality and

character of existing neighborhoods, and encourage a wide choice of housing
types.

Land Use Recommendations - Making the Vision a Reality

Land use vision and principles provide a framework for defining quality of life in our
communities. The following recommendations are intended to implement the above
policies and vision to improve quality of life within the County and to reduce the need
and cost for providing transportation infrastructure.

Balanced Jobs and Housing: Fostering a balance of jobs and housing within the
framework of the General Plan is a critical feature of the existing master plan process.
This balance is achieved when the number of jobs is equal to the number of workers in
each household. The projected ratio of jobs and households applied countywide is in
balance. This is not the case in major sub-areas of the County. Existing master plans
already establish principles that attempt to provide this balance. Achieving this balance
will reduce some of the current dependence on the automobile and have the positive
effect of reducing demands on the transportation system. As new master plans are ap-
proved, establishing this balance should continue to be a feature. Findings indicate im-
proving the balance of jobs and housing would accomplish the following: reduce vehicle
miles traveled, increase percentage of County jobs accessible by walking, biking or
transit, and take advantage of existing infrastructure including Metrorail.

The following actions identify the opportunities to balance jobs and housing at a variety
of levels:

• Balance jobs and housing countywide: Plan for a countywide balance of jobs and
housing (enough jobs for each resident worker).

• Examine opportunities to improve the balance of jobs and housing within plan-
ning areas at the neighborhood scale in order to reduce commutes and enable
people to live close to work.

− Improve the balance of jobs and housing in the Eastern County: Support em-
ployment center growth at the White Oak/FDA Center.

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 − Plan for a new activity center at Langley Park with a balance of jobs and
housing, preferably in conjunction with the development of the Inner Purple
Line.

− Improve the balance of jobs and housing in I-270 Corridor: Increase the op-
portunities for housing concurrently with employment.

− Examine opportunities to live near work at locations of higher density such as

Metrorail stations.

− Develop the Rockville Montgomery County Public School site with the addi-
tion of a new transit stop on the Metrorail Red Line.

• Re-examine jobs and housing in Clarksburg, Germantown and Gaithersburg due

to the removal of portions of M-83.

• Continue to support the preservation of agriculture and open space in the rural
areas through such measures as the purchase of land or easements and the
strengthening of the Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) program.

Transit-Oriented Development: The county should focus efforts on Master Plan revi-
sions at the Shady Grove transit station area, creating a new Metrorail station in Rock-
ville at the Montgomery County Public School site, improving the Twinbrook Metrorail
station area, and guiding development at the White Flint Metrorail station site. Opportu-
nities for Metrorail station area development exist in the Wheaton CBD, Glenmont, and
a future Langley Park light rail station in conjunction with the Inner Purple Line. Limited,
countywide opportunities exist in less dense activity centers with a mix of uses and
housing types, and bus service. Providing mixed use at Metrorail stations and activity
centers should increase reverse commuting, provide a diversity of housing types includ-
ing housing for the elderly, and provide transit options that reduce auto dependence.

In the near-term, the Planning Board will be focused on locations where market demand
and transportation infrastructure combine to create development opportunities as fol-
lows:

Shady Grove Metrorail Station area

MCPS/Montgomery College
Twinbrook
Fortune Parc
Wheaton CBD Metrorail Station revitalization area
White Flint Metrorail Station
White Oak/FDA Center
Langley Park Transit Center

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The following actions should be taken to promote transit-oriented development:

• Explore opportunities for more housing and commercial uses at Metrorail station
areas and in other activity centers, where appropriate.

− Plan for a mix of housing, office, and retail uses that provide opportunities to
walk to work and travel for short distances to services.

− Focus communities toward transit: Plan for the pedestrian, and frequent and
reliable transit choices.

− Create attractive and safe local streets for people: Plan for an interconnected
local street system including ample sidewalks, crosswalks, lighting, and trees
that encourage the use by pedestrians and bikes in addition to automobiles
and transit vehicles.

− Provide public facilities, and open space and recreation opportunities within
communities: These facilities and spaces should be provided within walking
distance to reduce the need for long distance travel by automobile.

− Design the community for livability: Orient buildings to streets, locate larger
parking facilities behind buildings, and encourage the joint use of Metrorail
properties instead of single use parking structures.

− Plan for infill development: Plan for an appropriate increase in density, and
encourage the retention of institutions in existing neighborhoods.

− Plan for revitalization: Encourage public/private partnerships and establish in-

centive zoning.

• Focus development in areas with adequate infrastructure including schools and

other community facilities.

• Examine opportunities to reduce congestion and improve visual quality through

such land use measures as creating mixed-use nodes or centers, reserving land
for open space and civic uses, and clustering developments.

Provide a Vision for Arterials: Improve the visual and functional qualities of arterials
and address traffic congestion of the older commercial strips. Increasing north-south
traffic and retail development have made these older corridors congested, unattractive,
and unsafe for pedestrian movement. As new development replaces obsolete buildings
and land uses, opportunities are created to rethink the auto-dominant land use pattern
that characterize these corridors. Clustering a variety of uses and densities, and improv-
ing the physical relationship with streets and sidewalks creates attractive pedestrian-
oriented shopping and living environments. A corridor study or functional plan for these
important corridors could be used to identify recommended improvements. In the near-
term, staff recommends focusing on Rockville Pike (MD 355) in the upcoming Master
Plan for the Gaithersburg and Vicinity Area.
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• Improve the visual and functional qualities of the County’s arterials that serve as
gateways to existing and future communities.

• Support master plans that provide a long-term vision that improves the visual and
functional qualities of the county’s arterials such as MD 355 and Georgia Avenue
(MD 97).

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