County Council Passes Commercial Residential Zoning

The Montgomery County Council voted 8-1 to pass new zoning regulations that will allow for mixed-use development in the county's towns and small communities, the Gazette reported.

The vote creates two new zoning designations: Commercial Residential Town and Commercial Residential Neighborhood.

The CRT zone allows for mixed-use development, with apartments and condos stacked on ground-floor commercial properties. The CRN zone is a lower-density area designed to buffer town centers from existing single-family-home neighborhoods.

The zoning text also contains a list of public projects from which prospective developers can choose, including public parking, parks and bike facilities.

The vote is the end of a long process for Kensington. The Planning Department initally proposed the new zones in January, and the town conducted a series of public meetings to create the list of public amenities.

In July, the county Planning, Housing and Economic Development Committee , and the Town Council later passed a resolution saying Kensington would only support a proposal that restored the removed amenities.

The zoning text passed yesterday contains most of the original list, and Councilman Marc Elrich, who voted against it, repeated his criticism that the expanded list of amenities allows developers to pick the cheapest options without building the projects the county really needs.

Mayor Peter Fosselman testified at a public hearing on the Kensington sector plan last night, thanking the Council for passing the zones and saying they are integral to town's revitalization.

We'll have a story on the rest of the sector plan hearing later this morning on Patch.