Town Committee Approves Design Guidelines

The design guidelines for Kensington's sector plan will next go before the Town Council, after the Revitalization Committee unanimously recommended them at a meeting Wednesday.

The current draft of the guidelines, proposed by the planning department, includes widened sidewalks, right-of-way landscaping and public art. It doesn't dictate what developers must do, County Planner Michael Brown said, but is instead designed to give developers a list of desired public amenities and an idea of what the town wants to see.

In the current draft of the sector plan, projects over 10,000 square feet would go before the town and planning department, but smaller ones would go to the county's department of permitting services. Last night, the committee also recommended that the town enter into a memorandum of understanding with DPS, under which Kensington would be made aware of those permit requests, too. 

Councilmember Mackie Barch, who chairs the committee, also suggested Kensington spend some money on a separate marketing document targeted toward potential developers, explaining the town's character and developmental recommendations.

The committee's three recommendations send the guidelines, the DPS agreement and the marketing effort to the Town Council, which could vote on them as soon as its Jan. 9 meeting.

Wednesday's meeting was the next step in the process the County Council asked the town to undertake. At a meeting , the Montgomery County Planning, Housing and Economic Development Committee asked Kensington to vote on the guidelines, consider additional plan language and adopt a mid-priced housing policy.

The town will host a public hearing on the housing policy Jan. 23 in the town hall.

The added plan language, explaining the desire for a Village Center near the MARC station, was also recommended, and we'll recap the idea fully in a later post.