Wednesday, February 20, 2013
The county planning staff will make recommendations to the board about future bus rapid transit systems at the meeting on Thursday.
Discussion about the implementation of dedicated bus lanes or bus rapid transit systems in Montgomery County will continue at the Montgomery County Planning Board's next meeting, on Thursday, Feb. 21. The county planning staff will update the board on its recent work on the Countywide Transit Corridors Functional Master Plan. A public hearing for the plan will be held on May 2, according to a planning department briefing. The planning staff recommends that Maryland State Route 355 "is the best candidate for pursuing a high-quality BRT treatment to serve future planned growth," and that U.S. Route 29 "is the best candidate for implementing dedicated bus lanes in the near term," according to the briefing. There is a concern, however, that …
Thursday, February 7, 2013
The county's zoning rewrite would allow a residential neighborhood to change, gradually, to diversify its housing stock.
The revisions in the works for Montgomery County's aging zoning code—which dates to 1977 and is more than 1,200 pages long—are meant, among other things, to help Montgomery County's residents age in place, architect and sustainability expert Carl Elefante said. In the planning department's December 2012 cable show Montgomery Plans, Elefante—who served on the planning department's advisory panel when planning staff drafted the zoning code rewrite—explained how the county's ambitious Zoning Rewrite Project would make it possible for residents to stay in their communities as they grow older. The zoning rewrite—which is entering into its final stages of revisions—is meant to allow for more variety in residence size and type within a …
Wednesday, February 6, 2013
County planners will discuss a revised zoning code draft with the county planning board on Thursday, Feb. 7.
Montgomery County's residents have spoken up about the county's ambitious Zoning Rewrite Project, and county planners have listened. After planners released a consolidated draft of the county's revised zoning code last July, residents submitted comments—online and in public hearings. Those comments have been taken into consideration in a new staff draft for the project, which will be discussed with the Montgomery County Planning Board in a work session at the board's weekly meeting on Thursday, Feb. 7. The work session is slated to start at 4:30 p.m. and end at 6 p.m., according to the agenda. Parking will be one of the issues discussed at the Feb. 7 work session. (Remaining issues will be discussed at the final work session, on Feb. 14 …
Thursday, January 31, 2013
And is being "hip" necessary to Montgomery County's future success?
Can suburban Montgomery County be made hip? County Councilman Hans Riemer reportedly believes so: "I really think that we are on the verge of a golden age in Montgomery County," Riemer said at a happy hour called "Can we make the suburbs hip? The future of White Flint," Bethesda Now reported. "The region that we are in is ... dynamic, growing, exciting... . ... But we have to and we are positioning ourselves in that region to capture that future growth," he added, Bethesda Now reported. The White Flint Sector (430 acres bounded by the CSX tracks, Montrose Parkway, Old Georgetown Road and the White Flint Mall) has been approved, so far, to be redeveloped with 2,220 residential units added to the existing housing stock of 2,321 units; 9,801 …
Don't wait to sign up to testify at the March 5 public hearing before the county council on the Chevy Chase Lake Sector plan.
Have an opinion on the proposed plan for the Chevy Chase Lake Sector? Sign up to speak at a public hearing on the Chevy Chase Lake Sector plan on March 5 at 7:30 p.m. at the county council headquarters (100 Maryland Ave., Rockville, in the third-floor hearing room). Only 30 speakers will be allowed to testify at the hearing, according to an email message sent by the Town of Chevy Chase office. The Town of Chevy Chase and the Connecticut Avenue Corridor Committee already have signed up to testify, the email added. To sign up to testify, call the county council at 240-777-7803. The deadline to sign up to testify is 10 a.m. on March 5, but the 30 available spots are likely to be taken long before that, the Town of Chevy Chase advised. …
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
A discussion of the county's recently updated Athletic Field Use Permit Policy has been postponed to a later date.
When the Montgomery County Planning Board meets on Thursday, board members will be in for a long day, according to the meeting's agenda. In the morning, the board will consider a revision to a property plat in the Bethesda neighborhood of Bradley Hills, and a revision to a property plat in the Churchill Town Sector of Germantown. Design guidelines for the Chevy Chase Lake Sector—a large development still in the planning stages—will be presented by county planners to the board. Planners are suggesting ways to make new buildings in the sector appear smaller through design tweaks, the use of traditional materials and other design methods, Patch reported. Next, the board will discuss a preliminary plan to re-subdivide an existing 11-acre lot …
County planners present design guidelines for the Chevy Chase Lake Sector to the county planning board on Thursday, Jan. 31.
Montgomery County planning staff will present design guidelines for the Chevy Chase Lake Sector to the county planning board at the board's weekly meeting on Thursday. Staff planners recommend that the board approve the guidelines and send the guidelines to the county council for approval, according to the meeting's agenda. One of the key issues addressed by the guidelines is making buildings look smaller in the proposed new development (called Town Center East) on the east side of Connecticut Avenue between Chevy Chase Lake Drive and Manor Road, according to the background information for Thursday's work session. To make buildings seem smaller, the guidelines advise: In terms of building materials, the guidelines advise using local red …
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
The county planning board discusses county planning staff suggestions for streamlining county development review and approval processes at the board's Thursday meeting.
Obtaining a development permit in Montgomery County is not always the most straightforward process. In fact, county planning staff identified 67 issues with the county's development review and approval process, and will present a summary of the issues and possible solutions to the issues to the county planning board at the board's weekly meeting on Thursday. Identifying 67 issues and solutions is—like the permitting process—time-consuming. The planning staff has been working with county departments and the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission since December 2011 on the project. "These efforts have identified numerous processes that can be simplified to reduce the time it takes for a project to move from concept to building permit," …
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
The county planning board approved the draft for the sector on Jan. 17.
The County Planning Board approved county planners' draft for the Chevy Chase Lake Sector Plan last week, according to the updated agenda for last Thursday's board meeting. Next, the draft plan for the sector is sent to the County Council and county executive for analysis and approval, The Gazette reported. "The county executive will do a fiscal analysis of the plan and report to the County Council, which will hold a public hearing and work sessions before voting on whether to approve it, [county planner Elza] Hisel-McCoy said. He expects the County Council to discuss the plan in early March," The Gazette added. The draft plan's "recommendations emphasize mixed residential development [and] a shift from the current commercial zoning that …
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
The county planning staff's Chevy Chase Lake Sector Plan draft is up for planning board approval on Thursday, Jan. 17.
After years of discussion, work sessions and public hearings, the Chevy Chase Lake Sector Plan draft may be approved by the Montgomery County Planning Board on Thursday. A work session about the sector plan draft will take place at the end of the board's day-long meeting, and planning staff are set to recommend that their draft be approved by the planning board. If approved, the draft will be presented to the county executive and council on Jan. 31—only a couple months behind schedule, The Gazette reported. The draft plan's "recommendations emphasize mixed residential development [and] a shift from the current commercial zoning that will help balance the ... jobs-housing ratio" in the Chevy Chase Lake Sector—which straddles Connecticut …
Joe Galvagna
12:46 pm on Friday, February 1, 2013
Hip I donor know but more to the center or right would be great. Less giveing away the house more geared to the real working people in the county and less entitlements. Make people work for what they do not just give away the county income. Yea like that is going to happen. more ›