THRIVE MONTGOMERY 2050

Let’s Plan For Our Future. Together.

APPROVED AND ADOPTED—OCTOBER 2022

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Montgomery Planning THE MARYLAND-NATIONAL CAPITAL PARK AND PLANNING COMMISSION

T hrive Montgomery 2050 contains the text and supporting maps for a comprehensive amendment (rewrite) of the 1969 General Plan (On Wedges and Corridors) for the Physical Development of the Maryland-Washington Regional District in Montgomery County, Maryland, as amended; the 1993 General Plan Refinement of the Goals and Objectives for Montgomery County, as amended; the Master Plan of Historic Preservation, as amended; the 2010 Purple Line Functional Plan, as amended; the 2011 Housing Element of the General Plan, as amended; the 2013 Countywide Transit Corridors Functional Master Plan, as amended; the 2018 Master Plan of Highways and Transitways, as amended; the 2018 Energized Public Spaces Functional Master Plan, as amended; and the 2018 Bicycle Master Plan, as amended.

Thrive Montgomery 2050 is a general plan for the county with a 30-year horizon. It sets a vision for the county and encompasses broad, countywide policy recommendations for land use, zoning, housing, the economy, equity, transportation, parks and open space, the environment, and historic resources. These recommendations provide guidance for future master plans, county and state capital improvement processes, and other public and private initiatives that influence land use and planning in the county. None of the plan’s zoning-related recommendations can be implemented without a sectional map amendment, a district map amendment, or a zoning text amendment approved by the County Council.

The Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission

The Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission (M-NCPPC) is a bicounty agency created by the General Assembly of Maryland in 1927. The Commission’s geographic authority extends to the great majority of Montgomery and Prince George’s counties; the Maryland-Washington Regional District (M-NCPPC planning jurisdiction) comprises about 1,001 square miles, while the Metropolitan District (parks) comprises about 919 square miles in the two counties.

The Commission prepares, adopts, and amends or extends the General Plan (Thrive Montgomery 2050) for the physical development of the Maryland-Washington Regional District in Montgomery County. The Commission operates in each county through planning boards appointed by the respective county governments. The planning boards are responsible for implementation of local plans, recommendations on zoning map amendments, zoning text amendments and subdivision regulation amendments, and the general administration of their respective park systems.

The Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission encourages the involvement and participation of all individuals, including those with disabilities. The M-NCPPC will generally provide, upon request, appropriate aids and services and make reasonable accommodations for persons with disabilities. To request accommodation (e.g., large print materials, listening devices, sign language interpretation), please contact the M-NCPPC Montgomery County Commissioners Office by telephone at 301-495-4605 or by email at mcp-chair@mncppc-mc.org, or contact the Montgomery Planning ADA Coordinator at 301-495-1324. Maryland residents can also use the free Maryland Relay Service for assistance with calls to or from hearing or speech-impaired persons by calling 7-1-1. For more information about the Maryland Relay go to www.mdrelay.org or call 800-552-7724.

Sources of Copies The Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, 2425 Reedie Drive, Wheaton, MD, 20902. Online at www.thrivemontgomery.com. This version of Thrive Montgomery 2050 includes an update to the Acknowledgments page (November 2023).

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CERTIFICATION OF APPROVAL AND ADOPTION THRIVE MONTGOMERY 2050 GENERAL PLAN FOR MONTGOMERY COUNTY

This comprehensive amendment to the 1969 General Plan (On Wedges and Corridors) for the Physical Development of the Maryland-Washington Regional District in Montgomery County, Maryland, as amended; the 1993 General Plan Refinement of the Goals and Objectives for Montgomery County, as amended; the Master Plan of Historic Preservation, as amended; the 2010 Purple Line Functional Plan, as amended; the 2011 Housing Element of the General Plan, as amended; the 2013 County-wide Transit Corridors Functional Master Plan, as amended; the 2018 Master Plan of Highways and Transitways, as amended; 2018 Energized Public Spaces Functional Master Plan as amended; and the 2018 Bicycle Master Plan, as amended; has been approved by the Montgomery County Council, sitting as the District Council, by Resolution Number 19-1413 on October 25, 2022, adopted by the Montgomery County Planning Board as Resolution 22-101 on December 1, 2022 and has been adopted by The Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission by Resolution Number 22-42 on December 21, 2022, after duly advertised public hearings pursuant to the Land Use Article – Division II, of the Annotated Code of Maryland.

THE MARYLAND-NATIONAL CAPITAL PARK AND PLANNING COMMISSION

[SIGNATURE] Peter Shapiro Chair

[SIGNATURE] Jeffrey Zyontz Vice-Chair

[SIGNATURE] Gavin Cohen Secretary-Treasurer

THE MARYLAND-NATIONAL CAPITAL PARK AND PLANNING COMMISSION 6611 Kenilworth Avenue • Riverdale, Maryland 20737

MCPB NO. 22-101 M-NCPPC NO. 22-42

RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, The Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, by virtue of the Land Use Article of the Annotated Code of Maryland, is authorized and empowered, from time to time, to make and adopt, amend, extend and add to the On Wedges and Corridors, Updated General Plan for the Physical Development of the Maryland-Washington Regional District in Montgomery County, 1969; and

WHEREAS, the Montgomery County Planning Board of the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, pursuant to the procedures set forth in the Montgomery County Code, Chapter 33A, held a duly advertised public hearing on Thursday, November 19, 2020, on the Public Hearing Draft Thrive Montgomery 2050, being a Comprehensive Amendment to the ...On Wedges and Corridors, Updated General Plan for the Maryland-Washington Regional District in Montgomery County, 1969; the General Plan Refinement of the Goals and Objectives for Montgomery County, 1993, as amended; the Master Plan of Historic Preservation, as amended; the Purple Line Functional Plan, 2010, as amended; the Housing Element of the General Plan, 2011, as amended; the County-wide Transit Corridors Functional Master Plan, 2013, as amended; the Master Plan of Highways and Transitways, 2018, as amended; the Energized Public Spaces Functional Master Plan, 2018, as amended; and the Bicycle Master Plan, 2018, as amended; and

WHEREAS, the Montgomery County Planning Board, after said public hearing and due deliberation and consideration, on April 8, 2021, approved the Planning Board Draft Thrive Montgomery 2050, recommended that it be approved by the District Council, and on April 13, 2021, forwarded it to the County Executive for recommendations and analysis; and

WHEREAS, the Montgomery County Executive reviewed and made recommendations on the Planning Board Draft Thrive Montgomery 2050 and forwarded those recommendations and analysis to the District Council on June 10, 2021; and

WHEREAS, the Montgomery County Council sitting as the District Council for the portion of the Maryland-Washington Regional District lying within Montgomery County, held two public hearings on June 17, 2021 and June 29, 2021, wherein testimony was received concerning the Planning Board Draft Thrive Montgomery 2050; and

Approved as to Legal Sufficiency: /s/ Matthew T. Mills M-NCPPC Legal Department

WHEREAS, the District Council, on October 25, 2022, approved the Planning Board Draft Thrive Montgomery 2050 subject to the modifications and revisions set forth in Resolution No. 19-1413

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the Montgomery County Planning Board and the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission do hereby adopt the said Thrive Montgomery 2050, as the General Plan for the Maryland-Washington Regional District in Montgomery County, as approved by the District Council in the attached Resolution NO. 19-1413, and

BE IF FURTHER RESOLVED, that copies of said Amendment must be certified by the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission and filed with the Clerk of the Circuit Court of each of Montgomery and Prince George’s Counties, as required by law.

This is to certify that the foregoing is a true and correct copy of Resolution No. 22-101 adopted by the Montgomery County Planning Board of the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission at its regular meeting held on December 1, 2022, in Wheaton, Maryland on motion of Commissioner Branson, seconded by Commissioner Piñero, with a vote of 5 to 0, Chair Zyontz, and Commissioners Branson, Hill, Presley, and Piñero, voting in favor of the motion.

Jeffrey Zyontz, Chair Montgomery County Planning Board

This is to certify that the foregoing is a true and correct copy of Resolution No. 22-42 adopted by the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission on motion of Commissioner Geraldo, seconded by Commissioner Bailey, with Commissioners Bailey, Branson, Doerner, Geraldo, Hill, Piñero, Presley, Shapiro, Washington and Zyontz voting in favor of the motion at its meeting held on December 21, 2022, during a hybrid video-conference/in-person meeting at Wheaton Headquarters in Wheaton, Maryland and broadcast by the Montgomery Planning Department.

Asuntha Chiang-Smith Executive Director

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION 1

/// What Is a General Plan? 4

/// A Blueprint for the Future 5

/// Plan Framework and Overarching Objectives 7

Economic Competitiveness 8

Racial Equity and Social Justice 11

Environmental Health and Resilience 17

Other Important Objectives 21

/// How Thrive Montgomery 2050 Was Developed 23

Organization of the Plan 23

A Plan Based on Community Input 24

ECONOMIC COMPETITIVENESS 27

/// Montgomery County’s Economic Performance: The Good, the Bad, and the Future 30

/// Thrive Montgomery 2050 Establishes the Building Blocks for Places that Prosper 34

/// Conclusion: Great Places as a Common Denominator for Economic Performance 37

RACIAL EQUITY AND SOCIAL JUSTICE 39

/// Planning for Racial Equity and Social Justice 40

/// Conclusion 53

ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH AND RESILIENCE 55

/// Building Resiliency and Sustainability 57

/// Key Aspects of Thrive’s Focus on Environmental Resilience 61

/// Relationship Between the Climate Action Plan and Thrive Montgomery 2050 63

/// Conclusion: A Comprehensive and Coordinated Approach to a Sustainable Future 64

COMPACT GROWTH 65

/// Introduction: Compact Footprints Along Multiple Corridors Are Central to Future Growth 66

/// What Is the Problem We Are Trying to Solve? Focusing Growth, Connecting Communities, and Reinvigorating East County 68

/// What Policies Will Solve the Problem? Refining—and Recommitting to a Compact Footprint 70

/// How Will These Policies Further the Key Objectives of Thrive Montgomery 2050? 75

/// How Will We Evaluate Progress? 80

COMPLETE COMMUNITIES 81

/// Introduction: Wedges and Corridors and the Separation of Uses—and People 82

/// What Is the Problem We Are Trying to Solve? A Mixed Record with Mixed Use 83

/// What Policies Will Solve the Problem? 87

/// How Will These Policies Further the Key Objectives of Thrive Montgomery 2050? 89

/// How Will We Evaluate Progress? 91

DESIGN, ARTS, AND CULTURE 93

/// Introduction: Why Design Matters 94

/// What Is the Problem We Are Trying to Solve? 96

/// What Policies Will Solve the Problem? 99

/// How Will These Policies Further the Key Objectives of Thrive Montgomery 2050? 103

/// How Will We Evaluate Progress? 106

TRANSPORTATION AND COMMUNICATION NETWORKS 107

/// Introduction: The Interdependence of Transportation and Land Use 108

/// What Is the Problem We Are Trying to Solve? 110

/// What Policies Will Solve the Problem? 112

/// How Will These Policies Further the Key Objectives of Thrive Montgomery 2050? 115

/// How Will We Evaluate Progress? 119

HOUSING FOR ALL 121

/// Introduction: Housing Lags Population and Job Growth 123

/// What Is the Problem We Are Trying to Solve? 124

/// What Policies Will Solve the Problem? 131

/// How Will These Policies Further the Key Objectives of Thrive Montgomery 2050? 135

/// How Will We Evaluate Progress? 138

PARKS AND RECREATION 139

/// Introduction: Evolving and Expanding Roles for Parks and Recreation 140

/// What Is the Problem We Are Trying to Solve? 143

/// What Policies Will Solve the Problem? 144

/// How Will These Policies Further the Key Objectives of Thrive Montgomery 2050? 148

/// How Will We Evaluate Progress? 150

CONCLUSION 151

/// Montgomery County Has a Lot Going for It, Yet There’s Room for Improvement 154

/// How Thrive Montgomery 2050 Will Be Implemented 155

/// Measuring Progress—Indicators 160

APPENDICES 161

Appendix A: Compliance with State Law Requirements 163

Appendix B 169

Appendix C 181

COUNCIL RESOLUTION OF APPROVAL 195

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 229

ELECTED AND APPOINTED OFFICIALS 231

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FIGURE

Figure 1: Population Estimates and Forecast, Montgomery County, 1940–2045......................5

Figure 2: Land Available to Accommodate Growth..........................................................6

Figure 3: Real Median Household Income Change, 2009–2019.........................................8

Figure 4: Population by Race and Ethnicity, Montgomery County, 1960–2020..................11

Figure 5: Percentage of Foreign-Born Population by Jurisdiction, 1990–2019................11

Figure 6: Predominant Race or Ethnic Group, 2020......................................................12

Figure 7: Median Household Income by Race and Ethnicity, Montgomery County, 2019..............13

Figure 8: Racial Disparities by Race/Ethnicity Compared to White Population, Montgomery County, 2019......................................................................................13

Figure 9: Concentration of Low-Income Students vs. AP Performance, Montgomery County, 2016–2017......................................................................................................14

Figure 10: Montgomery County Agricultural Reserve....................................................17

Figure 11: Increase in Heaviest Precipitation Events, Percentage Change, 1958–2016............18

Figure 12: Heaviest Precipitation Events and Daily Temperature Record in Washington, DC, 1870s–2010s..........................................................................................18

Figure 13: Montgomery County’s Commitment to Reduce GHG Emissions to 80% by 2027 and to Zero by 2035.......................................................................................18

Figure 14: Sources of CO2 Emissions in Montgomery County, 2005–2020......................18

Figure 15: Montgomery County’s Employment Growth Rate Compared to Similarly Sized Counties, 2004–2019 .........................................................................................30

Figure 16: Rates of Homeownership by Race, Montgomery County, 2019.......................31

Figure 17: Median Value of Debts and Assets of Households by Race/Ethnicity in the U.S., 2019............................................................................................................31

Figure 18: Percent of Population by Age Group, Montgomery County, 1990–2045..................32

Figure 19: Net Migration to Montgomery County, Ages 25–44, 2010–2019.....................32

Figure 20: Hospitality Firms Headquartered in the Washington Metropolitan Region, 2020.....33

Figure 21: I-270 in Montgomery County Is the Epicenter of Life Sciences Firms in the Washington Region, 2020......................................................................................33

Figure 22: Neighborhood Change in the Washington, DC Area, 2000–2019.....................42

Figure 23: Educational Attainment—Percent of the Population 25 Years and Older Who Has at Least Obtained a Bachelor’s Degree, 2020....................................................43

Figure 24: Median Household Income, 2020................................................................44

Figure 25: Scotland School Building in 1942...............................................................46

Figure 26: Approximate Location of Outstanding Commitments of the Federal Housing Administration in Montgomery County, 1936............................................................47

Figure 27: Illustration of Corridor Cities From the 1964 Wedges and Corridors Plan..............48

Figure 28: Percentage of Cost-Burdened Households, Montgomery County, 2012–2021.....50

Figure 29: Equity Focus Areas, 2019...........................................................................59

Figure 30: Comparing Environmental and Other Impacts of Different Development Patterns, 2013...................................................61

Figure 31: Daily Household VMT by Policy Area, 2010..................................................................62

Figure 32: Urban and Rural Patterns—from the 1964 Wedges and Corridors Plan ................67

Figure 33: Wedges and Corridors Geographic Components—from the 1993 General Plan Refinement of the Goals and Objectives for Montgomery County.........................................68

Figure 34: Proposed Growth Map—Corridor- Focused Growth...............................................71

Figure 35: Georgia Avenue Looking South From Evans Parkway Neighborhood Park—Today........ .........................................................................75

Figure 36: Georgia Avenue Looking South From Evans Parkway Neighborhood Park— Possible Future.................................................75

Figure 37: Connecticut Avenue and Manor Road— Today and Possible Future with BRT................76

Figure 38: Median Commute Distance, Miles, 2016.......................................................78

Figure 39: Pike and Rose, Infill Development Reduced Stormwater Runoff Flows by Over 70 Percent.............................................................79

Figure 40: Flexible Zoning Controls Enable Projects to Respond to Local Geography and Site Conditions (Top) Compared to Conventional Subdivisions under Entitlement-Centered Rules (Bottom)...........................................................96

Figure 41: Typical Street Design Guidelines........ .......................................................................100

Figure 42: Potential Redevelopment of Typical Suburban Office Park......................................101

Figure 43: Percent of Commuters Who Drive Alone, by Jurisdiction, 2019............................109

Figure 44: The Spatial Requirements to Transport the Same Number of People by Automobile (Left), Bicycle (Middle), or Bus (Right)......................................................109

Figure 45: Regional Connections to Activity Centers............................................................111

Figure 46: Higher Connectivity in a Traditional Grid of Streets (Downtown Bethesda, Left), Compared to a Conventional Cul-de-Sac Pattern of Streets (Olney, Right)..................................111

Figure 47: The Purple Line Commute Shed Before (Left) and After (Right) the Completion of the Light Rail Line.......................................115

Figure 48: Traffic Fatality Rates by Race, Montgomery County, 2011–2015....................116

Figure 49: In Montgomery County, Most Auto Trips Can Be Made Within a Short Bike Trip ........ .......................................................................117

Figure 50: Total Trip Time for Short Trips— Bicycle vs. Bus, Montgomery County, 2020.....118

Figure 51: Population Growth, Building Permits, and Forecasted Need for Housing Units, Montgomery County, 1980–2030....................123

Figure 52: Number of Households Spending More Than 30 Percent of Their Income on Housing, Montgomery County, 2012–2021.....124

Figure 53: Housing Price Increases Have Outpaced Growth in Incomes in Montgomery County, 2010–2018 ........................................125

Figure 54: Homeownership Rates by Householders' Age, Montgomery County, 1990–2019......................................................125

Figure 55: Change in Household Type, Montgomery County, 1960–2019....................126

Figure 56: Age 65+ Population, Montgomery County, 1960–2040...................................126

Figure 57: Average Gross Floor Area of a Single-Family Detached House by Year Built, Montgomery County, 1950–2019...................126

Figure 58: Number of Households by Number of Bedrooms and Number of People in Owner-Occupied Housing Units, Montgomery County, 2018............................................................127

Figure 59: Distribution of Land Use Categories in Montgomery County, 2020.......................127

Figure 60: Land Uses by Major Development Types in Montgomery County, 2020..............128

Figure 61: Median Value of Owner-Occupied Homes, 2019...............................................129

Figure 62: Forecast of Owner and Renter Households by Housing Types by 2040, Montgomery County............................................................130

Figure 63: University Boulevard Between New Hampshire Avenue and Anne Street—Today (Top) and Possible Future (Bottom)..............133

Figure 64: Living Preferences in the U.S., 2015...................................................................135

Figure 65: Share of New Construction in Washington, DC Area Walkups, 2012..............135

Figure 66: Missing Middle Housing Encompasses a Range of Building Types and Densities......................................................................136

Figure 67: Colesville Road/Columbia Pike (U.S. 29) Looking East From Its Intersection With New Hampshire Avenue—Today (Top) and Possible Future (Bottom)............................................138

Figure 68: Montgomery County Parks Timeline, 1930–2010................................................142

Figure 69: EPS Plan Study Area.......................145

Figure 70: Trends in Obesity Prevalence Among Adults Aged 20 and Over (Age Adjusted) and Youth (Ages 2–19 Years) in the U.S., 1999–2016............................................................149

Figure 71: Evans Parkway Stream Before and After Restoration.........................................150

Figure 72: Mineral Extraction Sites in Montgomery County, 2022................................168

Figure 73: Asian/Pacific Islander, Non-Hispanic Percent of Population, 1990.......................169

Figure 74: Asian/Pacific Islander, Non-Hispanic Percent of Population, 2000.......................169

Figure 75: Asian/Pacific Islander, Non-Hispanic Percent of Population, 2010.......................169

Figure 76: Asian/Pacific Islander, Non-Hispanic Percent of Population, 2020.......................169

Figure 77: Black, Non-Hispanic Percent of Population, 1990...........................................170

Figure 78: Black, Non-Hispanic Percent of Population, 2000...........................................170

Figure 79: Black, Non-Hispanic Percent of Population, 2010...........................................170

Figure 80: Black, Non-Hispanic Percent of Population, 2020...........................................170

Figure 81: Hispanic Origin Percent of Population, 1990..........................................................171

Figure 82: Hispanic Origin Percent of Population, 2000..........................................................171

Figure 83: Hispanic Origin Percent of Population, 2010..........................................................171

Figure 84: Hispanic Origin Percent of Population, 2020..........................................................171

Figure 85: White, Non-Hispanic Percent of Population, 1990...........................................172

Figure 86: White, Non-Hispanic Percent of Population, 2000...........................................172

Figure 87: White, Non-Hispanic Percent of Population, 2010...................................................172

Figure 88: White, Non-Hispanic Percent of Population, 2020...................................................172

Figure 89: Predominant Racial or Hispanic Group, 1990..........................................................173

Figure 90: Predominant Racial or Hispanic Group, 2000..........................................................173

Figure 91: Predominant Racial or Hispanic Group, 2010..........................................................173

Figure 92: Predominant Racial or Hispanic Group, 2020..........................................................173

Figure 93: Race and Ethnicity, 2020................174

Figure 94: Housing Affordability, 2020..........175

Figure 95: Housing Cost Burden—Median Home Values and Median Household Incomes, 2020..... ...............................................................................176

Figure 96: Cost of Housing + Transportation, 2020.......................................................................177

Figure 97: Environmental Quality, 2022..........178

Figure 98: Neighborhood Change and Displacement Risk, 2019...................................179

Figure 99: Percent Black/Hispanic High School Students, 1990.....................................................180

Figure 100: Percent Black/Hispanic High School Students, 2000.....................................................180

Figure 101: Percent Black/Hispanic High School Students, 2010.....................................................180

Figure 102: Percent Black/Hispanic High School Students, 2020.....................................................180

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INTRODUCTION

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W hen Montgomery County adopted its first general plan, known as the Wedges and Corridors Plan, in 1964, much of our land was undeveloped. The 1964 Plan, as modified by “refinements” adopted in 1969 and 1993, embraced many of the principles and ideas that are still of value today, such as an emphasis on the preservation of the Agricultural Reserve, development of physically concentrated centers of all sizes, and encouragement of land use patterns that could be effectively served by a multi-modal transportation system. These plans helped to make the county one of the most desirable places to live and work in the United States. Our success has been built on an award-winning park system, high-quality schools, preserving our agricultural and natural resources, fostering the emergence of urban centers and mass transit, and shaping the design of attractive suburban subdivisions.

The Wedges and Corridors Plan was visionary, and its refinements were largely effective in adapting its principles and ideas to the needs of a growing population; however, today we find ourselves facing new challenges and changing circumstances. We have evolved from a bedroom community to a complex jurisdiction with major employment centers and mature residential neighborhoods. As a group, our residents are older, more diverse, and less likely to live in traditional family arrangements. We have a highly educated workforce, proximity to the nation’s capital, and a culture of openness to newcomers, but we also are struggling to attract businesses and house our residents, grappling with a legacy of racial and economic inequality, and facing the effects of climate change.

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In addition, we now see that not all of the changes in our approach to planning were beneficial. The 1993 General Plan Refinement of the Goals & Objectives for Montgomery County (1993 Refinement) established the residential wedge, identified as an area for “maintaining a low-density residential character” and directed most growth to the “urban ring” and the I-270 corridor. However, the removal of the eastern portion of the county as a location suitable for corridor-focused development discouraged public and private investment in this area. The establishment of the residential wedge consigned more than one-third of the county to zoning exclusively for single-family homes, leaving many of our neighborhoods reliant on automobiles and disconnected from many amenities and services. These decisions, in conjunction with discriminatory land use and planning-related practices such as redlining and restrictive covenants (both created by the real estate and financial industries and then adopted by government agencies), established inequitable patterns of development that must be recognized and addressed in ways that do not compound the issues caused by displacement and gentrification.

Today the combination of rapid social, environmental, technological, demographic, and economic shifts at the national and global levels along with our new context requires us to take a clear-eyed look at our strengths and weaknesses. We have tremendous assets, but if we hope to continue to thrive, we must be prepared to make difficult decisions and take bold steps to prepare for the future. Thrive Montgomery 2050 (Thrive, the Plan or this Plan) is the vehicle for assessing the implications of these shifts for land use, transportation, and public infrastructure and adapting our approach to planning and growth for the next 30 years.

3 Thrive Montgomery 2050—Approved and Adopted

What Is a General Plan?

A general plan is a long-range guide for the development of a community. Every jurisdiction must adopt some form of general or "comprehensive" plan as a legal predicate for the exercise of the government’s land use and zoning powers. The purpose of a 30-year plan is not to predict and respond to a single future, but to provide broad guidance for land use decisions as we face multiple, unpredictable future opportunities and challenges that influence growth and development such as disruptions brought about by climate change, pandemics, or terrorist attacks, as well as the consequences of innovations such as autonomous vehicles and micro transit.

Thrive Montgomery 2050 is the county’s update to our general plan. It is a framework for future plans and development that defines the basic land use policies and context for all public and private development in the county. It provides direction for decisions about land use, transportation, and related issues under local government influence, but it does not by itself change zoning or other detailed land use regulations, although implementation of its recommendations may require such changes. Its recommendations also touch on the objectives and actions of other public and private entities that are responsible for implementing and providing land use-related services and amenities. However, while the general plan provides guidance to the entire county, that guidance is not binding upon those municipalities that have independent planning, zoning, and subdivision authority¹.

Thrive Montgomery 2050 does not abandon or reject the wedges and corridors concept, but instead modernizes it to remain relevant. Area master plans, sector plans, and countywide functional plans will remain valid until modified pursuant to the guidance provided by this Plan. Like the previous general plan, its broad policy recommendations pave the way for future actions, such as amendments to other plans, policies, and development rules.

Thrive Montgomery 2050 has a 30-year time horizon, but it is designed to be flexible and adaptable to changing circumstances. It is designed to provide long-term guiding principles and objectives that can deal with a constantly changing economic, social, and environmental landscape.

To that end, Thrive Montgomery 2050 will inform future master and functional plans. Master plans (or area master plans or sector plans) are long-term planning documents for a specific place or geographic area of the county. All master plans are amendments to the General Plan. They provide detailed land use and zoning recommendations for specific areas of the county. They also address transportation, the natural environment, urban design, historic resources, affordable housing, economic development, public facilities, and implementation techniques. Many of Thrive Montgomery 2050’s recommendations cannot be implemented with a one-size-fits-all approach. Area master plans will help refine Thrive Montgomery 2050 recommendations and implement them at a scale tailored to specific neighborhoods.

Functional plans are master plans addressing a system, such as traffic circulation or green infrastructure, or a policy, such as agricultural preservation or housing. A functional master plan amends the General Plan and may include recommendations on land use and zoning. The Master Plan of Highways and Transitways, the Energized Public Spaces Functional Master Plan, and the Master Plan for Historic Preservation are functional plans that do not include land use or zoning recommendations; however, the Preservation of Agriculture & Rural Open Space Functional Master Plan does. New and revised functional master plans can help refine and implement Thrive Montgomery 2050 recommendations that affect countywide systems and/or policies.

A Blueprint for the Future

Thrive Montgomery 2050 is about addressing historic inequities, embracing new realities, and shifting the way we think about how the county should grow. Montgomery County has many assets and advantages. Our strengths will enable us to continue to thrive, but we must also take a hard look at where we have been, where we are going, and how we want to get there.

Montgomery County is growing more slowly than in past decades, but our population is still projected by the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments to increase by about 200,000 people over the next 30 years. We have little undeveloped land left to accommodate this growth, even if new construction is compact. With 85 percent of our land already developed or otherwise constrained, accommodating even the modest growth expected over the life of this Plan is an ambitious undertaking. The way we think about growth needs to change. We need to reconsider sites previously considered unsuitable for development, such as parking lots or the air rights over existing buildings and find ways to use land more efficiently.

Thrive Montgomery 2050 offers a blueprint for new approaches that are needed immediately and will extend over a period of decades. These strategies aim to accommodate growth in ways that make room for new residents and improve the quality of life for the people who already live here. The Plan anticipates a county that will become more urban, more diverse, and more interconnected. It guides us to leverage growth and redevelopment to create places that are more economically competitive, foster a stronger sense of trust and inclusiveness among people from different backgrounds, and improve environmental quality and public health in the process.

With 85 percent of our land already developed or otherwise constrained, accommodating even the modest growth expected over the life of this Plan is an ambitious undertaking.

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Figure 1: Population Estimates and Forecast, Montgomery County, 1940–2045

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Environmental constraints (medium and dark grey): Streams, Wetland Buffers, Erodible Soils, Parks & Biodiversity Areas, Special Protection Areas, Agricultural Reserve, Forest Conservation Easements.

Human-made constraints (light grey): Utility Sites (WSSC, Transmission Lines), Transportation Infrastructure (Metro, Rail, State Roads, Federal Highways), Government-Owned Sites, Rustic Roads, Public Education Facilities, Historic Resources, Transferable Development Rights (TDR) Exhausted, Rockville Quarry, Regulated Affordable Housing, Private Institutions, Homeowners Associations Common Ownership, Single-Family Homes.

Redevelopment qualifiers (red): Multiple Owners, Improvement Value > Land Value, Office Buildings Less Than 50 Years Old, Retail Buildings Less Than 15 Years Old.

Constrained area (all non-white areas) = 276,515 Acres (85%) Unconstrained area (white areas) = 47,804 Acres (15%)

Figure 2: Land Available to Accommodate Growth

Introduction 6

Plan Framework and Overarching Objectives

Thrive Montgomery 2050 aims to create communities that offer equitable access to jobs, more housing, transportation, parks, and public spaces. Just as importantly, it can help guide the design of the built environment to strengthen the social and physical health of our residents, supporting active lifestyles and encouraging interaction and engagement. This framework embraces and builds on the Wedges and Corridors Plan, with a greater emphasis on the development of compact, “Complete Communities” and the role of major corridors as places to grow. It also supports greater conservation and expanded protection of our natural resources and recognizes the importance of integrating arts and culture in our communities.

The ideas and recommendations in this Plan are organized to achieve three overarching objectives: economic competitiveness, racial equity and social justice, and environmental health and resilience.

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Economic Competitiveness

Racial Equity and Social Justice

Environmental Health and Resilience

Economic Competitiveness

Opportunities and Challenges

The county has significant concentrations in two private industry sectors, hospitality and life sciences, in addition to a strong presence of federal government offices and laboratories. These elements form a strong foundation to produce higher-wage jobs and spur economic growth. Montgomery County is home to companies representing half of the market capitalization of the entire hospitality sector, and the Washington area is consistently ranked as one of the nation’s top life science clusters, with I-270 as its epicenter. Local institutions such as the University of Maryland are leading groundbreaking research in emerging fields such as quantum computing.

We are also part of a dynamic regional economy with a rich mix of public institutions and private companies. Many residents of the Washington region travel to, from, or through Montgomery County to reach jobs or homes in other jurisdictions within the region. The effects of decisions about housing, environmental stewardship, economic development, and other issues in any DC-area jurisdiction are felt by its neighbors. We enjoy many benefits from cooperation with our neighbors but also compete against them for opportunities, and consensus on how to address regional problems is often elusive. We need to think about Montgomery County as a part of the larger region and find ways to work more effectively with other area governments on policies and projects that will help make us all stronger.

As we work to fortify the county’s economic performance, we must simultaneously bolster our dominance in existing sectors, diversify our job base, improve connections to centers of employment and innovation throughout the region, and provide the kinds of infrastructure, services, and amenities that can strengthen our ability to compete effectively in the future. Our quality of life depends on the ability to attract and retain employers and the employees they need.

We continue to benefit from our proximity to the nation’s capital, which draws highly skilled, educated, and motivated people from all over the world. We must also recognize that some key measures of Montgomery County’s economic performance have been stagnant since the Great Recession of 2008. The total number of jobs in the county grew by five percent from 2004 to 2019, while 20 similarly sized counties across the country grew by an average of 21 percent. In addition, household income growth in the county has lagged the national average (-2 percent vs. 10 percent) and was the slowest in the region during this period. Montgomery County added jobs, albeit slowly, but growth came largely in lower-wage sectors of the economy.

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Figure 3: Real Median Household Income Change, 2009–2019

How Thrive Montgomery 2050 Addresses Economic Health

Thrive Montgomery 2050 can play an important role in strengthening our economic competitiveness by fostering the creation of places where people with diverse choices want to live and work. Its recommendations for land use, transportation, parks, and other public and private infrastructure lay the groundwork for economic development initiatives undertaken by other entities. For example, the county’s Capital Improvement Program (CIP) should be aligned with Thrive Montgomery 2050’s recommendations to make our neighborhoods more attractive for private development by providing high-quality transit, sidewalks and a walkable grid of streets, great urban parks, and high-performing and racially integrated schools. The combination of these kinds of investments is a reliable long-term strategy for attracting workers to well-designed and planned Complete Communities, which in turn will entice businesses and employers to locate here.

Thrive Montgomery 2050 emphasizes that the county should support a diverse array of work environments. Re-energizing the county’s commercial centers is a major goal of the Plan, but so is the recognition that small offices or storefronts in Complete Communities and even home offices are likely to be common workplaces in the 21st century. Different skill and education levels and linguistic, racial, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds infuse the local economy with the varied pool of skills, experiences, and perspectives necessary to solve problems and innovate. The Plan’s compact land use pattern and walkable communities supported by an efficient transit network will connect the county’s diverse population to economic opportunities.

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Racial Equity and Social Justice

Opportunities and Challenges

Diversity and inclusion are essential to our economic success as well as to our ability to produce more equitable outcomes for all our residents, who deserve high-quality housing, education, jobs, transportation, and recreational opportunities. The county’s population has grown more diverse because of a steady influx of foreign-born immigrants. Montgomery County is home to some of the most culturally diverse places in the United States, including Silver Spring, Rockville, Gaithersburg, and Germantown. (See Appendices B-1 through B-5 for demographic changes between 1990 and 2020; and Appendix B-6: Race and Ethnicity, 2020. See the Equity Focus Area (EFA) map on page 59).

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Figure 4: Population by Race and Ethnicity, Montgomery County, 1960–2020

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Figure 5: Percentage of Foreign-Born Population by Jurisdiction, 1990–s2019

But past patterns of discrimination—some intentional, some unintentional—have left many communities geographically, economically, and socially isolated. After the Civil War and the end of slavery, African Americans suffered from pervasive discrimination and exploitation in the provision of economic and educational opportunities. The resulting alienation led to the creation of self-reliant kinship communities in many parts of Montgomery County in the late 19th century. Over time, these communities suffered from a lack of public investment in infrastructure such as new roads, sewer and water, schools, health clinics, and other public amenities and services. Some communities were hurt by the urban renewal policies of the 1960s. Others faced pressure to sell their houses or farms to developers for new subdivisions.

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Figure 6: Predominant Race or Ethnic Group, 2020

Planning decisions and real estate development practices aggravated these injustices for most of the 20th century. Redlining and restrictive racial covenants created geographic and economic divisions that have left a legacy of injustice that not only separated people by neighborhood or community, but also barred Black Americans from building wealth (the type of wealth used to invest in higher education, start businesses, and pass to heirs). The effects of these efforts to separate people by race and class continue to be felt today. More recently, disinvestment from and abandonment of neighborhoods previously considered highly desirable, combined with the suburbanization of poverty, have created new geographic divisions and barriers to equity and inclusion. The 1993 Refinement’s focus on the I-270 corridor and related planning decisions exacerbated this problem by discouraging growth in East county, focusing public and private investment to the west.

Impacts of Past Practices

Today communities with high concentrations of racial and ethnic minorities also show lagging median household incomes, not because of their race or ethnicity but because financial precarity due to low-wage jobs, high rates of being uninsured, declining business starts and lack of housing are experienced to a greater degree because of past and institutionalized discriminatory practices. Not surprising is the resulting gaps in quality-of-life indicators seen among too many Black, Hispanic, and Asian residents.

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Figure 7: Median Household Income by Race and Ethnicity, Montgomery County, 2019

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Figure 8: Racial Disparities by Race/Ethnicity Compared to White Population, Montgomery County, 2019

This separation of neighborhoods along lines defined by race and income has important consequences for access to educational opportunities and the life prospects of our county’s children. In 2019, three-quarters of Black, Hispanic, and English-learning students in Montgomery County Public Schools—along with more than 80 percent of all low-income students in the system—were enrolled in high-poverty-focus schools. By comparison, more than two-thirds of all White, Asian, and multi-racial students were enrolled in low-poverty schools.

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Figure 9: Concentration of Low-Income Students vs. AP Performance, Montgomery County, 2016–2017

As we seek a more equitable and inclusive future, improved access to infrastructure and amenities in racially, socially, and economically isolated areas will not be enough. We also must facilitate the integration of neighborhoods by race and income, across all ages. Increasing the share of racially and economically mixed neighborhoods and schools across all parts of the county is critical to ensure that the inequities of the past will not be perpetuated in the future. To this end, Montgomery Planning must establish working, ongoing relationships with communities that prioritize participatory planning and must bring the voices of vulnerable communities forward.

In parallel with steps to reduce inequity in the geographic distribution of resources and opportunities, Montgomery County must work to build a shared sense of purpose that can help strengthen efforts to promote respect for diversity, demonstrate the value of inclusion, and build a foundation for greater trust. This concept, often described by academics under the umbrella term “social capital,” can pay dividends not only in sustaining support for racial and social justice but in bolstering civic capacity more broadly.

How Thrive Montgomery 2050 Addresses Racial Equity and Social Justice

In this regard, decisions about land use, transportation, and public infrastructure can play an important role in building a sense of community. Different measures of social capital, including trust in public and private institutions, the planning process, political participation, whether neighbors know each other, and other indicia of connection and cohesion are influenced by qualities of the built environment. The design of our communities can greatly influence levels of community cohesion and social interaction. Creating social capital requires the built environment to encourage and make it easier for people to meet others and engage in activities. For this reason, Thrive Montgomery 2050 emphasizes the roles streets, parks, and public spaces play in creating a physical environment where a sense of community can flourish.

Advancing racial equity through just planning policies and public investments in underserved communities, promoting the racial and economic integration of neighborhoods, and focusing on the potential for the design of communities to help build social trust and inclusion while encouraging civic participation and participation in the planning process are among the most significant elements of Thrive Montgomery 2050. Thrive Montgomery 2050 strives to create racially integrated and just communities. Like economic competitiveness and environmental sustainability, policies designed to advance racial and social equity are integrated into every part of this Plan.

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Environmental Health and Resilience

Opportunities and Challenges

The Wedges and Corridors Plan laid the groundwork for the adoption of forward-thinking policies that emphasized land preservation for resource conservation and agriculture, protection of our streams, forests, and trees and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. One-third of the county’s land is now protected within the Agricultural Reserve and another 13.8 percent is under the stewardship of the Montgomery County Department of Parks (Montgomery Parks). Along with improved stormwater and forest conservation regulations, these efforts have established a strong framework for the protection of natural resources.

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Despite these policies, additional work is still needed in these areas, including increased attention to localized flooding and the loss of mature tree canopy. The county cannot avoid the impact of global climate change. Precipitation increased 55 percent in the northeastern United States between 1958 and 2016. This trend has meant more frequent extreme weather events like the flash flooding that occurred in July 2019, when the DC region received a month’s worth of rain in a single day, causing streams to rise 10 feet in less than an hour, inundating vehicles, businesses, roads and closing the Metrorail system. The past decade has also been the hottest 10-year period in the region’s recorded history, with rising hospitalizations due to extreme heat impacts. Public health issues are exacerbated by climate change and are intertwined with the quality of the built and natural environment. Where possible, these and other effects of climate change must be addressed in our land use policies. The adverse effects of a changing climate will be felt most acutely by low-income residents and people of color, who are likely to suffer a disproportionate share of the damage to real property and personal health due to past and current patterns of discrimination.

Montgomery County has made progress in reducing its greenhouse gas emissions, a key contributor to climate change, but has much farther to go to meet its goal of eliminating these emissions by 2035. It will require significant changes in the county’s transportation and building sectors. For transportation, the county should contemplate policies to facilitate a transition to zero-emissions vehicles (or other zero-emissions technologies). For buildings (both existing and new construction), the county should consider a combination of energy conservation measures and clean energy generation (such as rooftop solar Photovoltaic).

Together, buildings and transportation are responsible for more than 90 percent of our county’s greenhouse gas emissions, making reduced reliance on driving and more energy-efficient buildings and compact development patterns essential to meeting our climate objectives.

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Figure 11: Increase in Heaviest Precipitation Events, Percentage Change, 1958–2016

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Figure 12: Heaviest Precipitation Events and Daily Temperature Record in Washington, DC, 1870s–2010s

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Figure 13: Montgomery County’s Commitment to Reduce GHG Emissions to 80% by 2027 and to Zero by 2035

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Figure 14: Sources of CO2 Emissions in Montgomery County, 2005–2020

How Thrive Montgomery 2050 Addresses Environmental Resilience

Thrive Montgomery 2050’s focus on a compact form of development with a mix of uses supported by transportation systems that make alternatives to driving practical and attractive are essential pieces of any comprehensive strategy to fight climate change. A stronger focus on walking, biking, and transit infrastructure will be crucial, but the significance of mixed uses and compact development in reducing driving is equally important. The environmental benefits of dense, walkable neighborhoods dovetail with the increasing preference across age groups to live in walkable places served by a mix of uses and amenities.

Of course, not even the most sustainable transportation planning and growth strategies will be able to resolve every environmental challenge facing the county. Thrive Montgomery 2050 builds on the tradition of robust conservation and protection of the natural environment. It prioritizes the equitable distribution and expansion of green infrastructure throughout the county. It supports alternative clean energy generation, distributed energy, grid modernization, improved composting and food waste recovery, and advances in other circular economy initiatives. And it proposes a series of strategies to mitigate the effects of climate change and minimize pollution. The Plan also anticipates the need for public and private infrastructure to be made more resilient to withstand more severe weather and protect us from the effects of environmental degradation from sources that are beyond our control.

Thrive Montgomery 2050 was drafted in coordination with the county’s Climate Action Plan (CAP). While Thrive Montgomery 2050 is a high-level land use document that focuses on long-range planning and policies to guide the physical development of the county, the CAP recommends specific near-term actions to achieve the goal of eliminating greenhouse gas emissions by 2035, and to mitigate or adapt to the effects of increased heat and flooding, high winds, and drought. Thrive Montgomery 2050 incorporates a wide range of recommendations related to climate change and its connection to land use, transportation, and parks. Effectively reducing greenhouse gas emissions and slowing the effects of climate change requires the “greening” of our electricity grid through a significant increase in clean energy generation in the county, likely employing both large-scale solar Photovoltaic (PV) projects where feasible and smaller distributed solar PV installations. The Montgomery County Planning Department (Montgomery Planning) and Montgomery Parks also will implement recommendations in the CAP that are within the scope of the M-NCPPC’s responsibilities. Together these plans strive to create a comprehensive approach to climate change at the local level.

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Other Important Objectives The Plan also addresses other important goals that complement the three overarching objectives discussed above.

Improving Public Health and Encouraging Active Lifestyles

Natural and built environments strongly influence the length and quality of human life. In 2018, more than three-fifths of adults in Montgomery County were overweight or obese. Five of the seven zip codes in the county with household incomes in the lowest quartile are also among the zip codes with the lowest average life spans. And even though low-income residents and people of color are more likely to suffer from negative health outcomes for several reasons, all residents can benefit from a more active lifestyle supported by an emphasis on transit, walking, and biking, and easy access to parks, recreational opportunities, and nature. The importance of healthy living for seniors and the disabled will also remain a significant area of focus as our aging population continues to grow. Active lifestyles supported by improved housing choices in compact, Complete Communities can serve to improve public health for all, while simultaneously reducing the ecological footprint of human activity.

Elevating Quality of Design and Highlighting Role of Arts and Culture

The Wedges and Corridors Plan envisioned a variety of living environments and encouraged “imaginative urban design” to avoid sterile suburban sprawl. Nonetheless, like every plan, that plan was a product of its time. It relied on design approaches that were typical of the 1960s, emphasizing the convenience of driving and rigid separation of land uses.

Good design is not a luxury but a critical economic development tool. Businesses and workers today prefer walkable, accessible, amenity-rich, mixed-use places that facilitate the interaction and exchange of ideas that feed innovation. A greater share of residents, across all ages, prefer walkable, transit-rich neighborhoods too. Combined with the lack of undeveloped land far from transit, these forces indicate the need for a shift toward redevelopment and infill that converts “parking lots to places” near existing or planned transit lines and and incorporating a walkable form of development.

Our arts and culture sector, taken as a whole, would be the county’s sixth-largest employer. The sector taps into creative, social, and economic networks, and its practitioners have developed tools to share stories, encourage empathy, and empower creative exchange. Supporting a healthy and diverse arts and culture ecosystem will not only enrich the lives of our residents and bring us closer together but can help attract talent and spur innovation.

Urbanism as an Organizing Principle

Thrive Montgomery 2050 applies the principles of urbanism—a term this Plan uses as shorthand for a set of ideas about successful human settlements to guide their future growth. Urbanism draws on the lessons of thousands of years of experimentation and evolution in the design and development of villages, towns, and cities to apply the ideas that have proven to endure as the foundation for adaptable and resilient communities everywhere. An urbanism-focused approach to the development of land and related infrastructure (such as roadways, transit systems, and parks) emphasizes the value of: a compact form of development, diverse uses and building types, and transportation networks that take advantage of and complement these two land use strategies, at all densities and scales.

This approach calls for focusing growth on a limited number of locations rather than dispersing it, avoiding “sprawl.” It means encouraging in appropriate areas the agglomeration of different uses such as retail, housing, and office space as well as diversity within each type of use. For example, a variety of housing sizes and types near employment and retail can help to ensure that people of diverse income levels can live and work in proximity to each other. This, over time, can produce more racially and socioeconomically integrated neighborhoods and schools, and more equitable access to economic opportunities, public services, and amenities. It also emphasizes the importance of walking, biking and transit and reduces reliance on cars.

Urbanism = Compact form of development, diverse uses and building types, and transportation networks that take advantage of and complement these two land use strategies, at all densities and scales.

Of course, other factors—particularly quality and thoughtfulness in the design of buildings, streets, neighborhoods, public spaces, and the incorporation of nature into urban areas—are also essential. Combined with the fundamentals of urbanism, design excellence and biophilic design¹ can help create a sense of place, facilitate social interaction, encourage active lifestyles, and contribute to environmental resiliency. Compact development can also provide other advantages including efficient use of scarce land, more natural areas for recreation and preservation, and reduced expense for building and maintaining infrastructure.

These principles of urbanism benefit rural, suburban, and urban areas. In fact, the preservation of land for agriculture in a place like Montgomery County depends on concentrating development in urban centers instead of permitting sprawl, and even suburban and rural areas benefit from a mix of uses and housing types—at appropriately calibrated intensity and scale—to serve their needs.

With attention to both the functional and aesthetic aspects of design, urbanism is not only consistent with a commitment to maintaining the best of what has made Montgomery County attractive in the past but is necessary to preserve and build on these qualities while addressing the challenges of auto-centric planning and its effects on the environment, racial equity, and social cohesion.

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How Thrive Montgomery 2050 Was Developed

Organization of the Plan

Related to the three primary objectives of economic competitiveness, racial equity and social justice, and environmental health and resilience, the Plan is organized into nine chapters:

• Economic Competitiveness

• Racial Equity and Social Justice

• Environmental Health and Resilience

• Compact Growth: Corridor-Focused Development

• Complete Communities: Mix of Uses and Form

• Design, Arts, and Culture: Investing and Building Community

• Transportation and Communication Networks: Connecting People, Places, and Ideas

• Housing for All: More of Everything

• Parks and Recreation for an Increasingly Urban and Diverse Community: Active and Social

The first three chapters, following the introduction, each address one of the three overarching objectives of the Plan. As such, they “set the stage” for the policies and practices recommended in the chapters that follow. The ideas in each of the following six chapters are intended to complement each other and outline approaches calibrated for varying scales of planning. The fourth, fifth and sixth chapters move from the countywide scale (Compact Growth) to the community and neighborhood scale (Complete Communities) and finally to the details of individual blocks and buildings (Design, Arts, and Culture). The chapter on Compact Growth describes a countywide approach that aims to concentrate development along corridors to maximize the efficiency of infrastructure, preserve land, and focus investment. The Complete Communities chapter covers strategies for individual neighborhoods and districts that build on the foundation of a compact footprint for growth by incorporating a mix of uses, building types, and lot sizes to create livable places that are accessible and inviting to people with a variety of income levels, household sizes, and lifestyles. The Design, Arts and Culture chapter discusses the finer-grained analysis of design concepts applicable to blocks and individual development sites, the architecture of public and private buildings, the landscape of plazas and public spaces, and elements of street design.

These concepts are reinforced and supported by the remaining three chapters, which address specific topics related to development and public infrastructure. The Transportation and Communication Networks chapter outlines the multi-modal and digital infrastructure required to support compact growth and the creation of walkable, well-designed Complete Communities as well as the communication networks in the county. The Housing for All chapter recommendations are intended to diversify our housing stock across incomes, building types and geography. The Parks and Recreation chapter describes the role of public and privately owned parks and gathering spaces in encouraging social interaction, promoting a healthy lifestyle through physical activity, and mitigating the effects of climate change through environmental stewardship. Each chapter explains how its recommendations serve the broader objectives of Thrive Montgomery 2050 and provides suggested measures to gauge progress in implementing the chapter’s ideas. No plan that is designed to provide guidance over a period of decades can anticipate every difficult problem, attractive opportunity, or useful idea that may emerge, so these metrics should be used to assess new proposals as well as to measure the success or failure of the plan’s recommendations over time.

A Plan Based on Community Input

This Plan is the result of community feedback and collaboration over more than two years of extensive outreach by Montgomery Planning. Planners reached out to a wide spectrum of stakeholders including students, homeowners and civic associations, nonprofit advocacy groups and community-based organizations, and representatives of large and small businesses. The outreach effort was designed to emphasize engagement with residents who will live longest with the recommendations made in this Plan—Millennials and Gen Xers and high school and college students—as well as members of racial and ethnic groups who historically have been left out of land use and planning processes.

Thrive Montgomery 2050’s community engagement activities were implemented through four phases beginning in summer 2019. Each of these phases—Excite, Educate, Engage, and Endorse—included specific objectives and communication and engagement strategies.

Equitable Communications and Community Outreach

For historically underrepresented audiences—such as Latinos, African Americans, foreign-born residents, renters, and small business owners—outreach focused on connecting with community influencers who have established trust within their communities. This included co-hosting listening sessions and events, providing content for events and communications, and engaging their organizations with educational tools.

From June 2019 through April 2021, Montgomery Planning organized multiple in-person and virtual engagement activities to imagine what life in Montgomery County will be like in 2050 and what will be needed to ensure that we thrive in the decades to come. Planners participated in more than 180 meetings with community members and organizations; created and distributed a “Meeting-in-a-Box” for residents and organizations to host their own discussions about Thrive Montgomery 2050 and the county’s future; created an online quiz soliciting feedback on values and priorities for the plan; built a dedicated website (accessible both in English and in Spanish), with a wealth of materials in multiple languages, and distributed tens of thousands of postcards and e-newsletters to reach community members across the county. The outreach effort was challenging because of the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic nine months into the planning process; however, the outreach work responded to this challenge with innovative tools—including successful virtual meetings, social media campaigns, and outdoor pop-up events. More detailed information about this award-winning equitable engagement strategy is included in the Outreach Appendix (published separately).

For a typical master or sector plan, one public hearing is held by the County Council. For plans that encompass a large area or contain recommendations for a large number of properties, the Council will hold two public hearings. For Thrive Montgomery 2050, the Council held two public hearings in June 2021.

Recognizing the interest in the Plan and hoping to receive input from as diverse a group of county residents and business owners as possible, the Council created additional opportunities for community members to weigh in. Following completion of the Committee Draft, the Council held two Community Listening Sessions, encouraging participation focused on the overarching goals of the Plan and the updates made by the Committee. In early 2022, at the request of the Council President, the Citizen Advisory Boards of the county’s five Regional Service Centers hosted a discussion of the Draft Plan, providing yet another opportunity to gather diverse thoughts on the updated Plan from residents across the county.

During this time of extended outreach, the Council also requested the Office of Legislative Oversight (OLO) conduct a racial equity and social justice review of the Plan. The primary finding from this review was that meaningful input on Plan recommendations from Black, Indigenous, and people of color as well as other underrepresented residents would require more targeted outreach best handled by a consultant with expertise in this area. In response, a consultant team with extensive experience engaging underrepresented communities on a variety of topics, including land use planning, transportation, economic development, and housing, was hired. The consultant team spent three months gathering input from communities of color and other underrepresented groups within the county, specifically engaging these community members on the policies and practices recommended in the Committee Draft. As a result, the consultant team produced a report that included recommended revisions based on input aimed at advancing racial equity and social justice, detailed information on targeted community engagement, a description of the community engagement process and the methodologies used to gather feedback, and recommendations applicable to any future outreach efforts. The consultant team also provided a draft chapter on racial equity and social justice, which is the basis of the chapter in this Plan.

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ECONOMIC COMPETITIVENESS

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Montgomery County is in the 99th percentile of all counties in the United States in terms of household income, household net worth and educational attainment, and the county’s gross economic output exceeds $81 billion a year—more than 13 states. These statistics, however, do not tell the whole story. The county’s economic performance has been mixed at best since the Great Recession of 2008. Job growth over the past two decades has been slow and household incomes have been flat. These trends, if unaddressed, threaten Montgomery County’s future success. The county has several mechanisms to address these issues. Thrive Montgomery 2050 complements economic development initiatives developed by other organizations, such as the Economic Development Strategic Plan developed by Montgomery County Economic Development Corporation (MCEDC)¹ and business-supportive legislation adopted by the Montgomery County Council.

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Thrive Montgomery 2050 is primarily focused on land use, so it addresses only the aspects of economic development with a strong connection to real estate and public infrastructure. Thrive’s recommendations are designed to strengthen the county’s ability to compete for economic opportunities by creating great places. Employers want to locate and expand in places where their employees want to live and work. Well-designed “complete” communities that include a mix of uses and forms with safe and attractive walking and biking infrastructure along with public amenities such as parks and recreational facilities are essential to ensuring the quality of life that employers want and that residents deserve. Quality of place is not a comprehensive economic strategy, but it is a solid foundation for success.

Thrive Montgomery 2050 emphasizes quality of place, amenities, and infrastructure instead of focusing on policies to attract specific types of employers or development designed to accommodate certain employment uses. There is limited value in trying to predict how factors such as technological change or a pandemic might impact the demand for office space or other aspects of land use and transportation planning. The county has an excess of office space in existing buildings and flexible zoning already in place in major business districts to accommodate just about any demand that may emerge for development or redevelopment of office buildings in the near to intermediate term. This puts the county in a position to respond and adapt to market changes.

It is also vital to recognize that housing is a critical form of infrastructure that supports efforts to attract and retain the workforce that employers need. Thrive Montgomery 2050 recognizes the importance of abundant housing choices and convenient regional transportation options to maintaining a competitive workforce, and workforce development has been recognized as key to making Montgomery County economically strong. By providing attractive housing options that are physically and economically accessible to people with a wide range of incomes, skills, and preferences, we can help ensure that the workers that employers need will find housing that they find appealing, convenient, and affordable. In addition, by investing in transportation and communications networks, we can help our residents take advantage of all the economic and educational opportunities the county and region have to offer.

Montgomery County’s Economic Performance: The Good, the Bad, and the Future

Montgomery County continues to benefit from its proximity to the nation’s capital, which draws skilled, educated, and motivated people from all over the world, but the total number of jobs in Montgomery County grew by only five percent between 2004 to 2019, even as 20 similarly sized counties grew their employment base by an average of 21 percent.

Household incomes in Montgomery County grew by 14 percent from 2009 to 2019, a slower rate than the rest of the region. Despite a median household income of $111,812, more than one-fifth of households make less than $50,000 and almost two-fifths of public school students qualify for free or reduced meals.

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Figure 15: Montgomery County’s Employment Growth Rate Compared to Similarly Sized Counties, 2004–2019

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This weak growth in household incomes and the number of high-paying jobs shrink the county’s tax base, limiting its ability to provide and maintain high-quality infrastructure, amenities, and services. It also limits the ability of many county residents to buy homes, a key tool for building household wealth and investing in the community. This is particularly the case for younger households and households earning less than the median household income, who struggle to afford a home and put down roots. Montgomery County is capturing a smaller share of young adults than similar jurisdictions across the country.

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Figure 17: Median Value of Debts and Assets of Households by Race/Ethnicity in the U.S., 2019

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Figure 16: Rates of Homeownership by Race, Montgomery County, 2019

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The Aging of the Workforce and Implications for the Tax Base All of this is happening at a time when large numbers of residents are reaching retirement age, creating the region’s highest elder-adult dependency ratio. Unless the county can attract and retain more young adults, the aging workforce will put pressure on the tax base as the proportion of Montgomery County residents in retirement grows and the percentage of residents in their peak earning years shrinks.

This demographic shift means that the county’s economic performance will have to get better just to maintain current levels of tax revenue and the services it funds, thus making economic competitiveness an even more pressing concern.

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Figure 18: Percent of Population by Age Group, Montgomery County, 1990–2045

Strength in Hospitality and Life Sciences Despite our challenges, Montgomery County retains significant assets that will help us compete for economic opportunities in the future. For example, Montgomery County is home to companies representing 50 percent of the market capitalization of the entire national hospitality sector, and the Washington area is consistently ranked as one of the top life science clusters in the nation, with bio-health businesses located in the Great Seneca Science Corridor and in several transit-oriented downtowns throughout the county.

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Figure 19: Net Migration to Montgomery County, Ages 25–44, 2010–2019

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Figure 20: Hospitality Firms Headquartered in the Washington Metropolitan Region, 2020

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Figure 21: I-270 in Montgomery County is the Epicenter of Life Sciences Firms in the Washington Region, 2020

Our strength in pharmaceutical research and related fields has sparked a wave of investment in vaccine development. The University of Maryland is leading groundbreaking research in emerging fields such as quantum computing, the National Institutes of Health and Food and Drug Administration are overseeing development of new drugs and medical devices, and several local companies stand to benefit from a focus on testing, prevention, and treatment of infectious disease.

Human Capital: Montgomery County’s Ace in the Hole

Perhaps even more important than Montgomery County’s strengths in any particular sector is our diverse workforce. Montgomery County has a highly educated workforce. Among adults in the county age 25 and over, 58 percent of people have a bachelor’s degree, compared to 41 percent in Maryland, and only 31 percent in the United States overall in 2019. The county also has residents who work in service industries that support all kinds of businesses and residents, from restaurant workers and landscapers to laboratory and clerical staff. The future of employment and the prospects for growth in any particular field are difficult to predict, so the availability of people with a wide range of knowledge and skills may prove to be our most valuable asset of all.

/// Thrive Montgomery 2050 Establishes the Building Blocks for Places that Prosper

How can a land use plan support economic competitiveness? Thrive focuses on three specific areas: quality of place, transportation, and housing.

Great Places Are Magnets for People, Businesses, and Jobs

People are instinctively drawn to vibrant centers of activity that have a sense of place with lots of things to do. They enjoy living and working in places that facilitate social interaction and where walking and biking feels safe and appealing and where travel between their homes and other destinations is accessible and easy—be it by car, bike, or transit. Employers making decisions about where to locate are increasingly responsive to these preferences, giving communities that can satisfy them a crucial competitive edge.

Developing neighborhoods and districts with the features and qualities that support the emergence of more vibrant communities is easier said than done. Even the most progressive policies on land use, transportation, housing, and public amenities are likely to fall short unless they are integrated into a cohesive framework. That’s why Thrive Montgomery 2050 recommends strategies that reinforce each other, using compact form as the foundation, Complete Communities and “15-minute living” as basic orienting objectives, attention to the aesthetic and functional aspects of design, and the importance of increased housing and transportation options as important criteria for implementation. Each of these topics is discussed at length in the policy chapters of Thrive Montgomery 2050.

In addition, Thrive considers parks to be infrastructure for economic development. World-class places require world-class parks, recreation, and cultural amenities. Look to Central Park in New York, Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, Millennium Park in Chicago, or Hyde Park in London and the significance of great urban parks becomes clear. In fact, parks and related amenities are regularly cited as among the most important factors influencing business decisions about where to relocate or expand. Multiple studies have shown that parks increase adjacent property values by 5 to 20 percent, providing incentives for property owners to contribute to the creation of public parks or to build privately owned, publicly accessible spaces for recreation and gathering. Likewise, taxpayer-funded investment in parks and related programming and amenities delivers strong economic returns to the public. These topics are discussed in greater detail in Thrive’s Parks and Recreation chapter.

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Finally, the forms of growth and the creation of quality places promoted by Thrive are economically sustainable. The intuition that compact development leads to efficient use of infrastructure—and has the potential to reduce both private household and infrastructure costs—has been supported by decades of research. Almost all high-quality studies comparing the infrastructure and service costs of spread-out development to those of compact communities have shown that compact urbanism reduces cost burdens on the public sector. For example, a study comparing infrastructure expenditures of 283 counties over a 10-year period found that counties with compact growth patterns spent less than less densely developed counties (controlling for size and property values) on total direct infrastructure costs and capital facilities, as well as several subcategories of infrastructure and services, including roads, trash collection, police, fire, parks and recreation, education, and libraries¹. In addition to lowering costs, compact development also tends to increase municipal revenues², strengthening the case for focusing growth in nodes and along corridors.

Walkable, Bikeable, Transit-Connected Places Expand Economic Opportunity

Just about any other form of daily transportation—walking, biking, or riding a bus or train—is potentially less expensive (monetarily) than driving a single-occupancy vehicle, both on a personal basis and in terms of public spending. The two comprehensive reviews of the voluminous literature on the relationship between the built environment and travel behavior conducted in the past decade agree that features of compact development such as household density, job accessibility, and intersection and street network density reduce driving³.

In addition, better transit connections to job centers make the county a more attractive choice for employers by making it easier for their current and future employees to get to work. With drive times and pass-through automobile traffic predicted to continue growing, investments in transit can significantly increase our “commute shed” and avoid ever-longer drives to and from work, which makes Montgomery County economically competitive.

A higher priority for investments in transit, walking, rolling, and bicycling infrastructure is critical to building Complete Communities that have the amenities, sense of place, and level of activity that more and more people of all backgrounds and ages seek. Transit improvements exert a kind of gravitational pull on real estate development by creating incentives and opportunities to locate a variety of uses, services, and activities close to station locations—and to each other.

Housing for the Workforce Needed for a Strong Economy

Increasing the supply of new housing near transit, jobs, and amenities may help improve the quality of life for everyone in the county while helping to attract and retain the broadly skilled workforce that employers need, making the county more economically competitive. The increased demand for walkable neighborhoods with a mix of uses—especially near transit—is well documented. Housing in “Walkable Urban Places (WalkUPs)” command prices 71 percent higher per square foot than other locations in the Washington area, reflecting both the desirability and relative shortage of these kinds of places¹. By concentrating more housing of different sizes and types near high-quality transit corridors, we can provide housing that will help keep the most productive workers in the county, curb escalating prices in the most desirable locations, and improve accessibility of jobs, transportation, and services while being mindful not to displace current residents.

Conversely, if we don’t have enough housing, workers will continue bidding up the cost of existing residences until only the very affluent will be able to afford decent housing in convenient locations. Lower- and middle-income residents will either be priced out entirely or face crowded, substandard housing conditions in remote locations with long and difficult commutes. Without affordable and attainable housing dispersed throughout the county, we will never be able to attract and retain the broadly skilled workforce needed to effectively run businesses, regardless of their scale or economic sector.

The Role of Regionalism in Strengthening and Diversifying Our Job Base

Even as we focus on bolstering our competitive position in sectors such as hospitality and life sciences, we also need to diversify our job base and improve connections to centers of employment and innovation throughout the region. Montgomery County is part of a dynamic regional economy with a rich mix of public institutions and private companies.

Many residents of the Washington region travel to, from, or through Montgomery County to reach jobs or homes in other jurisdictions within the region. The effects of decisions about housing, environmental stewardship, economic development, and other issues in any DC-area jurisdiction are felt by its neighbors. We enjoy many benefits from cooperation with our neighbors, but also compete against them for opportunities, and consensus on how to address regional problems is often elusive. Montgomery County is an integral part of the larger region and must find ways to work more effectively with other area governments to make us all stronger.

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/// Conclusion: Great Places as a Common Denominator for Economic Performance

Thrive Montgomery 2050 is a comprehensive land use plan, not a comprehensive economic development plan, so it focuses on ways to help create the kind of places where people with diverse choices want to live and work rather than workforce development, financial incentives for business relocation and retention, or other important topics related to economic competitiveness. It is not intended as a substitute for the county’s broader economic programs, policies and plans, but in an era with limited demand for new office construction and a strong market preference for locating businesses in high-quality, mixed-use, walkable, and transit-oriented areas, it is one of the best strategies available to local government for growing our workforce and our tax base.

In making decisions about how to allocate scarce resources available for subsidies, incentives and workforce development, the tension between reinforcing existing strengths and looking for ways to diversify into new sectors often presents difficult choices. Fortunately, the kinds of infrastructure, services and amenities that make a place appealing to employees and employers are generally not sector specific. Put another way, the things that will make Montgomery County attractive to people working in life sciences or hospitality are the same things that draw people in other fields and at a variety of skill levels.

The recommendations in the following chapters lay the groundwork for economic development initiatives undertaken by other entities. For example, the county’s Capital Improvement Program (CIP) should be aligned with Thrive Montgomery 2050’s recommendations to make our neighborhoods more attractive for private development by providing high-quality transportation networks, sidewalks and a walkable grid of streets, great urban parks, and high-performing and racially integrated schools. In addition, communities designed with sufficient affordable

and accessible housing options integrated into our neighborhoods to limit displacement will ensure existing and new community members benefit from these improvements. The combination of these kinds of investments is a reliable long-term method for attracting and retaining workers and their employers to well-designed and planned Complete Communities.

The purpose of the various policy recommendations in this Plan is less about identifying new locations for large government or corporate tenants and more about making parts of the county that already have been developed or planned more attractive and accessible to all residents and workers across all fields, which in turn will help attract employers.

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RACIAL EQUITY AND SOCIAL JUSTICE

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/// Planning for Racial Equity and Social Justice

The modern planning profession was born out of social movements like the “Tenement House Reform” movement which broadly exposed substandard living conditions endured by immigrant and working-class residents in New York City in the late 19th century. The resulting Tenement House Act of 1901 established one of the first laws governing how buildings should be constructed and regulated to account for human health and safety. Since that time, countless academics, organizers, politicians, and agitators alike have contributed to establishing urban planning as the “epistemological field of study” which informs how so many of the decisions that impact our lives are made. Planning is the tool that the state wields when exercising its “police power” to regulate and govern the development of land and infrastructure through plans, codes, and ordinances, and their associated administrative processes. As such, planning decisions have significant and cross-cutting impacts; how and where things are built (or not built) directly correlates to the physical quality of place and the quality of life for inhabitants. It is precisely because of the tremendous importance of planning why who gets to participate in the planning process matters so much in determining future outcomes.

Historically, there has frequently been an atmosphere of distrust around planning because there are often limited opportunities for everyday citizens to participate and truly be empowered in making the important decisions regarding the future growth and development of their communities. This dynamic is compounded by a legacy of exclusion reinforced through racism and classism. Generally speaking, power and decision-making authority in planning has been reserved either for those with direct political access or for those with privileges associated with wealth, education, race, and/or social status. This imbalance has contributed to a dynamic where the interests of “capital” have often trumped the interest of the public good. While capitalism’s market theory has its merits, one of its flaws is that there is no mechanism by which externalities (like pollution) get paid for. Planning’s prescriptions are designed to correct for market failure when the market is not able to correct itself. As such, planning is one of the primary tools available to us to deal with the problems of racial inequities and social injustices, which most often show up in the form of segregation, poverty, and its associated impacts.

Survey Before Plan

Foundational to planning theory is the work of Patrick Geddes, a planning pioneer, who theorized that you must “survey before you plan.” The underlying idea is that before you can apply a prescription, you must thoroughly understand and diagnose the issues. Meaningful public engagement is the prerequisite to building the transparency, trust, and collaborative relationships with communities that are needed to establish the two-way learning process which supports holistic planning solutions. Without careful consultation with the community, it is unlikely that a comprehensive understanding of place can be achieved. John Forester, a preeminent urban planning professor who writes on participatory planning processes, emphasizes that the ears are the practitioner’s most useful tool, and that listening is the most important planning exercise.

Two Americas

During the Civil Rights Movement, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave a speech about the “Two Americas” which highlighted the legacy of racial and economic oppression and the plight of poor people and how their lived experiences juxtapose with the promise of America as the land of opportunity, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Unfortunately, despite the decades since this speech was given, there are still significant swaths of Black, Indigenous and other people of color (BIPOC) communities that continue to be stuck in cyclical poverty. The persistent challenges of social and economic mobility are clearly highlighted in the land use and economic patterns observed in Montgomery County today.

Right now across America, we are still seeing communities of color disproportionately dealing with eroding infrastructure, substandard living conditions, and environmental justice issues like unsafe drinking water. These neighborhoods do not exist by coincidence, they were “carved out” on the map years ago by people who wielded planning power. Too often, when these communities are finally given attention, the original residents are displaced and unable to benefit. The cycle of divestment and real estate speculation in communities of color nationwide has been well documented over time, making “gentrification” one of the hottest issues impacting urban America today.

According to the 2022 Neighborhood Change in the Washington, DC Area Study by Montgomery Planning, while displacement and poverty concentration both take place in Montgomery County, poverty concentration affects more people and more neighborhoods than displacement. Neighborhoods seeing increasing poverty concentration face the risk of further disinvestment and deprivation of opportunities for their residents. Thrive Montgomery 2050 and Montgomery Planning’s Equity Agenda emphasize that county resources should be prioritized in these areas to spur investment. While the Neighborhood Change study shows that areas in Montgomery County that saw sufficient new housing

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Figure 22: Neighborhood Change in the Washington, DC Area, 2000–2019 *Includes Fairfax City and Falls Church city

construction avoided both displacement and concentration of poverty while experiencing inclusive socioeconomic growth, continued evaluation of these dynamics is essential to racial equity and social justice in the county.

Educational Attainment

As the county becomes more racially and ethnically diverse, our neighborhoods are still largely separated along income and racial lines. This geographic separation has important consequences for access to educational opportunities and the life prospects of our county’s children. There are differences in the quality of education across K-12 public schools and achievement gaps among different racial groups. In 2019, three-quarters of Black, Hispanic, and English-learning students in Montgomery County Public Schools—along with more than 80 percent of all low-income students in the system—were enrolled in high-poverty-focus schools. By comparison, more than two-thirds of all White, Asian, and multi-racial students were enrolled in low-poverty schools. (See also Appendix B-11: Percent Black/Hispanic High School Students 1990–2020.)

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Figure 23: Educational Attainment—Percent of the Population 25 Years and Older Who Has at Least Obtained a Bachelor’s Degree, 2020

As Figure 23 illustrates, census tracts with the low proportions (20 to 36 percent) of those holding a bachelor’s degree or higher are concentrated in tracts within Germantown, Montgomery Village, and Gaithersburg. The Rock Creek, Wheaton, and Oakview communities have tracts with the lowest proportion (1.4 to 20.1 percent) of the population holding a bachelor’s degree or higher. The tracts with lowest concentrations of educational attainment are also those that overlay the primary and secondary target areas with high concentrations of BIPOC and low- and moderate-income residents. It is no coincidence that Median Household Income map (Figure 24) “follows” the educational attainment map. The highly educated communities in West county far outpace incomes in other parts of the county.

As we seek a future that is more equitable and inclusive, access to quality education will continue to be an important driver of equitable development. Improved access to infrastructure and amenities in racially, socially, and economically isolated areas will not be enough—we also must facilitate the integration of neighborhoods, and our schools, by race and income—through increasing opportunities for employment and housing in all areas of our county. The growth of online learning is also changing post-secondary education, creating more opportunities for people to access courses online and reducing opportunities for formal and informal interactions on campuses. Increasing the share of racially and economically mixed neighborhoods and schools across all parts of the county is critical to ensure that the inequities of the past will not be perpetuated in the future. (See Appendix B-11: Percent Black/Hispanic High School Students, 1990–2020).

43 Thrive Montgomery 2050—Approved and Adopted

Median Household Income

$0 - $27,953 $27,953 - $55,906 $55,906 - $83,859 $83,859 - $111,812 $111,812 - $167,718 $167,718 - $223,624 $223,624 - $250,000

County Median Income (CMI) $111,812

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Figure 24: Median Household Income, 2020

Racial Equity and Social Justice 44

Racial Equity

Racial equity work seeks to heal; implementation of its ideals requires an honest and careful examination of history to inform deliberate actions aimed at repairing past injustices which have disproportionately impacted Black and Indigenous communities in America. The legacy of racist policies, and the land uses they influenced, reverberates throughout the entire spectrum of communities of color, with Latino, Asian, and other BIPOC communities experiencing different, but familiar challenges. Addressing racial equity requires an honest look at root causes of social problems and recognizing that some form of restitution is required to fix them.

To make planning more equitable we must acknowledge the systems of racial discrimination and privilege which reinforce disparate outcomes for Montgomery County households. Planning alone cannot end racism and segregation or prevent the erosion of cultural communities that wish to remain intact; it can however be an important tool to begin the work of dismantling long-established systems of privilege.

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Social Justice

In a planning sense, wealth affords you the opportunity for exclusion: to live in an environment where you do not have to interact with poor people. However, due to the time value of money, the compound nature of wealth creation and other factors, the wealth gap between "haves" and "have-nots" is growing. This imbalance creates a strain on society which makes it unstable.

Social justice is a process by which working class people begin to access the privileges only enjoyed by the historically privileged class, to afford healthy lifestyles and to experience education and built environments which inspire them to lead happier and more productive lives. In modern times, this is becoming increasingly important as more and more people are finding it hard to thrive economically. Montgomery County has at times taken forward-thinking steps to address inequality, such as adopting the nation's first—and to this day, most successful—inclusionary zoning law, the Moderately Priced Dwelling Unit (MPDU) program, which guarantees that income-restricted housing will be built in every part of the county as part of market-rate development projects. The county has also prioritized using its own resources to help build affordable housing by both co-locating housing with other public uses and disposing of excess public land in exchange for the creation of more affordable housing.

In addition to these housing-related programs, Montgomery County, through its Department of Health and Human Services, has created a robust set of social services to address health and other wrap-around service needs of county residents. As the county plans for the future, it should continue to find ways to address the specific needs of the vulnerable populations impacted by the hidden costs of poverty and determine more ways to design communities to reduce problems associated with public health, crime, housing instability, food insecurity, and segregation.

Justice in Planning

A Right to the City?

“The right to the city is far more than the individual liberty to access urban resources: it is a right to change ourselves by changing the city. It is, moreover, a common rather than an individual right since this transformation inevitably depends upon the exercise of a collective power to reshape the processes of urbanization. The freedom to make and remake our cities and ourselves is, I want to argue, one of the most precious yet most neglected of our human rights.” (David Harvey, The Right to the City, 2008)

Property and Pacification

“Quality of urban life has become a commodity, as has the city itself, in a world where consumerism, tourism, cultural and knowledge-based industries have become major aspects of the urban political economy. The postmodern penchant for encouraging the formation of market niches—in both consumer habits and cultural forms—surrounds the contemporary urban experience with an aura of freedom of choice, provided you have the money.” (David Harvey, The Right to the City, 2008)

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Figure 25: Scotland School Building in 1942. The building was demolished in 1968 to make way for a townhouse development

Examining History

After the Civil War, African Americans suffered from all forms of discrimination (social, housing, education, employment, commerce, health, etc.). The resulting alienation led to the creation of self-reliant kinship communities in many parts of Montgomery County in the late 19th century. A significant part of the history of racial injustice and discrimination suffered by African Americans includes the formation and subsequent decline (in some cases, destruction) of kinship communities in the early 20th century.

Over time, these communities suffered from lack of public investment in infrastructure such as new roads, sewer and water, schools, health clinics, and other public amenities and services needed to be viable places to live. Some communities suffered the devastating impacts of urban renewal policies of the 1960s. Others faced pressure to sell their houses or farms to developers for housing subdivisions. These communities declined because of an accumulation of racially motivated actions paired with social, political, and economic circumstances. The very few of these communities that survived in some way include Ken-Gar in Kensington, Lyttons ville in Silver Spring, River Road in Bethesda, Scotland in Potomac, Stewartown in Gaithersburg, and Tobytown in Travilah.

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Figure 26: Approximate Location of Outstanding Commitments of the Federal Housing Administration in Montgomery County, 1936

From the 1890s to the 1920s, the first suburban subdivisions in Silver Spring and Chevy Chase used racial covenants prohibiting African Americans and other racial and religious groups from purchasing land or homes. Well into the mid-20th century, these types of covenants were placed in the land records. Even after the passage of the Fair Housing Act of 1968 and the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 to end these practices, a development pattern of segregation continued. Injustices were evident in unfair banking and lending practices; federal immigration policies; unequal public investment in schools, parks and other public facilities; and siting a disproportionately high number of undesirable uses, such as landfills, near communities of color.

In Montgomery County, the legacy of such discriminatory policies and the exclusionary zoning and other land use controls led to neighborhoods defined by income, race, and housing types. As a result of these practices and other societal factors, a significant quality of life gap exists for various racial and ethnic groups in the county.

On Wedges and Corridors

Montgomery Thrive 2050 seeks to “modernize” the 1964 Wedges and Corridors Plan. While it is prudent to not throw the proverbial “baby out with the bathwater,” the Wedges and Corridors Plan created “land use patterns... which left neighborhoods disconnected and reinforced segregation along racial and economic lines.” If the Wedges and Corridors Plan had adverse outcomes for historically disadvantaged groups, how do we address/mitigate its failures? What does “modernization” of the Wedges and Corridors Plan look like?

To address segregation and economic inequality established in past zoning/land use planning, deliberate mechanisms need to be introduced to create racially and economically inclusive communities. Planning needs to consider social and economic consequences of efforts to integrate. Communities that face historic challenges need special attention paid to community development and stabilization to ensure that existing social networks and institutions are strengthened so not only is it easier for the existing community to survive in the reimagined one, they also feel like they are a central part of it. Conversely, established areas need to create opportunities for less privileged individuals to access the schools, jobs, natural resources, and other benefits through housing opportunity and improved physical access.

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Housing

Thrive’s housing prescriptions to address racial equity and social justice largely center on a strategy to significantly increase housing production, striving to increase housing density along major corridors and in Complete Communities across the county. This includes more housing for every income level, with particular attention to providing more income-restricted housing, housing for very low-income, and permanent supportive housing.

To promote racial equity and economic diversity in housing in every neighborhood, the Plan recommends developing targeted strategies to minimize gentrification and displacement, while promoting integration and avoiding concentrations of poverty. The idea of development without displacement is an exciting one, but these ideas in practice are often acting in direct opposition of each other. Development without deliberate community and neighborhood conservation efforts will almost certainly result in some displacement. So, instead of ignoring this possibility, let’s determine where people can go.

Identifying and promoting safeguards against the potential loss of naturally occurring affordable housing continues to be a priority for the county. The county has made recent strides in preserving naturally occurring affordable housing by using a variety of financial and land use tools. For example, the county has increased funding for the Housing Initiative Fund to help preserve naturally occurring affordable housing. Through recent master plans, the county has also allowed for increased density in exchange for no net loss of affordable housing in the event of redevelopment. Understanding that these naturally occurring affordable housing units are important housing resources to the county, more work is needed to understand the risk factors associated with losing these units, as well as the best strategies to preserve these units. If housing affordability continues to decline, it is quite feasible that Montgomery County could require even more commuters from outside the region to staff its businesses. This dynamic would be in opposition to both the Equity and Sustainability goals of Thrive Montgomery 2050. (See Appendix B-7: Housing Affordability, 2020.)

Undoubtedly, many residents who currently occupy a community where they have historical, cultural, spiritual, and other ties (kinship) will want to remain in their home community. However, there will be some residents who may like to move to a more affluent area. Traditionally, planning documents are written to support Housing Choice as a strategic goal for future outcomes. When we juxtapose this idea with regional housing markets, it would seem that in order to balance the integration of low-income neighborhoods, some accommodation for rebalancing should be made to ensure that economic benefits begin to reach historically disadvantaged populations. As such, integration should be a two-way process, by which there should be a parallel strategy of making accommodations for low-income housing in areas that are already wealthy, thus providing new residents who want the choice of living somewhere else to achieve immediate access to communities that have proximity to jobs, good education, etc. If we are going to promote development in the growth areas with new market-rate housing, there should also be a provision of new low-income housing in high-income areas to allow for housing choice in different markets.

The justification for this strategy is doubled when you consider that to support economic competitiveness and sustainability, this Plan’s number one transportation priority is connecting low-income communities to job areas. But the housing strategy should also seek to provide workforce housing locally. Consequently, areas of high wealth and business activity such as Bethesda should also include sufficient workforce and low-income housing to support housing choices for people who work in the area. Future planning should include a detailed market analysis of labor markets and determine thresholds by which area plans should promote low-income, workforce, and middle-class housing options to support a truly local community where commuting is “optional” because the mathematical possibility of the local workforce is reflected in the housing availability.

Attention should be paid to tenants as well as homeowners. Currently, about 1 in 3 households are renter households in Montgomery County. Almost 50 percent of renter households in the county are cost-burdened, spending more than 30 percent of their income on housing costs. Renter

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households are also more likely to be people of color. While 75 percent of White householders own their own homes in the county, this number declines to 53 percent for householders of color. To address these disparities between renters and homeowners and to ensure housing stability for renters in the county, the county should aim to strengthen its protections for its renters. This requires investments in rental housing quality and code enforcement, as well as increasing access to affordable, safe, stable, and decent housing. In addition, the county should pursue policies that protect and increase tenants’ rights and ensure that renters’ contributions to the community are emphasized and valued.

There are plenty of challenging stories about housing experiences. It is clear that many of the mechanisms put in place to help are being offset by personal bias (racism) in the system or by individual actors. The county will need to be vigilant to seek accountabilities for all actors. Successfully addressing racism in housing will require deliberate action and systems of checks and balances.

Figure 28: Percentage of Cost-Burdened Households, Montgomery County, 2012–2021

Compact Growth

Encouraging growth in already developed areas has ripple effects. Density brings economic opportunity as well as increased diversity of population and housing opportunities, social capital, and promotion of social justice, but it can also strain existing infrastructure, impacting the quality of natural resources, parks, schools, and neighborhoods. If new development occurs in areas where naturally occurring affordable housing exists, the county must continue its progressive policies and programs and create new mechanisms and infrastructure to ensure that as the population density increases, residents maintain equitable access to parks, recreation, natural resources, and high-quality places that influence quality of life. Additionally, as density increases, increased consideration needs to be made toward maintenance and operations of public spaces and institutions to ensure effective stewardship is achieved and maintained.

Environmental Justice

As the county grows, special attention will need to be paid to environmental justice issues. New residents may strain existing infrastructure, suggesting the need for sustainable practices to ensure the county is able to maintain good air and water quality, preserve urban tree canopy, manage stormwater, and invest in renewable sources of energy. An analysis of environmental quality shows that residents of the target areas where the majority of BIPOC and low-income residents live are more likely to be exposed to poor environmental conditions and live next to polluting land uses. As we face climate change, we need to be deliberate about protecting the county’s vulnerable residents to ensure they do not have their life challenges compounded by disproportionate exposure to environmental threats.

Transportation

The plight of the working class and many BIPOC people we talked to felt that the needs of working-class families were not considered in the planning themes of Thrive. They felt that many of the “progressive” policies did not consider their current status in life and expressed how proposed changes would adversely impact their quality of life. Some people showed great resistance to the idea of “15-minute living” because they relied on their work vehicles to take them to different parts of the county where they had access to jobs. Many expressed that they rely on vehicles and parking availability to make a living. For some, getting a vehicle represented the possibility of financial independence. To others, the idea of riding a bike for leisure or to commute was seen as a luxury that comes with a level of economic empowerment they did not have yet. These sentiments are compounded by the long commutes even more traditional workers faced while using locally available transit options. There was a general sentiment that root issues needed to be addressed before new ideas could be successfully implemented.

Instead of welcoming these ideas as positive, they are often seen as a harbinger for gentrification and displacement. Ideas such as congestion pricing and reduced parking requirements that promote “good urbanism” are sometimes outside of the reality for working class people. There is a concern that shifting to this new way of life will make it harder for them to live in the county. Such programs and requirements could impact service providers such as building contractors, landscape services, plumbers, etc., and their workforce, and they can also impact the range of services provided by these contractors. As stated in the Transportation chapter, such policies should be evaluated to ensure equitable outcomes for business and workers who rely on vehicles for their livelihood and provide essential support services for county residents.

“Can't take my ladder on the Purple Line.”

Montgomery County resident