Planners Invite Public to Provide Input on Germantown Plan

SILVER SPRING, MD – Residents, property owners and business leaders in Germantown interested in the community’s growth can learn about the planning department’s analysis of development scenarios for the area at a meeting scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 11 at the Upcounty Services Center.

The 1989 Germantown master plan looks ahead 20 years in a comprehensive guide to the area’s land use, zoning and environmental features. To bring the community’s land use patterns more in line with 21^st-century realities, planners began updating that master plan earlier this year.

On Tuesday, planners will convene their community advisory committee, which is advising staff on local needs. Other interested residents also are invited.

Among the planners’ potential recommendations are designating more mixed land uses that would transform large, car-centric office parks into combinations of office, residential and retail accessible by mass transit. Planners also are considering ways to formalize Germantown’s fledgling business district and strengthen the town center, which will be discussed at a later meeting.

The staff’s draft will be considered by the Montgomery County Planning Board in work sessions later this year and in early 2008. The board will hold work sessions before and after convening a public hearing, then will finalize its version of the plan and send it to the County Council for review and eventual approval.

Germantown, a diverse community that runs along both sides of I-270, encompasses about 11,000 acres in a three-by-five mile area. This planning effort looks at about 2,500 acres of that planning area – what planners call the employment corridor. The Corridor Cities Transitway, a proposed rapid bus or light rail line to be constructed by the State Highway Administration, runs through the heart of the planning area.

Every area of the county has a master or sector plan. Each plan is intended to look ahead 15 to 20 years. Master and sector plans establish zoning and are used as guides for when planners are reviewing development applications and for funding public improvements. 

WHO: Montgomery County Planning Department staff

WHAT: Community meeting on the Germantown Master Plan

WHEN: Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2007 - 7 p.m.

WHERE: Upcounty Services Center, 12900 Middlebrook Road, Suite 1000, Germantown

For more information about the Germantown master planning process, go to www.mcparkandplanning.org/germantown/GermantownForward.shtm or contact Sue Edwards.