County Executive Marc Elrich, the Planning Department and the Montgomery County delegation to the House of Delegates are seeking applicants to be part of a new Development Review Process Workgroup, officials announced.
The County Council voted unanimously on a resolution to approve the Thrive Montgomery 2050 plan designed to guide planning and growth for the next 30 years.
The County Council is asking for residents to participate in a survey that will help guide councilmembers in evaluating the racial equity and social justice portions of Thrive Montgomery 2050 draft plan, according to a press release.
The County Council is soliciting applications for a vacancy on the Planning Board that will occur after June 2022.
The Montgomery County Planning Department’s Design Excellence Awards have returned for 2021, according to an announcement on the department’s website. “The Montgomery County Planning Department is seeking to recognize exceptional architecture, landscape architecture and urbanism that makes a difference in people’s lives and represents the county’s highest quality of design to the region, state and nation. This year, Montgomery Planning will hold its fifth Design Excellence Awards competition to honor this work.”
The Takoma Park City Council has unanimously passed Resolution 2021-19 asking the county’s Planning Board to disapprove the site plan for the Takoma Junction redevelopment submitted by the Neighborhood Development Company.
The county’s Planning Department staff identified four themes that will guide the next stage in the process of developing a new Silver Spring Downtown and Adjacent Communities sector plan. The four themes—diversity, resiliency, connectivity and community health—grew out of a series of online meetings and other conversations during the “visioning” portion of the planning process, which took place in the spring.
The County Council has reappointed Commissioner Tina Patterson to the Montgomery County Planning Board for a second term, recognizing Patterson’s experience in alternative dispute resolution, commitment to economic development and the parks system, as well as her work on racial equity and social justice issues.
The county’s Planning Department has released a study that recommends a series of proposals that could strengthen diverse retailers in three areas. The Retail in Diverse Communities Study looked at three communities—Silver Spring, Takoma-Langley Crossroads, and Wheaton—where local businesses have faced recent challenges not only from the pandemic, but also from redevelopment (primarily Wheaton) and Purple Line construction.