Montgomery County Council Committee Meetings on July 22, 2024
MARYLAND, July 19 - For Immediate Release: Friday, July 19, 2024
Committees will review Transportation Demand Management regulations, funding for Parking Lot Districts and Urban Districts, updates to the Growth Tiers Map, the Attainable Housing Strategies Initiative, a zoning measure to expand campground use in certain areas of the Agricultural Reserve and the FY25 budget for WMATA
Parking Lot Districts and Urban Districts Funding
Briefing: The joint ECON and TE Committee will receive a briefing about funding for the County parking lot districts and urban districts. The briefing will include fiscal projections and an overview of current and potential future funding models. Parking lot district funding has historically been a major source of funding for the urban districts.
The County operates three parking lot districts in Bethesda, Silver Spring and Wheaton. Each includes several structured parking garages and surface parking lots. The parking lot districts are funded primarily by parking fees and fines.
The Bethesda, Wheaton, and Silver Spring Urban Districts are currently funded by an ad valorem property tax charged on property owners within the district, as well as transfers from the parking lot districts and the County’s General Fund. The Bethesda and Silver Spring Urban Districts also receive a small amount of revenue from payments by optional method development.
Executive Regulation 8-21, Transportation Demand Management
Review: The joint ECON and TE Committee will review Executive Regulation 8-21, Transportation Demand Management, which establishes standards for achieving the Non-Auto Driver Mode Share (NADMS) goals established for portions of the County. The NADMS goals relate to the percentage of commuter trips made by travel modes other than the single occupant vehicles coupled with the percentage of commuters connecting to work electronically. The regulation also establishes the Transportation Demand Management (TDM) plan requirements for employers and the TDM plan requirements for new development projects and existing buildings in TDM Districts, as determined by the project size and location relative to the County’s designated Growth and Infrastructure Policy Areas.
Update to the Montgomery County Growth Tiers Map
Review: The PHP Committee will review a proposed update to the Montgomery County Growth Tiers Map. The Planning Board recommends an update to the map to reflect sewer category changes since 2012 and to correct inaccuracies in the current map.
In 2012, the Council adopted Subdivision Regulation (SRA) 12-01 to comply with the Maryland Sustainable Growth and Agricultural Preservation Act of 2012. That act required local jurisdictions to establish and adopt growth tiers to control the number of new subdivisions on septic fields. The purpose was to protect agriculture, control growth in rural areas, promote growth in areas that have infrastructure in place for it and reduce nitrogen from septic systems, a primary pollutant of the Chesapeake Bay.
Attainable Housing Strategies Initiative
Review: The PHP Committee will continue its review of the Planning Department’s Attainable Housing Strategies Initiative, which provides a set of zoning modifications and other policy changes that would permit duplexes, triplexes, townhomes and small apartment buildings in more residential areas of the County, while still allowing the development of single-family detached homes. The proposed zoning changes considered in the report would contribute to an effort to help current and future Montgomery County residents find housing that fits their needs and enable more diverse, better integrated and economically sustainable neighborhoods.
The PHP Committee received a briefing about the report at a meeting held on June 24. At a meeting held on July 8, the committee reviewed the small and medium scale sections of the study. At this meeting committee will review large scale and other recommendations, as well as other code and policy considerations.
The Attainable Housing Strategies Initiative launched on March 4, 2021, to consider zoning reforms that would allow greater opportunities for Missing Middle Housing in Montgomery County. Missing Middle Housing refers to a range of buildings that are compatible in scale, form and construction with single-family homes, but offer multiple housing units, and a variety of apartments or flats that are at least three stories. The current recommendations include a requirement for small scale attainable housing to follow the same setbacks, lot coverage and height restrictions as a single-family detached house. More information is available at the Planning’s Department’s Attainable Housing Strategies Initiative website.
ZTA 24-02, Agricultural and Rural Zones – Campground
Review: The PHP Committee will review ZTA 24-02, Agricultural and Rural Zones – Campground, which would expand the campground use to the Agricultural Reserve (AR) Zone and Rural Cluster (RC) Zone on properties that satisfy the requirements for farming in the zoning ordinance. Under the current zoning ordinance, campgrounds are only allowed in the Rural (R) Zone and Residential Estate 2C (RE-2C) Zone. Additional requirements include a minimum acreage, a maximum number of structures, a maximum number of nights per guest and limitations on kitchen and sanitation facilities.
The lead sponsors of ZTA 24-02 are Councilmembers Balcombe, Dawn Luedtke, Sidney Katz and Fani-González. Council President Friedson and Councilmembers Gabe Albornoz, Glass and Laurie Anne-Sayles are cosponsors of ZTA 24-02.
Briefing: The TE Committee will receive a briefing on the FY25 Operating Budget for WMATA, Red Line Metrorail station closures and the Better Bus Network redesign. The meeting will also include discussions about WMATA’s operations and ridership data and an overview of DMVMoves, which is a collaboration between WMATA and the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (COG) to develop a unified vision and sustainable funding model for public transit.
The Committee meeting schedule may change from time to time. View the current Council and Committee agendas, Council staff reports and additional information on items scheduled for Council review on the Council website.
Council and committee meetings are streamed live on the Council’s web page via YouTube and on Facebook Live and can be watched on County Cable Montgomery on Xfinity/RCN 6 HD 996/1056, Fios 30, and on the CCM live stream.
Release ID: 24-272
Media Contact: Sonya Healy 240-777-7926, Benjamin Sky Brandt 240-777-7884
