County Passes Plan To Spur More Development On 3-Mile Corridor In Silver Spring
More development will be allowed on a 3-mile stretch of University Boulevard after the Montgomery County Council passed a planning document Tuesday.
The University Boulevard Corridor Plan sets policies for the stretch between Wheaton and I-495. It passed the council 7 to 3, with opponents expressing concerns about potential displacement of residences and businesses.
The plan provides guidelines to make the streetscape more dynamic and pedestrian- and public-transit friendly. Along with the plan, the council approved a new overlay zone that allows for a greater range of housing options along the corridor.
“In partnership with the community, we have crafted a plan that prioritizes safety for all users of University Boulevard and creates new housing opportunities in the corridor,” Montgomery County Council President Natali Fani-González said in a press release following the vote.
The passage comes after the council in July approved a rezoning amendment to allow more residential building types on designated corridors across the county, part of the More Housing N.O.W. package that Fani-González co-sponsored.
The University Boulevard Corridor Plan was born out of a three-year process involving multiple public planning bodies, and the first draft was passed by the county’s planning board in June.
“This renewed vision lays the groundwork for a corridor that supports thriving communities with more housing opportunities and celebrates and promotes the rich diversity of its surrounding neighborhoods, businesses, and institutions,” Planning Board Chair Artie Harris said in a separate release Tuesday.
Critics say the rezoning will pave the way for displacement and gentrification.
“It came down to my concern that you’re going to displace renters and homeowners that are disproportionately people of color and lower income,” Council Member Will Jawando, who voted against the plan, told the Baltimore Banner last week after the first of two votes.
Kimblyn Persaud, founder of 501c3 advocacy group Empowering People In Communities of MoCo, also raised concerns about displacement of people of color and said the plan doesn't provide enough protections.
“It is dangerous, and it puts thousands of families and long-standing businesses at risk,” she said in an email to Bisnow Tuesday.
In addition to the rezoning, the plan seeks to improve safety and accessibility for various modes of transportation, including enhancing lighting and pavement markings and improving multimodal connectivity to existing parks.
The final version passed by the council made some revisions to the document passed by the county's planning board this summer. Among the changes were added language to facilitate production of workforce housing along certain areas of the corridor, the council said in its release.
County Executive Marc Elrich criticized the plan in September, arguing that there wasn’t adequate community involvement, that it would have negative impacts on traffic, schools and the environment, and that it would be counterproductive to the county's goals for affordable housing.
