The community is invited to provide feedback at the Planning Board meeting on the top issues to be addressed for Montgomery County’s future as part of the General Plan update
Silver Spring, MD – The Montgomery County Planning Department, part of The Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, will present the Thrive Montgomery 2050 Issues Report to the Montgomery Planning Board on Thursday, February 27. The report includes the eight categories of issues presented to the Planning Board on December 12, 2019 with more detail and analysis. The Issues Report will serve as the initial framework of how the Thrive Montgomery 2050 Plan will be organized (scheduled for submission to the County Council by March 2021). A staff report for the February 27 briefing will be made available on Thursday, February 20. The community is invited to sign up to provide feedback on the Issues Report at the Planning Board meeting as soon as the Planning Board agenda is posted at MontgomeryPlanningBoard.org.
This Issues Report includes the major issue groups to be addressed in the new Thrive Montgomery 2050 Plan, the update to Montgomery County’s General Plan. This document organizes the issues identified by the community from over the past year – through outreach with residents, businesses, topic experts and elected officials.
The proposed issues — which overlap, and all relate to Thrive Montgomery 2050’s three primary outcomes of Community Equity, Economic Health and Environmental Resilience — are organized into eight categories:
- Complete Communities
- Connectedness
- Diverse Economies
- Safe and Efficient Travel
- Affordability
- Healthy and Sustainable Environment
- Diverse and Adaptable Growth
- Culture and Design
Since Summer 2019, Montgomery Planning has been in conversation with the Montgomery County community to identify the issues facing the county as we plan for the next 30 years. Simultaneously, Montgomery Planning staff have analyzed trends and talked with experts to identify and examine the changes occurring so that Thrive Montgomery 2050 is a plan that shapes the future of our county with a shared vision.
The next step in the process is to develop the draft goals and policy recommendations for the General Plan update – which will chart Montgomery Planning’s work program in the future, inform future public investments in community amenities and infrastructure, and guide future private development. These will be available for the public in late March 2020 and presented to the Planning Board in early April 2020. Montgomery Planning will hold community meetings in the spring where the public will have an opportunity to give feedback on the plan’s draft goals and policies. The Working Draft of the Thrive Montgomery 2050 General Plan update will be delivered to the Planning Board by September 2020.
There are many ways to get involved with the Thrive Montgomery 2050 process:
- The community is invited to provide comments online at com, send an email to Thrive2050@montgomeryplanning.org, or call 301-495-4556.
- Engage with the Meeting in a Box tool.
- Attend or watch online the next Big Ideas Series session, Housing for All, on March 3.
About Thrive Montgomery 2050
During summer 2019, the Montgomery County Planning Department launched the update of Montgomery County’s General Plan, the county’s long-term framework for land use and development. This effort, called Thrive Montgomery 2050, will result in new countywide policies to help Montgomery County thrive by addressing the challenges and opportunities in the decades to come. A lot has changed in the county since the General Plan was originally approved in 1964. Thrive Montgomery 2050 will guide future growth in response to the demographic shifts, technological innovations, changing lifestyles and economic disruptions that have taken place in recent decades. The new General Plan will consider many issues framed by three pillars: economic health, environmental resilience and community equity. These themes will help guide the recommendations of the plan with help from the community.