SILVER SPRING, MD – On September 8, during the first of a series of several Monday meetings scheduled by the Montgomery County Planning Board, environmental planning staff will summarize initial recommendations for a countywide Healthy and Sustainable Communities project that sets environmental policy goals.
Last year, the County Council asked the Montgomery County Planning Board, in partnership with the County Executive, to help promote a sustainable quality of life by developing environmental goals and ways to measure progress toward reaching them.
The Healthy and Sustainable Communities initiative will help policymakers and community members judge how their policies, programs, and individual actions contribute to achieving goals such as clean air and water. The initiative’s authors – a team of environmental specialists with the county Planning Department and the county Department of Environmental Protection – hope the report will become the starting point to guide policies on a variety of environmental and energy issues.
Much of the report evolved from public input gathered at a Healthy & Sustainable Communities workshop held in June and contributed online at the Planning Department’s website, where independent experts and community members brought their best thinking about sustainability.
The report, which focuses on the environment and land use planning, specifies six goals and recommends a number of indicators that will help measure the county’s collective efforts toward reaching those goals. For example, the number of days when the county experiences poor air quality is a measure of clean air, while the percent of development near transit is a measure of smart communities.
On Monday, the Planning Board will welcome public input and is expected to discuss how the proposed goals and measures can be used in decision-making. Once the Board approves or revises the report, it will send it to the County Council for consideration as an amendment to the county’s General Plan.
View the report at www.mcparkandplanning.org/Environment/sustainable/index.shtm.
WHO:
Montgomery County Planning Board
WHAT:
Healthy and Sustainable Communities initiative
WHEN:
Monday, September 8, approximately 7 p.m.
WHERE:
Planning Department Headquarters
8787 Georgia Ave.
Silver Spring, MD