Making happier, healthier, and more connected communities

By Montgomery Planning staff

The town of Damascus, in upper Montgomery County, recently saw its Main Street morph into a vibrant pedestrian mall with food trucks, dance performances, and small businesses offering locally produced beverages and other treats. 

The Damascus Placemaking Festival, held Oct. 19-20, helped residents and business owners envision a livelier downtown that would bring people together – all while embracing the area’s small-town country charm.  

The Damascus Placemaking Festival transformed Damascus’ Main Street on Saturday, Oct. 19, and Sunday Oct. 20, 2024. More than a thousand people enjoyed a variety of local food, music, arts and crafts, performances, and conversations about the area’s future.

The family-friendly Damascus Placemaking Festival was a collaboration between Montgomery Planning and Damascus area residents, businesses, and other community and government partners.

But Montgomery Planning’s approach to placemaking goes far beyond a weekend event. It’s part of our people-centered approach to planning and helps make areas like Damascus happier, healthier, and better connected. We have developed a Placemaking Strategic Plan that includes key goals and acts as a guide on how we decide where to and how to do placemaking.   

Working with communities, we’re reimagining public spaces, like parking lots and even streets, as places to eat, play, listen to music, see neighbors, and relax with friends and family. We’re designing spaces that celebrate diverse cultures and bring the outdoors closer. And we’re shoring up local economies as these gathering spots attract visitors and increase foot traffic for local businesses.  

Montgomery Planning’s Fairland and Briggs Chaney Master Plan placemaking event at the Briggs Chaney Park and Ride in 2022.

Think of the places you enjoy most. Chances are placemaking is at their core. They feel unique, with their own identity. They host fun events, like farmers’ markets and outdoor concerts. They have eye-catching artwork, such as sculptures, murals, and brightly painted sidewalks. Benches, chairs, and swings invite people to sit and linger. Walking around and eating at a sidewalk cafe feels safe and comfortable. 

Think of the great piazzas of Europe that have attracted visitors for centuries or New York City’s High Line, where an old railway track became a beloved elevated park. 

Closer to home, we have places like Veterans Plaza in downtown Silver Spring, sidewalk cafes and Bethesda Row in downtown Bethesda, and Brookside Gardens in Wheaton to name a few. 

Placemaking underscores one of our top priorities: to create places where people want to be. And we want to do more. After all, the COVID-19 pandemic reminded all of us how much we appreciate – and need – engaging, safe, and accessible outdoor space to connect with others.  

Though temporary, events like the Damascus Placemaking Festival show what’s possible. Based on what community members saw and felt at the festival, they can choose which permanent amenities and other changes they’d like to pursue in future community master plans or as part of public or private development proposals. 

The Damascus Placemaking Festival brought community members together in a fun atmosphere to also reflect on what’s needed in the area to better serve residents and strengthen community ties to local businesses and organizations.

People in Damascus love its small-town feel an hour or so outside the nation’s capital. They love having the choice to live close to the small businesses of Main Street or farther out, with room for horses and close to hiking and mountain biking trails. 

Still, many have been seeking a more vibrant downtown since at least 2006, when the Damascus Master Plan was last updated. The first bullet point in the plan’s “community vision” stated a top goal: “Establish a Town Center identifiable as the community’s heart.” The next step is for the community to keep advocating local and state officials and agencies to make long-term improvements to transform the Main Street to a people-centered public space. 

The placemaking festival showcased the heart of Damascus – and the potential to make it, and all our communities, even greater places.  

Learn more about our placemaking activities.