Montgomery Planning is working to streamline development review

Earlier this year, I wrote about how The Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission (M-NCPPC) collaborated with Montgomery County government, State agencies, public utilities and community representatives to agree on a set of recommendations to improve the review and approval process for development projects and to make it easier for the public to understand and get more involved.

We have made considerable progress on several of these recommendations. In particular, I am excited about the Community Planning Academy, a curriculum-based program to inform community members about all aspects of the planning and development process—from master plans to transportation to historic preservation.

Planning and development processes are inherently complex, with technical and legal requirements that necessitate input from multiple agencies and stakeholders. The Community Planning Academy’s goal is to explain these complicated processes and why they are in place to ensure the best outcomes for development projects and the communities they would serve.

The Montgomery County Council is funding the program, which will focus on empowering diverse stakeholders from across the county with the knowledge and resources to more fully engage and advocate for themselves and their communities throughout the planning process. The program is being designed in collaboration with the county’s Department of Permitting Services, the Department of Transportation, and the Office of Racial Equity and Social Justice.

Considerations for this effort include:

• Make community participation easy and straightforward.
• Value the time of participants and make the work meaningful.
• Make the structure sustainable for staff to continue as an ongoing effort.
• Launch a beta phase of two groups who will help to refine and fine-tune the program before opening the learning platform to all residents.
• Coordinate with county agencies related to the curriculum.
• Provide communications support including messaging, promotion and advertising.
• Establish how to measure success.

We anticipate the program will launch in spring 2025.

Another workgroup recommendation was updating our noticing signage. I’m happy to report that we have created a new template for development signage to increase transparency about proposed projects. The new signage provides clearer information, a rendering of the proposed project, and a QR code to help the community quickly and easily access up-to-date information about the project and learn how to get involved.

Sample image of updated signage

Progress on other workgroup recommendations

There is positive movement on several other recommendations. At the county level, we have:

• Created an opt-in email list for community members to get notice of all pending development projects.
• Expanded the reach of development-project notifications to civic associations and homeowner associations to within a mile of the project site.
• Begun attaching the applicant’s pre-submittal meeting affidavits to staff reports.

At the state level, two of our three recommendations passed the General Assembly, including a law that advances the use of digital signatures on plats and allows for the archiving of digital plats.  Another new law, in effect as of November 2024, allows for conditional Planning Board approval of plats while outstanding administrative items are being completed. We estimate this change will shorten the time necessary for approval of record plats by about two to three weeks.

Montgomery Planning’s Intake and Regulatory Coordination Division Chief Christina Sorrento and I joined Montgomery County Department of Permitting Services Deputy Director Ehsan Motazedi on November 21 to brief the Montgomery County Planning Board on the progress we’ve made on each workgroup recommendation.

Next steps

Montgomery Planning continues to advance the recommendations of the Development Review Process Workgroup. The next steps for this effort include:

• Continue to work with State Archives to provide a system for digital plats.
• Implement the Community Planning Academy.
• Finalize the Lead Agency MOU.
• Evaluate and address the representation of East County from a planning, permitting, infrastructure, economic development, and marketing perspective.

As the work continues, we will provide regular updates on progress toward implementing these recommendations. We encourage the community to visit our website to learn more about how the county’s development review process works.

Learn more about the Development Review Process Workgroup.

Read Progress on Process Part 1: An update on the Development Review Process Workgroup recommendations.

About the author
Robert Kronenberg is the Deputy Planning Director for Montgomery Planning and oversees the Downcounty, Midcounty and Upcounty planning teams as well as the Intake and Regulatory Coordination Division (IRC). His background is in landscape architecture and planning with over 20 years of service at the Maryland National-Capital Park and Planning Commission in a number of capacities, including enforcement, development review and master plans. He has led a wide range of projects and plans that have improved the quality of life and experience in the natural and built environments, including Cabin Branch, Clarksburg Town Center, Marriott Headquarters, Park Potomac, and Downtown Silver Spring.