By Bridget Broullire and Khalid Afzal
Planning influences every part of life in Montgomery County—from where we live, work and spend our leisure time to how we move and connect with our neighbors. Community voices are essential to that journey, but planning processes can often feel opaque or complex, even when residents are deeply invested in a proposed development or the recommendations of a neighborhood master plan.
Enter the Community Planning Academy.
Montgomery Planning believes every resident should be able to meaningfully and effectively contribute to decisions that affect them. It’s why every plan and policy we draft goes through a comprehensive community engagement process, and it’s why the Montgomery Planning Board and the Montgomery County Council offer multiple opportunities for the public to provide input. The academy is now another way for the community, subject matter experts and decision-makers to connect and share information. The free course aims to educate residents on the county’s planning and development process so they can better advocate for their communities and themselves. Developed by Montgomery Planning in partnership with Montgomery County’s departments of Transportation and Permitting Services and the Office of Racial Equity and Social Justice, the course is designed to make complex topics more accessible. Our goal is for residents to understand how the county grows and develops and know how to engage in the process. We believe the academy is a great community engagement tool that is enjoying success at M-NCPPC’s Prince George’s Planning and other jurisdictions across Maryland.
Community Planning Academy At-a-Glance
- An online learning curriculum about the planning process in Montgomery County.
- The first cohort will take the course starting summer 2025 and help to refine the curriculum.
- The course will be mobile-friendly and offered in multiple languages.
- There will be in-person opportunities to meet with Montgomery Planning staff.
- The goal is to ensure as many people as possible have access to information and education about the planning process.
The experience consists of eight asynchronous online modules as well as in-person and virtual opportunities to meet with Planning staff. The program’s soft launch is this summer with a first cohort of 50 people whose feedback will help refine the course ahead of a countywide launch later in the year. We’re actively recruiting through various channels to authentically and effectively engage potential participants across the county. Participants will finish with a deeper understanding of how local planning decisions shape their communities and how they can have a voice in the process.
The course’s current modules are:
- Introduction to Planning
- Master Plans
- Zoning
- Development Review part I – Planning Board review and approval.
- Development Review part II – DPS review and permitting.
- Environment and climate change
- Participating in the planning process
- Putting It All Together
Each module will provide insights into how public and private forces influence development, including its short- and long-term impacts on communities, and connect community members with Montgomery Planning staff members and our work.
Ideally, the academy will foster greater resident participation by encouraging individuals to contribute their voices to the planning process. We hope to see that manifest in both increased participation from historically underserved communities in the planning process and through new and strengthened community leaders who can inspire others to join.
For the first cohort, recruiting residents with limited experience with the planning process or with Montgomery Planning is a top priority. The initial offering will be available in English, Spanish, and Mandarin. (Participants in this first class will receive a small monetary thank-you for their time and valuable feedback.)
In fall 2025 and beyond, participants can voluntarily register through the instruction platform, Absorb Learning Management System (Absorb LMS), and complete the online course module on their own time and devices. Staff meetings, site visits, and other live encounters will be offered regularly every 1–2 months in virtual, in-person, or hybrid formats. LMS data analysis will reveal how participants engage with the course and provide ongoing opportunities for refinement to better meet participants’ needs. We will also track the academy’s success through metrics, such as increased community engagement, event attendance, and other indicators of participants’ ongoing involvement with Planning.
Those who complete all modules will be awarded certificates at an in-person graduation ceremony—and we hope to see you there!
Community engagement is an integral part of Montgomery Planning’s work. The Community Planning Academy adds another opportunity for planners and the members of the public to connect and share information as part of the planning process.
About the authorsBridget Broullire is Montgomery Planning’s Deputy Director of Administration overseeing the department’s Communications, Management Services, Information Technology & Innovation, and Research and Strategic Projects divisions. She had been the department’s Communications Division Chief since 2020, guiding the strategic communications approach for more than 25 master plans and numerous projects and policies. Broullire started at Montgomery Planning as the Communications Manager in 2013. Throughout her tenure, she has served as an advisor and communicator for the Planning Director’s Office and the Montgomery County Planning Board, with a focus on equitable engagement and community inclusion in the planning process.
Khalid Afzal is a Special Projects Coordinator in the Director’s Office. He has been with the Montgomery County Planning Department for more than 25 years working as a supervisor for the development review as well as master plan teams. Most recently he was the co-project manager for Thrive Montgomery 2050, the updated General Plan for Montgomery County which sets a 30-year vision for the county and provide guidance for land use, zoning, housing, the economy, equity, transportation, parks, the environment, and historic resources.
Joel Teitelbaum
I am just learning from Emails/Webinars about County Council Hearings on 4 new Agenda Items proposed by County Council Members called ‘MORE HOUSING N.O.W.’ I feel it is important to build and renovate more and more affordable housing in down-County small suburbs like mine. I see how hard it is for younger families with children at home (and older County residents) to afford to live here due to rapid increase in house purchase prices and maintenance costs, fast-rising apartment unit rental costs with children at home. I need to know more about how the THRIVE MONTGOMERY General Plan was developed, and how careful Land-Use Planning Planning works to make housing more available and accessible in our neighborhood-based communities. The ‘More Housing N.O.W’ Agenda is focused on County Council approval of specific ZTAs to achieve good Land Use Planning and fairer housing for everyone. I want to understand MOCO’s actual Planning Process and how it improves development of good housing in and for Montgomery County. I also need to understand meaning of acronyms like ZTA, FAR, Master Plan, Sector Plan, other land-use planning definitions to help expand and preserve racially & socially integrated housing and community life.
I am a long-term resident since childhood who worked in Montgomery County and am now retired in my local residential neighborhood next to a delightful County Park and active Recreation Center, with new Purple Line Light Rail system under construction that will run between homes and a dilapidated Light Industrial Park.
I hope to understand land use planning and development much better so as to volunteer to sustain and improve our integrated mixture of residents, mainly families with younger children at home and retirees in – more or less affordable apartments and ordinary single family homes – detached and townhouse, with approximately half in apartment units and half in small-lot family homes. Thanks for this opportunity to Comment on WHY I appreciate opportunity to attend this brand new Community Planning Academy, On-line.