Optional Method Development<\/em><\/p>\nIt may seem that there are more townhouses or even apartment buildings than the zoning summarized above would entail.\u00a0 The reason is that \u201coptional method development\u201d (development that either 1. provides affordable housing units above the minimum required, 2. purchases development rights to protect the agricultural reserve or 3. agrees to cluster development to save open space) is allowed to build townhouses and apartment buildings in zones that otherwise only allow detached houses.<\/p>\n
The logic of such allowances is that a greater public good is provided and protections for adequate public facilities (fire & rescue access, school capacity, road congestion, water\/sewer capacity, etc.) are still tested during a more stringent review process.\u00a0 This process and the types of residential units allowed would not change under the proposed zoning code.<\/p>\n
Special Exceptions<\/em><\/p>\nIt may also seem that there are more commercial enterprises than the zoning summarized above would entail.\u00a0 One aspect of this is perception \u2013 our commercial areas tend to run mostly along major highways and arteries, so these areas dominate our senses until we pull off into the residential neighborhoods and rural areas.\u00a0 Another aspect is that commercial uses are allowed in residential zones \u2013 mostly through the \u201cspecial exception use\u201d process (which we proposed to rename \u201cconditional use\u201d).\u00a0 Also, schools and other public uses are allowed in any zone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Pop quiz: match the zone categories with the acreage for Montgomery County (this excludes municipalities with their own zoning authority).<\/p>\n
Click to enlarge:<\/p>\n
The answers, which may surprise you, are on the next page along with graphic representations.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,63],"tags":[133,489],"class_list":["post-3549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-planning","category-zoning","tag-mapping","tag-zoning"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/montgomeryplanning.org\/blog-design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/montgomeryplanning.org\/blog-design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/montgomeryplanning.org\/blog-design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montgomeryplanning.org\/blog-design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montgomeryplanning.org\/blog-design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3549"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/montgomeryplanning.org\/blog-design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3549\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3574,"href":"https:\/\/montgomeryplanning.org\/blog-design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3549\/revisions\/3574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/montgomeryplanning.org\/blog-design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montgomeryplanning.org\/blog-design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montgomeryplanning.org\/blog-design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"zoning](\"http:\/\/montgomeryplanning.org\/blog-design\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/zoning-table.png\")
<\/a>The answers, which may surprise you, are on the next page along with graphic representations.<\/p>\n