Community members and volunteers are reimagining a livelier downtown Long Branch through a pop-up park and gathering space
SILVER SPRING, MD –The Montgomery County Planning Department, part of The Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission (M-NCPPC), is collaborating with Discover Long Branch, an initiative of the Long Branch Business League, and the Montgomery Housing Partnership on Long Branch Festival Week.
This event will be held from September 20 through September 27, 2019 at Flower Avenue Urban Park and adjacent spaces on Flower Avenue and will involve the community in a collaborative planning effort to reimagine a livelier and friendlier downtown Long Branch. With the help of volunteers, several temporary pop-up parks, displays and activities will be provided during the festival week. Planning staff will be soliciting ideas from the community for a future civic green, as proposed in the 2013 Long Branch Sector Plan.
Learn more about the Long Branch Festival Week.
The event is modeled on the White Flint Placemaking Festival held in October 2018 that drew about 1,000 people to Rockville’s Randolph Hills Shopping Center.
What is Placemaking?
Placemaking inspires people to collectively reimagine and reinvent public spaces as the heart of the community. It strengthens the connections between community members and the places they share. Placemaking refers to a collaborative process that shapes our public realm in order to maximize value. This concept goes beyond just promoting better urban design principles. Placemaking facilitates creative thinking, capitalizes on community assets and contributes to the community’s health, happiness and well-being. More than livable, these places are loved.
Purpose of the Long Branch Festival Week:
- Realize the public space recommendation in the 2013 Long Branch Sector Plan.
- Demonstrate ways of achieving plan recommendations through short-term solutions before major investments are made.Embrace placemaking as a means of capturing shared values and generating ideas for public spaces.
- Engage local businesses, schools and community members in a dialogue about the role of public spaces and streetscape designs within their community.
- Encourage property owners to plan for the long-term transformation of their properties.
- Use temporary placemaking as a tool to gather data and help inform permanent designs for successful public spaces and streetscapes in Long Branch.
- Make a positive impact on the community with a public space that can be used for gatherings and events after the festival and was underutilized before the event.
For more information, contact John Marcolin at john.marcolin@montgomeryplanning.org or 301-495-4547.