SILVER SPRING – The Planning Board is charged with considering requests from property owners to resubdivide – to alter platted lots by dividing or assembling them. Under current policy, whenever a property proposed for resubdivision lies within a residential zone, the Board evaluates each request related to the site’s compatibility in a residential area, along with related criteria.
In 1998, the Board decided to require that applicants in residential zones wishing to assemble platted lots, or recorded properties, meet the same standards as the division of lots — regardless of the actual or planned use. That has made it difficult for property owners to locate or expand some allowed, non-residential uses permitted in residential zones, such as places of worship (permitted by right), medical offices, and day care centers (permitted by special exception).
In such cases, applicants usually must seek a waiver from the resubdivision criteria, such as street frontage, size and shape, from the Subdivision Regulations, and such waivers may be difficult to justify. If the applicant’s request for a non-residential use is on a property that has not been platted, less restrictive criteria apply.
Planners, reviewing several applications for resubdivision – an existing nursing home in Kensington-Wheaton, a new day care center in Clarksburg, and a new church in Glenmont – are asking the Board to reconsider its 1998 decision and determine whether it correctly interpreted the Subdivision Regulations regarding the assembly of residential lots for allowed, non-residential uses.
Staff recommends that the Board only apply the resubdivision criteria to residential uses. At 1 p.m. February 18, the Planning Board will consider whether to change its policy and apply the resubdivision criteria only to lots being created for residential uses.
To assist the Board in reaching a decision, Chairman Royce Hanson is asking anyone interested to submit written comments by January 29, which will give the Board time to consider the proposed change and its impacts before the February 18 hearing.
Download the staff report and submit comments.
WHO:
Montgomery County Planning Board
WHAT:
Public hearing on resubdivision policy
WHEN:
Public hearing: 1 p.m. Thursday, February 18
Written comments due January 29 (Send to MCP-Chair@mncppc-mc.org, fax to 301-495-1320 or mail to Chairman, Montgomery County Planning Board, 8787 Georgia Ave., Silver Spring, MD 20910)
WHERE:
Park and Planning Headquarters
8787 Georgia Ave., Silver Spring
# # #