Overview
Engaging the people who live, work, and spend time in the Plan Area is essential to creating an inclusive and equitable vision for Eastern Silver Spring. The planning team partnered with Brick and Story, a community engagement consultant, to design and implement an outreach strategy that reached the area’s diverse communities.
In October 2023, the planning team began engaging with people who live, work, and spent time in the Plan area to better understand their needs, desires and hopes for the future of the area. This area is extremely socioeconomically and ethnically diverse – and to ensure the team heard from a wide range of community members, they participated in community events, attended neighborhood and other community organization meetings, conducted online questionnaires, held public meetings and interviewed business owners.
Early engagement took place from October 2023 through April 2024 and focused on a larger study area. This “pre‑scope” phase helped the team better understand local challenges and opportunities and informed the boundaries of the Plan Area. After the Planning Board approved the Scope of Work in May 2024, the team began community visioning.
Over two years of engagement, the team heard directly from more than 1,200 community members. Among participants who shared demographic information:
- Housing: 49% renters, 48% homeowners, 2% living with family or friends
- Race and ethnicity: 41% White, 41% Latino/Latina/Hispanic, 10% Black or African American, 3% Asian, 3% other, and 2% not reported
- Language spoken at home: 49% English, 42% Spanish, 3% Amharic, and 5% other
Community Visioning, Fall 2024-Fall 2025
The planning team worked with the community to develop a vision for the plan area over the next twenty years. From Fall 2024 through Fall 2025, the planning team reached approximately 1,000 people and received direct feedback from over 600, through community events, public events, meetings with neighborhood and community organizations and an online questionnaire. This included two parts. Part 1 focused on broad engagement across the entire Plan Area from September 2024–December 2025, which was summarized in a presentation to the Montgomery County Planning Board on February 27, 2025. Watch the February 27 recording and view the presentation (English | Español).
Part 2 included more in‑depth outreach in specific geographic areas from April–September 2025.
In spring 2025, the planning team held a series of community conversations focused on three corridors within the plan area: Colesville Road, University Boulevard and New Hampshire Avenue. Each community conversation featured interactive activities, asking community members to provide input on connections and safer ways to get around; new types of housing and buildings; and improvements to parks and public spaces in the area. The planning team kicked off each event with an overview presentation (English | Español). You can also view a summary of each conversation in English and Spanish.
- New Hampshire Avenue Community Conversation at Roscoe Nix Elementary School on April 30, 2025 (English | Español)
- Colesville Road Community Conversation at The Well Church on May 14, 2025 (English | Español)
- University Boulevard Community Conversation at Eastern Middle School on June 3, 2025 (English | Español)
In fall 2025, the planning team continued focusing on specific geographic areas, with a focus on areas near future Purple Line stations. At these events, the planning team asked community members to respond to initial ideas for recommendations, including types of buildings, housing and land use. You can view a summary of each conversation in English and Spanish:
- Long Branch Festival at Flower Avenue Urban Park on September 12, 2025 (English | Español)
- Manchester Place Open House at Highland View Elementary School on September 29, 2025 (English | Español)
What we have heard from the community so far
Housing priorities
Respondents from all engagement activities agreed that safety and affordability are the two most important priorities for housing for their families.
Important places
Participants of pop-ups, open houses, and the survey were invited to share places that are important to them and their community. By far the most common responses were local parks, followed by the library and community recreation centers.
Destinations
Survey respondents had the opportunity to share where they spend free time and where they go to shop for necessities like food and clothing. The top two destinations are located outside the Plan Area-Downtown Silver Spring (shopping, and spending free time) and Takoma Park (spending free time). Long Branch, DC, Bethesda, and College Park were also reported as key destinations.
Environmental concerns
87 survey respondents said that extreme heat (over 90 degrees) and 36 said that poor air quality are the issues that have most affected their community over the past five years. At the open houses, participants listed tree loss and neighborhood shade as their top environmental concerns.
Community needs
Parks, entertainment options, healthcare, and other medical services and ways to get around without a car are all highly desired within the Plan.
Long Branch
Long Branch is the core commercial area with the most non-residential uses in the Plan Area. Shopping, eating or picking up food at restaurants, and visiting the library were the top three most common activities that bring people to Long Branch. Parks also received a considerable number of votes, as well as attending community events and taking public transit.
Parks
Regardless of age, race, class, or housing tenure parks are important resource. When asked to select between four reasons why people visit parks in the online survey:
- Over 50% of respondents said they visit parks to enjoy nature
- 9% of respondents visit parks to provide children with an outdoor place to play or to visit a playground
- 2% of respondents visit parks to exercise or play sports.
- 1% of respondents selected spending time with family, friends, and neighbors as the top reason they visit parks
Pre-Scope of Work engagement
The planning team began engaging with the community in Fall 2023, before the approval of the Scope of Work, to better understand the existing conditions of the Eastern Silver Spring area. Through participating in community events, knocking door to door in multifamily communities, attending community meetings, an online questionnaire and interactive map, the planning team gathered information about the challenges facing communities in Eastern Silver Spring. This helped the team prepare the existing conditions analysis (English | Español) and Scope of Work (English | Español), which was presented to the Planning Board in May 2024. From Fall 2023 through Spring 2024, the planning team reached approximately 2,500 people and received direct feedback from nearly 600.
Read a complete report of engagement from Fall 2023 through Spring 2024 (English | Español).
What we heard
Neighborhood perceptions
Most respondents (80%) said they would either probably or definitely recommend their neighborhood to family or friends.
Getting around
While people highly value access to public transportation and ease of walking around, residents across every race/ethnicity and language prefer and/or use a personal car the most often compared to other forms of transportation. Most residents mentioned that the main advantage of a car is access to places they could not otherwise reach.
Pedestrian safety and walkability
University Boulevard and Piney Branch Road were the 2 most cited streets for pedestrian safety concerns, with Franklin Avenue/University Boulevard and Piney Branch Road/Flower Avenue cited as the most unsafe intersections.
The need for sidewalk installation or improvements was cited as the most needed community improvement across most neighborhoods.
Community assets
When asked what residents liked about their neighborhoods, respondents most highlighted access to parks and green spaces, sense of community, location within the DC Metro area, and access to public transportation.
Safety
The area is perceived as safe or somewhat safe by the majority of people engaged (93.3% of questionnaire respondents indicated they feel very safe or somewhat safe in their neighborhood).