Preliminary Recommendations

When Montgomery Planning regulatory staff review a development application, one of the standards we use is that the project substantially conforms to the recommendations of the governing master or sector plan.  Before approving a development application, the Planning Board must find that this is the case.   In addition, plan recommendations that will be implemented by the county often become future Capital Improvements Program (CIP) items for county agencies such as Montgomery Parks and Montgomery County Department of Transportation.

The Zoning Ordinance includes development standards for all zones in the county.  There are many development standards, but two main zoning metrics are building density and building height.  Density is the amount of development allowed to be built on a property.  Depending on the zone, this amount can be the number of dwelling units that can be built per acre of property, as “dwelling units per acre”.  Or it may be a number of buildable square feet that is a multiple of the area of the property, as the “Floor Area Ratio” or FAR.  Building height is the maximum allowable height of a building, expressed in feet.

Master and sector plans are a guide for development for the next 20-25 years. When a plan update is undertaken, like the current process for the Friendship Heights Sector Plan, all aspects of the previous plan are subject to review. This includes taking a fresh look at the zoning, including density and height limits. The Planning team takes into account implementation challenges and successes from the previous plan, current county priorities, market shifts and community feedback when considering zoning revisions. The zoning changes currently envisioned for Friendship Heights will increase flexibility so future development can better respond to market conditions.

Planning Department and Planning Board review of larger proposed development projects in Friendship Heights will include public amenities, and approvals for a project will be conditioned on providing a particular set of amenities.

In making their assessment on public amenities, Planning staff and the Planning Board will look to the Sector Plan recommended priorities for public amenities.  As currently envisioned, a new proposed Overlay Zone for downtown Friendship Heights will provide additional direction.

Read more about Zoning Ordinance Public Benefits.

Minimal new housing development has led to little population growth in Friendship Heights. Yet, given the area’s proximity to public transit, access to jobs, and clustering of existing amenities, Friendship Heights is a highly desirable place and has the potential to accommodate additional housing growth to meet current and future countywide housing demands.

The Plan Area’s demographics also play a role in housing demand. It has a significantly older population—with 36% of residents age 65 and over—compared to 17% countywide, and therefore, sustaining and expanding the existing local population while increasing the area’s economic vibrancy in the long term require strategies that attract and encourage younger residents to stay. This shift can increase demand for a diversity of housing types and sizes, at varying price points, and with different amenities.

One way the Sector Plan can incentivize family-size units is through the proposed Overlay Zone and the Planning Department’s updated Incentive Density Zoning Guidelines. These tools would allow developers to earn additional density (i.e., more square footage), by providing public benefits that align with countywide and area-specific priorities. Within the updated public benefits framework, the Housing for All category includes an incentive for family-sized units, intended to expand the supply of units with three or more bedrooms to accommodate larger families and intergenerational households. Under this system, development applications that include family-sized units may receive Incentive Density based on varying criteria, making these units more feasible to deliver even in a challenging development market.

Connections can be improved by making park entrances easier to find, upgrading streets and sidewalks so they are safer and more comfortable to walk on, and adding new public spaces as part of future redevelopment projects that can help connect the existing parks to the heart of the Plan Area.

As a part of the sector plan process, the Planning team conducts an existing conditions analysis that examines the current state of the transportation network which includes roads, sidewalks, bicycle facilities, and the transit system.

When recommending new transportation infrastructure or modifications to the transportation network, planners use a tool known as the travel demand model. The model analyzes the proposed zoning changes and modifications to the transportation network to forecast travel patterns, assess the impact of potential infrastructure improvements, and guide decision making.

The County classifies street types to provide a framework for planning, constructing, and retrofitting roadways. These street types are identified in the Montgomery County Complete Streets Design Guide, which aims to create a safe, sustainable, and multi-modal transportation network that balances land use and transportation.  As part of the master plan process, some streets are reclassified to better align the land use (Downtown, Town Center, Suburban) with the appropriate street type.

Downtown Streets are found in mixed-use and commercial areas of the County. They are often the side streets in a Downtown area where pedestrian and bicycle volumes are high, buildings are located close to the street, and on-street parking is generally common. These streets also have specific design requirements for finishes, materials, furnishings, and lighting.

Environmental recommendations are implemented largely through the development review process. All development plans have to be reviewed for compliance with Forest Conservation Law, the Planning Department’s Environmental Guidelines, and substantial conformance to the master or sector plan covering the area where the development is located. The law provides protection for streams, stream buffers, and many trees. However, these laws and regulations do not necessarily protect all trees, and not all trees fall under the jurisdiction of the Planning Department’s development review.

According to the ‘Projected Enrollment and Space Availability’ table for the Bethesda-Chevy Chase cluster provided by MCPS, the enrollment at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School, Westland Middle School, Somerset Elementary School, and Westbrook Elementary School are well below their program capacities during the 2025-2026 school year. The surplus capacity available at each of these schools is projected to increase to over 200 seats by the 2031-2032 school year.

Class sizes are a function of teacher-to-student ratios, and not necessarily an indicator of how much space is available in a facility. Watch this MCPS video to learn how class sizes are determined. The class size guidelines have since changed due to operating budget challenges, but the formula remains the same.

Montgomery Planning staff meets with DC Office of Planning staff once a month to discuss planning efforts and development projects in the communities that are along the Maryland-D.C. border.