Burtonsville Placemaking

Overview

Montgomery County Planning Department and the Better Block Foundation are co-hosting a special initiative to reimagine part of Burtonsville’s commercial center as a lively, dynamic public space and park.

As part of the Burtonsville placemaking initiative, a community festival was held October 5-6 at the Burtonsville Crossing Shopping Center (15701 Old Columbia Pike, Burtonsville, Maryland 20866) to bring together residents, visitors, local business owners and representatives of civic associations. The project was modeled on the White Flint Placemaking Festival that took place in October 2018 and drew more than 1,000 people. The Burtonsville festival built on the success of this event to demonstrate the power of 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.

Thank you for coming!

Purpose of the Festival

Highlight the vision and recommendations of the approved and adopted Burtonsville Crossroads Neighborhood Plan.
Demonstrate ways of pursuing plan recommendations for public spaces 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 the Burtonsville Crossroads Neighborhood Plan
Make a positive impact on the community with a public space that can be used for community events after the placemaking festival and was underutilized before the event.

June 4 Kickoff Meeting

About Better Block

The Better Block Foundation is a Dallas-based nonprofit that teaches citizens about placemaking principles on the neighborhood level. The Better Block Foundation helps facilitate this process by offering tools to educate and equip residents, stakeholders and government leaders, and enable them to reshape their communities into vibrant, sustainable places. For more information, visit betterblock.org.

The Better Block Foundation worked with Montgomery Planning to host the White Flint Placemaking Festival in October 2018.

Partners

Montgomery Planning is organizing the Burtonsville Placemaking Festival in partnership with Montgomery Parks, Eastern Montgomery Regional Services Center, Montgomery County Council, Department of Recreation, Montgomery County Department of Transportation, Maryland Department of Transportation, Burtonsville Elementary School, and the Better Block Foundation, Greater Burtonsville Association and EDENS.

Last Updated: July 29, 2022

Topics

Montgomery County
Planning Department
2425 Reedie Drive, 14th Floor
Wheaton, MD 20902

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