Fairland and Briggs Chaney Placemaking Festival

The Montgomery County Planning Department and Dallas-based nonprofit Better Block Foundation are working with the Fairland and Briggs Chaney to bring to life the goals of the Fairland and Briggs Chaney Master Plan. The Fairland and Briggs Chaney Placemaking festival will temporarily reimagine the Briggs Chaney Park and Ride. The effort will bring together residents, visitors, local business owners, and representatives of civic associations to make the space a vibrant place for the community to gather.

Community members will work with the Better Block team through the summer and fall to build, paint, and construct their ideas and bring them to life. This transformed outdoor space will host food and retail vendors, Montgomery Parks’ activities and features, and a welcoming place for residents to gather with their family, neighbors and friends during the October 2022 public celebration.

aerial map of the Fairland and Briggs Chaney Placemaking Festival site denoted with a blue star. The site area is located in the parking lot of the Briggs Chaney Park and Ride.

If you were unable to attend the Fairland and Briggs Chaney Placemaking Festival Kickoff meeting or would like to revisit the recording, watch the video below. Note that due to technical difficulties a portion of the introduction was not recorded. However, you can access the complete PowerPoint presentation. Should you have any questions do not hesitate to contact Angelica Gonzalez at angelica.gonzalez@montgomeryplanning.org.

Goals of the Festival

The Fairland and Briggs Chaney (FBC) Placemaking Festival is intended to:

Highlight the vision and recommendations of the ongoing FBC Master Plan.
Demonstrate ways of achieving the plan’s vision 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 Fairland and Briggs Chaney Master Plan.
Make a positive impact on the community with a public space that can be used for community events after the placemaking festival.

What is Placemaking?

Placemaking is a people-centered approach to the planning process, design and management of public spaces. Put simply, it makes people feel good about where they live, work or play. It involves the action of looking at, listening to, and asking questions of the people who live, work and play in a particular space, When the people come together, they experience and discover the community’s needs and aspirations. A community’s vision is then derived thorough their interactions with each other within the place. Public art is one of many tools used to tap into creative brainstorming and invoke conversation.

Last Updated: June 30, 2022

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

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