Wheaton Placemaking

Montgomery Planning is in the process of a placemaking effort for the Wheaton Central Business District to advance the recommendations of the 2012 Wheaton Central Business District and Vicinity Sector Plan and the 2023 Wheaton Downtown Study and Streetscape Standards. Through the Wheaton Placemaking project, Montgomery Planning will work with the community and local businesses to launch physical temporary placemaking installations in Wheaton. This project aims to show how existing planning recommendations can become physical reality, including public space improvements, and safety and connectivity improvements for those walking and rolling. Placemaking installations as a part of this project will show how underutilized public space can be more functional for the community, and to show how the Wheaton Triangle can be easier to navigate by pedestrians. At every step of the process, community outreach and participation will be critical to developing ideas, establishing recommendations, and making decisions. 

Montgomery Planning will be spending the next year collaborating with residents, businesses, civic associations, and other stakeholders to reimagine the Core District’s public realm and its connectivity.

What is placemaking?

Placemaking is the act of improving a common space to make it welcoming and attractive, so it better serves the needs of the people who use it. 

Placemaking inspires people to collectively reimagine and reinvent public spaces as the heart of the community, strengthening the connection between community and the places they share. This concept goes beyond promoting better urban design principles, placemaking facilitates creative thinking, capitalizes on community assets, and contributes to the community’s health, happiness, and well-being. 

Placemaking can take on various forms, and typically refers to improvements to a public space that make it more functional and welcoming for the people who use it. Placemaking can be direct interventions – both physical site modifications and programmed activities – ranging from simple installations like sidewalk chalk art to significant transformations of parking lots into community gathering spaces. It is a tool that gives county residents a more tangible sense of what’s possible in their communities and of how Master Plan recommendations can be implemented—as well as what communities can create themselves with guidance on making it happen. 

To learn more about placemaking and how Montgomery Planning utilizes it, visit our Placemaking home page, and read the Placemaking Strategic Plan.

Past events

Open house

On December 11, 2024, the project team hosted an open house at M-NCPPC’s Wheaton Headquarters. Over 50 community members stopped by to learn more about the project, provide valuable input, and engage with planners. Attendees visited stations set up around the room, each focused on a different aspect of the project including connectivity, activation, and retail.

Project kickoff

On August 22, 2024, the project team hosted project partners and major stakeholders for coffee, donuts, and conversation about how this project can take shape. Attendees participated in an interactive walking tour with the project team to discuss existing conditions and opportunities and challenges within the Core District.

Project timeline