Pipeline of Approved Development
Montgomery County, Maryland
The Montgomery Planning Department tracks the residential and non-residential development Pipeline for Montgomery County planning areas and municipalities (Gaithersburg, Laytonsville, Poolesville, and Rockville). The Pipeline is an inventory of development projects that have been approved by the Montgomery County Planning Board but not completely built. This inventory covers unbuilt dwellings units and unbuilt non-residential building gross square footage.
Residential dwelling units are further characterized into single-family dwellings and multi-family dwellings. Non-residential gross floor area is characterized into the number of jobs and gross floor area for office, retail, industrial, and other non-residential types associated with the project.
January 2025: Pipeline by Master Plan
Montgomery County Development Pipeline (spreadsheet) contains residential and non-residential Pipeline by Master Plan. Expand each Master Plan to get project record level details, by clicking the plus (+) button to left of the Master Plan row. If you unhide columns “A” through “F” you can manipulate the data by master plan, policy area , traffic zones, submittal date, and Adequate Public Facility (APF) expiration date.
- January 2025: Pipeline Record Level Detail
- January 2025: Pipeline Master Plan Summary
If you need further assistance/questions or find a problem with downloads, please contact Steve Cary.
Pipeline Interactive Map
Frequently asked questions
The pipeline is an inventory of unbuilt residential units and commercial space in development projects approved by the Planning Board. When the Planning Board approves a Sketch Plan, the project does not yet get added to the pipeline. The pipeline consists of projects that have received their subdivision or preliminary plan approval, so some of the projects on the Pipeline have not yet completed a site plan review that may be required. The pipeline is NOT a guarantee of future units. Once a project pulls a building permit for a unit, that unit comes off the pipeline. The pipeline is always in a state of flux as new projects are approved, the validity period on older projects expires, and as units are built.
There are a variety of reasons why a developer has not completed an approved project, such as changes in market conditions or county policies. Ultimately, whether a development project moves forward after approval is up to the developer. Montgomery Planning lacks the authority to incentivize projects to move off the pipeline. This potential power lies with Montgomery County government.
Once the Planning Board approves development projects, it is up to the developers to actually build them. Montgomery Planning staff hope to find out some of the reasons that projects are not moving forward (economics, property ownership issues, county policies, etc.), and whether the reasons differ by geography or unit type. We hope that the knowledge we gain from this effort can inform potential policies that can help accelerate the movement of projects off the Pipeline and into construction.