Editor’s note: This story was originally published at 11:37 a.m. on Jan. 7, 2025. It was updated at 1:00 p.m. on Jan. 7, 2025 to correct a previous version that incorrectly stated that County Executive Marc Elrich could veto zoning decisions. It was updated again at 5:02 p.m. on Jan. 7, 2025 to include comments from Elrich, Councilmember Natali Fani-González (D-Dist. 6) and the Coalition for Smarter Growth.
Montgomery County Council Vice President Will Jawando (D-At-large) is urging his fellow councilmembers to pause on moving forward with a proposed zoning change that would allow duplexes, triplexes and smaller apartment buildings to be built in single-family home neighborhoods, according to a statement released Tuesday morning.
“Ensuring safe, high-quality, and affordable housing for all Montgomery County residents has always been at the core of my work,” Jawando wrote in the release. “However, I do not believe the Attainable Housing Strategies Initiative (AHSI) is the right approach at this time, and I am calling on my colleagues to press pause on advancing these recommendations.”
Drafted by county planners, the Attainable Housing Strategies Initiative outlines recommendations to the council for zoning changes in some single-family home zones in targeted areas of the county. The changes, which the council would have to approve, aim to provide more housing options and opportunities, especially for middle-income residents, according to Planning Director Jason Sartori.
“While I have tried to remain open to these recommendations, my role as Chair of the Education and Culture Committee has given me firsthand insight into many parents’ concerns about our already overburdened schools,” Jawando wrote. “After considering these worries—along with feedback about insufficient infrastructure, environmental impacts, and the question of ‘attainable’ vs. truly ‘affordable’ housing—I have concluded that AHSI does not adequately address the realities of our communities.”
The council began deliberating in November about whether it should tackle the proposal approved in June by the Montgomery County Planning Board. The proposal has sparked heated debate among public officials and community members, with hundreds attending the council’s series of listening sessions on the proposed changes in September and October.
Critics of the proposal have cited concerns ranging from the potential destruction of neighborhood character to the idea that the suggested housing types would not be considered affordable for many potential homeowners. Proponents of the strategy argue it would provide an effective way to increase homeownership opportunities for the middle class.
In an interview Monday with Bethesda Today, Jawando said he released his statement prior to the introduction of proposed legislation because he thinks the council should focus on other issues instead for now. He also cited the “acrimony and heat in this debate” as being detrimental to moving forward, and said that many constituents have asked for him to share his view on the proposal.
“We must be certain that any policy changes deliver tangible benefits to our working families, teachers, law enforcement, and other community members who want to live here but struggle to find viable housing,” Jawando said in his statement. “At a time of significant transitions both locally and nationally—including the real potential of federal budget cuts that could shift more infrastructure costs onto our state and county—we should approach zoning reforms with deliberate caution.”
Jawando noted in his statement that he introduced a zoning text amendment in 2020 that would’ve expanded “missing middle” housing close to transit, “expanding homeownership opportunities for families otherwise priced out of single-family neighborhoods.”
“When the Council requested broader analysis from the Planning Board, the resulting AHSI went far beyond my original proposal by recommending significant zoning changes across the County,” Jawando said in his statement.
He told Bethesda Today that he is open to some suggestions in the attainable housing proposal, and that he thinks the council should revisit parts of it in the future. But he said more in-depth analysis into the potential impacts on infrastructure is necessary before the proposal is seriously considered.
If other councilmembers were to move forward and introduce legislation inspired by the zoning proposal, they could face an uphill battle. County Executive Marc Elrich (D) has unilaterally opposed the proposed zoning change, and has made its defeat one of his top issues in recent months.
Council President Kate Stewart (D-Dist. 4) told Bethesda Today in December that she anticipates the council may propose some of the suggestions in the Planning Board’s proposal as potential zoning text amendments, but that nothing has been officially filed as legislation.
“This is like a menu of things that say, ‘Here are the different things that the council could consider doing to change our zones, to increase the supply of housing,’ ” Stewart said. “Which direction we take is now something that everyone is contemplating.”
Montgomery County isn’t the only jurisdiction in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area to grapple with the issue. The Board of Supervisors in Arlington County, Virginia, voted in March 2023 to end single-family-only zoning, facing praise and criticism from residents and resulting in a lawsuit. Litigation is ongoing.
Elrich expressed his support for Jawando’s statement in an interview with Bethesda Today on Tuesday afternoon.
“Finally, some common sense,” he said. “I think what the Planning Board has done is a disaster … this has nothing to do with community conversations and what people in their neighborhoods want.”
But councilmember Natali Fani-González (D-Dist. 6), seemed to express disappointment with Jawando’s statement in a series of social media posts on Tuesday afternoon.
“For far too long our leaders have ignored our housing crisis. We must confront it NOW. I strongly believe that we need to create more housing for families at all income levels, and zoning reform is a key strategy to do so,” Fani-González wrote. “Calling for a pause on reform is detrimental to those who live here and just as importantly for those who want to live in MoCo. Our mandate as elected officials is to provide opportunities to all.”
The Coalition for Smarter Growth, a nonprofit that, according to its website, advocates for “walkable, bikeable, inclusive, and transit-oriented communities” in the Washington, D.C. area, released a statement Tuesday afternoon saying the organization is “deeply disappointed” by Jawando’s comments.
“Smaller, multi-family units like those proposed in the Attainable Housing Strategies recommendations can be built and sold more affordably than single-family detached homes. Expanding housing choices also offers creative pathways and opportunities to produce subsidized affordable homes, a feat that is financially prohibitive to accomplish with single-family detached homes,” the nonprofit wrote. “In recommending an indefinite pause on the AHSI recommendations, Councilmember Jawando would prevent these less expensive, more accessible types of homes from being built and leave in place decades-old restrictions that allow only our most expensive and exclusive housing type to be built in many neighborhoods.”
