The Montgomery County Council is inviting residents to share their opinions during two public hearings Tuesday on proposed legislation that aims to allow more residential building types along the county’s transit corridors.
The hearings on the More Housing N.O.W. (New Options for Workers) legislative package will be at 1:30 and 7 p.m. at the Council Hearing Room at 100 Maryland Ave. in Rockville.
The legislation aims to allow more residential building types – including duplexes, triplexes, townhomes and apartments – along the county’s transit corridors, with a requirement that 15% of the housing serve the local workforce. The goal of the legislative package is to increase access to more affordable workforce housing through two zoning text amendments (ZTAs), a subdivision regulation amendment and one bill that would change how developers of specific affordable housing projects are taxed.
The legislation was formally introduced by councilmembers Andrew Friedson (D-Dist.1) and Natali Fani-González (D-Dist. 6) in early February. It is co-sponsored by council President Kate Stewart (D-Dist. 4) and councilmembers Laurie-Anne Sayles (D-At-large), Marilyn Balcombe (D-Dist. 2) and Dawn Luedtke (D-Dist. 7).
According to the sponsors, the legislation was inspired by public conversations concerning the Attainable Housing Strategies Initiative proposed by the county Planning Board in 2024, but not based on that proposal. 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 Planning Board agreed last week to send the county planning department’s technical recommendations concerning the legislative package to the council. The vote came after a public hearing during which a handful of residents raised some concerns about the proposals. The department is required to provide its recommendations on zoning and development codes considered by the council.
After the hearing, Planning Board Chair Artie Harris commended the More Housing N.O.W. sponsors for putting together and “building consensus” around the package.
“As we [have] said with housing, we have a great shortage. It’s a critical need and all pieces help. So, we’re moving this forward so that this hopefully can be approved and we have new options for housing in the county,” Harris said.
County Executive Marc Elrich, however, has been critical of the package’s focus on housing for middle-income residents instead of low-income residents.
At his weekly press briefing Wednesday, Elrich said the legislative package should be pulled. He also highlighted uncertainty about the local economic impact created by the Trump administration’s effort to reduce the federal workforce through layoffs and firings and how that might affect the local housing market.
Maryland has the second largest federal workforce nationwide, according to the state’s Department of Labor. In Montgomery County, approximately 70,000 residents worked for federal agencies prior to this year’s layoffs, according to Stewart’s office. That number did not include federal workers who reside in neighboring jurisdictions but work at local agencies such as NIH, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in downtown Silver Spring, or the Food and Drug Administration in White Oak.
“We’ve got so much housing in [the pipeline] that’s ready to build, and we’ve made no effort to figure out why it’s not being built. And we’ve got the opportunity to see what happens in terms of how our population shifts or doesn’t shift. There’s no need to do any of this stuff right now,” Elrich said.
He noted that the county could instead focus housing development policies and zoning changes on areas that don’t involve “going into anybody’s neighborhoods,” such as shopping centers and low-level developments.
Residents share concerns
During Thursday’s hearing, Silver Spring resident Aliza Blumenfeld told planning board members that while she recognized the “urgent need for more housing in the county,” she was concerned about the feasibility and unintended consequences of the housing package.
“Many workers, teachers, first responders, health care professionals, etc., struggle to find affordable housing in the county. The rising cost of home ownership and rental housing forced many to either move further away or struggle financially. This initiative is a bold and commendable effort to address these challenges,” Blumenfeld said.
However, she worried the housing initiative, if adopted, would threaten to harm existing residents and lead to the displacement of small businesses in neighborhoods.
While the proposal mandates that a minimum of 15% of units be so-called moderately priced dwelling units, “the remaining 85% will be market rate, which will still be unaffordable for many families,” Blumenfeld said. “Developers will prioritize higher-income buyers and renters, limiting affordability for the very people this initiative is intended to help.”
Cheryl Gannon, president of the Montgomery County Civic Federation, also testified, expressing the federation’s concerns that the proposed housing initiative comes at a time when a number of residents are losing their jobs because of the Trump administration’s efforts to cut the federal workforce.
“The impact on housing is not yet known. Our members do have an overriding objection to the rush to move this proposal in light of the economic storm we are facing,” Gannon said.
She also noted the federation was concerned about the legislative proposal’s 25-year property tax exemption for office-to-housing conversion projects and planned to ask the council to increase the 15% workforce housing requirement.
Sheri Steisel Weiss, president of the Luxmanor Citizens Association in Bethesda, shared the group’s concerns about the impacts the housing initiative would have on existing infrastructure, particularly stormwater management. She explained that her community suffered millions of dollars in damage from Hurricane Ida in 2021 and said the proposed ZTAs must require the control of stormwater runoff.
“Our community lives constantly with the damaging effect of stormwater runoff,” Weiss said, noting that waiving requirements for storm water management in new development should be banned.
Following Tuesday’s council hearings, the council’s Planning, Housing and Parks Committee will hold work sessions on the legislative package.
–Ginny Bixby contributed to this report.
