The Montgomery County Planning Board unanimously approved Thursday its draft of the University Boulevard Corridor plan, which aims to guide development, growth, transit and safety in the area for about 20 years along a busy and dense 3-mile section of Silver Spring.
The approval of the Planning Board draft comes after eight work sessions in which Montgomery Planning staff and the board revised various sections of the plan based on community feedback from a late-February public hearing. The final work session was held Thursday afternoon during the board’s weekly meeting at its Wheaton headquarters.
In a press release Thursday, Planning Board Chair Artie Harris said the plan is a “step toward creating a safer and more connected community.”
He noted it aims to prioritize safety for pedestrians and people using other modes of transportation, such as bicycles and wheelchairs, while also expanding access to different housing options.
“The Planning Board is proud to support this vision that was founded on community input and prepares this area for a more equitable and vibrant future,” Harris said.
Some of the plan’s revisions include:
- Guidance on the widths of the sidewalks along key sections of University Boulevard;
- Including language about the significance of the Kemp Mill Shopping Center to the community’s Jewish population;
- Recommendations for redevelopments to have frontage zones such as sidewalk cafes, landscaping for building entrances and street furniture in the western Four Corners neighborhood;
- Potential traffic calming measures for consideration such as installing new sidewalks, side paths or street buffers, speed humps and restriping on-street parking to “visually narrow the vehicle travel lanes and reduce vehicle travel speeds;”
- Updated language on removal of channelized right turn lanes, and installation of “No right turn on red” signs and leading pedestrian interval lights, which is a traffic signal timing that gives pedestrians a head start to enter a crosswalk before vehicles are given a green light;
- Removal of the Woodmoor shopping center from the section about historic resources; and
- Changes to zoning recommendations that aim to “maintain existing neighborhood scale.”
The proposed University Boulevard Corridor Plan includes recommendations focused on traffic safety, zoning, pedestrian connectivity and transit-oriented growth. It also explores opportunities to provide dedicated transit lanes along University Boulevard and Colesville Road and support bus rapid transit, known as BRT, create bikeway and walkway networks, wider sidewalks and safer public transportation.
The plan covers a 3-mile stretch of University Boulevard from the edge of East Indian Spring Drive in Silver Spring to Amherst Avenue in Wheaton. Within that corridor are Montgomery Blair and Northwood high schools; Forest Knolls, Glen Haven and Pine Crest elementary schools; Yeshiva of Greater Washington; St. Bernadette Catholic Church and its school; the Woodmoor shopping center; the WTOP radio tower property; and North Four Corners Local Park and Wheaton Forest Park.
According to Zubin Adrianvala, project manager for the plan, the proposal is part of the implementation of Thrive Montgomery 2050, the county’s 2022 update to its general master plan that’s expected to guide planning and development for roughly the next 50 years.
“We are at a position where we really want to investigate our growth corridors,” Adrianvala told Bethesda Today in February. “This is an area that we haven’t studied for a long time. I think there’s some appetite in the community to see it move into the 21st century.”
During the final work session, Commissioner Josh Linden thanked the planning staff for its work on the plan and community engagement.
“I think the work sessions and the final product really do reflect so much of the positive feedback we received from the community, while still having that North Star direction of what are we looking for,” Linden said.
Commissioner Shawn Bartley also praised the plan during the meeting, specifically its aim to create safer pedestrian and bicycle networks around the corridor.
Community opposition
In late February, the board held a public hearing at its headquarters. More than 1,000 residents who may be impacted by the plan attended in-person and via video streaming.
The majority of those who testified voiced opposition to the proposed plan, especially its recommendation to upzone sections of neighborhoods on the border of University Boulevard.
“Your proposal for more density and taller buildings is … not wanted in at least Four Corners,” resident James Williamson told the board. “These are established single-family residential neighborhoods along the corridor. People moved here for that reason.”
Regarding the plan’s transportation recommendations, such as supporting bus rapid transit and slowing down traffic, opponents said they were concerned those would increase congestion and travel times for commuters, cause cut-through traffic onto streets in their neighborhoods and impact the safety of residential streets along the corridor.
Jeremy Rosenthal, a resident who grew up in the Kemp Mill neighborhood and owns a home in the area, said the plan seemed like “a classic case of creating large benefits for a small group, including developers, at the expense of diffuse harms imposed on others, both citizens and our planet.”
What’s next?
The board’s approved draft will be transmitted to the County Council for review, according to Thursday’s release. As the council and its Planning, Housing and Parks Committee review the proposed plan and holds work sessions, county residents will have another opportunity to provide input.
The board’s approved draft will be published to the University Boulevard Corridor Plan website once the revisions are incorporated, the release said. A redlined version can be found at this link.
The council is expected to vote on a final plan after its public review process, according to the release. It is not yet clear when the Planning, Housing and Parks Committee will hold its work sessions or when the council’s public hearing will be held. However, the planning department anticipates that both will take place in the summer.
If the plan is approved by the council, it will head next to the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission to be considered for adoption, according to Montgomery Planning.
