Montgomery Planning

Policy addresses adequacy of Montgomery County’s public facilities as part of the development approval process; community invited to October 17 informational meeting

The Montgomery County Planning Board approved the Scope of Work for the 2024-2028 update to the county’s Growth and Infrastructure Policy at its meeting on Thursday, September 28, 2023. The Growth and Infrastructure Policy (GIP) must be updated every four years and is the county’s most important policy for ensuring infrastructure is adequate to support growth. It is also vital to advancing the goals established in Thrive Montgomery 2050, the recently approved and adopted General Plan for Montgomery County.

Per Montgomery County: After nine public meetings throughout the summer and three public listening sessions, Montgomery County’s Development Review Workgroup this week ended its months-long deliberations on ways to streamline the process that determines how development flows in the County. The group voted on a series of recommendations, approved by a supermajority of members, on steps forward. The recommendations include changes to review, permitting and administrative procedures and improved notification and inclusion of the County’s diverse communities.

Chief among the consensus recommendations are:

Written by Brian Crane for Montgomery Planning and first appeared in Montgomery Planning’s The Third Place Blog.

Montgomery Planning maintains the Montgomery County Burial Sites Inventory, a listing of over 300 cemeteries and burial sites around the county dating from before the arrival of Europeans in Maryland to burial grounds still in use today. However, there are 80 burial sites in the inventory that are no longer visible, and historical records only tell us approximately where they were. This may be because the graves were never marked, or the markers have been moved or have deteriorated. We are looking for these lost burial grounds, and we hope to get some help from modern technology – ground penetrating radar (GPR) – to recover this part of the county’s hidden past.

Have you ever wondered how land gets developed in Montgomery County? The short video below the anrticle  explains the process. More per Montgomery Planning:

”When new development is proposed in Montgomery County, it’s important that it not only works for the owner, but also adjacent neighborhood residents, local business owners, and the broader community.

The update to the Rustic Roads Functional Master Plan was approved by the Montgomery County Council on July 25, 2023, marking the first comprehensive update to the plan since 1996.

Rustic roads are historic and scenic roadways that reflect the agricultural character and rural origins of the County. Preservation of rustic roads must be achieved by retaining certain physical features of rustic roads and by certain right-of-way maintenance procedures. Rustic and Exceptional Rustic roads are preserved under the Rustic Roads Program, which provides a system for evaluating, protecting, and enhancing these scenic roadways.