Montgomery County Council and Committee Meetings on Nov. 18, 2024
For Immediate Release: Friday, November 15, 2024
Committees will review a petition for abandonment and water and sewer category change requests and receive briefings about the Design for Life Program and accessory dwelling units; Council to discuss state legislative priorities
The Transportation and Environment (TE) Committee will meet on Monday, Nov. 18 at 9:30 a.m. to review a petition for abandonment of a portion of Northfield Road in Bethesda and review seven water and sewer category change requests.
The members of the TE Committee include Chair Evan Glass, Councilmember Marilyn Balcombe and Vice President Kate Stewart.
The Council will meet at 12 p.m. to discuss the County’s state legislative priorities with Office of Intergovernmental Relations representatives.
The Planning, Housing and Parks (PHP) Committee will meet at 1:30 p.m. to receive briefings about the Design for Life Program and accessory dwelling units (ADUs).
The members of the PHP Committee include Chair and Council President Andrew Friedson and Councilmembers Natali Fani-González and Will Jawando.
More detail on each agenda item is provided below.
Abandonment of a Portion of Northfield Road in Bethesda
Review: The TE Committee will review a petition for abandonment of a portion of Northfield Road in Bethesda. The property currently serves as a gravel driveway for two adjacent properties located at 8401 Moorland Lane and 5423 Northfield Road. The applicants, who own and reside at 8401 Moorland Lane, wish to consolidate the two adjacent properties and the abandonment area into one lot and construct a swimming pool. On July 24, 2023, the Montgomery County Department of Transportation (MCDOT) held a virtual public hearing for this case. On Sept. 27, 2024, the public hearing officer for the proceedings found that the abandonment area is no longer needed for present or anticipated public use and recommended that the applicant’s petition be granted subject to certain requirements related to utility easements.
Review: The TE Committee will review multiple water and sewer category change requests. These include a request for a public water and public sewer to serve a proposed single-family home in Sandy Spring and two requests for public sewer to serve single-family homes in Potomac.
The County’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is responsible for assembling, reviewing and processing category change amendments. DEP coordinates with staff from the Planning Department, WSSC Water, Department of Permitting Services (DPS) and other departments and agencies as needed. Amendments that are determined by DEP to be consistent with specific water and sewer plan policies can be approved by the DEP director through DEP’s administrative delegation process; however, DEP does not administratively deny or defer requests. Any requests recommended for denial or deferral go through the formal Council review process.
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Review: The PHP Committee will receive a briefing on Design for Life from Department of Permitting Services (DPS) and Department of Housing and Community Affairs (DHCA) representatives. Design for Life is a tax incentive program to encourage the development of universally accessible features for homes. The purpose of the program is to address housing affordability and the needs of an aging population. Through the program, a homeowner can receive a property tax credit of up to 50 percent of the cost to install certain permanent accessibility features, capped at $2,500. In addition, both property owners and developers are eligible to receive tax credits applied to both property and school impact taxes for permanent installations of features necessary to achieve accessibility standards. Eligible properties include single-family homes, townhomes and duplexes.
The Committee previously received a briefing on the program during a meeting held on July 15 . The Design for Life program was initially established through Bill 5-13 , which was approved by the Council in Nov. 2013 and subsequently amended by Bill 24-14 , which was approved in July 2014.
Review: The PHP Committee will receive a briefing about accessory dwelling units from Department of Housing and Community Affairs (DHCA) and Department of Permitting Services (DPS) representatives. The term ADU is used to describe a smaller independent residential dwelling that shares the same lot as a detached single-family home. At a meeting held on July 29 , the committee received a briefing on the state of ADUs within the county and nationally. At this meeting, the committee is expected to receive information about the number of permits issued and geographic location of ADU production within the County and fees charged by the County during the ADU permitting and licensing process.
The Committee meeting schedule may change from time to time. View the current Council and Committee agendas, Council staff reports and additional information on items scheduled for Council review on the Council website .
Council and committee meetings are streamed live on the Council’s web page via YouTube and on Facebook Live and can be watched on County Cable Montgomery on Xfinity/RCN 6 HD 996/1056, Fios 30, and on the CCM live stream .
Release ID: 24-403
Media Contact: Sonya Healy 240-777-7926, Benjamin Sky Brandt 240-777-7884
For updates and link to press release, see here: http://www2.montgomerycountymd.gov/mcgportalapps/Press_Detail.aspx?Item_ID=46166