Community members invited to provide testimony about draft master plan focused on a three-mile stretch of University Boulevard/MD 193 between Wheaton and the Capital Beltway
WHEATON, MD – The Montgomery County Planning Board , part of The Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission (M-NCPPC), scheduled a public hearing on the University Boulevard Corridor (UBC) Plan for Thursday, February 27 at 6 p.m. The public hearing was set after the Montgomery County Planning Department presented its first draft of the plan – the Working Draft – to the Planning Board today. The public hearing will take place in the Second Floor Auditorium at M-NCPPC’s Wheaton Headquarters (2425 Reedie Drive, Wheaton, MD 20902) and it will be livestreamed on the Planning Board’s website .
The UBC Plan aims to address community needs within a three-mile stretch of University Boulevard (MD 193). The recommendations focus on traffic safety, regional connectivity, environmental sustainability, corridor-focused growth, and economic development. The plan explores opportunities for new transit-oriented housing, bikeways, and bus rapid transit (BRT), as well as the creation of complete streets with wider sidewalks, comfortable public transportation stops, and safe access.
“The UBC Plan’s draft recommendations were developed over more than two years of research and analysis and reflect the community’s input for a new vision of the corridor and surrounding neighborhoods,” said project lead Zubin Adrianvala. “The plan team and the Planning Board look forward to hearing more feedback fromresidents, businesses, property owners, and other stakeholders on February 27.”
Sign up to testify
Individuals may sign up to testify live at the public hearing either in-person or online via Microsoft Teams. Written comments can also be shared with the Planning Board by noon on February 25. Following the public hearing, planners will discuss the community’s testimony with the Planning Board in a series of work sessions into the spring.
Over the course of the work sessions, Planning Board members will add their comments to the draft plan and then take a vote to approve a Planning Board Draft that will be transmitted to the Montgomery County Council for its public review and approval process.
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Key recommendations of Draft Plan
- To promote sustainable development patterns, provide more housing options, and support transportation safety enhancements along University Boulevard, the University Boulevard Corridor Plan recommends the rezoning of properties that are: in corridor-facing blocks; institutional properties, such as properties used for religious assembly; and existing single-use commercial shopping centers.
View an interactive map of the proposed zoning recommendations. The zoning changes provide property owners with more flexibility for what they can build on their properties if they choose to redevelop. Institutional properties or properties with more width and depth in these areas may accommodate infill development depending on the size of the property.
- Establish an overlay zone to define neighborhood residential building types, prioritize development standards that further compact growth and transportation safety, and explore modifications, as necessary, to achieve transitions from larger to smaller buildings. The overlay zone will apply to properties recommended for rezoning in the plan.
- Locate higher building densities and mixed uses at locations near BRT stations with existing commercial properties, including the WTOP property, the Kemp Mill Shopping Center, and Four Corners, and ensure new development transitions from larger to smaller buildings to adjacent residential properties.
- Implement a connected network of streets, comfortable walkways, and low-stress bicycle facilities, and right-size roadways and intersections to create a safer and more comfortable environment for people who are walking, rolling, bicycling, riding transit, and driving.
- Provide dedicated transit lanes along University Boulevard and Colesville Road.
- Explore alternative ways to navigate the Four Corners area that include short-term recommendations for limited change to the street network that provide safe, accessible, and healthy travel options for people walking, biking, rolling, riding transit, and traveling in cars. A long-term vision of additional street connections should be further studied.
- Improve pavement markings, lighting, and sight distance and explore protected crossings at the interchanges with I-495 at Colesville Road and University Boulevard to improve safety for all modes of transportation.
- Improve connections to and explore improvements within existing local parks, including the Northwood Chesapeake Bay Trail.
- Make University Boulevard more resilient to climate change by incorporating tree canopy, shaded bus stops, improved stormwater management, and landscaped buffers.
More about the University Boulevard Corridor Plan
The UBC Plan builds on major Montgomery County initiatives—including the 2013 Countywide Transit Corridors Functional Master Plan , Thrive Montgomery 2050 and Vision Zero – and is centered on residential neighborhoods, schools, parks, places of worship, businesses, and other institutional uses along University Boulevard/MD 193 between Amherst Avenue at the edge of the Wheaton Central Business District (CBD), to the area immediately south of the Capital Beltway (I-495). The Four Corners area serves as an important element in the plan area with commercial and institutional properties, including the Woodmoor Shopping Center, Montgomery Blair High School, and Saint Bernadette Catholic Church and School. Colesville Road (U.S. 29) is a major intersection with University Boulevard in the plan area.
The plan strives to address community needs as they pertain to traffic safety, regional connectivity, environmental sustainability, housing, and economic development. Broadly, the plan advances Vision Zero goals with overall improved road safety and quality of life using complete streets and enhancing development potential of the plan area for corridor-focused growth.
Community members are encouraged to sign up for the plan’s newsletter to get regular updates.
For updates and link to press release, see here: https://montgomeryplanning.org/?p=60340