More News

Germantown has the population base to attract marquee development projects and is poised to become a viable employment district like Bethesda and Silver Spring in the next 30 years, according to Planning Board Chairman Royce Hanson.

"[Germantown] was planned as an [Interstate 270] corridor city, and corridor cities develop first as residential communities with supporting retail," Hanson said at a County Council committee worksession Monday on the draft Germantown Employment Corridor Sector Plan. "To develop core businesses you need a critical mass of density, and Germantown has that."

Committee members had questioned whether Germantown had the clout to attract big-name employers without providing incentives such as tax breaks such as those offered in downtown Silver Spring. Councilman Marc Elrich also said he was wary about the plan's emphasis on high-rise, multifamily housing.

"My continuing fear is that I don't see the kind of housing that leads to long-term livable, walkable communities," Elrich (D-At large) of Takoma Park said, adding that one- and two-bedroom apartments are well-suited for single people or couples but become impractical when tenants begin having children. "They become commuters the minute they're ready to have a family," he said.

Germantown was envisioned as having a mix of single-family houses, townhouses and multifamily housing but initially developed as mostly townhouses, Hanson said. More single-family homes were built after Germantown's 1989 master plan, he said, but multifamily housing is lacking. The plan proposes more mixed-use development, like apartments located over stores in shopping centers.

"It's an employment corridor within a corridor city that already has 90,000 people in it, and in this area there are a wide variety of residential options available," Hanson said. "…Even if no more housing is developed, there's still an awful lot of housing, and housing types, immediately adjacent to this area."

The committee also discussed whether the sector plan should recommend grocery stores at specific locations, like the Century Technology Park on Century Boulevard .

"We're trying to protect the kind of uses that serve a mixed-use, walkable community," urban designer Karen Kumm said. "If we don't protect a grocery store use, they will go off to the perimeter areas" instead of being centrally located, she said.

Committee members said requiring a grocery store in a certain location could create an unintended vacuum in shopping centers if a grocery leaves and the property owner cannot find another one to take its place. The language will be changed to require an anchor use such as a grocery store.

The committee is scheduled to hold its final worksession at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday at 100 Maryland Ave., Rockville.

For more information, visit www.montgomerycountymd.gov/content/council/index.asp or www.montgomeryplanning.org/community/germantown/GermantownForward.shtm.