Residents of Montgomery County have serious concerns about the “Draft Thrive Montgomery 2050 General Plan” now before the County Council. To implement the Plan’s housing goals and policies, current residential zoning will be changed to allow market-rate multi-family housing units (duplexes, triplexes, quadplexes) in single-family neighborhoods as a matter of right without any public input, resulting in potential gentrification of neighborhoods and displacement of residents countywide.

Before any zoning changes implementing the Thrive Plan are approved, we ask the County Council to:

• Establish Community Advisory Groups for all potentially affected communities to facilitate citizen input concerning the specific details of those zoning changes;
• Mandate that all rezoning allowing development of multi-family housing types in single-family neighborhoods use the traditional master and sector plan processes in order to increase public support and avoid “one size fits all” results.