Glenmont Sector Plan Community Visioning Workshop

Organized by Montgomery County Planning Department.

What to do with the Glenmont Shopping Center and its surroundings? That is one of the questions residents, business owners and those who frequent the Glenmont center will be asked to ponder at a community visioning workshop scheduled for Saturday, February 4.

The workshop represents the first major community outreach activity for the Glenmont Sector Plan, which will evaluate the potential of the Glenmont Shopping Center and its immediate surroundings to become a mixed retail-residential focal point in the community. Planners also want to identify better pedestrian connections to the center and nearby Glenmont Metro station.

At the workshop, participants will break into small groups to discuss what they like about Glenmont, how Glenmont can better take advantage of its Red Line Metro station and other needs beyond the shopping center. They will be aided by professional facilitators and planners provided to the Planning Department under a grant through the Washington Council of Governments.

Spanish interpreters will be available at the meeting.

The planning team will summarize the results of the workshop and present future development scenarios at a follow-up meeting in late February.

As the sector plan update begins, a series of public improvement projects are underway, from a new Metro parking garage under construction along Georgia Avenue to a major interchange improvement at Georgia Avenue and Randolph Road. Another public project will move Fire Station #18 half a mile north on Georgia Avenue next to the new parking garage.

Planners develop master and sector plans to create a framework for each community designed to last 15 to 20 years. Those visions help planners and policy-makers – such as the Planning Board and County Council – develop land use strategies and decide on proposed development.