For Immediate Release: Monday, May 2, 2016
The Montgomery County Council at 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday, May 3, is scheduled to take formal action on the proposed Westbard Sector Plan. The plan scheduled for action calls for a significant scaling back of development compared to the original proposal for the community in South Bethesda near the boundary line of the District of Columbia.
The Council’s regular Tuesday general session will begin at 1 p.m. in the Third Floor Hearing Room of the Council Office Building at 100 Maryland Ave. in Rockville. The meeting, and five public hearings scheduled to begin at 1:30 p.m., will be televised live by County Cable Montgomery (CCM—Cable Channel 6 on Comcast and RCN, Channel 30 on Verizon) and also will be available via streaming through the Council web site at http://tinyurl.com/z9982v8 . The meeting will be rebroadcast on CCM at 9 p.m. on Friday, May 6.
The session will begin with the presentation of a proclamation recognizing Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month. Councilmember Roger Berliner will present the proclamation.
The Westbard Sector Plan seeks to accommodate mixed income development to support broader economic diversity with the plan area. The goal of that development is to provide needed public benefits and amenities, allow residents to age in place and increase and improve housing choices.
Current regulations require new developments with 20 or more dwelling units to provide at least 12.5 percent of the units as affordable to households earning up to 65 percent of the Area Median Income. To better promote affordability, the Westbard Plan mandates all new housing be developed under the optional method of development that provides 15 percent affordable units.
The plan also will lead to improvements to open space, including improvements of the water quality of the Willett Branch. The plan also calls for revitalization of the current Westbard Shopping Center and for shuttle buses that will easily carry residents to the Metrorail and Purple Line stations at Friendship Heights and Bethesda.
Two of the public hearings will be on bills repealing current County laws providing benefits for same-sex domestic partners of County employees and requiring those benefits for same-sex domestic partners of employees of County contractors. Councilmember George Leventhal is the sponsor of Bills 16-16 and 17-16 that seek to recognize that changes in laws now allow same-sex partners to marry, which would allow them to collect benefits through that avenue.
# # # # Release ID: 16-141