Hear from experts Patrick McAnaney of Somerset Development Company and Chris Gillis of Montgomery Housing Partnership about how affordable housing providers meet financing needs, and how local, state, and federal government can help—as well as a briefing on the County Councils’ work on affordable housing from Council President Andrew Friedson.
Category: Montgomery County
Testimony: FY25 Operating Budget (Montgomery County, Support with Amendments)
We are glad to see record levels of funding for affordable housing production and preservation in this year’s capital and operating budgets, and thank the Council and County Executive for consistently increasing funding for affordable housing year over year.
Take Action: Ask the Council to support affordable housing on faith-owned land
The Montgomery County Council is considering a zoning text amendment, ZTA 24-01, that would make it easier for faith and private education institutions to build affordable housing on their land. This would open up new opportunities to build much-needed affordable homes, and offer faith institutions greater flexibility to use their land in ways that align with their missions and support thriving congregations and communities.
Testimony: Attainable Housing Strategies Initiative
Legalizing attainable housing types adds another tool to our housing toolbox—helping to relieve pressure on our existing lower-cost housing options, alleviate our housing shortage, and give more people access to the opportunities that our county has to offer.
Take Action: Delegates need to hear from us—don’t fund a tool to block affordable housing
Email your delegates today to tell them that we should use public funds to implement effective, targeted strategies like those identified by the workgroup to make the planning process more equitable and accessible—not to fund another potential obstacle to affordable housing.
Testimony: SB 943 – Better Bus Service Act of 2024 (MD, Support)
We are excited about plans for tactical bus lanes on Georgia Avenue in Montgomery County, and Silver Hill Road in Prince George’s County. These projects are collaborations between the State Highway Administration, WMATA, and each county’s Department of Transportation. They reflect a shared commitment to providing better transit service to those who depend on it, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions from transportation by attracting new riders.
Testimony: Faith Housing ZTA 24-01 (Montgomery County, Support)
The main objectives of this ZTA in our view are: 1) to meet our county’s housing need by providing an additional, affordability-focused pathway to build more housing; and 2) to reduce the existing barriers to qualifying institutions who seek to build housing. With that in mind, we believe the ZTA could even more successfully achieve these goals if projects were approved through the site plan approval process rather than the conditional use approval process.
Event: Attainable Housing in Montgomery County (Feb 2024)
At Montgomery for All‘s February meeting, we heard from Montgomery County Council President Andrew Friedson and housing planner Lisa Govoni about upcoming action on Montgomery County housing targets and the Attainable Housing Strategies Initiative.
We also heard from YIMBYs of NoVA co-founder Luca Gattoni-Celli about how advocates worked together and took a positive approach to win major missing middle housing legislation in Arlington and Alexandria. Montgomery for All is a grassroots, community-led group advocating for sustainable and inclusive land use, housing, and transit policies in Montgomery County, Maryland.
Event recording: Montgomery for All: Attainable Housing Briefing (February 2024)
Slides — Lisa Govoni, Montgomery Planning: Local Housing Targets & Attainable Housing Strategies Overview
Attainable Housing:
On March 21, the Planning Board will hold two public listening sessions in the afternoon and evening on the Attainable Housing Strategies Initiative. This initiative is the next step in implementing the Thrive 2050 General Plan and expanding the range of housing types available in Montgomery County.
- Attainable Housing Strategies Initiative
- Sign up to testify in-person or virtually for March 21 attainable housing listening sessions
- Instructions on submitting written testimony to the Planning Board (scroll to “Submit testimony to the Planning Board”)
Faith Housing ZTA:
- Sign up to testify for ZTA 24-01 on February 27
- Text: ZTA 24-01
- Submit written testimony to the County Council (note: it is most effective to also send any testimony you submit to each Councilmember’s office individually; find Councilmembers’ emails here)
Montgomery for All Resources:
- Become a member of Montgomery for All
- Data for Progress polling data on Thrive 2050
- Montgomery for All guide: How to Testify
YIMBYs of NoVA:
Housing Targets:
Montgomery Planning will brief the Council’s Planning, Housing, and Parks committee on housing targets on March 18. See select slides below and view the full slide presentation here.
Take Action: Sign up to testify for attainable housing!
On March 21, the Planning Board will hold a public listening session on the Attainable Housing Strategies Initiative. This is the next step in implementing the Thrive 2050 General Plan and expanding the range of housing types available in Montgomery County. The initiative makes recommendations for zoning changes to allow “missing middle” housing types like duplexes and triplexes in more parts of the county.
Testimony: FY25 Capital Budget and FY25-30 Capital Improvements Program (Montgomery County)
We are pleased to see a major commitment to affordable housing production and preservation in the proposed budget, and urge you to support these appropriations in full. The Housing Initiative Fund and Non-Profit Preservation Fund are essential tools to sustain the work of affordable housing providers. Providing robust funding to these initiatives must be a priority to ensure that we do not let opportunities to provide affordable housing slip through the cracks. The level of annual funding proposed in this year’s CIP appropriately reflects the urgency of our housing shortage and the scale of our housing need, and should represent a benchmark for future years.