Minor Master Plan Amendment: Q&A

The Washington Adventist Hospital (WAH) campus and Maple Avenue corridor are currently the subject of a planning and zoning exercise undertaken by Montgomery County. Takoma For All supports this effort (see our letter, posted just above this), but we recognize that it raises many legitimate questions. Several Takoma For All members contributed their expertise in relevant fields to answer a dozen questions that our neighbors have raised.

1. What is the Minor Master Plan and why should I care?
   1. A Master Plan generally develops a comprehensive understanding of how land in the city is used and how it can be used in the future. It also incorporates considerations such as transportation, public infrastructure such as schools, parks, etc, and housing. In Takoma Park, the last Master Plan was adopted in 2000. Since then, not only the city, but also the county have undergone significant changes in demographics, development, traffic, and environment. The Minor Master Plan provides an update for a smaller section of the Master Plan (hence Minor Master Plan). Currently, the Montgomery County Planning Board, which oversees the development of this plan, has issued a discussion draft on which residents can provide comments.

2. Is this a radical change in zoning for existing residential areas?
   1. No. For most of the residential areas in the Plan Area, the amendment is a zoning update, bringing the area into line with the style of zoning that the County uses in its current work. Along Lee Ave, for example, the existing zoning allows 100-foot building heights. The new zoning is a bit more complicated, but height limits will likely be lower based on the context and lot sizes.
   2. For the WAH campus, by contrast, the amendment is a major positive change. The existing zoning on the campus would allow only single-family homes – even a new hospital could not be built there under that zoning. The County is proactively opening the site up for valuable new investments.

3. How big can potential new buildings be? Why is this needed?
   1. The new zoning will allow for mixed-use buildings (commercial & residential) to be up to 150 feet tall along Maple Ave, and between 120 and 50 ft on the WAH campus.
   2. A high height limit ensures that existing buildings remain compliant, which is important to ensuring their owners can reinvest and improve those buildings with a minimum of hassle. Ample height limits on the WAH site, which is likely to be developed, are crucial to ensuring that the site can meet the city’s goals for expanding the housing stock while leaving ample open space. 

4. How many of the new housing units will be affordable? Why can’t there be more affordable housing?
   1. On p. 68, “the Plan recommends adding both market-rate housing, as well as new income-restricted housing.” The county maintains a relatively high affordability requirement, mandating that 12.5 to 15% of new units are deed restricted for low- and moderate-income residents. 
   2. Affordable housing requires a subsidy. The county’s affordability requirement probably comes close to maxing out the cross-subsidy that can be expected from the market-rate units. The plan, and Takoma For All, would welcome further investments by affordable housing developers and managers in the city. 

5. Do we really need to add so much more housing?
   1. Takoma Park has a housing shortage decades in the making. Roughly 70% of homes in Takoma Park were built prior to 1940. Soaring home prices in the last few years have pushed some families out of Takoma Park and prevented younger families from moving into Takoma Park. This amendment is a step toward enabling construction of new homes for families with a wide range of incomes.

6. What is the current situation with affordable housing in the plan area? Will the plan result in the redevelopment of affordable apartments?
   1. Much of the rental housing stock in the plan area is owned by dedicated affordable housing non-profits, which are very unlikely to abandon their investments due to a technical change in zoning.
   2. “The Plan Area currently has over 1,300 housing units, about 500 of which are subsidized units, and have rents limited to affordable to households with incomes between 30% and 80% of the Area Median Income (AMI).”
   3. The plan states that “given that many rental properties in the City were built 40 or more years ago, there is a need for reinvestment in these buildings to ensure quality, safe, affordable housing.”
   4. The Plan recommends that the City explore incentives and policy changes to encourage building improvements that extend the life of housing units and provide improvements like increased energy efficiency. In the event of redevelopment, the Plan recommends striving to achieve no net loss of affordable housing.” p.67

7. Will there still be green space and trees on the WAH campus site?
   1. The plan recommends including a primary central public open space of approximately ½ acre. It also recommends that new construction projects over 5,000 square feet should provide a minimum of 35 percent of the site’s impervious area as green cover. The current WAH site has about four acres of green space.

8. Will this plan hurt or help the city’s efforts to address climate change?
   1. It will help. Home heating/cooling and transportation are the biggest sources of carbon emissions in most people’s lives (Song et al, 2019). Multifamily housing in a walkable, transit-rich town like Takoma Park is among the most climate-friendly options on the market. Expanding housing supply here will expand those opportunities.
   2. In our region, people can either live in “infill” development, relatively close to jobs, amenities, and transit, or in “greenfield” development at the suburban fringe, such as in Frederick County. The alternative to more construction in Takoma Park is not zero carbon, it’s increased housing demand in exurban Maryland and in the more distant areas where people move when they can’t afford DC, such as Charlotte and Orlando. 

9. Won’t this plan increase traffic and make parking impossible?
   1. Outside the WAH campus, the amendment will probably not change much at all. On the campus, new residents and businesses will indeed come and go, some of them by car. When the WAH campus is redeveloped, on-site parking will be part of the equation. Whether the new development generates more or less traffic than the hospital did remains to be seen.
   2. The amendment, like other planning efforts undertaken by the city and county, aims to reduce driving dependency within Takoma Park. Tight-knit, walkable development is one strategy toward that end.
   3. The city and county have a responsibility to continue to monitor traffic conditions. It may be necessary to increase bus service to the area as the population grows.

10. Won’t all that development make the stormwater problem worse?
    1. New construction will be required to follow updated stormwater drainage regulation that does not apply to most of the buildings already existing in Takoma Park. New construction will likely improve the stormwater problem caused by inadequately displaced water from older buildings and existing impervious surfaces.

11. Will Takoma Park be able to support 3,000+ new residents? 
    1. Takoma Park has had a declining population since the 1970s, when 18,507 residents called the city their home. In 2022, that figure had shrunk to an estimated 17,390. During the same time, the population of Maryland increased from 4.2 million to 6.2 million.
    2. Adding new residents will undoubtedly put pressure to expand public infrastructure, such as schools. Montgomery Planning collaborated with MCPS and estimated a potential enrollment impact of 120 to 350 elementary students, 50 to 180 middle school students, and 50 to 150 high school students. The community will need to engage with MCPS to advocate for increased school capacity.
    3. Takoma, DC has added hundreds of housing units recently and is in the process of building hundreds more, despite having similar density and challenges as Takoma Park, MD.
       
12. How have Takoma Park residents been informed about this plan and how can residents weigh in?
    1. The planning process started in July of 2020, and since then, planning staff held seven presentations to city council (7/22/20, 3/24/21, 6/14/21, 7/7/21, 3/9/22, 4/10/23, 5/24/23), Three meetings with the community were held (3/29/22, 10/18/22, and 4/18/23). Several work sessions from the planning board and city council are scheduled, and further resident input is welcomed.
    2. City staff and Councilmembers recommend that feedback on the plan should not only be sent to the city, but the county planning board, which is in charge of the plan development. 
    3. Residents may email testimony to mcp-chair@mncppc-mc.org. To be reviewed by the Planning Board and included in the official record of the hearing, any testimony must include the resident’s mailing address and the date of the Public Hearing (in this case Sept. 14, 2023).