North Four Corners News ♦ February 2025

Working Draft for UBCP Moves Ahead

By Sharon Canavan

On 16 January, the Montgomery County Planning Board approved the Working Draft of the University Boulevard Corridor Plan (the UBCP Working Draft).  Most details in the UBCP Working Draft remain essentially unchanged from the Preliminary Recommendations issued in late October 2024.

The Planning Board’s approval paves the way for a public hearing on Thursday, 27 February, at 6:00 p.m.  To testify, individuals must fill out the form by noon two business days beforehand at the link below.  The public hearing will take place in the Second Floor Auditorium at M-NCPPC’s Wheaton Headquarters (2425 Reedie Drive, Wheaton, MD 20902) and it will be livestreamed on the Planning Board’s website (link below).

The UBCP Working Draft proposes upzoning the housing along University Boulevard and Colesville Road as Commercial Residential Neighborhood (CRN), which would permit higher housing density for more than 200 properties in NFCCA’s single-family residential neighborhood.  To be clear, the UBCP does not involve the county redeveloping properties.  The decision to redevelop one’s own property or to sell to a redeveloper is the landowner’s decision.

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More than 200 properties in our neighborhood — in the areas outlined above — would be rezoned (“upzoned”) to Commercial Residential Neighborhood (CRN), which would permit higher density if the owner (or a new owner) wants to build a duplex, triplex, quadplex, or small multifamily condos with up to 19 units (20 or more units would require inclusion of moderately priced dwelling units).

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The CRN classification will allow housing redevelopment with higher residential density (duplex, triplex, quadplex, and small multifamily up to 19 units).  The CRN recommendation in the UBCP Working Draft restricts commercial retail or office redevelopment in the residential areas; home business and office use would not change.  The permissible height limit for residential redevelopment would increase from the current limit of 35 to 40 feet (depending on roof style) to 50 feet high.

Closer to the Four Corners intersection at University Boulevard and Colesville Road, the UBCP Working Draft envisions even greater density with mixed-use redevelopment.  The recommended Commercial Residential Town (CRT) zoning will allow redevelopment as residential multifamily and commercial office/retail up to 60 to 75 feet high.

The UBCP Working Draft does not include specific information on how setback restrictions could change except for certain properties directly fronting University Boulevard.  In several blocks, buildings directly fronting on University Boulevard could be redeveloped up to the outer edge of the property line; this applies from Kerwin to Royalton, at The Oaks senior housing site, for several properties flanking Lorain in the 200 block of University Boulevard West, as well as for the commercial properties along University Boulevard near Four Corners.

Transportation

The UBCP Working Draft recommends developing University Boulevard as a “Cool Corridor” with tree canopy, shaded transit stops, stormwater management, and landscaped buffers.  To make the experience more pleasant for pedestrians and bicyclists, the UBCP Working Draft recommends widening sidewalks and adding a green “buffer” separating the sidewalk from traffic lanes.

With regard to changing the traffic flow and revising travel lanes on University Boulevard near the Four Corners intersection of University Boulevard and Colesville Road, the UBCP Working Draft recommends an “interim solution” while further consideration and study is anticipated to revise the current confusing “jughandle” traffic pattern there.

To make space for the wider sidewalks and buffer zones, the UBCP Working Draft recommends reducing the number of lanes on University Boulevard (both east- and west-bound) to three lanes between Lorain Avenue and Lexington Drive.  Buses and vehicles will share the right-hand curb lane.  The remainder of University Blvd. would be three lanes in each direction, with a dedicated bus-only lane, two vehicle travel lanes, and sidepaths for pedestrians and bicyclists.

There is currently no planning, engineering, or funding for a dedicated BRT lane running on University Boulevard.  Increasing housing density near the future BRT stops at Arcola and Dennis is intended to expand use of BRT in the future when it is in place.

The UBCP Working Draft also calls for relocating the BRT stations that are presently in front of the Four Corners Pub and Montgomery Blair to a single median station in the middle of the Four Corners intersection of University Boulevard and Colesville Road (between the church and 7-Eleven).

Process Steps

Further consideration of the UBCP is a multistep process.  As mentioned above, there is a public hearing scheduled on 27 February.  Individuals or organizations can either request to testify or file letters or statements with the Planning Board.  Following the public hearing, staff will conduct work sessions with the Planning Board to discuss the public testimony received and further refine the UBCP.  The work sessions will culminate in the Planning Board Draft, anticipated for transmittal to the Montgomery County Council in late spring 2025.

Then the council will hold a public hearing, where public testimony, statements, and letters can be submitted.  After that there will be council work sessions where the UBCP draft is revised.  The timeline for this step is Summer 2025.  When the Council concludes its hearing process, a vote will occur on the UBCP.  Ultimately, the University Boulevard Corridor Plan will be taken up as a master plan amendment, which incorporates zoning changes and does not need further adoption of a Zoning Text Amendment (ZTA).  The final step will be for the Planning staff to work on refinements to the UBCP plan, which will be incorporated into an Overlay Zone document, which will also be subject to a public hearing requirement.

Since North Four Corners News is only published five times yearly, it is important to stay up-to-date on the latest UBCP developments.  Planning Board documents, NFCCA policy (if and when adopted), and other critical information will be posted on a web page titled “MoCo Planning” on the nfcca.org website.  Of course, we will also continue to use the nfcca@groups.io listserv as another source for sharing our views.   ■

[This story was slightly edited from what appeared in print.]