A plan to rezone along University Boulevard has been met with a protest and criticism from Montgomery County residents, including County Executive Marc Elrich.
Some residents spoke out during a Wednesday evening protest before a council public hearing on the rezoning plan at Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring.
The Planning Board’s University Boulevard Corridor Plan focuses on a three-mile part of busy thoroughfare from Amherst Avenue in Wheaton to I-495. It aims to address traffic safety, regional connectivity, and corridor-focused growth, according to the planning department.
As MCM reported earlier this week, some single-family homes facing University Boulevard would be zoned to allow duplexes, triplexes, townhouses, condominiums and small apartments.
“What is going to happen is, the people who are living here now, which the majority of people are working class, people of color, your immigrants, will be displaced, your renters and homeowners alike,” said Kimblyn Persaud, executive director of EPIC of MoCo to MCM. “And they haven’t taken that into consideration.”
Inside the public hearing, the interactions between critics of the plan and Planning Board officials were contentious, with an interruption during Elrich’s testimony and two rounds of boos for Planning Board Chair Artie Harris.
However, some residents supported the plan.
“The University Boulevard Corridor Plan does a lot of things, but one of its best features is that it’s going to increase the housing supply and diverse kinds of housing,” said a Silver Spring resident who only wanted to use his first name, Michael DeLong, in his testimony to the council.
A second public hearing will be Tuesday, Sept. 16 at the County Council Office Building in Rockville.
