North Four Corners News ♦ April 2025

County Council Considers Workforce Housing Changes

By Sharon Canavan

On 4 February 2025, a package of housing affordability measures was introduced by Montgomery County Councilmembers Friedson and Fani-Gonzalez. The “More Housing N.O.W. (New Options for Workers)” initiatives are intended to enhance workforce housing opportunities through zoning changes, tax abatement, and the establishment of funds to incentivize construction of workforce housing units and increase housing and downpayment assistance.

Zoning Text Amendment (ZTA) 25-02 will allow additional building types — such as duplexes, triplexes, townhouses, and apartment buildings — to be considered under a more streamlined optional method workforce housing development process. This measure will relieve a developer from having to pursue a lengthier approval process to secure a zoning variance in order to develop multiunit properties in a single-family zoned area. Under ZTA 25-02, a developer will only need to submit a site plan and, once approved, secure a building permit to proceed with construction. Development under ZTA 25-02 applies to properties that face directly on a corridor, which includes both University Blvd. and Colesville Rd.

ZTA 25-02 permits greater density by allowing multunit housing with a 1.25 floor area ratio (which means the building size is limited to 1.25 times the usable area of the lot) and building height up to 40 feet. To make this workforce housing more affordable, 15 percent of units in a development with more than three units must provide units affordable to households earning up to 120 percent of area median income as defined by the County; this income limit is currently approximately $148,000 for two persons or $185,000 for a family of four. New duplexes would not be subject to the workforce housing set-aside, but a triplex development would be required to have at least one affordable unit.

Housing developed under ZTA 25-02 would have to conform to existing side and front setback requirements that dictate how far the new structure must be from the road and neighboring homes. Furthermore, at one of the public listening sessions, Councilmember Friedson clarified that the measure applies on a lot-by-lot basis; so a developer could not acquire multiple properties and essentially string together units to achieve greater density. Therefore, each redeveloped property would be subject to side setback requirements separating the new multiunit structure from the neighboring home.

NFCCA testified before the County Council on ZTA 25-02. A major question we raised was whether the upzoning proposal in the University Boulevard Corridor Plan (UBCP) will apply or the zoning standards outlined in ZTA 25-02. For example, the UBCP allows a developer to acquire and redevelop multiple contiguous properties as a single development, but ZTA 25-02 limits lot consolidation as described in the previous paragraph. The UBCP allows denser development “by right” (that is, a developer only needs to secure a building permit) while ZTA 25-02 provides for the streamlined optional method approval process described above. Different floor area ratio and height standards are proposed by the two proposals. The UBCP changes zoning for over 200 homes in the NFCCA community; ZTA 25-02 applies only to the 66 homes in our neighborhood that front directly onto either University Boulevard or Colesville Road. For more details on the UBCP, see the February 2025 issue of North Four Corners News at the link below.

The companion measures in the More Housing N.O.W. package include proposals to:

Provide $4 million in initial funding for a Workforce Housing Opportunity Fund to incentivize construction with a 30 percent set aside for workforce units affordable to households with up to 80 percent area median income;
Allow office buildings with vacancy rates above 50 percent to convert to residential properties; if an office-to-residential conversion meets a 15 percent moderate price dwelling unit requirement, then a 100 percent tax abatement would apply for 25 years; and
Provide $4 million in additional funding for downpayment assistance programs.

Next steps will be for the Council to conduct work sessions to discuss potential amendments to these proposals. The Workforce Housing N.O.W. measures are being characterized as emergency legislation, so the Council is expected to move quickly.

Upcoming work sessions are also planned in March and April for the Montgomery County Planning Board to consider public input on and potential changes to the UBCP. ■

Note: Corridors = The front line of the property must abut a Boulevard, Downtown Street, Town Center Boulevard, or Controlled Major Highway with a right of way greater than 100 feet and at least 3 travel lanes, which includes both University Boulevard and Colesville Road.

Read Earlier UBCP Article