North Four Corners News ♦ October 2025

County Council Adopts Workforce Housing Changes Through Zoning

By Sharon Canavan

On 22 July 2025, the Montgomery County Council passed one piece of its “More Housing N.O.W. [New Options for Workers]” package.  Zoning Text Amendment 25-02 (ZTA 25-02) changes single-family zoning to allow redevelopment of additional building types, such as duplexes, triplexes, townhouses, and small apartment buildings.  This zoning change only applies to properties that front directly on designated corridors.

A redeveloper will no longer have to pursue a lengthier approval process to secure a zoning variance from single-family zoning requirements in order to develop multiunit properties.  Instead, a redevelopment application will be considered by the Planning agency under a more streamlined optional method workforce housing development process.  A redeveloper will only need to submit a site plan and, once approved, a building permit will be issued to proceed with construction.

ZTA 25-02 permits greater density by allowing multiunit 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.  One provision could make this workforce housing more affordable; 15 percent of units in a development with more than three units must be 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.

The impact of ZTA 25-02 may be largely moot in our community given that the County Council is currently reviewing the University Boulevard Corridor Plan (UBCP), which sets different zoning standards.  The UBCP allows denser development “by right” (that is, a developer only needs to secure a building permit) while ZTA 25-02 provides for more Planning agency scrutiny as described above.  The UBCP, if adopted as presented to the Council, will change zoning for more than 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 related story in this newsletter on page 6.   ■

SEE UBCP STORY