Long Branch Residents Invite dto Learn More About Recommendations in Sector Plan

[Howard Hartman]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 21, 2012

Planners Invite Long Branch Residents to Learn
More About Recommendations in Sector Plan

SILVER SPRING – Montgomery County planners working on a new community plan for Long Branch on Monday will detail their preliminary recommendations – from how to create safer, better connections for walkers, cyclists and drivers to how commercial areas might redevelop.

Residents, property owners and anyone interested in the East Silver Spring community should join planners at a community meeting to get an early look at the recommendations and provide feedback. Spanish interpreters will be available.

Long Branch is known for being one of Montgomery County’s more affordable, family-friendly and diverse communities. State transportation officials have proposed two Purple Line light rail stations in the plan area. Yet, as an older, inner-ring suburb, Long Branch is feeling its age, with maturing buildings, vast expanses of surface parking lots, and inadequate streets, sidewalks, and parks.

In their recommendations, planners call for new development with a mix of housing, retail, office and entertainment uses, and streets featuring wider lanes, medians, trees, and bike lanes. They suggest new or improved parks and schools, as well as environmental protections such as increasing tree canopy, creating more green spaces and parks, and enhancing stormwater management.

Planners acknowledge Long Branch’s social challenges, such as higher incidences of crime, poverty and unemployment than in other Montgomery County communities, and hope to address them with strategies to improve quality of life along with land use and zoning recommendations.

Preview the recommendations below or pick up a handout at the meeting.

Planners develop master and sector plans to create a framework for each community designed to last 15 to 20 years. Those visions help planners and policy-makers – such as the Planning Board and County Council – develop land use strategies and decide on proposed development.

The meeting will be held on Monday, June 25, 2012 from 6-8:30 p.m at Rolling Terrace Elementary School, 705 Bayfield Street, Silver Spring

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