153 Smart Planning Many of Montgomery County’s 1.06 million residents live in Bethesda and Silver Spring, urban enclaves just outside the nation’s capital. Like urban areas across the US, planners there contend with balancing affordable housing and an interest in preserving forests and farms. Montgomery County officials have pioneered new ways to manage these issues for decades. To address affordable housing in 1974, the county implemented the nation’s first successful moderately priced dwelling unit program. In 1980, the county established the Agricultural Reserve by preserving 93,000 acres—almost a third of its land resources. A few years later, density placement was transformed by the Optional Method of Development, which allowed higher densities in urban areas in exchange for added public amenities or increased land preservation in rural areas. To keep pace with changing demographics and housing demand, Montgomery Planning staff have embraced GIS technology. The county uses GIS to increase transparency, keeping developers and the public informed about projects while speeding regulatory processes. They digitize 2D plans, integrate them with 3D modeling software, and share them online. The dynamic digital twin that keeps pace with plans gives developers an accurate picture of potential areas of opportunity. Montgomery County’s Thrive 2050 plan prioritizes dense, sustainable housing. It concentrates growth in downtown areas, emphasizes transit-oriented development, and insists on racial equity and climate resilience. Passed with a unanimous planning board vote, the award-winning plan has officials optimistic that it will address housing needs far into the future. We know we need to satisfy more residential development to keep housing affordable. By focusing growth along certain transit corridors near metro stations, we’re giving developers an incentive to build a missing middle housing solution where duplexes, triplexes, and infill development can grow. — Chris McGovern, manager of the Information Systems/Geographic Inventory System at Montgomery Parks and Planning A Blueprint for Progress The department has used digital tools to inform the public for years. The Development Activity Information Center (DAIC) indexes project descriptions, maps, drawings, and other information. The MCAtlas map viewer for Montgomery County displays related data—county and election boundaries, priority funding areas, and opportunity zones. An interactive Development Activity map outlines developments by type and tracks progress. Even with this robust set of resources, the county’s city planners and GIS specialists knew they could offer a more intuitive view of planned growth. “The DAIC is where we convey our regulatory information to the public so that they have visibility on the process and take part in our meetings,” McGovern said. “But we wanted to 3D render those projects, so they’d be able to understand what we’re talking about without having to look at two-dimensional architectural drawings.” This, McGovern said, is where smart city planning software came in to create a countywide planning digital twin. Specialists combine 2D drawings and documents to generate a 3D model in ArcGIS Urban. Layers such as building footprints A new feature in ArcGIS Urban allows planners to add “ghost” buildings to distinguish between the plan being reviewed, what exists (in white), and other plans in the vicinity (out of focus).
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