154 and property lines add context to the model to give anyone a quick visual of what is proposed. Architects, planners, and developers can access Urban to see the project’s spatial aspects—something that once required looking through dozens of documents. “I used to struggle to try to publish 3D things,” said Jay Mukherjee, the planning department’s principal GIS specialist. “The ability to create these amazing models that you can fly around and see in relation and in context to the surrounding built and natural environment is incredible.” The planning digital twin also makes it easier for planners and city officials to check the impact of land-use changes. “The models distill the required elements of the proposal— green space, open space, pedestrian and vehicular circulation, parking, number of units, densities, and building height—and display the essential elements approved by the planning board,” said Mary Beth O’Quinn, a Montgomery County architect and urban planner. The ability to quickly check that proposals meet all statutes, zoning, and building regulations, O’Quinn said, transforms her work. Looking to the Future By pairing Thrive 2050 goals with powerful digital twin technology, Montgomery County has modeled additional ambitious projects for future growth. Mukherjee and O’Quinn used Urban to build a model of a proposed high-density housing development on Battery Lane, just south of the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) 300-acre campus in Bethesda. The new 10-story luxury apartment building will offer far more housing than the postwar three-story apartment buildings it will replace. O’Quinn and her colleagues posit that some of NIH’s 18,000 employees will want to live there. Development that creates more walkable communities is one of the county’s priorities. Restaurants, a park, many bus and metro stops, and small businesses are within a 10-minute walk from the new project. On Sundays, residents can walk less than a mile to the Bethesda Central Farm Market for goods and fresh produce—including those grown on the county’s agricultural reserve. As projects are added to Urban, they will soon be shared on the planning department’s ArcGIS Hub site. The new site will sort projects based on their timeline: under review, approved, under construction, and completed. Even though a new building takes years to complete, the benefits of the models on the county’s digital twin are immediate. “It’s our responsibility,” McGovern said, “to convey the work we’re doing in a digestible way to the engineering and architectural communities and the residents who are getting these things built next to them.” Montgomery County planners maintain a suite of digital tools to keep the public informed of development plans.
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