two bills could bring rent control and “missing middle” homes to montgomery county

If you’ve tried to find a home in Montgomery County recently, you know things are rough. The county has a housing shortage, with 23,000 homes needed in the next 10 years. The median home price in the county is a half-million dollars, 14% more than last year. Rents are rising more slowly, but some tenants still received 33% rent increases this year. An estimated 20,000 households are behind on rent due to pandemic-related financial hardship, and could get evicted.

Montgomery County could legalize "missing middle" homes, like this triplex and duplex in Silver Spring, within one mile of Metro stations. All images by the author.

This year, county leaders have hustled to find solutions: capping rent increases during COVID-19, tax incentives to build homes at Metro stations, and getting rid of the housing moratorium, which blocked new homes near crowded schools. Last week, County Councilmember Will Jawando introduced two bills dubbed “More Housing for More People” that could go even further.

MoCo is working on a plan to tackle racial equity, public health, and climate change

The Montgomery County we know today may exist because of a little-known document written over 50 years ago. As county planners work on a replacement, they’re tackling some big issues, like racial equity, public health, and a slow economy.

A glimpse of our possible future? Image by Montgomery County Planning Department.

When most people think of Montgomery County, they might think of a prosperous, affluent bedroom suburb. It is one of the nation's richest counties and the largest employment center in Maryland. But household incomes have been flat for 30 years, and home prices jumped 14% just this year. Schools and neighborhoods are segregated by class and race, and Black and Latinx residents are more likely to be unemployed or pay more of their income for housing. Meanwhile, nearly two-thirds of adults were overweight or obese.

Over the past year, Montgomery County planners have been trying to find solutions, and put them together in Thrive 2050, an ambitious document for how the county should grow and change over the next thirty years. Thrive wouldn't actually change laws or policies: Planning Board chairman Casey Anderson called it a “plan for other plans," helping leaders make laws or policies in the future. The plan's big themes include racial justice, affordable homes, and more transportation options.

"A plan for other plans"

This isn't the first big plan Montgomery County has made. In the 1960s, the Planning Department produced “On Wedges and Corridors”, when people were leaving cities for the suburbs. Back then, the county doubled in population every 10 years, growing as fast as cities like Los Angeles and Houston. At the time, new suburban developments were messy and disorganized, lacking schools, roads, or parks.