New Growth Policy Shows Continuing Traffic Issues For Bethesda

The standards Montgomery County uses to control development will be discussed in a Council Public Hearing tonight.

The 2012-2016 Subdivision Staging Policy, formerly known as the Growth Policy, seeks to regulate the timing of new development to ensure areas have adequate school facilities, transportation capacity and water and sewer infrastructure.

Montgomery County Public Schools wants more freedom to spend funds from special developer taxes anywhere in the county, and not just in the school cluster they are collected in.

Meanwhile, the Montgomery County Planning Department is recommending a new traffic-measuring system called the Transportation Policy Area Review (TPAR).

Planning Staff used TPAR to determine that in 2018 and 2022, the Bethesda-Chevy Chase area will have the county’s most congested group of main roads. The study combined measurements of evening rush hour traffic with 2018 development forecasts and expected results of traffic improvement projects in the Capital Improvements Budget.