Montgomery County has a long and distinguished record of producing high quality zoning guides, and their most recent award winner is no exception. The county’s Transit-Oriented Development Model Ordinance and Guidebook aids communities interested in encouraging Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) in a way that respects the physical scale and character of their existing neighborhoods.

The model ordinance is structured around five station area “typologies”. Within the model ordinance, land use mix and dimensional standards such as height, can be modified based on station area typology to meet the goals of each municipality. This flexibility allows each community to modify the ordinance language to meet their needs. This self-analysis process encourages municipalities to be forward-thinking, by proactively planning for the whole station area. Encouraging station-wide planning reduces the tendency to rely on developer-driven, parcel-by-parcel development.

The Commission created a digital “web experience” version of the guidebook as a way to interactively explore the TOD concepts. The Commission also developed an audit tool for community planners to use to assess a municipality’s existing ordinances around their transit stations. Following a two-year planning process, the Commission tested the TOD Ordinance and Guidebook with local professionals skilled in land use law and real estate development and planning professionals in the public and private sectors. The Transit Oriented Development Model Ordinance and Guidebook is one of the best in showing examples and diagrammatic representations of towns. It is admirable that all work was done in-house.