Property owners in Montgomery County, Maryland want to make their neighborhood great, and they’re using smart growth strategies to do it.
The White Flint Partnership is a group of Montgomery County property owners working to create an amenity-rich, new urban center for the area that is engaging, accessible, connected, convenient, green, safe and vibrant.
Governor Parris Glendening, President of Smart Growth America’s Leadership Institute, spoke earlier this fall at the White Flint Partnership’s Speaker Series event. Gov. Glendening spoke about the principles of smart growth and these strategies are currently being used around the country. He also discussed demographic changes projected to take place in Montgomery County in coming years, and how those changes will impact the area’s development needs. Investments in transit and sustainable design, Glendening explained, are just some of the ways White Flint can meet future demand and improve quality of life for existing residents.
“These are really challenging times. People are struggling to hold on to their homes, people worry about retirement and health care, energy costs just absolutely shred household budgets, there are serious questions about the nation’s ability to shift economic gears and meet the challenges that we’re facing,” Glendening said. “That may sound like a bleak picture [but…] this list of crises is building momentum for investment policies that support existing communities, discourage sprawl, invest in new transit and transit-oriented development, and promote energy efficiency. In a word, what we call smart growth.”
Learn more about the White Flint Partnership and it’s work to create a new Sector Plan for the area at www.whiteflintpartnership.com.