Montgomery County planner John Marcolin details the ongoing creation of an urban core in Silver Spring, Maryland, the thriving unincorporated area just northeast of Washington, D.C.
Downtown Silver Spring lies at the heart of the Silver Spring central business district (CBD), an unincorporated, 250-acre transit-oriented urban area located just northeast of Washington, D.C., in Montgomery County, Maryland. Silver Spring’s core was at one time a non-descript area of parking lots, aging retail, office buildings, and boarded-up storefronts. It is now a thriving, mixed-use town center within an arts and entertainment district. The Washington Metropolitan Transit Authority maintains a Red Line Metro station within a five-minute walk of the city center, and a multimodal transit center–featuring access to subway, train, local and regional bus lines, taxi service, a future light rail line, and bicycle trails–is nearing completion.
Today, Silver Spring is a rapidly redeveloping and vibrant city featuring a mix of public plazas and open space, offices, housing, hotel, retail, entertainment, transit access, and civic uses–all easily accessible on foot thanks to sustained downtown and CBD redevelopment efforts by public and private entities alike.
FULL STORY: Downtown Silver Spring
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Silver Spring Downtown Plan Expanding to Make Room for the Missing Middle
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Parts of Montgomery County, Maryland have declared a moratorium on new homes because schools are overcrowded.
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Trump deemed the landmark civil rights agreement “illegal DEI and environmental justice policy.”
Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.
How Atlanta Built 7,000 Housing Units in 3 Years
The city’s comprehensive, neighborhood-focused housing strategy focuses on identifying properties and land that can be repurposed for housing and encouraging development in underserved neighborhoods.
In Both Crashes and Crime, Public Transportation is Far Safer than Driving
Contrary to popular assumptions, public transportation has far lower crash and crime rates than automobile travel. For safer communities, improve and encourage transit travel.
Report: Zoning Reforms Should Complement Nashville’s Ambitious Transit Plan
Without reform, restrictive zoning codes will limit the impact of the city’s planned transit expansion and could exclude some of the residents who depend on transit the most.
Judge Orders Release of Frozen IRA, IIJA Funding
The decision is a victory for environmental groups who charged that freezing funds for critical infrastructure and disaster response programs caused “real and irreparable harm” to communities.
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