Sandy Spring Rural Village Plan Exhibit

The results of the four-day design and planning workshop for the Sandy Spring Rural Village Plan are now on display for the community to experience. Asked by the Sandy Spring Museum (17901 Bentley Road, Sandy Spring) to make the design and visioning work for the ongoing Sandy Spring Rural Village Plan available to others, planners organized an exhibit to further engage the community in the planning process. The graphics, text and drawings prepared at the workshop form the foundation of the Sandy Spring Rural Village Plan which is currently in process.

The community is invited to experience the exhibit at the Sandy Spring Museum from now until the end of April.

“We were honored to be asked to display the work of the Planning Department and the community on the walls of the Sandy Spring Museum,” said John Carter, Planning Area 3 Chief, “It is an excellent opportunity for the community to be engaged as the plan is actually happening, I encourage everyone to visit.”

In the spring of 2013, the Montgomery County Council approved a plan for the Sandy Spring Rural Village. The 1998 Sandy Spring/Ashton Master Plan recognized that the details of the village center concept were beyond its scope, and recommended more detailed study and analysis to develop the concept. This Plan will follow the guidance in the 1998 Master Plan and determine how to best connect the new fire station into a village center concept, design a village green, and determine the feasibility of realigning Brooke Road using the following three goals:
-Preserve the rich cultural history of the area
-Design a civic space and village center
-Connect the community to the village center and examine right-of-way issues

The Sandy Spring Rural Village Plan will also examine land use and potential zoning changes. The Plan will not undergo a large-scale transportation modeling process, but it will examine traffic studies along MD 108 and intersection data.

Learn more about the Sandy Spring Rural Village Plan and how to get involved: http://www.montgomeryplanning.org/sandyspring/

After receiving comments from the community, Planning staff will prepare the Staff Draft Plan for review by the Planning Board in early summer 2014.

The Staff Draft will focus on designing a village center in the commercial core that will:

• improve connections
• expand public spaces
• provide a mix of land uses (including housing)

The Sandy Spring Rural Village Plan was called for in the 1998 Master Plan and the results of the workshop will inform this new plan which seeks to determine how best to integrated the new fire station into the village center concept.

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