Town Center Master Plan

The Town Center Master Plan has been adopted by the Mayor and Council. The City's planning consultants, Development Concepts, Inc. and HNTB, have prepared the Plan in conjunction with the Town Center Master Plan Advisory Group. The Advisory Group, consisting of City residents, Town Center property owners and developers and government and organization representatives, met with the Master Plan consultants over a five month period to develop the vision and policies contained in the Plan.

The Plan represents a clear vision and guide for the future of Rockville's Town Center and its continuing revitalization. With the goal of creating a "daytime, evening and weekend activity center that is easily identifiable, pedestrian-oriented, and incorporates a mix of uses and activities," the Plan envisions a mix of office, retail and residential uses in the Town Center. The Plan recommends the creation of a pedestrian corridor with wide sidewalks, plazas and other pedestrian amenities which would extend from the Metro station along East Montgomery Avenue and northward along Maryland Avenue extended. This corridor would function as the Town Center's "Main Street", and is the preferred location where retail stores, restaurants and entertainment can occur in the ground floor of residential or office buildings. The character of new development in Town Center will be determined by Design Guidelines to ensure that new projects meet the intent of the Plan.

The Plan also recognizes the importance of the Rockville Metro station to Town Center's revitalization, and advocates enhancing pedestrian connectivity between the station and Town Center, as well as the importance of a balance between vehicular and pedestrian access to Town Center from surrounding neighborhoods and not encouraging large amounts of through traffic. A unique aspect of the Plan is that it provides a blueprint for implementation of the goals and policies that it contains. The City, County, residents, property owners, and developers will all have essential roles in the implementation of the Plan.

For more information on the Plan, contact Jim Wasilak, Chief of Long Range Planning, at 240-314-8211 or by email at jwasilak@rockvillemd.gov.

The Approved and Adopted Town Center Master Plan can be downloaded by chapters in .pdf format, and can be viewed with Adobe Acrobat Reader Version 3.0 or higher.

 Send an e-mail to Staff and the Planning Commission.