White Flint Implementation Program

About the Program

Category: Community and Economic Development (Best in Category)

Year: 2013

In March 2010, the Montgomery County Council adopted an aggressive plan to redevelop the White Flint area, which is a 430 acre suburban region, situated between Bethesda and Rockville, Maryland, and has an underutilized Metro transit station. This came at a time when drastic budget cuts were being made, and real estate development and financing were all at a very low point. Implementation of this plan held great economic and community benefits. The challenge faced was how to achieve the metamorphosis from an area lined with suburban shopping centers and huge surface parking lots; to a more dense urban, mixed use, walkable, transit oriented development locale.After identifying all of the transportation improvements needed to implement the community’s vision, extensive discussions were held to divide the responsibilities and costs of all of those improvements between the County, the developers, and a newly created taxing district. Once those responsibilities were clear, many opportunities for collaborating with various departments in the County, State agencies, non-profits and private developers were explored and put into action. This provided the kick-start to the process, which will be detailed in this submission.