The Citizens Coordinating Committee on Friendship Heights (CCCFH) is a coalition of community organizations working together on land planning issues affecting our neighborhoods.
About The Citizens Coordinating Committee on Friendship Heights
The Citizens Coordinating Committee on Friendship Heights, Inc. (CCCFH) is a non-profit organization and a coalition of 21 local community organizations representing neighborhoods located along Wisconsin Avenue, River Road and Massachusetts Avenue, near its border with the District of Columbia.
Where We Serve
CCCFH’s boundaries extend from the neighborhoods located along Wisconsin Avenue, River Road, and Massachusetts Avenue, near its border with the District of Columbia.
Issues
Thrive Montgomery 2050
Thrive Montgomery 2050 (TM 2050) is the proposed County plan to guide planning for land use, zoning, and housing, among other elements, in the county for the next three decades. CCCFH has concerns with the way the plan is being rushed to approval, and with several parts of the plan.
Government During the Pandemic
Montgomery County Planning Board and Planning Department has drafted ambitious and sweeping revisions of the county’s General Plan, called Thrive Montgomery 2050, which covers land use and zoning in the entire county. CCCFH and other community organizations have submitted detailed criticisms of the plan in its current form.
Government During the Pandemic
There are compelling reasons to delay further work on Thrive Montgomery, We are six months into the Covid-19 pandemic and economic crisis that has caused major disruptions to life. When the future is so unpredictable, it makes little sense to rely on current assumptions for planning. Furthermore, with all the disruptions county residents are facing, it is simply not realistic to expect meaningful public input that these multiple and complex proposals deserved. Attached is a detailed analysis explaining why work on Thrive Montgomery 2050 should be delayed. A draft letter that one can send to the County Council asking them to delay Thrive Montgomery 2050 at least one year is attached. County Executive Marc Elrich has written a letter to the Planning Board objecting that continuing radical revisions to the draft of Thrive Montgomery makes it difficult to evaluate the plan. CCCFH joined 24 other civic organizations in urging the Planning Board to publish the new draft in its entirety and a hearing on that draft be scheduled, to be followed as necessary by further work sessions, before transmission to the Council. A letter from the Woodside Civic Association shows how misapplication of a “missing middle housing” approach to small residential areas, as advocated in Thrive Montgomery, is unfair, counterproductive, and substantively mistaken.
Letter to County Council Regarding Citizen Access to Planning Board Meetings
CCCFH is concerned that citizen access to and participation at Planning Board meetings has been unreasonably limited. CCCFH wrote to the Montgomery County Council endorsing County Executive Mark Elrich’s proposal that the Board should postpone decisions on controversial issues that impact public policy and the environment until such time that the Planning Board can put in place a format whereby citizens can have a voice in the policies that impact their lives.
Tax and Zoning Issues
Urgent: The Planning Board is considering ZTA 20-07, which would allow owners of R-60 zoned property (detached residential houses) located within one mile of a Metrorail station to construct duplexes, townhouses, and multi-family structures. Such sites would be excluded from infill lot coverage limits and the minimum parking requirements would be decreased. See attached for some of the questions this zoning amendment raises. CCCFH has joined a coalition letter endorsing the Planning Board’s conclusion that ZTA 20-07 needs more work and its recommendation that the ZTA not be considered in advance of Thrive Montgomery.
CCCFH also opposes Zoning Tax Amendment 20-03 which would relax standards and impact taxes for certain townhouse developments. See the letter.
CCCFH has joined several other civic organizations in opposing certain proposed changes to the Subdivision Staging Policy, which would alter building moratoria and taxes. See the joint letter.
Capital Crescent Trail and Little Falls Parkway
The Parks Department reduced Little Falls Parkway from 4 lanes to 2 lanes where the Capital Crescent Trail crosses the parkway without notification, public signage, or public input. As advocated by CCCFH the Planning Board voted to reconfigure the Trail crossing to the Arlington Road traffic light and retain four traffic lanes on Little Falls Parkway. However, Planning Board in a work session rendered that decision moot by deferring implementation indefinitely beyond 2026, but has now begun construction of a raised crossing that will render the road constriction permanent for all practical purposes. CCCFH continues to oppose this maneuver, which has ignored the public and its clearly expressed safer preference for the signal crossing.
Westbard
The Montgomery County Planning Board approved a Preliminary Plan submitted by Regency Centers for most of the commercial area on both sides of Westbard Avenue (Westwood I and Westwood II). The Westwood I site plan called for demolition of the bank and drug store in the Westwood Shopping Center, followed first by a commercial building with a new Giant and restaurants. In the Westwood II project, Regency plans to construct a 155-bed residential care facility (“Kensington of Bethesda”). Marnie Shaul, Council President, Town of Somerset, has prepared an analysis of the current state of those projects. CCCFH has submitted detailed comments on the Kensington of Bethesda (Westwood II) site plans (with accompanying illustration). For a brief recent analysis of the issues see.
One component of the Westwood II plan is construction of a new stream valley park, the Willet Branch Stream Valley Park. The Little Falls Watershed Alliance has prepared a detailed analysis the status and problems of plans for that park.
Dalecarlia Parkway
Under Construction
Upcoming Meetings
Updates and Meeting Minutes
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May 2020
- May 27, 2020 Meeting Minutes of May 2020 May 27, 2020
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February 2020
- Feb 19, 2020 Minutes of February 2020 Feb 19, 2020
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November 2019
- Nov 20, 2019 Minutes of November 2019 Nov 20, 2019
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September 2019
- Sep 17, 2019 Meeting Minutes September 2019 Sep 17, 2019
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July 2019
- Jul 17, 2019 Minutes of July 2019 Jul 17, 2019
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June 2019
- Jun 19, 2019 Minutes of June 2019 Jun 19, 2019
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May 2019
- May 15, 2019 Minutes of May 2019 May 15, 2019
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January 2019
- Jan 16, 2019 Minutes of January 2019 Jan 16, 2019
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November 2018
- Nov 28, 2018 Minutes of November 2018 Nov 28, 2018
- Nov 14, 2018 MCCF October Report Nov 14, 2018
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October 2018
- Oct 17, 2018 Minutes of October 2018 Oct 17, 2018
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September 2018
- Sep 20, 2018 Minutes of September 2018 Sep 20, 2018
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July 2018
- Jul 18, 2018 Minutes of July 2018 Jul 18, 2018
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June 2018
- Jun 20, 2018 Minutes of June 2018 Jun 20, 2018
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May 2018
- May 16, 2018 Minutes of May 2018 May 16, 2018
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April 2018
- Apr 18, 2018 Minutes of April 2018 Apr 18, 2018
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March 2018
- Mar 18, 2018 Minutes of March 2018 Mar 18, 2018
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February 2018
- Feb 21, 2018 Minutes of February 2018 Feb 21, 2018
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January 2018
- Jan 17, 2018 Minutes of January 2018 Jan 17, 2018