Montgomery County leaders are once again proving that ideology trumps common sense. Their latest scheme—the University Boulevard Corridor Plan—seeks to cram even more housing and development into one of the county’s most congested arteries, while giving little more than lip service to the real problem: traffic gridlock.
The three-and-a-half-mile stretch from the Beltway in Silver Spring to Wheaton is already infamous for bottlenecks, accidents, and long commutes. Instead of addressing congestion, expanding road capacity, or fixing broken intersections, the plan rezones neighborhoods to allow duplexes, triplexes, and high-density development. It also throws in the usual “progressive” wish list—bikeways, wider sidewalks, and “improved” bus stops.
Residents aren’t buying it. “Many don’t like it because it will make a dense area even denser… We already have too much traffic,” one testified. Others say community input has been ignored, with the Planning Board rubber-stamping development regardless of local concerns.
Even County Executive Marc Elrich admitted the plan wouldn’t deliver affordable housing. Instead, he warned it’s little more than a gift to developers, using “a false sense that there’s nowhere else to develop” to justify bulldozing established neighborhoods.
This is Montgomery County’s playbook: claim “smart growth,” then impose density without infrastructure. Commuters sit longer in traffic, neighborhoods lose character, and families pay the price. Residents who ask for relief from congestion are brushed aside in favor of planners’ utopian dreams.
If county leaders truly cared about working families, they’d prioritize fixing traffic flow and expanding road capacity before piling more residents onto already overburdened roads. Instead, they’ve chosen to wage war on drivers—the very people who keep Montgomery County’s economy moving.
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