The Farmland Fee That Kept Germantown's Town Center Low-Rise

In 2009, Montgomery County planned for Germantown to add about 10,000 new homes and 50,000 jobs. By the time planners checked, roughly 2,000 homes had been built in the plan area. Instead of growing, the area had lost about 200 private-sector jobs.

If you've driven Century Boulevard or Middlebrook Road, you've seen what that gap looks like: low-rise buildings and wide surface parking lots. The plan pictured something closer to a compact downtown. Montgomery Planning's own reading of why it didn't happen points to a few causes, and one of them almost never comes up in neighborhood guides. Germantown's core charges developers a farmland-preservation fee at nearly seven times the rate used in Bethesda or Silver Spring.

That matters if you're comparing Germantown with other parts of the county. The Germantown Sector Plan Amendment, now working its way through the Planning Board, goes after that fee and the office-only zoning that came with it. Those two changes decide which parcels near Town Center could become housing over the next decade.

The Plan Bet on Offices, and Offices Didn't Come

The 2009 Germantown Employment Area Sector Plan was an employment plan first. At full build-out it projected nearly 69,000 jobs. A 2023 estimate counted 12,975 private-sector jobs and 1,800 public-sector jobs in the area, or 14,775 in total.

The office numbers show the problem clearly. At the end of the second quarter of 2024, Germantown's office vacancy stood at 22.6%, compared with 17.2% countywide. Over the previous five years the market had net negative absorption of 40,362 square feet, which means more office space emptied out than filled. A few things did get built. A 73,166-square-foot biotech lab opened at Seneca Meadows Corporate Center in 2024, and 13135 Winged Foot Lane added 97,000 square feet of office space in 2020. Even so, absorption stayed negative.

Transit was the other assumption that fell through. The 2009 plan's transit-oriented vision depended on the Corridor Cities Transitway, and the state removed its future funding in 2019. The county's Corridor Forward effort replaced much of that route with bus rapid transit corridors. The Existing Conditions Report noted that those corridors hadn't been funded or studied in detail near Germantown and wouldn't offer the same service as a fixed line.

Planners say plainly that the shortfall started before the pandemic. They tie it to a global decline in office development that began before the 2007–2009 recession, with the telework shift after COVID-19 adding to it.

The Fee That Made Density Expensive

The office market and the canceled transit line explain why employers didn't come. They don't fully explain why developers didn't build homes on that land instead. Part of the answer is a rule inside the Germantown Transit Mixed Use overlay zone, the special zoning layer over much of the core.

Here's how it works. Under the Standard Method, development in Germantown's Commercial Residential zones is capped at 0.5 FAR, a measure of building floor area relative to lot size. Any project of real size has to use the Optional Method, and that requires public benefits in return for the extra density. One of those benefits is buying Building Lot Termination easements, or paying into the Agricultural Land Preservation Fund for fractional shares. That money supports farmland preservation.

Elsewhere in the county, a CR-zoned project buys BLTs for 7.5% of its incentive density. In the Germantown overlay, the requirement is 50% of the incentive density floor area. The Existing Conditions Report calls that "nearly seven times the requirement of CR-zoned properties elsewhere in the county, such as in Bethesda or Silver Spring."

The report also says the BLT requirement "has been little exercised in the overlay zone since it was enacted." It may have limited developers' interest in building at higher densities. Planners list it alongside the office decline as one of the main reasons Germantown's core stayed suburban in form.

For readers who know the up-county farm country, there's a connection here. A rule meant to support farmland preservation ended up making dense housing more expensive to build in Germantown than in Bethesda, in the part of the county where the plan most wanted it.

What the Rewrite Proposes

The preliminary recommendations, dated June 4, 2026 and presented to the Planning Board on June 18, go after both problems.

On the farmland fee, the document says the BLT purchase rate in the overlay is "significantly higher than elsewhere in the County, increasing development costs and discouraging higher-density projects." It recommends changing the BLT framework through "adjustments to ratios or coordination with other public benefit requirements," while still supporting farmland preservation. The recommendation doesn't name a new ratio.

On zoning, planners propose three main changes. Every Employment Office parcel except the one owned by Montgomery College would be rezoned to CRT, with the total, residential and commercial FAR components set equal. Site-specific development caps would be removed. Activity-center cores could get more density and height, stepping down toward neighborhood edges. The Montgomery College parcel would change from EOF to LSC to match the rest of the campus. In short, land that has been zoned only for offices could hold housing or mixed-use buildings.

Where the Proposed Changes Land

The recommendations are tied to specific places, and these are the ones that would most change the setting around homes nearby:

1. Century Boulevard. Planners describe a mixed-use "main street" running from the MARC station to Father Hurley Boulevard, linking five activity centers. The stretch between Wisteria Drive and Middlebrook Road would get ground-floor retail, services, housing and pedestrian improvements. The Regal Cinemas on the Century 21/Regal properties closed in December 2024.
2. The MARC station area. The plan calls for more density and height on the station's surface lots and a "Station Square" of at least half an acre, visually connected to the historic Pumphrey-Mateny House and the station entrance.
3. Milestone and Neelsville Village. Planners picture parking lots redeveloped into a complete community with mixed housing and stronger retail. They also recommend a substantial civic green if the shopping center is redeveloped.
4. Boland Farm Road, west of Observation Drive. A proposed new activity center. R-200 parcels on the northwest side would go to CRN for neighborhood retail and homes. The large EOF parcel on the southeast side would go to CRT. The plan describes a nearby research-and-development building as mostly vacant.
5. Across I-270. Two new crossings are proposed. Waring Station Road would extend over the interstate to Frederick Road, and Century Boulevard would connect across to Seneca Meadows Parkway south of Fairchild Drive. The previously planned Dorsey Mill Road bridge between Century Boulevard and Observation Drive is still described as a valuable link.

In the Town Center itself, the zoning maps show changes such as CR-2.0 C-1.5 becoming CR-2.0 C-2.0, and R-1.5 H-145 T becoming R-2.0 H-145. To check what's proposed for a particular address, Montgomery Planning has an interactive zoning map that zooms in parcel by parcel.

How Far Along It Is

None of this has been adopted. Montgomery Planning's project page, updated in September 2026, still lists the current phase as preliminary recommendations. The timeline shows a Planning Board public hearing and work sessions in fall 2026, County Executive and County Council review in winter and spring 2026–2027, and approval targeted for summer 2027. As of this writing, no specific hearing date has been posted. Local coverage of the June presentation in The MoCo Show also stressed that the recommendations weren't final.

Even after adoption, a sector plan only sets the rules. Rezoning a parcel lets someone build; it doesn't mean anyone will. Developers would still need to decide that Germantown housing makes financial sense once the BLT and cap changes take effect.

The Market Around the Plan

All of this is unfolding in a county market that has loosened somewhat. According to the Greater Capital Area Association of Realtors' August 2026 report, Montgomery County's median sold price in August 2026 was $639,540, up 3.3% from a year earlier. Closed sales fell 8.1% to 779. Active listings reached 2,023, compared with 1,710 in August 2025. Homes averaged 28 days on market and sold at 97.8% of original list price, the same ratio as a year earlier. Maryland REALTORS' August 2026 county table puts the median at $640,000, with a median of 15 days on market. That figure uses a different measure from GCAAR's average.

These are countywide numbers. Public Germantown-only figures for August or September 2026 weren't available. On the new-construction side, a single-family community called Kings Valley View, near Kings Valley Road and Glade Valley Terrace, opened in June 2026 with homes priced from $1 million.

The sector plan works on a longer timeline than any monthly report. A parking lot near Century Boulevard that has looked the same since 2009 could be rezoned for housing in 2027.

FAQ

Does the sector plan rezone existing single-family neighborhoods? The plan boundary covers Town Center and the employment, shopping and residential areas on both sides of I-270, from Black Hill Regional Park south to around Waring Station and Middlebrook roads. The broad rezoning recommendations focus on office-zoned land and the activity centers. The interactive zoning map shows what's proposed for any specific parcel.

Is the BLT fee being eliminated? No. The preliminary recommendation is to modify the framework through ratio adjustments or coordination with other public benefit requirements, while continuing to support farmland preservation.

When could anything actually change on the ground? Adoption is targeted for summer 2027. After that, any construction depends on individual projects moving through their own approvals.

Can residents weigh in? Yes. The project page has a comment form for the preliminary recommendations, and Montgomery Planning offers a Germantown e-letter that announces hearing dates.

If you're weighing a home near Century Boulevard, the MARC station or Milestone, or you're thinking about selling one and want to know how the sector plan could affect your street, call Jim at James E Brown and he'll go through the proposed zoning for that parcel with you. You can also start with a free home valuation.

This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.