Councilmembers Andrew Friedson and Natali Fani-González announced a package of new proposals aimed at expanding housing and homeownership options for workers in Montgomery County.
“We are basically saying that properties that are on key corridors in Montgomery County, we are going to upzone them so they can be duplexes, they can be turned into triplexes, or small apartment buildings, to meet the reality, to meet the needs that we have today,” Fani-González said Tuesday.
The package does not propose any zoning changes within residential neighborhoods, Friedson said.
The “More Housing N.O.W.” (New Options for Workers) plan includes five steps that sponsoring councilmembers hope will provide more housing options along corridors with access to jobs and amenities:
- Workforce housing Zoning Text Amendment (ZTA): To allow more residential options along corridors with a 15% workforce housing requirement
- Office-to-housing ZTA: To create an expedited approval process for turning high-vacancy commercial properties into housing
- Office-to-housing property tax abatement: To establish a 25-year property tax abatement for converting high-vacancy commercial properties into housing with affordability requirements
- Workforce housing opportunity fund: To create a new $4 million fund to incentivize workforce housing construction
- Budget investment: To double the Homeowner Assistance Program from $4 million to $8 million in the Fiscal Year 2026 Housing Initiative Fund
