Every city has policies and practices for how to improve, maintain, change, and acquire public spaces, like parks, sidewalks, urban plazas, suburban traffic management, public art, and so on. The City of Takoma Park is no different. It manages a constellation of formal policies, code regulations, City Council resolutions, and informal practices that determine where, how, and whether we devote resources in service of public space. However, the City has never taken a comprehensive look at its policies to identify where there are gaps, where there is redundancy, or where policies are working in opposition to the City’s goal of incorporating racial equity into all of our decision-making.

On a day to day basis, most residents may not notice much about public space management, other than whether the grass has been mowed in the park, or the trash cans have been emptied at the street corner. However, over time, policy choices and practices can lead to compounded issues that raise serious questions about equity. For example, in the draft Public Space Management Plan, the consulting team analyzed data about the amount of park space with activity-based amenities (such as playgrounds, ball courts, and workout equipment) in proximity to residents by ward. The findings were that the most diverse and lowest-income ward, Ward 5, also has the lowest access to active parks. Ward 6 was close behind. Findings like these invite city decision makers to reassess policies about playground and park upgrades, acquisition or creation of new recreational greenspaces, and strategies to create better walking and bike connectivity to such park spaces.

Occasionally, these gaps or frictions within our current public space management bubble up into challenging situations for community members and City staff, alike. In the absence of clear structures for decision-making or prioritization, budgetary resources may be overspent on projects that should have been a lower priority, City staff and leadership may need to scramble to pull together policies or take actions on short notice without thorough deliberation or data driving the process, or existing policies may be bluntly interpreted to address a new issue with unintended negative consequences. Each of these scenarios runs the risk of perpetuating an inequitable status quo that may have been handled more effectively, equitably, and thoroughly had a more comprehensive approach to public space management been in place.

To learn more about the recommendations for updated policies and a new decision-making tool in the Public Space Management Plan, visit the City’s project website: https://bit.ly/publicspacemanagementplan.

Public spaces are an important part of what makes Takoma Park so great! It’s in the City’s parks, playgrounds, sidewalks, roadways, streeteries, trails and plazas that residents travel, recreate, and connect with one another.

This fall, the City Council will consider the adoption of a new Public Space Management Plan. The purpose of this plan is to take the patchwork of policies and practices that govern how the City manages its public spaces, and create a comprehensive framework. How do we prioritize our limited financial and staffing resources? Where are there policy gaps that leave uncertainty? Where is there overlap or redundancy that creates inefficiency? How do we make sure that our public spaces center the City’s goals of racial equity and environmental sustainability? How can we improve the use of data in our decision-making?

View the plan here.

This plan was crafted with input from hundreds of community members, and we are excited to share it with you! The draft plan proposes 37 recommendations to improve the way that the City manages its public spaces. These include recommendations relating to:

• Revising the resident traffic calming and new sidewalk request processes to be more equitable;
• Improvements to the way that public space data is tracked and visualized for the public;
• Create a new system to prioritize playground updates;
• re-examine public parking policies;
• And more!

It also offers an evaluation tool to help City staff, City Council members, and the public apply a standardized set of criteria to new projects. The tool sets out criteria in different categories that each new project would be measured against. The goal is to create a more standardized and data-driven decision-making framework. .

Over the next couple months, City staff invite the public to take a close look at the Public Space Management Plan. The full draft plan is posted to the City’s project web page. Keep an eye out for an awareness-raising yard sign campaign in public spaces around the City. There will also be a series of blog posts released by the City that explore more summarized details about the project.

How to Get Involved:

Share your thoughts on which recommendations to prioritize in one of a few different ways:

• Complete this brief 5-question survey: https://bit.ly/publicspacemanagementplan
• Send comments or questions to Alex Freedman, Planner, by email (alexanderf@takomaparkmd.gov);
• Send comments or questions to your City Council member;
• Give public comment at the City Council meetings; check the City Council schedule to see when the dates are finalized.

Since 2018, there have been six crashes on Maple Avenue that involved pedestrians or bike riders, and over twenty crashes involving vehicles alone. One resulted in severe injury and hospitalization of a bike rider. Active crashes aren’t the only thing that impacts an individual’s sense of safety: how long it takes to cross in a crosswalk (if there even is a crosswalk), how fast cars are driving by, the experience of “close calls”, the lighting of the sidewalk at night or the maintenance of the sidewalk’s surface, and even the number of other people around can impact how safe someone feels.

Every day, people use Maple Avenue for a multitude of reasons, from walking kids to school, to commuting to work, to getting some fresh air on a bike ride to the park. City staff also regularly hear about how unsafe walkers, bikers, riders, and drivers feel on Maple Avenue. And it’s no wonder! The southern section of Maple Ave is narrow and steep, while the northern section has lanes that are wider than on a freeway and gaping intersections designed for moving cars through the area as quickly as possible, at the expense of everyone else. These were design decisions made at some point in the past, and new design choices can work to counteract those aspects that do not work. We don’t need to wait until another serious crash happens before we do something about it.

The Maple Avenue Connectivity Project aims to increase the sense of safety and comfort for all road users, with special priority for pedestrians and bike riders. After all, even drivers and especially transit users are at least part-time pedestrians on their way to and from their rides. The project will explore different design options that use different strategies to achieve this goal:

• Increase Visibility: design elements like high-visibility crosswalks, curb extensions, and restricted parking close to crosswalks help increase how visible pedestrians are, either by putting them in brighter contrast to their surroundings, elevating them, or removing visual obstacles, like parked cars.
• Reduce Subconscious Incentives to Speed: painted lane striping doesn’t sound like much, but studies show that when drivers feel like the road is narrow or has more obstacles to consider, they subconsciously slow down substantially. Narrowing vehicle lanes, adding elevated crosswalks or flashing beacons as crossings, and even planting street trees that take up space in a driver’s line of sight all have subtle, subconscious effects on how comfortable a driver feels going fast.
• Add Physical Deterrents to Speed: sometimes subconscious strategies aren’t enough. Adding features to the road such as speed humps, posts or bollards, or even strategically arranging on-street parking can be effective tools (and leave some overly reckless drivers with a lasting reminder of their transgression.)
• Reduce Mixing Zones: the places where different modes of transportation cross one another can be some of the most dangerous, in part because there isn’t always a clear understanding of who should be where and how each should behave with each other. This becomes apparent with bike riders who feel uncomfortable sharing an unmarked driving lane, or seniors crossing private driveways on their stroll to the bus stop. Mixing zones can never fully be erased, but they can be minimized by the use of dedicated bike lanes, reduction in unnecessary driveways, and leading pedestrian intervals at intersections (as a few examples).

These and other strategies will be explored over the next few months to generate preliminary designs for the project. To weigh in on the safety issues that are important to you and stay up to date on the project’s progress, visit the city’s project web page: https://bit.ly/MapleAvenueConnectivity.

Source: City of Takoma Park

To see a listing of all blog posts for the Minor Master Plan – visit the Minor Master webpage.

• If I live in an area that gets rezoned, will I be forced to change anything about my property?
  • No. The adoption of the Minor Master Plan Amendment will not force anyone to sell, give up, or change a property that they already own. There may be impacts on property value (likely increase), but how an owner chooses to keep, develop, or sell their property will remain up to them.

•  Have Washington Adventist Healthcare and Washington Adventist University been involved in the planning process to date?
  • Yes. The Montgomery Planning team and City staff have been in regular conversation with both Washington Adventist University and Washington Adventist Health through the duration of the process, including monthly coordination meetings. Both organizations are stakeholders in the process, but do not drive the planning process; all stakeholders are taken into account.

•  Will the green space at the corner of Maple Ave and Sligo Creek Pkwy, next to Essex House, be developed?
  • No. The green space being discussed is owned by Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission (M-NCPPC) and is treated as a part of Sligo Creek Stream Valley Park. The Minor Master Plan Amendment treats the green space as a conserved area important for stormwater management. In particular, the space may be impacted by the recommendation to “address failing outfall infrastructure and unstable banks at Brashear’s Run where the stream daylights on parkland.” (p. 87) There are no recommendations for new building structures of any kind to be built on the parcel.

•  What will the influence of the MMPA’s recommendation of a Green Promenade be with the Maple Avenue Connectivity Project?
  • The Maple Avenue Connectivity Project is already in the design stage, ahead of the Minor Master Plan approval. However, the Minor Master Plan was developed with the awareness that the Maple Ave project is underway, and deliberately leaves room and flexibility for the development of the project, without points of conflict.

•  Will the County conduct a Climate Assessment, and when does that happen?
  
  • As required by Bill 3-22, approved by the County Council in July 2022, Montgomery Planning staff will prepare a Climate Assessment for the Planning Board draft of the Takoma Park Minor Master Plan Amendment that will be transmitted to the County Council hopefully later this year. The document will be publicly available at that time.

•  What kind of racial equity considerations or analysis is included in the planning process?
  • The County Racial Equity and Social Justice Act (Bill 27-19) requires the County Office of Legislative Oversight to prepare a Racial Equity and Social Justice Impact Statement for the County Council for bills and Zoning Text Amendments and for the Planning Board to consider racial equity and social justice impacts when preparing a Master Plan, which includes Minor Master Plan Amendments. As part of this “Equity Agenda for Planning”, Montgomery Planning closely considered equity in examining the history and existing conditions of the Plan area and surrounding communities, the community engagement strategy, the plan’s data analysis, and the development of recommendations.During staff work sessions following September 14, 2023, Public Hearing, the Planning Board will consider and discuss the racial equity and social justice impacts of the Minor Master Plan Amendment. Additional information on Montgomery Planning’s Equity in Agenda for Planning can be found online at https://montgomeryplanning.org/planning/equity-agenda-for-planning/. Any new development that advances from this planning process would also be subject to the City’s racial equity initiative mandate to explore the racial justice impacts.

• The next step of this process is for the County Planning Board to set up work sessions; what is the purpose of these, how is a given topic selected and by whom?
  • Maryland law requires the Planning Department to conduct a “comprehensive review” of the numerous aspects related to land development (e.g., land use, environment, transportation, schools, and more) before zoning can be changed for a defined Plan Area. As also required by the law, the Planning Board holds a Public Hearing on the Public Hearing Draft Plan to receive public comment. Oral testimony provided at the Public Hearing and written testimony provided to the Planning Board within the designated timeframe collectively constitute the Public Record for the plan. The purpose of work sessions is for the Planning Board to discuss the comments received on the Public Record and determine if zoning, text, or other changes are needed to the Public Hearing Draft Plan.  After reviewing the Public Record, Montgomery Planning staff will schedule work sessions during the Planning Board’s regular meetings, with recommended topics to discuss at each.  The Planning Board ultimately determines the topics to be addressed at a work session.