Implementation Plan: Summary of Zoning Change Recommendations
Implementation Plan: Summary of Zoning Change Recommendations
Implementation Plan: Summary of Zoning Change Recommendations
This section of the Master Plan contains the proposed actions to implement the land use
recommendations of the Plan. The Mixed-Use Town Center (MXTC) Zone and the MXTC/TDR Zone
are proposed for the Town Center. In the Transition Areas, zoning changes are proposed in the Town
Neighborhood Area, Neighborhood Transition Area, and the Rural Transition Area. In the Rural Area,
the Rural Density Transfer (RDT) Zone is retained with minor adjustments. Also in the Rural Area, the
Rural Village Center Overlay Zone is proposed to protect existing rural villages.
Damascus is envisioned to remain the local market center for northern Montgomery County.
Commercial activity that includes a mix of retail, service and office uses is an important component of a
successful Town Center. A mixture of mutually beneficial uses within a Town Center allows residents
and patrons to reach destinations and consolidate errands without driving long distances. The
moderate density, multifamily residential development proposed in this Plan will reduce the burden on
the roadway network, make access easier for residents of outlying neighborhoods, and bolster the
market base to support a healthy retail center catering primarily to local residents.
Zoning Recommendation
The existing commercial zoning for the Town Center area encompasses approximately 112 acres and
includes C-2 (General Commercial), C-T (Commercial Transitional), O-M (Office-Moderate Intensity),
PD-7 (Planned Development-Medium Low Density) and I-1 (Light Industrial). The existing residential
zones encompass approximately 82 acres and include RE-2C (Residential Estate, Cluster), R-200
(Residential, One-Family), R-60 (Residential, One-Family), RT-8.0 (Residential, Townhouse) and R-30
(Multiple-Family, Low Density). This Plan recommends changing all the existing zones to the MXTC or
MXTC/TDR Zones with different levels of emphasis, and slightly different intensities.
The areas included in the Town Center Zone will have two levels of emphasis with slightly different
intensities. The outer area will encourage, but not be limited to, residential uses and have slightly
higher residential density allowed. The inner core will encourage, but not be limited to, commercial
uses and have slightly higher commercial intensities allowed. The zoning densities will not exceed the
potential intensity within the cumulative range of the existing zones in the Town Center. Allowing a
wide variety of uses within the Town Center is critical for residential development and supporting
community-oriented businesses.
The Plan recommendations will encourage the use of residential potential in the Town Center and are
intended to reduce allowable commercial densities. Although analysis of development potential
considered theoretical maximums to ensure traffic and school balance, realistic development potential
is considerably less, as discussed below.
Commercial Potential – The proposed zoning would allow a theoretical maximum of 1.6 million square
feet of additional commercial uses. Again, a calculation reflecting the historic development yield in
Damascus reveals significantly lower probable development will occur, adding approximately 1.2 million
additional square feet of commercial property.
Residential Potential – On properties that are anticipated to develop during the life of the Plan, the
proposed zoning would allow a theoretical maximum of approximately 1,700 new dwelling units,
including MPDUs (see Theoretical Maximum Potential table below). However, historic development
yields in Damascus indicate less development will occur, adding approximately 997 additional dwelling
units to the existing residential units (see Realistic Potential table below).
In addition to the historic patterns of development, there are other reasons to support the Plan
assumption that the theoretical maximum build out estimates do not reflect realistic building potential.
First, Town Center development will include a mix of these alternatives. This Plan encourages mixed-
use buildings that include commercial uses on the ground floor, and office or residential uses on the
upper floors. Second, development guidelines for building height, environmental constraints on
individual sites, and protecting the character of nearby existing development will reduce the maximum
yield in the zone. Finally, some owners may decide to develop or redevelop at lower intensities for
market or other business reasons.
Development Potential in the Town Center – The following tables provide a summary of calculation
of development potential in the Town Center for the most realistically developable properties. The first
table identifies the maximum development potential for these properties.
The following table summarizes the realistic potential yields that are expected with the recommended
zoning over the life of the Plan, based on historic yields in Damascus and for zones similar to the
MXTC zone:
Height:
Commercial, Industrial
or Mixed-Use 55’ 55’
100% Residential 55’* 45’
* At the time of development, the Planning Board must evaluate compatibility with adjacent
residential neighborhoods and limit height on the outer edge of the Town Center to reflect the
heights of adjacent residential neighborhoods.
At the time of site plan review of specific development proposals, the Planning Board may consider
waiver of height, setback, or public use space requirements due to restrictions caused by extenuating
existing circumstances. In particular, consideration can be given to meeting public use space
requirements along Main Street in the Town Center through provision of street amenities, and to
adjustments to development plans in response to adjacent properties that are not developed in
accordance with the Plan recommendations.
TRANSITION AREAS
This area serves as the bridge between the higher densities in the Town Center and the open spaces
of the Rural Areas. The three development tiers in the Transition Area reflect gradually declining
development intensity, and increased open space. Because little developable property remains in the
Town Neighborhood Area, the zoning modifications only allow development that conforms to existing lot
sizes in some neighborhoods.
In the Neighborhood Transition Area, development density is moderately increased through the use of
TDR receiving sites, and development is clustered in small lot single-family neighborhoods that
primarily ring the Town Center, offering easy pedestrian access to retail and recreational outlets. These
neighborhoods will have vistas of the surrounding fields and forests in the Rural Transition Area and the
Rural Area.
One neighborhood area in the Rural Transition Area is recommended for a modification to a lower
density zone in order to reflect the guidelines for development in the Functional Master Plan for the
Patuxent River Watershed. Through these recommendations, Damascus will reflect the community
vision of a compact and accessible town surrounded by, and providing visual access to, the
countryside.
Zoning Recommendations
A moderate increase in density is proposed for the Transition Areas, primarily in the Neighborhood
Transition Area. The Plan recommendations include: modifications of zoning for conformity to existing
lot sizes in four older neighborhoods, creating a new Rural Neighborhood Cluster/Transferable
Development Rights (RNC/TDR) Zone, modifications to increase environmental protection, and
modifications to increase potential density.
R-200 Zone – For the Ridge Road South Neighborhood, located south of the Town Center and
west of Ridge Road; and the Ridge Road North Town Neighborhood, located north of the Town
Center along Ridge Road.
RE-1 Zone – For the Town Spring Neighborhood, located west of Howard Chapel Drive and north
of MD 108; and the Ridge Road North Transitional Neighborhood, located north of Ridge Road
North Town Neighborhood along Ridge Road.
Densities recommended for this zone may exceed one dwelling unit per acre with MPDUs. This
zone allows small lot, cluster neighborhoods that will be compatible with existing development
patterns in Damascus.
Creating these new TDR receiving sites furthers the Agricultural Goals of the Plan and the
County. All are subject to guidelines for cluster use and individual development guidelines in the
Land Use Chapter that reflect the unique characteristics of the site. The proposed sites include:
Miller Property
RE-1 Zone yielding 21–25 lots
Zoning Recommendations
With the exception of the areas proposed within the Rural Village Center Overlay Zone discussed
below, the Plan recommends maintaining the existing zoning in the Rural Areas of Damascus.
Implement the Rural Village Center Overlay Zone – The Rural Village Center Overlay Zone, with
appropriate types of uses and levels of intensity, is recommended for Etchison, Browningsville, and
Purdum. A zone of this type was initially recommended in the Preservation of Agriculture and Rural
Open Space Master Plan (1980). This zone will protect these village areas from inappropriate uses
that are allowed in the commercial, residential, and industrial zones found in some of these villages in
the County. The zone will limit development potential, yet allow a wide variety of uses at a scale
appropriate in a rural setting. This zone should be amended to prohibit larger auto-oriented commercial
uses. The rehabilitation or replacement of dilapidated structures in these communities should be
encouraged, and they should be allowed to evolve with some additional residential, institutional, and
commercial uses.
Public sewer and water is not recommended for these communities except as needed by public health
concerns. Since many of these villages face problems with aging septic systems or water quality, the
use of innovative individual or community sewage disposal systems should be encouraged. This
concern was also the subject of one of the goals of the Preservation of Agriculture and Rural Open
Space Master Plan (1980). This Plan supports the use of such systems to address community health
problems in rural villages.
Guideline for Rural Vista Protection – The visual character of the Rural Areas surrounding
Damascus are unique as they are the highest elevations in the County. When special exceptions are
proposed in Transition and Rural Areas within the Damascus Master Plan area, their review should
take into special consideration the preservation of these long vistas that are a part of the unique
character of this community. Any proposed land use that would impede those vistas should be
discouraged unless it serves an important public purpose.
Community sewer service in the Damascus planning area is provided by the Washington Suburban
Sanitary Commission (WSSC) through trunk lines that run the length of the Magruder Branch Stream
Valley Park to the Damascus Wastewater Treatment Plant located near Log House Road. The
sewerage system serving the Damascus Master Plan area is completely independent of WSSC’s other
sewerage systems in the County. The severe topography in Damascus has historically worked against
the ability to make sewer extensions beyond the Magruder Valley. Two wastewater pumping stations,
Spring Garden and Damascus Center, deliver sewage flows from areas within the Little Bennett Creek
and Upper Patuxent watersheds back into the Magruder Valley. Additional extensions of community
sewer service into other watersheds, or expansion of service in these watersheds, will require
significant capital improvements.
The Little Bennett Creek Watershed is a unique situation in the sewer service system. The Spring
Garden pumping station was built to provide sewer service for development to a limited area in the
Little Bennett Stream Valley east of Kings Valley Road. This pump station is small, and it is now near
capacity. Installing infrastructure within the environmental buffers of this sensitive Use III stream can
permanently damage critical resources and invite further development. For Little Bennett Creek, this
Plan recommends that sewer extensions be limited to areas that can be served either by existing or
new infrastructure that does not require forest disturbance or stream crossings.
Provide community sewer service in the planning area in conformance with Water and Sewer
Plan service policies. This excludes areas zoned for low-density development (RE-1, RE-2, and
RC) that are not already approved for service from further extension of community service.
Extend sewer service to designated areas of properties proposed for the RNC Zone and included
in the sewer envelope, provided that these properties develop using the cluster method under the
direction of the Master Plan guidelines.
If cluster development is used, sewer service is recommended for the Burdette, Warfield,
Kingstead/Leishear, Smart/Miner/Rice/Conway, Casey/Lewis, and Stanley/Leishear-Day
properties. Sewer for the Burdette and Kingstead/Leishear properties is recommended only for
those areas that can be served by gravity sewer or grinder systems that minimize stream or
stream buffer impacts. The proposed relocation of the pump station that would serve the
Burdette property may modify or expand the areas that can be accessed, but must not be used
as a rationale for zoning changes beyond those recommended in this Plan.
Sewer service for the Warfield and Casey/Lewis properties should utilize existing gravity sewer
where available but may use grinder systems and small pressure systems where necessary,
subject to WSSC feasibility analysis.
Use existing sewer lines to provide service to cluster development in areas already cleared of
forest and relatively accessible to existing sewer mains in order to avoid disturbance to large
areas of existing forest along streams and in the headwaters.
Avoid the extension of new sewer lines along, across, or parallel to stream tributaries.
All development seeking community sewer service outside the proposed sewer envelope, under
the provision of Private Institutional Facility policy, should minimize their level of imperviousness
so that it does not exceed the level anticipated under the base zone, or as required within the
Patuxent River Watershed.
Provide community sewer service to neighborhoods, in close proximity to the existing community
sewerage system, that are likely to have difficulty in continuing to function on existing, on-site
septic systems (see the following discussion). Where community sewer service is not currently
accessible, comprehensively analyze designated neighborhoods for alternative ways to address
failing septic systems including, but not limited to, the provision of community sewer service.
Where the recommendations of the Plan do not support the provision of community sewer
service, development should occur, as feasible, using private, on-site sewerage systems.
Where new individual systems are planned for residential zones due to public health concerns,
this Plan encourages the use of innovative systems to reduce nutrient loads.
The Department of Permitting Services modify existing regulations to allow innovative septic
systems in residential areas with the intent to reduce nutrient loads to the Chesapeake Bay.
Well Contamination Concerns – Some older subdivisions in the Plan area are reported to have
well contamination. If confirmed by the Department of Permitting Services, this Plan recommends
providing community service according to the County’s water and sewer policy. They are unlikely
to receive community water service for the foreseeable future unless the Master Plan
recommends water service. Because of the concentration of homes in older subdivisions along
Howard Chapel Drive near its intersection with Gue Road, this Plan recommends that community
water be extended along Gue Road or Howard Chapel Drive if WSSC determines that this is
technically feasible.