With Thrive 2050 not yet being ready for approval in the eyes of many in the County, incoming Council President Albornoz has proposed a series of listening sessions hosted by the county advisory boards representing the geographic areas of the County. While this is a welcome development, finding out how to participate in these sessions has been challenging. We have gathered below the zoom links and for each session (The Silver Spring and East County sessions already occurred). Click these links at the appointed time to join:
- Jan. 5 at 7 p.m., East County Advisory Board Committee meeting;
- Jan. 10 at 7 p.m. Silver Spring Advisory Board Committee meeting;
- Jan. 20 at 7 p.m., Mid-County Advisory Board Committee meeting
- Jan. 24 at 7 p.m., UpCounty Advisory Board Committee meeting;
- Jan. 27 at 7 p.m., Western Montgomery County (Bethesda/Chevy Chase) Advisory Board Committee meeting
The goal of these sessions has been for residents to weigh in on the following questions. If you are unable to attend a zoom session, you can use our form to send the council your answers to these questions:
1. Is this vision consistent with your views of how the County should develop and grow over the next three decades?
2. In your opinion, what are the three most important issues facing the County as it relates to land use (such as availability of affordable housing, accessible, convenient and reliable transportation, access to parks and open space within your community, preservation of historic and environmental resources, and proximity to jobs, retail, entertainment, arts and culture).
3. Does Thrive address these issues in its vision, policies or practices? If not, what would you add or change?
4. In order to maintain and improve the County’s quality of life, what issues should the County focus on in the next 20-30 years- if these are different from the issues discussed earlier?
5. Do the policies and practices in Thrive provide sufficient guidance to address these issues? If not, what would you add or change?
With so much going on, it can be hard to find time to engage with community issues, Thrive 2050 will underlay the decision making for the County going forward and as currently written leaves a lot of important items out. This plan is poised for approval soon as needs your voice. Please take a moment to answer the listening questions here.