Germantown's New Plan Admits the Office Boom Never Came. Here's What It Changes, and Where
At Neelsville Village Center on Frederick Road, Sakura Go has moved into the space BGR left in January. Wonder Food Hall plans to open a few doors down at 20936 Frederick Road, in what used to be a Jos. A. Bank, according to The MoCo Show's fall 2026 roundup. From the parking lot it looks like ordinary turnover at a strip center.
The parcels under those storefronts are in a draft that the Montgomery County Planning Board is scheduled to take up today, Thursday, November 12. The Germantown Sector Plan Amendment Working Draft proposes rezoning the Milestone and Neelsville Village shopping centers to CR-2.0 H-145. That would allow mixed-use buildings of up to 145 feet where shoppers park today. If you're comparing Upcounty neighborhoods, this draft is the clearest map available of where Germantown is invited to change over the next 20 years and where it is meant to stay the same.
The draft replaces the 2009 Germantown Employment Area Sector Plan. The name says what that plan was built around. Montgomery Planning's February 2025 Existing Conditions Report compares what the 2009 plan projected with what was built.
| Sector plan area | 2009/2010 | 2023/2024 | 2009 plan, full build-out |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dwelling units | 6,214 | 8,204 | 16,418 |
| Commercial space, sq ft | 8,077,085 | 8,425,262 | 24,104,248 |
| Private-sector jobs | 13,183 | 12,975 | 68,870 total |
Homes in the plan area grew 32 percent from 2009 to 2023. Private-sector jobs fell about 2 percent from 2010 to 2023. About 982,602 square feet of commercial space was built over 15 years. The report puts that at roughly 6 percent of the growth the plan projected. At the end of Q2 2024, office vacancy in Germantown stood at 22.6 percent, against 17.2 percent countywide.
Zoning wasn't what held commercial growth back. Land zoned for commercial use in the plan area could legally hold about 65.3 million square feet, nearly eight times what exists. The rules allowed an office city. Employers didn't come, and homes went up instead, though at about half the pace the plan expected.
The Working Draft dropped the office bet and planned around housing. Its zoning changes are expected to accommodate nearly 5,300 additional homes in the plan area over the life of the plan. The wider Germantown Planning Area has a local target of about 2,900 units by 2040 and 4,100 by 2050. The draft also says plainly that "zoning capacity alone does not guarantee housing production."
Project lead Jamey Pratt described the goal in June, when staff presented preliminary recommendations, as quoted by The MoCo Show:
"The plan looks at how Germantown can grow in a more connected and practical way, with less separation of uses and more places where people can live, work, and take care of daily needs close to home."
The draft names specific places where that growth would go. Most of them are parking lots.
The draft divides the area into 12 districts. It names Germantown, Milestone and Fox Chapel as its three town-center areas and treats the Montgomery College campus as a neighborhood activity center. The proposals that matter most to someone choosing a street are these:
The draft is frank about the Town Center. It says the district "remains characterized by surface parking lots" and lacks the concentration of residents needed to keep it active through the day and evening. Every bullet above points new homes at commercial ground, which is where the 2009 plan had already invited growth that didn't arrive.
The preliminary recommendations in June went further in one place. They proposed CRN-0.75 H-45 zoning for Meadowbrook Estates. After a community meeting, an open house and a resident petition arguing that was too dense for the neighborhood, staff changed the recommendation to no change. The area stays R-200.
At the same open house, a separate proposal to rezone Boland Farm Drive and portions of Frederick Road to CRN got 0 thumbs-up and 16 thumbs-down. Staff described land-use feedback overall as mixed. Comments also pushed staff to add the possible Department of Energy rezoning, because commenters remembered how many jobs the 2009 plan had promised.
For a buyer, this is the part of the plan that counts. Two homes a mile apart in Germantown can sit under very different 20-year expectations. A home near Milestone, the MARC station or the Safeway center is close to land the county wants to fill in. A home in an R-200 neighborhood like Meadowbrook Estates is close to land the draft now leaves alone. Near the first group, the shopping centers would be allowed to become taller mixed-use buildings with new homes and open space. In the second, the zoning around you would stay as it is today.
The transportation section matters more to people living along MD 355 than any rezoning. The Working Draft recommends removing all four planned but unbuilt general-purpose interchanges in the plan area:
It also recommends rebuilding the existing I-270 interchanges as tight urban diamonds instead of suburban cloverleafs.
East and west Germantown would be tied together by two new local crossings over I-270 without interchanges. One is "Street K," from Century Boulevard to Seneca Meadows Parkway south of Flying Boxcar Drive. The other extends Waring Station Road from Middlebrook Road via Observation Drive to Frederick Road. The Waring Station route would run along the southern edge of the DOE campus and past the Holy Cross Hospital entrance drive to reach Frederick Road at Germantown East Park.
Transit follows the same thinking. The draft adds work toward two-way, all-day MARC service and a feasibility study for a future Red Line extension. The county's adopted Corridor Forward plan had already replaced the old Corridor Cities Transitway idea with shared dedicated bus lanes it calls "Corridor Connectors."
Rezoning permits redevelopment. It doesn't schedule it. The 2009 numbers show how wide that gap can be. Until owners decide to rebuild, the centers named in the draft keep doing what they do now, which is swapping tenants.
The fall's changes line up with the draft's districts. Neelsville Village has Sakura Go and the planned Wonder Food Hall. In the MARC district, Germantown Square is getting a Starbucks in the former SunTrust/Truist bank at 12605 Wisteria Drive. At Fox Chapel Center, 19721 Frederick Road, Lotte Plaza Market will take over the GW Supermarket space in April, when that lease expires, according to the Washington Business Journal as relayed by The MoCo Show.
New leases in the same buildings the draft would allow to rise to 145 feet suggest the near term looks a lot like today. A new grocer or food hall usually comes with a lease that runs for years. When you weigh a home near one of these centers, the realistic picture for the next few years is new tenants in the current buildings. Taller mixed-use buildings are a later and less certain possibility.
The Working Draft isn't adopted policy. Today's agenda item asks the Board to approve it as the Public Hearing Draft and set a hearing date. If the Board accepts the proposed schedule, Montgomery Planning's project page lists these tentative dates:
Does the draft rezone single-family neighborhoods? The proposals cluster on shopping centers, office parks, station lots and Frederick Road frontage. Meadowbrook Estates was moved back to its existing R-200 zoning after neighbors pushed back. To check a specific address, look at the Working Draft's zoning maps.
Will the Safeway center be redeveloped? The draft calls it an opportunity for mixed-use redevelopment that keeps a grocery anchor. It's a recommendation, not an approved project.
Is the Germantown Road interchange on MD 355 still planned? The draft recommends removing it from the plan, along with the three other unbuilt interchanges listed above.
This post is general information about a draft plan, not legal advice. If a zoning question affects a purchase or a property you own, confirm it with Montgomery Planning or a land-use attorney.
If you're deciding between a home near Milestone or the MARC station and one on a quieter R-200 street, I'm glad to go through the draft maps with you against the specific addresses you're considering. Let's connect at Myah Moxley.
Myah makes meeting customer needs and satisfaction a priority and characteristic of RE/MAX Plus. Your goals are her goals, and she will work tirelessly for you to ensure your dreams are realized. Whether you are in the market to buy or sell, give Myah a call today, and let her work for you!