The Montgomery County Council voted Tuesday to enable multiunit homes to be built on certain lots previously zoned for single-family homes, an effort to address a “missing middle” housing shortage for middle-income residents in the wealthy Maryland county.
The zoning change, part of a larger package of bills known as More Housing NOW (New Options for Workers), will allow for duplexes, triplexes, townhouses and small apartments along certain corridors. The change is intended to amp up Montgomery’s supply of housing units, particularly for residents — such as firefighters, nurses and teachers — who can’t otherwise afford to live in the county that is lined with spacious mansions in some parts.
Home to 1 million residents, Montgomery is one of the nation’s 30 wealthiest counties in the country, according to a Stanford University database. The average price for a single family detached home in the county last year was $1.02 million, according to a letter the bill’s sponsors wrote to their colleagues in January, making homeownership out of reach for even relatively well-off professionals.
The bill’s sponsors, Andrew Friedson (D-District 1) and Natali Fani-González (D-District 6), included a provision in the zoning change that requires triplexes to include at least one unit affordable for people earning up to 120 percent of the area’s median income, which is $157,500 for a family of two and $196,500 for a family of four as of April, according to a county report.
