September 10, 2025
Montgomery County Council
100 Maryland Ave
Rockville, MD 20850

University Boulevard Corridor Plan

Dear Council President Stewart and Councilmembers:

Thank you for the opportunity to testify. My name is Carrie Kisicki, and I am the Montgomery
County Advocacy Manager for the Coalition for Smarter Growth. CSG advocates for walkable, bikeable, inclusive, and transit-oriented communities as the most sustainable and equitable way for the metro D.C. region to grow and provide opportunities for all.

We ask for your support for the goals of safe streets, vibrant and inclusive communities, and transit-oriented homes and businesses laid out in the University Boulevard Corridor Plan and in our county’s 30-year general plan, Thrive 2050.

This plan is responsive to the leading concerns and goals that community members shared during extensive outreach conducted by Planning and county partners.

One pressing concern is the need for safer streets. You do not have to be a traffic engineer to understand that being a pedestrian on University Boulevard does not feel good. There is a wide gap between the experience of being a pedestrian or riding your bike in the plan area today, and the community that people want to see where anyone walking, biking, or rolling feels safe getting around.

Community members have also expressed a desire for thriving local retail, more gathering
spaces, and accommodates people at different ages, household sizes, and incomes.

How do we get from here to there? That is exactly what this plan is designed to do. It outlines clear steps that bridge the gaps between the challenges our communities have identified today, and what they would like to see in the future. Wider sidewalks, an expanded bike network, more frequent transit service, allowing more types of homes near transit, allowing more of the kinds of multi-family buildings that are small enough to fit with the scale of the community, but actually large enough to support space for local businesses and subsidized affordable housing—this is just a short list of the specific steps laid out in the University Boulevard Corridor Plan to achieve the goal of a welcoming, thriving, and sustainable community.

These recommendations did not spring from nowhere—they are a direct response to the needs that community members shared, and spring from our county’s core values of accessibility, equity, and sustainability. Each of these measures is how we get from here to there.

We urge you to support the recommendations of the University Boulevard Corridor Plan as drafted by the Planning Board, and to follow through on this vision for a safer, more accessible, and more sustainable community.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,
Carrie Kisicki
Montgomery Advocacy Manager