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Protecting Montgomery County's EnvironmentStream

With an extensive system of parks and sustainable planning practices that balance every proposed development with its effect on the environment, the Montgomery County Planning Board protects and enhances the county’s natural resources.

Healthy and Sustainable Communities Project

To help policymakers maintain a sustainable quality of life, the County Executive and the Montgomery County Planning Board are launching a healthy and sustainable communities project to set overall environmental policy goals -- conditions of community health and well-being -- and indicators, which measure our progress. See results from our June 25-26 Healthy & Sustainable Communities workshop held at the Universities at Shady Grove.

Environmental Planning Tools and Programs

Forest Conservation

Man hiking in woodsThe Forest Conservation Law aims to save, maintain and plant forested areas for the benefit of county residents and future generations. The law applies to you if:

  • Your property is larger than 40,000 square feet
  • Includes a Champion Tree and/or
  • You plan to disturb more than 5,000 square feet

Learn more about whether the law applies to your property using our flow charts.
View single-lot decision tree| View decision tree for all other properties

Special Protection Areas

Some particularly sensitive, high-quality stream systems require special protection from development. One way we protect county streams is by designating all or part of a watershed a Special Protection Area (SPA), where streams, wetlands and related natural features are of very high quality. There, we limit impervious -- or hard -- surfaces to a perentage lower than normally allowed. (Eight to 10 percent is typical.)  

Green Infrastructure Plan

Reeds growing in streamThrough ongoing work to develop a plan for a connected network of waterways, wetlands, woodlands, wildlife habitats and other natural areas of countywide significance, the county can better support native species, maintain natural ecological processes, sustain air and water resources and contribute to human health and quality of life. As an interconnected system, the green infrastructure plan provides greater environmental viability, value, and function than the sum of the individual resources. It also provides a guide for regulators like the Planning Board as they seek to balance growth with natural resource protection.

Water Resources Plan

To help identify methods and strategies to protect the county’s water supply – in part by studying and slowing stormwater and nonpoint source pollution caused by growth – environmental planners are creating a functional master plan to help avoid adverse environmental impacts.  In part, the plan will protect and enhance wetlands, which provide critical water quality benefits.

Water and Sewer

Montgomery County follows a plan that specifies existing or planned water and sewer service and describes a process for requesting service to subdivisions and individual lots. The county’s Department of the Environmental Protection prepares the Ten-Year Comprehensive Water Supply and Sewerage Systems Plan and sends it for consideration and eventual adoption by the County Council. By state law, the Planning Board must determine that the plan and any amendments remain consistent with local area master plans.

Periodic amendments to the plan – requested when property owners ask for water and/or sewer service outside the area shown in the 10-year plan – come before the Planning Board for review and comment as category change requests, which are considered in a public hearing.  The Board sends its comments to the County Executive and/or County Council for final action.

Learn more about the Ten-Year Water Supply and Sewerage Plan, including applications for category changes that may affect your property or your neighborhood, past decisions, application forms for requesting a category change and information about the process. 

The Planning Board reviews water/sewer category change requests approximately six times a year. Consult the Planning Board agenda to see if any cases are scheduled for review.

Intercounty Connector (ICC) Environmental Review

A team of environmental specialists from the Countywide Planning Division and the Department of Parks reviews environmental aspects of the ICC, with particular focus on the county’s Special Protection Areas through which the highway will cross.  The board and its staff also negotiate and participate in stewardship projects, such as wetlands mitigation, reforestation, invasive species management and improving county park facilities.

Legacy Open Space

The first comprehensive program of its kind, Legacy Open Space creates an agency commitment of public and private dollars in a visionary framework that protects irreplaceable unprotected open space, watershed lands, and historic properties by the purchase of land or easements. The program is administered by Department of Parks staff and has resulted in approximately 3,200 acres of protected open space.