Planning Board sets public hearing dates for updated master plan for Friendship Heights

Documents provide recommendations for housing, economic revitalization, transportation improvements for area

July 17, 2026 10:32 a.m.

The intersection of Wisconsin and Willard avenues in Friendship Heights. Photo credit: Montgomery County Council

Montgomery County residents will have two opportunities to share their thoughts on the future of development, growth and transportation in Friendship Heights at public hearings this September.

At its weekly meeting on Thursday, the Montgomery County Planning Board reviewed the working draft of the Friendship Heights Sector Plan and set two public hearings for community members to share their thoughts about the plan’s recommendations. The sector plan is focused on guiding the revitalization of the urban district, incentivizing the development of community amenities, affordable housing and improving transportation safety, efficiency and accessibility.

Planning Board Chair Artie Harris on Thursday praised the working draft of the sector plan and said it was “very apparent … the abundance of community engagement” that went into the creation of the plan’s goals and recommendations.

“The key is how do we really get it implemented,” Harris said, noting four “opportunity sites” highlighted by the plan for future redevelopment. Those sites include the former GEICO headquarters campus and the former Saks Fifth Avenue building and parking lot.

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Harris said that most of the land in Friendship Heights is privately owned, which can make it more difficult to implement some of the redevelopment recommendations in the sector plan. “It’s really important that we work with these opportunity sites and these developers or landowners to see if we can help them jumpstart a lot of this,” Harris said.

When complete, the sector plan will include a myriad of long- and short-term recommendations on zoning, land use, housing, transportation, parks and open space, schools, economic development and pedestrian safety to guide the community for the next 20 to 30 years, according to lead planner Atara Margolies. Montgomery Planning staff provided an overview of the plan’s goals and recommendations during Thursday’s meeting.

Among the plan’s recommendations are zoning changes for several properties that would allow for taller building heights; prioritization of the development of a mix of housing types and unit sizes; the production of more units that are affordable to residents with incomes less than 65% of the area median income; updates to parks such as Willard Avenue Neighborhood Park and Brookdale Neighborhood Park; extending the county’s Bus Rapid Transit system from Bethesda to Friendship Heights; adding six protected pedestrian crossings to roadways in the plan area; and developing a public parking garage.

The entire working draft of the Friendship Heights Sector Plan Update can be found at this link.

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The Shops at Wisconsin Place in Friendship Heights. Photo credit: Montgomery County Council

Montgomery Planning Director Jason Sartori said Thursday in a statement emailed to Bethesda Today that the sector plan “is designed to help the area evolve into a thriving regional destination while preserving the qualities that make it a special place to live, work, and visit.”

He noted that the plan provides a “framework” for redevelopment that supports new amenities for the area and expands housing options for families.

“We are grateful to the community members who contributed ideas, feedback, and perspectives throughout this process to create a more connected, welcoming, and resilient Friendship Heights,” Sartori said.

Friendship Heights is home to around 6,000 people within approximately 113 acres south of downtown Bethesda. According to county planners, the area has the highest percentage of seniors in the county.

Within the planning area are The Collection, a shopping and dining center, a Saks Fifth Avenue store, multiple high-rise buildings with housing and offices, the Friendship Heights Metro station and the former GEICO headquarters, which is slated for a major redevelopment project. Residents primarily live in multifamily buildings in the Village of Friendship Heights or single-family homes in the Brookdale neighborhood.

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Public hearings and next steps

The first public hearing will be held at 1:30 p.m. on Sept. 10 during the Planning Board’s weekly meeting, according to a Montgomery Planning press release announcing the hearing dates. The meeting will be in the Planning Board Auditorium on the second floor of the Maryland-National Capital Parks and Planning Commission’s Wheaton headquarters at 2425 Reedie Drive.

The second public hearing will be held at 4 p.m. on Sept. 14 at the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Regional Service Center at 4805 Edgemoor Lane, according to the release.

Residents can testify in person or virtually via Microsoft Teams for the first hearing and in person only at the second hearing, the release said. Both meetings will be livestreamed online on the Planning Board’s website and on YouTube.

People can sign up to testify at the hearings starting on Aug. 3 on the board’s website, according to the planning department. Planning Board members will attend both hearings.

The department asks those interested in testifying to sign up for one of the public hearing dates, as duplicate testimony is not permitted. Written testimony can be submitted via email to mcp-chair@mncppc-mc.org or by mail to Chair Artie Harris at 2425 Reedie Drive, 14th Floor, Wheaton, MD, 20902.

With the working draft up for review, the plan is now in the hands of the county Planning Board.

Following the public hearings, the board is expected to hold a series of work sessions in the fall aimed at refining the draft plan based on their review and feedback from the public, according to the planning department. The board will then vote on the plan and if approved, the plan will be transmitted to the County Council for review. The council holds its own public review and approval process for the plan.

Margolies told Bethesda Today in April that planners anticipate the council will review the draft in the fall, but likely won’t vote on it until early 2027 because a new council will be elected in November.

Entrance to the Friendship Heights Metro station. Photo credit: Montgomery County Council

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Originally published at Bethesdamagazine