Montgomery County Council
Enacts Nationally-Significant
"Complete and Green Streets" Policy

by Ed Murtagh and Diane Cameron       July 2007

The Montgomery County Council voted July 3, 2007, to enact Bill 48-06, Streets and Roads - Comprehensive Revisions (the "Road Code bill"). The road code was updated to include a "Green Streets" provision. The new law mandates that a minimum quantity of stormwater from new and reconstructed county roads be retained and treated on-site, within the road right-of-way, preferably using vegetation-based stormwater management techniques. The new law's emphasis on "context sensitive design" to meet the needs of all users, not just car and truck drivers, along with its Green Street features, brings Montgomery County into the forefront of the "Complete and Green Streets" movement.

The Montgomery County Stormwater Partners worked closely with Councilmembers and staff in helping to craft the stormwater elements of this bill; we especially want to thank Nancy Floreen, Chair of the Council's Transportation and Environment Committee, Environment Lead Valerie Ervin, and Committee member George Leventhal, for their leadership and support of this new policy, and Council staff Glenn Orlin, Michael Faden, Merle Steiner and Ben Stutz. We also appreciated the help of Councilmember Duchy Trachtenberg and Richard Hoye.

The ball is now in the court of the Executive Branch, which must now craft specific street design protocols to implement the new law. We have joined in coalition with our Smart Growth and bicyclist colleagues (particularly, Cheryl Cort, Jack Cochrane and Eric Gilliland) to call upon Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett to develop strong regulations through an inclusive multi-stakeholder process. Issues to be worked out include bicyclists' needs; stormwater design challenges, and pedestrian safety for disabled persons, the elderly, and young people. Weaving these needs into workable new road designs, driven by the Council's progressive mandates, and the background of a fragmented bureaucracy, and we have the ingredients for an interesting stakeholder process! Anne Merwin and Diane Cameron plan to continue to represent the Stormwater Partners in this effort.

A copy of the final bill as enacted is online at: www.montgomerycountymd.gov/content/council/pdf/bill/2007/48-06e.pdf

Five of the most significant "Complete and Green Street" provisions enacted by the Council in its passage of the Road Code bill include:

  • A purpose statement that requires that street and road design accommodate the needs of "all users of the roadway system - including pedestrians, bicyclists, transit users, automobile drivers, commercial vehicles and freight haulers, and emergency service vehicles." (p. 26)
  • Also in the purpose statement: "A specified quantity of stormwater must be managed and treated on-site, in the road or street right-of-way, including through the use of vegetation-based infiltration techniques." (p. 26)
  • Removal of the 18-inch height restriction for vegetation plantings in the rights-of-way adjacent to the roadway - this height restriction would have severely impeded our ability to install effective and beautiful plantings in rain gardens, linear bioretention units and "bioswales." (p. 57)
  • A requirement in the uncodified section of the law stating that "Each newly built or reconstructed street must retain or filter the following amounts of stormwater on-site during a 24-hour period: .5-1" in an 'urban' area; at least 2" in a 'suburban' area; and at least 3" in a 'rural' area. (p. 131)
  • A directive that "In drafting the regulations required to implement Article 3 of Chapter 49, the County Executive must actively seek the advice of the County Planning Board and affected stakeholders, including representatives of motorists, pedestrians, bicyclists, transit users, engineering consultants and other experts, environmental advocates, and businesses located in the County." (p. 127).

Two creative amendments - one expanding the scope of the bill to include lane restriping, and one that clarifies agency roles, were successfully crafted by Councilmembers Elrich and Berliner:

  • Marc Elrich's amendment that enables expansion of the potential universe of on-road bike lanes via restriping: "Unless extenuating circumstances would result in a safety hazard, when a road is resurfaced the road must also be restriped to meet any applicable lane width standard, and may include bike lanes where appropriate." (p. 52)
  • Roger Berliner's amendment that puts design waiver authority primarily in the hands of the Planning Board: "If the planning Board, in approving a subdivision or site plan, determines that a waiver from any applicable design standard is necessary to promote context-sensitive design of a specific road, the Executive or the Executive's designee must adopt the Board's recommendation unless the Executive or the designee concludes that approving the waiver would significantly impair public safety." (p. 47)

From a watershed perspective, the "Complete and Green Streets" policy in the Road Codes is important because much of the stream-damaging stormwater comes from our county roads. Unless this runoff is addressed, watershed restoration efforts by the county and citizens will not be fully successful. The mandate to design roads to serve all users is ecologically important, because the auto-dependent culture, with its unquenchable thirst for pavement, is possibly the number one factor in the loss of urban stream health. The more we help people to shift over to pedestrian, bicycle, and transit modes, the more we can reduce demands for more pavement - and thus we reduce the stress on our streams. Also, roadway landscaping features, like wider medians and planted curb extensions, can slow down both traffic and stormwater - a way of stretching our infrastructure investments.

Special thanks to the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Audubon Naturalist Society, and the Potomac Conservancy for their support of this "Green Streets" effort.