At last night’s Mayor and Council meeting, I was thrilled to moved for adoption of Rockville’s Shady Grove Metro Annexation Plan, an important step in the City’s consideration of approximately 66.4 acres surrounding the Shady Grove Metro Station, including property owned by WMATA and CSX. The Mayor and Council adopted the plan, and a public hearing is scheduled for November 16.

I strongly support moving this process forward because I believe Rockville can help Shady Grove reach its potential as both a major transit-oriented community and a regional transportation hub.

Shady Grove (immediately adjacent to Rockville) serves as an important gateway between our City and communities farther north along the I-270 corridor. The City has long identified this area as appropriate for future growth, and Rockville’s own planning documents recognize its access to Metro, planned bus rapid transit, and walkable development potential as an opportunity for economic expansion and improved connectivity.

Rockville is also doing serious work on transit-oriented development elsewhere in the City. The State of Maryland designated the Rockville Metro Station area as a Transit-Oriented Development site earlier this year, opening additional opportunities for coordinated planning, infrastructure investment, housing and redevelopment. Rockville is also updating its Rockville Pike plan, which addresses mixed-use development, walkability, transit, public infrastructure, parks, and street connections around the Twinbrook Metro area and the broader Pike corridor.

I believe Shady Grove should be viewed as part of that larger opportunity. If Shady Grove ultimately becomes part of Rockville, our City could be planning around three Red Line stations: Twinbrook, Rockville, and Shady Grove. Each station has its own character and needs, but together they could form a stronger north-south transit-oriented corridor supporting more housing, jobs, businesses, public spaces, and economic activity.

That vision also extends beyond Rockville. Shady Grove is a major connection to Metro for Gaithersburg, Montgomery Village, Germantown, Clarksburg, and other Upper Montgomery County communities. The MD 355 Flash BRT project now in design will connect Rockville Metro, Shady Grove Metro, Gaithersburg and Germantown, with future service planned farther north toward Clarksburg.

Long-term regional plans envision an even greater transportation role for the corridor. Montgomery County’s Corridor Forward plan supports enhanced MARC service and new stations, including a potential MARC station at Shady Grove, as well as a possible future extension of the Red Line toward Germantown. These are long-term projects requiring significant regional coordination and investment, but they demonstrate why what happens around Shady Grove matters far beyond the station itself.

Annexation would not determine those regional transportation decisions. However, it would give Rockville a stronger role in planning the land immediately surrounding this important transportation hub and an opportunity to make sure future development supports, rather than conflicts with, those larger transportation goals.

Just as importantly, growth and infrastructure need to be planned together.

If we want more housing and economic development around transit, we also need to plan for roads, sidewalks, bicycle connections, bus access, utilities, schools, public spaces and other community infrastructure. That is one of the central lessons I believe our region needs to take seriously: we cannot continue planning housing, transportation, schools, infrastructure and economic development in separate silos.

The opportunity at Shady Grove is to think ahead.

We should be asking what this corridor should look like 10, 20 and 30 years from now, and how Rockville, Gaithersburg, Montgomery County, the State of Maryland, WMATA, and other regional partners can work together to build the transportation and infrastructure necessary to support responsible growth.

I strongly believe Rockville can bring an important local-government perspective to that work. Our City is already planning seriously around Metro, updating the Rockville Pike corridor and pursuing transit-oriented economic development. Extending that approach to Shady Grove could strengthen Rockville while also improving a transportation gateway relied upon by communities throughout the I-270 corridor.

The next major step in this process is the public hearing on Monday, November 16 at 6:30 pm, when residents and other interested parties will have an opportunity to provide testimony before the Mayor and Council.

I look forward to that discussion. I believe Shady Grove presents an opportunity to bring together housing, jobs, transportation, infrastructure and economic development in one long-term vision, and that is why I supported moving this process forward last night.