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Most Gaithersburg residents commute out for work; telework and office vacancies rose after pandemic
Summary
Staff reported that in 2022 about 90% of Gaithersburg's employed residents worked outside city limits and 93% of workers in the city lived elsewhere; telework rose from about 4% to 20% while public transit use declined and office vacancy increased.
City planners reported that commuting and employment patterns in Gaithersburg continue to reflect a regional labor market with most residents working outside city limits and most jobs filled by workers who live elsewhere.
"In 2022, 90% of Gaithersburg's employed residents worked outside city limits," Emily Fishman, a city planning staff member, said, and she added that 93% of workers who were employed in Gaithersburg lived outside its boundaries. Staff noted that the share of residents who both live and work in the city has remained steady at approximately 7% of jobs and 10% of employed residents.
The report documented pandemic‑era shifts in commuting: the share of residents driving alone declined modestly (staff reported an 11% decline in drive‑alone mode share between 2015 and 2022), public transportation (bus and metro) dropped from 15% to 8% and teleworking among residents rose from about 4% to 20% during the same interval. Staff also flagged a data anomaly: LEHD and tract‑level employment data attributed an unusually large job count to tract 7007.27 (Deer Park), which staff said appears overstated in the 2022 data and likely represents employment located elsewhere in the city.
On the commercial side, staff cited CoStar inventory data that the city has more than 15 million square feet of occupied commercial space supporting just over 38,000 jobs, and an additional 1.5 million square feet of vacant space. Office stock was identified as the oldest commercial category with an average building age near 60 years and an office vacancy rate above 11%, which staff and council members noted reflects broader telework and office‑market trends.
Staff used MWCOG Round 10 forecasts and the active development pipeline to show that most forecast jobs can be accommodated by projects in the pipeline (noting that more than 80% of nonresidential pipeline square footage is office, research and industrial). Council members and presenters discussed whether some approved nonresidential projects could be converted to residential uses if market demand changes and how transportation and land‑use updates should work together to increase local job opportunities and connectivity.
