Rockville planners advance changes to zoning uses and parking; mayor and council signal support

Deputy Zoning Manager Holly Simmons presented the Planning Commission with proposed changes to Rockville City’s Zoning Ordinance on uses and parking at an Aug. 13 work session, outlining updates staff and consultants expect to publish in a draft this winter and to adopt during 2026.

Simmons said the city plans to modernize use names and definitions, consolidate some overlapping categories, move certain enforcement provisions into the city code’s rental chapter, and simplify approvals for more impactful uses. “We are proposing to revise a current use called ‘alcoholic beverages for consumption off the premises’ to a new term, ‘alcoholic beverage retail establishment,’ ” Simmons said.

The changes are intended to make the ordinance easier to interpret, reduce processing burden for routine changes, and support broader policy goals such as equity, housing supply and walkability. Simmons summarized a timeline showing the project began in 2023, drafting started in January, one more Planning Commission work session is planned in October, the public draft is expected in December, and adoption is anticipated in 2026.

Why it matters: The rewrite affects where businesses and housing types can locate and how projects are reviewed. It aims to reduce administrative steps for some uses, clarify rules for rental occupancy, and align parking rules with the city’s walkability and housing goals.

Key use changes and staff recommendations

- Home-based businesses: Staff propose renaming and clarifying the three existing categories (currently no-impact, low-impact, major-impact). Simmons said the intent is to add flexibility at the low end and make the regulations more usable. Major-impact home businesses would become conditional uses rather than special exceptions, removing the need for Board of Appeals review while retaining standards.

- Consolidation and elimination of outdated uses: Simmons said staff plan to merge similar retail categories (for example, consumable goods and durable goods to a single “retail establishment” use) to reduce minor permitting burdens such as unnecessary site-plan amendments. Staff also proposed removing obsolete uses such as taxicab services and archival duplicating services where appropriate.

- Tenant/occupancy rules moved to Chapter 18: To reduce confusion, staff propose removing the terms “boarding house” and “family” from the zoning ordinance and placing related occupancy and rental licensing rules entirely in Chapter 18 (rental facilities and landlord-tenant relations) to improve enforcement and clarity.

- Multifamily by nonprofits/places of worship: Simmons said the draft would allow nonprofits and places of worship to develop multifamily housing on property they own, regardless of the underlying zone, to help colocate housing with existing services. She said the Department of Housing and Community Development sees this as a tool to use excess land for mission-driven housing; Montgomery County was offered as a nearby example. Mayor and Council asked for context-sensitive height limits on interior lots.

Parking, active transportation and administrative reductions

Simmons presented two major parking recommendations: (1) policies to advance Vision Zero and active-transportation goals, and (2) “right-sizing” of parking minimums and introduction of parking maximums in many zones.

- Active-transportation provisions: The rewrite would create a consolidated pedestrian and bicycle facilities division, require bicycle parking for principal and accessory uses, clarify bicycle parking location standards, and add pedestrian-visibility requirements at parking facility entrances.

- Right-sizing parking: Consultants will re-evaluate parking minimums and generally move many ratios to gross floor area–based standards (instead of employee counts). The proposal includes by-right adjustments that reduce parking for electric-vehicle charging spaces, missing-middle/MPDU apartments, extra bicycle commuter facilities, and pick-up/drop-off spaces. Staff proposed parking maximums in mixed-use and many residential and industrial zones and recommended eliminating parking minimums within a half mile of Metro stations and a quarter mile of bus-rapid-transit stops.

- Administrative parking reductions: Simmons said the draft would allow an approving authority to grant modest (up to 10%) parking reductions administratively; larger reductions would require a parking-demand analysis. The change would also allow the chief of zoning to approve reductions tied to administrative site plans in cases where the Planning Commission and Mayor and Council previously had to act.

Mayor and Council direction and next steps

Mr. Wasilak, the planning staff liaison, told commissioners that Mayor and Council had reviewed the package and provided unanimous support for the staff recommendations presented on uses and parking at this stage. He also summarized Council direction on related development-review changes: streamlining the plan development amendment process using a simplified project plan; allowing administrative approval of some site plans in intense mixed-use districts near transit when not within 300 feet of a residential zone; and adopting a simplified residential impact point system to set review level.

Commissioners’ questions and concerns

Commissioners pressed staff for specifics and safeguards. Commissioner Cheyenne Salahuddin asked how the “little to no impact” home-based business category would define customer or vehicle visits; Simmons said final code language will include numeric metrics and suggested vehicle visits could be “anywhere between 1 and 3 visits per day” as a working example. Commissioner Eric Fulton and others raised concerns that allowing nonprofits and faith-based organizations to develop multifamily housing could be exploited through sale-lease arrangements or superficial nonprofit formation; staff acknowledged the concern and said the potential loophole will be considered in drafting specific criteria.

Several commissioners supported reducing parking minimums and expanding shared-parking options but asked staff to preserve sufficient ADA-accessible spaces and to consider special neighborhood impacts where curb parking is constrained. Commissioners also recommended stronger landscaping/permeable-surface standards for parking areas and asked staff to clarify how the pedestrian-visibility provisions would apply to structured parking columns as well as surface lots.

Decisions, directions and outstanding issues

- Decisions/direction: Mayor and Council provided unanimous support for the uses and parking recommendations as presented; the Planning Commission will continue review and has another zoning work session scheduled for October. Staff was directed to draft final regulatory language (including numeric thresholds for home-based business vehicle visits), refine conditions for conditional uses, and return with additional detail on electric-vehicle charging and service-station rules in October.

- Outstanding issues: Commissioners asked staff to (1) define numeric thresholds for home-based business visits/employee counts in the final code, (2) address possible loopholes if nonprofit/faith-based exemptions are limited to certain owners, (3) refine parking maximum/exception processes (including whether structured parking should be treated differently), and (4) add clearer pedestrian circulation standards within parking facilities.

Ending: The Planning Commission closed the work session after staff finished the presentation and questions. Staff reiterated the schedule for the next work session in October and the planned public release of the draft ordinance and map in December.