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Council debates sweeping transportation APF rewrite that would add multimodal adequacy tests
Summary
The administration proposed Bill 81‑25 to modernize the county—s Adequate Public Facilities (APF) rules by requiring adequacy tests for vehicles, pedestrians, cyclists and transit; the council raised technical, timing and cost concerns and the administration asked to hold the bill for further stakeholder work.
The County Council spent extended time on Oct. 14 discussing Bill 81‑25, a proposed update to the county—s Transportation Adequate Public Facilities (APF) code that would add multimodal testing (vehicles, pedestrians, bicyclists and transit) and replace the current planning-level intersection methodology with a software-based highway capacity method.
The proposal: Under the administration—s draft, developers would be required to demonstrate adequacy for each transport mode in defined study areas and mitigate failures via a mitigation hierarchy: on-site/adjacent physical improvements, off-site corridor improvements, or contributions to capital projects. The draft also proposes clearer proportionality checks and options for how mitigation can be applied to multimodal outcomes.
Council concerns: Members and staff engaged in detailed technical questioning about the evidentiary basis, who pays, and how the new rules would affect redevelopment, smaller projects and affordable housing. Questions included how mode shares are measured, how mitigation proportionality will be calculated (a councilmember noted Montgomery County uses a calculator and later added caps), the geographic scale of impact fees versus mitigation, and whether the county—s capital program can deliver the off-site projects developers might be asked to fund.
Administration response and next steps: The administration said the goal is to replace a nearly two‑decade‑old vehicle-only test and align APF with plan2040 and the county—s transportation master plan. Officials agreed to continue stakeholder engagement and requested the council hold the bill at the first hearing so amendments can address costs, proportionality and grandfathering issues for projects already in review.
Quotable: "The intent here is not to increase that burden, but to create predictable and proportional standards, to replace the uncertainty that exists with what we have now," Chief Administrative staff said, summarizing the administration's approach.
