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Montgomery County committee weighs 50% native-plant rule amid concerns about play space and sod growers
Summary
The Planning, Housing and Parks Committee continued debate on ZTA 25-10, a zoning text amendment that would require 50% native species in certain landscaping plans; members pressed staff on measurement methods, inspection timing and impacts on townhome/multifamily recreational turf and sod farms, and deferred final action pending further work.
Council staff and members spent much of the committee’s October 6 work session debating how and where a proposed zoning text amendment, ZTA 25-10, would require native plants in Montgomery County landscaping plans.
Sponsor (speaker 2) framed the measure as part of a Native Plant Protection Act package intended “to sustain our biodiversity, building climate resilient landscapes, and also supporting pollinators.” Staff said the ZTA would change the code’s existing “preferred” native-plant language to “required” and would apply to landscaping plans that are part of development applications, parking-lot landscaping and screening requirements — not to by-right single-family homes or projects approved before the rule’s effective date.
The committee’s central debates focused on three questions: which projects the rule would trigger, how to measure the 50% threshold, and whether the requirement would…
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