Montgomery County task force outlines history of Emery Grove displacement, final report due Dec. 15, 2026

The Montgomery County Emery Grove Urban Renewal Task Force gave the county council an interim briefing on Feb. 23, tracing how mid-20th-century urban renewal policies led to the demolition of roughly 110 homes in Emery Grove and the displacement of an estimated 500 residents.

Selena Mendy Singleton, senior racial equity manager for the council, told the committee the state legislation creating the task force — introduced by Delegate Charlotte Crutchfield and signed by Governor Moore — directs a study of how urban renewal caused displacement and asks the group to recommend potential remedies. "The goal of this legislation is to study how urban renewal caused the displacement of residents from Emery Grove community," Singleton said.

Reverend Timothy Warner, senior pastor of Emery Grove United Methodist Church and a task force member, recounted the community’s history and described work to rebuild a local neighborhood. Warner said the church and its nonprofit, the Heritage Emery Grove Community Development Corporation, plan to pursue entitlement for 39 townhouses on four acres the church now owns and to pursue related community programs, including youth sports, a renovated baseball field and a partnership with Montgomery County Public Schools to repurpose Longview School for pre-K and adjacent housing. "We are envisioning youth programs … and we are about to, in the next couple of weeks, apply and enter the process of entitlement," Warner said.

Jim Stowe, director of the county Office of Human Rights and chair of the task force, summarized the group’s four-phase work: historical review, legislative record analysis, a study of community impacts and recommendations. Stowe said the task force has published an interim report and confirmed the final report is due Dec. 15, 2026. He also relayed preliminary findings discussed in the interim report: the community once contained about 110 structures and some 500 people were displaced by the urban-renewal-era clearances. "We have just begun our journey into some of these questions," Stowe said, describing work groups, partner organizations (including Montgomery History and the University of Maryland) and student researchers helping with outreach and documentation.

Councilmembers pressed task force members on possible remedies and outreach to descendants. Councilmember Giwondo asked whether the task force was considering models such as Evanston, Ill.’s housing-linked reparations program and how the task force is locating former landowners and descendants. Stowe said the group is reviewing examples nationally and has subdivided the work into teams dedicated to research, legislative review and community engagement. Warner said the work requires longitudinal tracking of families and new funding to support outreach and documentation of multigenerational impacts.

Council members praised the task force’s research and said they look to the final report to outline concrete recommendations, including financial remedies, apologies or other restorative measures. The task force said it will explore a range of options — from modest programs to more ambitious, precedent-setting remedies — and will return recommendations in December.

Next steps: the task force will continue research and direct outreach to descendants and stakeholders, finalize its recommendations and deliver the final report to the council by Dec. 15, 2026.