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Montgomery County planning staff propose a public 'development tracker,' warn 27,000 approved units are not guaranteed to be built
Summary
Planning staff told the County Council’s Planning, Housing and Parks Committee that Montgomery County’s internal pipeline contains roughly 27,000 approved-but-unbuilt units and recommended renaming and reframing it as a 'development tracker' with improved data, cross-agency coordination, incentives and a proposed approval specialist to help projects advance to permitting.
Planning staff presented a revised analysis of Montgomery County’s inventory of approved-but-unbuilt development on Oct. 27, urging the council to reframe the long‑used “pipeline” as a more precise “development tracker” that shows which projects are truly positioned to advance to permitting.
“For the record, Lisa Gavoni, planning supervisor with Montgomery Planning,” said Lisa Gavoni, who led the presentation of the second phase of the analysis. Gavoni told the committee the tracker is an internal database of projects that have received planning approvals but have not yet been built and that the numbers in it do not imply a linear path to construction.
The presentation, joined by Alex Pemberton, real‑estate research planner, said the tracker contains roughly 27,000 approved-but-unbuilt units in the September 2025 dataset; about 13,000 of those units sit in projects that have received all planning approvals and are therefore positioned to advance toward permitting. Pemberton said a refined developer outreach dataset captured 32 valid survey responses representing roughly 11,000 unbuilt units, about 43% of the survey universe.
Gavoni and Pemberton emphasized that project timing varies widely. Pemberton said respondents ranked market and financial feasibility, construction costs and local policy/technical issues as the top impediments to advancing projects. “This is an exceptionally challenging and cautious environment for residential development,” he said, summarizing interview and questionnaire themes.
Staff recommended several changes to improve the tracker and the county’s ability to move projects toward construction: publish more frequent, user‑friendly reports and an interactive dashboard; cross‑link Planning data with the Department of Permitting Services to reflect permitting progress; integrate permit data and aerial verification into tracker updates; consider expanded expedited reviews and incentives (including expanding successful pilots and considering targeted tax or financing tools); and create a development approval specialist position to follow projects after Planning Board approvals and to help navigate interagency steps.
On policy implications, staff said interviewees highlighted the practical effects of the county’s new rent stabilization law on capital markets. Pemberton said some respondents asked for recalibration of aspects such as vacancy control and exemption timing so the law’s treatment of new construction provides clearer certainty to investors.
Committee members pressed staff on timing cutoffs. The chair asked whether a 5‑year threshold was meaningful and whether two years might better distinguish routine schedules from truly stalled projects. Pemberton cautioned against a rigid calendar cutoff, noting projects can remain on the tracker for many years and later break ground; he recommended a project‑level review and said staff could share the consolidated spreadsheet they used to track status and contacts.
On the proposed approval‑specialist role, staff said it would focus on keeping contact information current, following up with developers, coordinating with other agencies and clearing administrative hurdles rather than exercising independent regulatory authority. Staff said the role is not a current budget request and could be designed to fit existing staffing structures.
The presentation also included geographic context: North Bethesda and Bethesda‑Chevy Chase account for a large share of units in the tracker; single‑family projects often show incremental delivery because they are built in phases, while multifamily projects tend to register progress only when an entire building is complete.
Staff recommended renaming the public tool from the 'pipeline' to a 'development tracker' to reduce the misleading impression that all approved units will be built and to improve communication about project readiness and likely delivery.
The committee did not take a formal vote on policy changes at the session but accepted staff’s offer to share project‑level data and signaled interest in pursuing data integrations and process improvements as next steps.
