Montgomery County Council Meets on Oct. 14 to Receive Briefings About the Impact of Federal Changes on Local Grants and Food and Nutrition Assistance Programs
MARYLAND, October 14 - For Immediate Release: Monday, October 13, 2025
Also on Oct. 14: Council will receive a briefing about the proposed designation of Timberlawn in the Master Plan for Historic Preservation
The Montgomery County Council will meet on Tuesday, Oct. 14 at 9 a.m. and the meeting will begin with three proclamation presentations. The first, presented by Councilmembers Laurie-Anne Sayles, Marilyn Balcombe and Council President Kate Stewart will recognize Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The second, presented by the Council’s Public Safety (PS) Committee and County Executive Marc Elrich, will recognize Fire Prevention Month. The third, presented by Council President Stewart and Councilmembers Evan Glass and Kristin Mink, will recognize International Pronouns Day. At 11:45 a.m., the Council will hold a meeting with the Metropolitan Council of Governments.
More detail on each agenda item is provided below.
Briefings
Starting at 9:45 a.m. the Council will receive two briefings and hold a discussion about the impact of federal changes to grants and on food and nutrition assistance programs.
Federal Grants and Grant Making
Briefing: The Council will receive a briefing from Office of Grants Management representatives to provide information about the impact of H.R.1 - One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which was signed into law on July 4, 2025. The briefing will include information about anticipated changes to the federal grantmaking landscape and its impact on Montgomery County services and residents. While this federal legislation is widely known for its reforms to tax policy, food assistance and Medicaid programs, it also will have implications on federal grantmaking. The briefing and discussion will focus on impacts to competitive grant funding and the recession of unobligated balances, which are awarded funds that have not been obligated to an awardee through an executed grant agreement. Additional information is available in the Council staff report.
Federal Food and Nutrition Assistance Programs
Briefing: The Council will receive a briefing about the impact of H.R.1 on federal food and nutrition assistance programs supporting County residents. The federal law makes significant reductions in federal spending on social services programs and established provisions that increase barriers to accessing benefits. This Council briefing will provide information about the impact of the bill on local food assistance programs, including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). This program is administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service office and supports an average of 680,000 Marylanders per month, including nearly 270,000 children. Additional information is available in the Council staff report.
Amendment to the Master Plan for Historic Preservation, Timberlawn
Briefing: Immediately following the Council’s 1:30 p.m. public hearing, the Council will receive a briefing about Timberlawn, which is a property under consideration for designation in the Master Plan for Historic Preservation. The property, located at 5700 Sugarbush Lane in Rockville, is the former residence of Eunice Kennedy and Sargent Shriver. Designation of a property as a master plan historic site or historic district, indicates that the property is of special historic significance and would be protected under the Historic Resources Preservation chapter of the County Code. Designation requires the review of the Historic Preservation Commission, the Planning Board and the County Council.
At a meeting held in Oct. 2024, the Historic Preservation Commission found that Timberlawn satisfied the designation criteria for listing in the Master Plan for Historic Preservation and voted unanimously to recommend that the Planning Board and Council designate the resource as a Master Plan Historic Site. At a meeting held in May 2025, the Planning Board voted unanimously to list Timberlawn to the Locational Atlas and Index of Historic Sites and recommend that the Council designate the property to the Master Plan for Historic Preservation. A public hearing is scheduled for Oct. 21.
Additional information is available on the Planning Board website and in the Planning Board’s draft of the Timberlawn Master Plan Designation.
District Council Session
Zoning Text Amendment (ZTA) 25-13, Omnibus - Revisions, Clarifications, and Corrections
Introduction: Lead sponsors Councilmembers Natali Fani-González and Andrew Friedson will introduce Zoning Text Amendment (ZTA) 25-13, Omnibus - Revisions, Clarifications, and Corrections. ZTA 25-13 would amend height restrictions for a regional shopping center in the Regional Shopping Center (RSC) Overlay Zone, place a gross floor area cap on household living in the employment zones, and clarify the gross floor area cap on non-residential uses for commercial to residential reconstruction. In addition, the ZTA would clarify the applicable conditional use standards for townhouse living, require setbacks for limited outdoor storage of items such as vehicles and boats, and correct outdated cross-references to expedited approval plans. The ZTA is needed to make several technical, clarifying and other amendments to the zoning ordinance.
Vote expected: The Council is expected to vote on Subdivision Regulation Amendment (SRA) 25-02, Technical Review - Optional Method Workforce Housing Development. The SRA would prohibit the creation of flag lots and through lots under workforce housing optional method development and limit the number of consolidated lots for workforce housing optional method development to three lots. SRA 25-02 is related to ZTA 25-02, Workforce Housing – Development Standards.
The lead sponsors of SRA 25-02 are Councilmember Friedson and Council President Stewart. Councilmembers Balcombe, Dawn Luedtke, and Gabe Albornoz are cosponsors of SRA 25-02. The Planning, Housing and Parks (PHP) Committee recommends approval with an amendment to limit consolidation by lot size, rather than lot number. The PHP Committee also recommends an amendment to define flag lots and shared access lots to allow for subdivision that creates fee simple ownership.
Vote expected: The Council is expected to vote on Development Plan Amendment (DPA) 25-01, Willow Manner at Clarksburg LLP, which is an amendment to the previously approved Development Plan G-806. The applicant is requesting an amendment to increase the cap on Service/Public Use (Senior Living) from 500 to 650 units. The property is located at the intersection of Clarksburg Road at Gosnell Farm Drive in Boyds.
On Sept. 9, 2003, the District Council approved Zoning Application G-806. Under the prior Zoning Ordinance, this application was similar to what is currently called a local map amendment (LMA). Development Plan G-806 reclassified 283.5 acres of land from RE-1/TDR, RMX-1/TDR and I-3 Zones to the MXPD Zone. On Feb. 4, 2014, the District Council approved DPA 13-02, which increased the amount of retail to 484,000 square feet and reduced the amount of office to more than 1.9 million square feet to develop a retail outlet center on the northeastern portion of the property.
DPA 25-01 seeks to modify Binding Element 8 of the development plan, which limited the number of units for independent living for older adults or persons with disabilities, assisted living, life care or continuing care to 500 units. The applicant requests a modification to increase that number of allowable units from 500 to 650.
Consent Calendar
Each item on the Council’s Consent Calendar can be found on the Council agenda for Tuesday, Oct. 14, which is available on the Council website.
Public Hearing
Unless otherwise noted, the Council will hold the following hybrid public hearing at 1:30 p.m. Residents can visit the Council website to learn about the multiple ways to provide testimony.
Public hearing and vote expected: The Council will hold a public hearing and is expected to vote on a more than $1.6 million supplemental appropriation for the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Opioid Abatement Fund. The funds will be used to continue previously planned DHHS initiatives to provide opioid abatement measures. This supplemental appropriation reflects the amount of unencumbered Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 funds that were inadvertently not reappropriated in the FY26 and this appropriation will have no impact on General Fund reserves in FY26.
The Council meeting schedule may change from time to time. View the current Council and Committee agendas, Council staff reports and additional information on items scheduled for Council review on the Council website.
Council and committee meetings are streamed live on the Council’s web page via YouTube and on Facebook Live and can be watched on County Cable Montgomery on Xfinity/RCN 6 HD 996/1056, Fios 30, and on the CCM live stream.
Release ID: 25-340
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