Mayor and Council Implement Floating Zone in Town Center

At their meeting on March 24, the Mayor and Council voted to adopt an ordinance authorizing zoning text amendment TXT2025-00269. The text amendment revises City Code Sec. 25.14.35 to establish three interim floating zones aligning with the three character areas identified in the 2025 Rockville Town Center Master Plan and allows development consistent with the height, parking and ground floor land use policies within the Master Plan to move forward despite the current base zoning within Town Center. Pursuant to Section 4-203 of the Maryland Land Use Article, this regulation will be in effect 10 days after the Mayor and Council’s action, on April 3, 2025.

This text amendment is a temporary solution, intended to enable development within Town Center ahead of the ongoing Zoning Ordinance Rewrite (ZOR) and Comprehensive Map Amendment (CMA) project. As a part of the ZOR and CMA, many properties throughout Rockville will be rezoned to better align with the Comprehensive Plan (which includes the Town Center Master Plan). A more permanent zoning solution to implement the Town Center Master Plan’s policies and recommendations will be established through the ZOR and CMA. A work session with the Mayor and Council to discuss the permanent zoning solution for Town Center is tentatively scheduled for May 5.