What We Heard from the Kick-off Listening Sessions (and Who We Heard From)

Thank you to the over 100 people who attended one of our four listening sessions to kick-off the community outreach and engagement process for the Rockville Town Center Master Plan update! We appreciated getting to hear your thoughts, feedback, and ideas about how Town Center can improve over the next 20 years. At the listening sessions, we shared a brief presentation (view the slides here) and offered a series of individual and group activities.

Word Clouds

We used a live polling app to ask participants four questions about Town Center to create a word cloud.

Question 1: What one word would you use to describe Town Center?

The top responses for Question 1 were: struggling (7), community (6), potential (6), walkable (6), declining (4), and pleasant (4).

Question 2: What is your favorite thing about Town Center?

The top responses for Question 2 were: library (16), walkability or walkable (10), events (8), and concert (4).

Question 3: What is one thing you would change about Town Center?

The top responses for Question 3 were: density or more density (18), more housing (6), parking (5), and more retail (4).

Question 4: What should Town Center be known for?

The top responses for Question 4 were: destination (8), events (8), family oriented or family friendly (6), community (5), and vibrancy (4).

Scenarios Activity

We presented participants with different scenarios or options, some of which were opposites of each other, to identify what people would rather see in cases where there are competing priorities.

• What is more important?
  • Low cost parking (71%)
  • Parking as close to your destination as possible (29%)
• Which would you prefer?
  • Low cost parking that is difficult to find (30%)
  • Higher cost parking that is easy to find (70%)
• Which would you prefer?
  • One large, highly amenitized central open space in Town Center (63%)
  • A series of smaller open spaces scattered throughout Town Center with fewer amenities in each (38%)
• What is more important?
  • New open space for people (76%)
  • New open space for dogs/pets (24%)
• What is more important?
  • An improved pedestrian bridge to the Metro (23%)
  • An improved plaza on the west side of Rockville Pike approaching the pedestrian bridge (77%)
• What is more important?
  • A better pedestrian bridge to the Metro (24%)
  • A more pleasant experience crossing Rockville Pike (MD-355) (76%)
• What is more important?
  • More outdoor dining (80%)
  • More street parking (20%)
• Regarding commercial establishments, what would you prefer to see?
  • More dining/food options (36%)
  • More retail goods and services options (64%)
• How should connections between Town Center and Montgomery College be improved?
  • Construct additional walking/biking paths (45%)
  • Improve transit/shuttle connections (41%)
  • Provide additional micromobility options (7%)
  • No improvements need to be made (6%)
• Should the city be involved with incentivizing businesses to come/stay in Town Center?
  • Yes (55%)
  • No (41%)
  • Only in very specific cases (26%)

What should business district roads in Town Center look like? This includes most of the streets in Town Center.

	Option 1: One travel lane in each direction, landscaped center medians, on street parking on both sides, sidewalks with street trees on both sides. 55%
	Option 2: One travel lane in each direction, no center median, bike lanes on both sides, on street parking on both sides, sidewalks with street trees on both sides. 41%
	Option 3: One travel lane in each direction, no center median, sidewalks on both sides, street trees on both sides. 4%

What should arterial roads in Town Center look like? This includes E and W Jefferson Streets and Maryland Ave south of Fleet Street.

	Option 1: One to two travel lanes in each direction, landscaped medians/separated turning lanes, bike lanes on both sides, on street parking on both sides, sidewalks with street trees on both sides. 84%
	Option 2: Two travel lanes in each direction, on street parking along one side, no center median/turning lane, sidewalks with street trees on both sides. 12%
	Option 3: Two travel lanes in each direction, on street parking, on both sides, continuous center turning lane, minimal bicycle/pedestrian infrastructure. 4%

What should major roads in Town Center look like? This primarily includes Rockville Pike/Hungerford Drive (MD-355).

	Option 1: Three travel lanes in each direction, landscaped center median, sidewalks with street trees on both sides. 22%
	Option 2: Three travel lanes in each direction, center median with designated turn lanes, sidewalks on both sides. 14%
	Option 3: Three lanes of travel in each direction, bus rapid transit lane in the center, bike lanes on both sides, sidewalks on both sides. 65%

Vote with Your Dollars Activity

There are a lot of things residents would love to see in Town Center, but limited resources to make them all happen. We gave listening session participants "Rockbills" and a range of categories to spend their money. At the in-person listening sessions, this was an individual exercise and each person was given $12 in Rockbills broken up into various denominations with no change allowed. During the virtual sessions, this was a small group activity where each group was given $100 to allocate.

Town Center Map Activity

We also had an activity where participants could mark up a map of Town Center with their thoughts and ideas about where they'd like to see redevelopment, new parks or community amenities, streetscapes redesigned, and anything else they wanted to share. You can add to that conversation by using our Reaction Map tool right here on Engage Rockville.

Who We Heard From

About 88% of listening session participants identified as City of Rockville residents and 31% identified as Town Center residents. A majority of attendees have lived in their current place of residence for over 5 years, with 46% living in the same place for over 10 years and 5% for 5 to 10 years. Thirty three percent of residents have lived in their current place of residence for 1 to 5 years and 16% for less than a year. The general Town Center population has lived in their home for a shorter amount of time. About 18.5% of Town Center residents moved into their home in 2019 or later and about 41% moved in between 2015 and 2018.

A majority of attendees were over the age of 45, with 31% over 65 years old, 13% between 54 and 64 years old, and 16% between 45 and 54 years old. 23% of attendees were between the ages of 35 and 44 and 16% were between 35 and 44. One attendee was between the ages of 18 and 24 years old. In Town Center generally, about 22% of the population is over 65 years old and about 11.5% of the population is under 18 years old.

Most of the listening session attendees were white (84%), with only 4% representation from Black or African American residents, Asian or Pacific Islander residents, or residents identifying as an unlisted race. In Town Center generally, about 47% of the population is white. Over 13% of Town Center residents are Black or African American, 25% are Asian, 13% are Hispanic, 9.3% are more than one race or ethnicity, and 4.6% are a non-listed race.

We know that these numbers are not representative of Town Center or the city as a whole. This is why we're only just getting started. Below are a few outreach actions we're going to be taking to hear from a more representative population:

• Distributing doorhangers about the master plan update throughout Town Center residences
• Continuing to send postcards to all Town Center residents about key input opportunities
• Tabling at community gathering places and at events
• Meeting one-on-one with stakeholder groups (let us know if your group wants to meet!)
• Hosting and partnering with community organizations to put on roundtable conversations targeted for specific user groups and demographics

In the fall, we’ll be coming back to all stakeholders with a summary of what we heard, who we heard from, and how the feedback will inform the direction of the plan. After that, we’ll continue to keep you updated on opportunities to provide feedback on drafts of the plan as it moves through the drafting and approval process.