Subject
title
Authorization to File Zoning Text Amendment to Revise and Replace Chapter 25 of the City Code, also Known as the Zoning Ordinance
end
Department
CPDS - Zoning Review & Other
Recommendation
Staff recommends that the Mayor and Council authorize the filing of the Zoning Text Amendment for the Zoning Ordinance Rewrite.
Change in Law or Policy
The adoption of the new Zoning Ordinance will replace the existing Zoning Ordinance in its entirety, implementing the recommendations of the Rockville 2040 Plan, Town Center Master Plan, and the FAST 2 Initiative.
Discussion
Background
In 2023, the City began a comprehensive rewrite of the City’s Zoning Ordinance. This project, known as the Zoning Ordinance Rewrite (ZOR), kicked off shortly after the adoption of the Rockville 2040 Comprehensive Plan. The Zoning Ordinance Rewrite project will produce a new Zoning Ordinance for the City of Rockville.
The project has the following objectives:
• Implement many of the recommended land use actions identified in the Rockville 2040 Comprehensive Plan, including implementing the Plan’s zoning recommendations.
• Accomplish goals from the city’s ongoing FAST Initiative, making the development review and permitting process Faster, Accountable, Smarter, and Transparent.
• Incorporate planning and zoning best practices that have become common in the field of urban planning and in other similarly situated communities.
• Incorporate the city’s commitment to equity, resilience, and sustainability, as described in the 2021 Mayor and Council social justice resolution and the 2022 Climate Action Plan.
• Ensure compliance with current federal and state regulations.
• Create a modern ordinance that can accommodate the changing living, working, and lifestyles of the 21st century.
• Create a user-friendly, accessible, and well-organized document.
At the time of writing, a first draft of the new Zoning Ordinance has been produced and is included as Attachment 3. At the December 1 meeting, the Mayor and Council will consider authorizing the filing of the Zoning Text Amendment (ZTA) for the draft Zoning Ordinance. This action will initiate the formal public review and adoption process. Through the adoption process, staff anticipates that this first draft of the Zoning Ordinance will be refined and amended before adoption by the Mayor and Council.
In conjunction with the ZOR, the city’s Zoning Map will be updated through a Comprehensive Map Amendment (CMA). The ZOR and CMA are undertaken concurrently but will be adopted separately; as such, the CMA is included as a separate agenda item on the December 1 meeting agenda. The new Zoning Ordinance will be adopted by ordinance as a ZTA, while the new zoning map will be adopted by ordinance as a CMA.
Draft Zoning Ordinance Overview
Draft Zoning Ordinance
Drafting of the new Zoning Ordinance began in earnest in January 2025. That same month, the Mayor and Council began hosting work sessions to provide staff with guidance on major policy issues (work session topics and dates are described in the Mayor and Council History section, below; full accounting of direction provided is found on pages 4 to 8 of Attachment 1 - Highlights: City of Rockville Draft Zoning Ordinance). These work sessions produced practical direction, which has been implemented in the draft. This process allowed for some of the work that would normally occur through review and revision in the adoption process to occur proactively, prior to production of the full first draft of the ordinance.
Staff relied on a number of additional inputs to draft the details of the new ordinance. Specifically, the draft is informed by the following:
• Adopted policy, including Comprehensive Plan land use and zoning recommendations, and the Mayor and Council’s 2021 Social Justice Resolution;
• Mayor and Council priorities, particularly related to housing and economic development;
• Specific direction of the Mayor and Council provided during work sessions;
• Community input;
• Consultant recommendations; and
• Best practices research.
As such, the draft Zoning Ordinance document is best understood as a staff recommendation, developed over the past two years of research, community engagement, and direction by the Mayor and Council. It is anticipated that this first draft will be amended and revised over the course of the adoption process.
Brief Book Materials
The draft ordinance is accompanied by the following materials, intended to help readers navigate and understand the new draft ordinance:
• Attachment 1 - Highlights: City of Rockville Draft Zoning Ordinance. This document provides a high-level overview of the new Zoning Ordinance. It highlights key changes from the current Zoning Ordinance, along with the rationale for the change, and summarizes the guidance and direction provided by Mayor and Council during work sessions.
The Highlights document is meant to be a user-friendly guide to the new ordinance, but it does not note every point of difference between the city’s existing Zoning Ordinance and the new draft Ordinance. This document serves as an overview and ‘jumping off point’; full details are best viewed in the corresponding sections of the draft Zoning Ordinance.
• Attachment 2 - Draft Zoning Ordinance: Table of Contents. To help readers navigate the draft Zoning Ordinance, the table of contents includes page numbers associated with each of the draft’s articles, divisions, and sections. Note that the Table of Contents is provided only for reference and is not part of the zoning text amendment.
• Attachment 3 - Draft Zoning Ordinance: Zoning Text Amendment Application, November 21, 2025. Attachment 3 contains the full text of the draft Zoning Ordinance. This document is the subject of the zoning text amendment, which Mayor and Council will consider authorizing staff to file.
• Attachment 4 - Community Engagement Summary. This summary is a detailed accounting of public notification and project engagement for both the Zoning Ordinance Rewrite and the Comprehensive Map Amendment. A first draft of the Community Engagement Summary was produced in April 2025. This draft has been updated to include engagement that occurred between April 2025 and November 10, 2025.
• Attachment 5 - Zoning Ordinance Rewrite Public Comment Digest. This digest provides the full text of comments received on the Zoning Ordinance Rewrite project prior to November 10, 2025. Comments are organized by date received and have been assigned ID numbers for easy reference.
Planned adoption schedule
Following Authorization to File at the December 1 meeting, the adoption process is planned to span a period of six months, from December 2025 to June 1, 2026. A planned schedule, which addresses both the Zoning Ordinance Rewrite and the concurrent Comprehensive Map Amendment, is shown below.
|
Date |
Body |
Milestone |
|
December 1, 2025 |
Mayor & Council |
Authorization to File ZOR ZTA and CMA |
|
December 10, 2025 |
Planning Commission |
ZOR and CMA briefing |
|
January 14, 2026 |
Planning Commission |
Public hearing #1; work session #1 |
|
January 28, 2026 |
Planning Commission |
Public hearing #2; work session #2 |
|
February 11, 2026 |
Planning Commission |
Work session #3 |
|
February 25, 2026 |
Planning Commission |
Recommendation to M&C |
|
March 9, 2026 |
Mayor & Council |
Briefing on PC recommendation (optional) |
|
April 13, 2026 |
Mayor & Council |
Public hearing #1 |
|
April 20, 2026 |
Mayor & Council |
Public hearing #2; work session #1 |
|
April 27, 2026 |
Mayor & Council |
Work session #2 |
|
May 4, 2026 |
Mayor & Council |
Work session #3 |
|
May 11, 2026 |
Mayor & Council |
Work session (optional if needed) |
|
May 18, 2026 |
Mayor & Council |
Work session #4/Final direction |
|
June 1, 2026 |
Mayor & Council |
Adoption of ZTA and CMA ordinances |
Mayor and Council History
The Mayor and Council approved a project charter for the Zoning Ordinance Rewrite Project in October 2022. Since the project was initiated, staff has provided periodic updates on the project via email, between the project initiation and the drafting of the new ordinance, which began in January 2025. During the drafting phase of the project, the Mayor and Council began holding work sessions on a variety of topics to provide guidance on the drafting process. These work sessions were as follows:
• January 27, 2025: Comprehensive Map Amendment
• April 24, 2025: Process improvements
• May 5, 2025: New zones, revisions to existing zones, height transitions, and CMA follow-up
• August 4, 2025: Land uses, parking, and process improvement follow-up
• October 6, 2025: Remaining topics, including Historic Preservation, Amenity Space, Nonconformities, Subdivision & Plats, Approval Findings, Neighborhood Conservation District Plans, and CMA follow-up
Public Notification and Engagement
A detailed accounting of public notification and project engagement can be found in Attachment 4 - Community Engagement Summary.
Boards and Commissions Review
The Planning Commission has received regular updates on project progress, with the most recent update occurring on October 8, 2025. The Environment Commission and the Transportation and Mobility Commission also requested and received briefings on November 7, 2024, and May 27, 2025, respectively.
Additionally, the Historic District Commission was briefed on the project and provided feedback on the proposed changes related to historic preservation at their meeting on July 17, 2025.
Moving forward, staff will provide boards and commissions with the opportunity to learn more about the project and provide input during the Planning Commission review period.
Next Steps
The adoption process for both ZOR and CMA is anticipated to proceed as described above.