The Montgomery County Council is poised to reshape University Boulevard for decades to come.

The council will vote Tuesday on the controversial University Boulevard Corridor Plan, which, its supporters say, will make the major roadway safer and incentivize new housing in a county with a major affordability problem.

Detractors — including County Executive Marc Elrich — call it a gift to developers that will lead to congested roads, neighborhoods and schools.

“If you’re a resident in this community and you like your neighborhood, you ought to be paying attention,” he said.

County Council member Natali Fani-González, who represents many communities along the corridor, said Monday that council members who back the plan are “making sound decisions on what this area should look like within the next 30 years.”

A revitalized roadway?

The plan covers a roughly three-mile stretch of University Boulevard, stretching from East Indian Spring Drive, just south of U.S. 495, to Amherst Avenue in Wheaton.

The council’s decision on Tuesday is a preliminary straw vote meant to help staff members prepare the bill for a final vote, which is expected next week. Straw votes are typically predictive of final votes.

Montgomery County last updated its growth plans for the University Boulevard area in 2012, when officials focused on the Wheaton Central Business District. The county has also enacted growth plans for Kemp Mill and the Four Corners area in Silver Spring, roughly 25 and 30 years ago, respectively.

County planners have updated their vision to include a revitalized roadway with bike lanes, wider sidewalks and updated transit stops, among other changes.

They also mapped out dozens of areas along the boulevard to rezone, including single-family home areas and commercial properties, paving the way in some areas for mixed-use developments and types of housing that aren’t currently allowed, like townhomes, duplexes, triplexes and small apartment buildings.

Supporters of the plan want to attract housing to areas next to bus stations along University Boulevard.

Rezoning single-family neighborhoods to potentially make way for more and denser housing cuts to the heart of an ongoing debate in Montgomery County about how to lower mortgage and rent costs.

While developers and some elected officials say the county must incentivize development to increase housing availability and lower costs, others, like Elrich, argue that simply building more homes won’t lead to lower prices or alleviate a shortage of affordable units.

Fani-González said council members scaled back some of the more controversial proposals.

Members of the council’s committee on planning and housing voted for a smaller planning area, opting to exempt the Kemp Mill Shopping Center, Kemp Mill Urban Park and a nearby religious school from potential zoning changes.

Fani-González noted that those members voted for lower maximum building heights in commercial areas and less dense zoning in residential areas, compared to the Planning Board’s draft.

But concerns remain, and the plan is not expected to pass the council unanimously. Council member Kristin Mink, who also represents part of the University Boulevard planning area, is expected to be among the no votes.

Mink said she wants pedestrian safety to remain a high priority for the corridor. But she questions whether safety measures in the plan, such as bike lanes and wider sidewalks, will increase congestion in areas she represents, including Four Corners.

The council’s final vote on the plan next week won’t be the final say.

If it passes, the plan heads to the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, which oversees growth and development in Montgomery and Prince George’s counties.

The county Planning Board and the County Council will also have a separate approval process for all zoning recommendations in the plan that will include a public hearing, work sessions and a final vote from the County Council in summer 2026.