2026 Candidate Questionnaire

County Executive

Andrew Friedson (D)

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Zoning

In your view, why are many Montgomery County residents struggling to afford housing?

Housing supply has not kept pace with population and job growth since the Great Recession of 2008-11. Restrictive zoning and related regulatory barriers have created a long-term drag on residential development in Montgomery County. The combination of Trump and Musk’s DOGE cuts, higher interest rates, an immigration crackdown, and higher costs of labor and building materials has made the challenge more acute by weakening the local economy even as the price of housing continues to rise. In combination with restrictive land use regulation, the result is a tightening market that squeezes young adults, low and moderate income families, and retirees alike. Montgomery County is also badly in need of stronger leadership on economic development to attract and retain more high paying jobs and reinvigorate wage growth. Housing and business attraction are intrinsically linked

I'm proud of the work Montgomery for All and I have done together during my two terms on the County Council: legalizing more types of housing in more places, incentivizing transit-oriented development and office conversions, protecting naturally-occurring affordable housing, requiring colocation of housing with county facilities, eliminating parking requirements, reducing regulatory burdens, and creating social housing models through innovative financing tools for mixed-income communities. But the severity of our housing challenges are significant and we’re going to have to do more.

What is one housing initiative you would plan to spearhead, if elected?

I will scale up the Housing Production Fund, a national model I spearheaded with Councilmember Hans Riemer in partnership with HOC and many of CSG’s supporters. The Fund closes the financing gap that prevents both affordable and private-sector housing providers from building. It has already delivered hundreds of quality units that would not otherwise exist, and has the potential to jumpstart thousands more units of attainable, mixed-income housing in transit-oriented communities — through public-private partnerships and low-cost financing for projects that pencil out no other way.

As County Executive, I will expand the Fund and pair it with a genuine sense of urgency. That means overhauling outdated permitting processes, establishing pre-approved building design templates for “missing middle” housing, and making deeper investments in vacant and underutilized land at Metro and Purple Line stations. The goal is simple: make it faster, cheaper, and easier to build the housing Montgomery County desperately needs.

In your view, how does current zoning policy in Montgomery County affect the supply and price of housing?

Restrictive zoning is one of the primary drivers of our housing shortage and therefore one of the primary drivers of unaffordability. When we limit entire neighborhoods to a single housing type, we artificially constrain supply, inflate land costs, and make it nearly impossible for the market to respond to the diverse needs of a growing population. Young families, essential workers, and middle-income residents get priced out of high-opportunity areas not because of bad luck, but because policy has made it illegal to build the homes they want and need.

That's why I've spent two terms on the Council fighting for thoughtful zoning reforms. I co-authored More Housing N.O.W., including the Workforce Housing ZTA and incentivization of office to residential conversions, eliminated costly parking requirements, supported ADU legalization, enabled faith & educational institutions to build multifamily housing, required co-location of housing with county facilities, and led the effort to abolish school moratoria that were being used as pretexts to block housing, starving us of both housing and school funding. Each of these initiatives required building coalitions and taking on entrenched opposition. As County Executive, I will bring that same resolve to overhauling the permitting culture and ensuring our agencies treat housing production as a priority, not an obstacle course.

What changes would you support to Montgomery County’s zoning policies to support greater housing affordability?

There has been no stronger and more consistent leader for zoning reform on the Montgomery County Council. My record in helping to pass Thrive Montgomery 2050, approve missing middle housing, support transit-oriented development, and establish new funding sources and mechanisms for affordable housing are all well-known so I will not recite the long list of housing-related legislation that I have successfully championed.

As County Executive I will build on this work. The County Executive plans a particularly important role in master plan implementation through capital investments and departmental leadership. Rather than being a County Executive who opines in opposition to master plans, I intend to be a County Executive who actually delivers on their vision and public benefits. Areas where I expect to focus include encouraging higher density development near Metrorail and Purple Line stations, actually building out a BRT network that delivers a modern, multi-modal transportation network, and an emphasis on transit-oriented development that matches the scale of our infrastructure investment. We've built - or are building - high-quality transit, and we should build the housing to go with it.

I also want to continue building on the successful work I’ve led on with colleagues to streamline office-to-residential conversions and by-right approvals for affordable housing projects, and to reform zoning to make it easier to build affordable housing on land owned by houses of worship. I think we should explore the use of pre-approved building design templates for missing middle housing and ADUs to cut design costs and reduce approval timelines, and consider options successfully implemented in other jurisdictions to provide public financing support for ADUs.

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Zoning, Supply, and Housing Prices

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Affordable & Market-Rate Housing

Please explain what you see as the role that each of these types of housing play in the housing landscape in Montgomery County, and the needs they fill for Montgomery County residents:

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