The Town of Kensington, Maryland has evolved from its origins as a garden suburb into an engaged and lively residential community with an economic hub consisting of restaurants, retail, and light industrial businesses. However, with the widening of Connecticut Avenue in 1957 prioritizing vehicular traffic, along with the railroad tracks that bisect the Town, Kensington has become increasingly fractured. This is a problem for physical connectivity, and has isolated certain parts of the community, including the historically Black Ken-Gar neighborhood.

There have been positive steps to address access and traffic concerns over the years. For instance, there was an effort to reimagine Connecticut Avenue as a Town Center (2012 Kensington and Vicinity Sector Plan).  More recently, the 2022 Connecticut Avenue Corridor Pedestrian and Bicycling Access and Safety Study, supported by a Transportation Land-Use Connections (TLC) grant from the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (MWCOG), along with the recently initiated Bicycling and Pedestrian Priority (BPPA) plan in cooperation with the Maryland Department of Transportation, State Highway Administration (MDOT-SHA), have established guidelines and recommendations to help improve and provide alternative personal mobility options within the corridor and into greater Montgomery County.

One of the main goals of the 2012 Kensington Sector Plan was the creation of a Town Center by diverting traffic flows via the Summit Avenue Extension project. Projected to be completed in FY32, the Summit Avenue Extension project would extend Summit Avenue past its current terminus at Plyers Mill Road, and connect Summit Avenue to Connecticut Avenue, via Farragut Avenue.

The Town of Kensington convened a two-day Technical Assistance Panel (TAP) to study the proposed Summit Avenue Extension project and associated development opportunities and challenges.

The project was proposed for its potential traffic alleviation, but could create opportunities for developable frontage and multimodal infrastructure. However, the project also creates new challenges, mostly pertaining to pedestrian and bicycle safety, as the new Summit Avenue terminus at Connecticut Avenue, near the University Boulevard split, presents challenges for pedestrian movement and safety.

The Panel cautioned against using the extended Summit Avenue as a traffic mitigation strategy, and instead proposed using the new road as a residential bridge between the historically Black Ken-Gar community and the Town of Kensington. In addition, the Panel recommended theTown consider co-location of uses at the current (or future) site of the Kensington Fire Station.

Click the link below for more information and to see the TAP presentation.