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A new analysis of downtown Wheaton shows that the area is full of young, single renters, spurring planners to predict that the city faces booming growth in the coming decades.

This week, researchers with the Montgomery-National Capital Park and Planning Commission released a demographic report detailing who lives in Wheaton's' Central Business District, a downtown area of about 2,600 households bordered by University Boulevard, Veirs Mill Road and Plyers Mill Road.

Studying who lives in Wheaton and what they do helps planners forecast what the future of Wheaton could look like in 10, 20 and 30 years as they update the area's 19-year-old sector plan, which lays down guidelines for the environment, transportation and zoning for the downtown area.

For example, it's helpful to know that despite the large number of Hispanic businesses in Wheaton's Central Business District, the report found fewer Hispanics live in downtown Wheaton than in the downtowns of the rest of the county (14 percent of the population in Wheaton compared with 16 percent countywide).

That could mean the specific niche market of Hispanic grocery stores, shops and bars are drawing the Hispanic community from the neighborhoods outside downtown Wheaton, theorized planner Sandra Tallant, who is heading Wheaton's Sector Plan update.

And downtown Wheaton is relatively young, with "a substantial block" of unmarried people ages 18 to 44 living in apartments. If that trend continues, there won't be as much of an impact on schools as more people move in, Tallant said.

And heads up for those looking for love — Wheaton is also a decent place to date, as only 40 percent of all households are married, compared with the average of 62 percent for the county.

Although a younger crowd generally signals lower average incomes, Tallant pointed out that young professionals without families tend to have more discretionary spending for retailers.

Bringing in more of those kinds of people is key to revitalizing Wheaton's sagging business district, said Rob Klein, who is working closely on Wheaton's redevelopment as the manager of development programs in the county's Department of General Services.

"If you want to have a smart growth area, you need feet on the pavement," Klein said in a Wheaton Sector Plan community meeting Monday night.

With that in mind, Klein and Tallant are thrilled to see the report's prediction that Wheaton's growth will outpace the rest of the county by 2.5 times over the next 30 years.

By 2040, downtown Wheaton will have almost 70 percent more households than it does now, or 1,800 new additions, almost all in the form of apartments and condominiums. By contrast, the larger Kensington-Wheaton-Glenmont area is slated to add only 14 percent to the 29,000 homes already in the area.

Some of the predictions about Wheaton's growth have already come to fruition.

Wheaton has several apartment and condominium proposals in the pipeline, including a 14-story apartment complex above a renovated Safeway that could add 500 new units on the Georgia Avenue/Reedie Drive intersection and a possible 320-unit project along Amherst Avenue.

Outside of downtown Wheaton, most residents live in homes rather than apartments, the report finds. Tallant said that's good news for Wheaton's longevity: Young professionals can rent in downtown and move into a home outside downtown when they start a family.

That's also a draw to employers, who look for stable housing areas for their employees when searching for headquarters, Tallant said.

The demographics analysis will be an appendix to the Wheaton Sector Plan, which is slated for another Planning Board review in early 2010 and action by the County Council in 2011. To read the 20-page study, visit www.mcparkand

planning.org.