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The Takoma/Langley Crossroads Sector Plan, which sets out guidelines for such things as denser commercial growth and safe pedestrian access to the busy business district, was approved for transmittal to the Montgomery County Council by the county Planning Board Thursday afternoon in Silver Spring.

While the council is unlikely to schedule a public hearing on the plan until after the elections in November—possibly delaying the process until 2011—the draft plan, which seeks to guide future development in the busy intersection of New Hampshire Avenue and University Boulevard, will likely be transmitted to the council by the end of the summer, according to planners familiar with the process.

"We're looking at late summer for the actual transmittal and we're looking at winter 2010 or 2011 for the council to schedule a public hearing," said county senior planner Melissa Williams after the meeting.

Planners hope the Maryland Transit Authority's Purple Line, a proposed 16-mile mass transit line that will run through the Crossroads, will spark redevelopment along University Boulevard and New Hampshire Avenue over the next 20 years, prompting the drafting of the sector plan to guide reinvestment and redevelopment.

While the sector plan was finished in September 2009, the process was delayed when it became clear that the council would not be able to address the project before the October deadline, according to Bill Barron, a team leader for the Montgomery County Department of Park and Planning's Community-Based Planning Division.

"It's an awkward situation," he said, explaining that, because the members of the council may change following the elections in November, the project will not be officially acted upon until after the transition period, possibly even being delayed until 2011. "The plan will be transmitted during [this] summer so that the next council and the next county executive can set the date for the public hearing."

While Takoma Park Mayor Bruce Williams was unable to stay for the planning board's decision, Barron read a letter from the mayor reiterating his and the city's support for the plan.

Any future testimony on the plan will not be re-opened to the public until after the county council sets a date for a public hearing on the plan, according to Takoma Park City Planner Ilona Blanchard, who was also at the meeting Thursday.

"Any further changes to the plan will occur at the county council," she said, adding that the city was anxious to support the plan and see it approved by the county sooner rather than later. "We just don't know when they'll decide to take it up."