On the weekend of October 19 and 20, 2024, Main Street in Damascus was closed from Ridge Road to Woodfield Road. The center of the closure was the Druid Theater and the parking lots next to it. For two days the street held a 20-by-20-foot stage, a 32-foot community mural, a chess setup, a pickleball court, a flex lawn and a beer garden pouring from local wineries, cideries and breweries. On Monday, all of it was gone.
Two years later, that temporary weekend has led to a funded planning process. Montgomery Planning announced on September 11, 2026 that it had won a $100,000 state grant for downtown Damascus. The grant pays for a plan, not for sidewalks or lighting. The schedule puts final adoption in fall 2028, and the period when residents can most change what the street becomes is this coming winter and spring.
What the $100,000 actually pays for
The grant is a Maryland Department of General Services FY27 Capital Grant, which came through state Senate Bill 283. State Senator Katie Fry Hester led it, with support from Senator Craig Zucker and County Councilmember Dawn Luedtke. It covers community engagement, planning, transportation analysis and design work for a Damascus Streetscape Improvement Plan.
That plan will consider wider sidewalks, landscaping and street trees, pedestrian lighting, seating areas and bicycle accommodations. "Evaluate" is the planning department's own word. The grant money is for studying these items, and none of them is committed yet.
The streetscape plan is being written alongside a larger effort, the Damascus Main Street Sector Plan Amendment. That amendment refreshes the 2006 Damascus Master Plan, which still guides the town center. Planning staff will work with the Montgomery County Department of Transportation, the Maryland State Highway Administration and a consultant team. The Planning Board is expected to consider the streetscape plan as part of the sector plan amendment, not as a separate approval. State Highway Administration is involved because Main Street is MD 27.
The announcement also mentions a smaller $50,000 award. Planning describes it as a recently awarded Main Street Maryland grant administered by the Upcounty Regional Services Center. The County's January 2026 grants bulletin described it differently. There, $50,000 was added to the FY26 Place-Based Management Grants pool for Damascus Main Street Area activities, "in expectation of a State of Maryland award," and qualified organizations could apply for services that support the commercial corridor. In both versions, the money supports corridor programming and organizations, not construction.
A calendar that runs to fall 2028
Montgomery Planning's project page lays out the full sequence for the sector plan amendment:
- Fall 2026: Scope of work and plan preparation
- Winter 2026 to spring 2027: Community engagement and visioning
- Summer 2027: Preliminary recommendations
- Fall 2027: Working draft
- Winter 2028: Planning Board public hearing and review
- Spring to summer 2028: County Council public hearing, plus County Council and County Executive review
- Fall 2028: Sector plan adoption
As of mid-October, the page listed the current phase as "Scope of Work." It said staff were meeting with community members, gathering trends and issues, and expected the Planning Board to review the scope in early fall 2026. The Board's posted agendas for September 10 through October 29 do not include a Damascus item. That means the scope review, the first formal step, is still ahead.
The engagement and visioning phase is step two, and it is the phase where the public has the most influence. By summer 2027, staff will be writing recommendations. By the Planning Board hearing in winter 2028, the public will be reacting to a draft instead of shaping it. Planning has not yet set dates for meetings, surveys or pop-up events in that window. The department's main channel for announcements is the Damascus e-letter.
The 2024 festival already shaped the agenda
The engagement phase will build on input Planning already has. The grant release links the funding directly to the 2024 festival:
"The Damascus community told us they wanted a more vibrant, attractive, and people-focused Main Street, and they helped show what that could look like through the Damascus Placemaking Festival."
Montgomery Planning Director Jason K. Sartori said this in the department's September announcement.
The festival's after-action report, dated January 2025, recorded 129 survey responses, 1,576 rating dots, 184 written comments and 128 comments left at an info tower. Of the survey respondents, 87.5% said they were highly or very satisfied with the event. The highest-rated features closely match the list the streetscape plan will study:
| Highest-rated features from the 2024 festival | Items the 2026 streetscape plan will evaluate |
|---|---|
| Pedestrian-friendly streetscape | Wider sidewalks, pedestrian lighting |
| Public gathering spaces | Seating areas, public space enhancements |
| Outdoor dining | Landscaping and street trees |
| Multigenerational activities | Bicycle accommodations, connectivity |
| Varied food and drink | Not a streetscape item; tied to businesses |
The report also made recommendations that are easy to miss. It proposed murals at 9870 Main Street and 9890 Main Street, a streetscape study of the corridor, and a formal downtown civic association that would act as a volunteer advisory body. The streetscape study is the one now funded. The report also records community interest in refurbishing or repurposing the Druid Theater, which the Maryland Historical Trust inventory lists at 9840 Main Street. The theater building was the center of the 2024 festival, and the new plans are likely to keep coming back to it.
How long a project like this takes
A finished Damascus project shows what this kind of timeline looks like in practice. Montgomery Parks held a community meeting on October 24, 2023, about adding lights to Fields 1 and 2 at Damascus Recreational Park, and took online comments through December 15, 2023. Design and permitting ran from summer 2024 to spring 2025. Construction ran from summer 2025 to spring 2026. User groups could start permitting the lit fields on September 1, 2026.
That project went from public meeting to usable fields in almost three years. It had a clear scope: International Dark Sky-compliant lighting, turf, drainage, ADA access and parking upgrades. It also had a $225,000 State Bond Bill covering part of the cost. Parks is now looking at whether to light the rectangular Fields 5 through 8, but no plan or funding source has been set for that work. Main Street has several more parties involved, including a state highway, and its plan has not been adopted. Whatever gets built there will come after fall 2028.
Some sidewalk work is closer. The County's Oak Drive–MD 27 sidewalk project scheduled construction of Phases 2 and 3 to begin in the second half of 2026. It is a separate County Department of Transportation project with its own schedule, and it is not part of the Main Street plan.
The storefronts are changing on their own schedule
The sector plan moves in seasons. Main Street's businesses change one lease at a time, and each opening adds to the town center that the planners will be studying.
- House of Curry opened in 2025 at 9805 Main Street, Suite 207, in the former Sky Kitchen space, according to MoCoShow's year-end restaurant roundup.
- That Smoothie Place, a few addresses down at 9815 Main Street, Suite 106, added a dirty-soda menu in February 2026, MoCoShow reported.
- Wayback Burgers leased 9811 Main Street in mid-2025 and planned to open in late 2025, according to MoCoShow. A September 2026 MoCoShow update said the opening slipped because of grease-trap issues and that the chain still intends to open. The chain's Damascus location page still lists Suite 108 as "Coming Soon."
- Rita's Italian Ice & Frozen Custard is planned for Ridge Road, just off the Main Street core. MoCoShow reported in July that the location is listed as "Coming Soon" on Rita's website and app and that no opening date has been announced.
Three of these four businesses are in suites between 9805 and 9815 Main Street. That short block will be part of the town center the sector plan studies. When engagement opens this winter, people commenting on sidewalks, seating and outdoor dining will be describing a street that includes these new tenants.
If you want to talk through what a long-range plan like this could mean for a home near Main Street, Jack Kort has followed Damascus and the rest of Upcounty since 1988 and is glad to help. Let's Connect.
