January 2026
On January 21, 2026 the Montgomery County Council held a hearing regarding the Planning Board’s overall recommendations regarding the Clarksburg Gateway Sector Plan, in which the Planning Board had declined to accept the recommendation of the Historic Planning Commission that the COMSAT Labs property be designated as a historic site, which if it had been adopted, would prevent demolition of the COMSAT Labs building.
On behalf of COMARA, Maury Mechanick submitted written testimony on the Planning Board submission, in which we expressed unhappiness with the rejection of the Historic Planning Commission’s recommendation, while putting forward as a backup approach preservation of at least the front portico and lobby of the Labs building, which could be easily converted into a pavilion type structure as a public meeting place if the entire building were not to be preserved. COMARA also re-submitted for the record before the County Council the paper that we had previously prepared on the historic significance of COMSAT Labs.
Maury also testified virtually at the hearing. Altogether there were 33 individuals testifying, 30 in person and 3 virtually. (Due to a scheduling conflict, Maury only heard those who testified during the second half of the hearing.) While the Planning Board proposal covers a broad range of issues other than COMSAT Labs, and many of those appearing addressed these other issues, of the individuals he heard, about six specifically addressed the status of the COMSAT Labs building, fairly evenly split between those supporting a historic designation and those agreeing with the approach taken by the Planning Board.
In terms of next steps, the Council’s Planning, Housing and Parks Commission Committee will review testimony and consider revisions to the draft staff plan at one or more of three work sessions on February 2, 11 and 23, 2026. Following the work sessions, the Committee will introduce any suggested revisions to the County Council for consideration of adoption. Interestingly the PHP is comprised of three members, all of which are fairly prominent for other reasons — Andrew Friedson and Will Jawando, both of which are announced candidates for County Executive, and Natali Fani-Gonzalez, which is the current Chair of the County Council. The PHP work sessions are open to the public (in person or virtually) but citizen participation in the work sessions is not permitted.
Click here to read the written testimony submitted by Maury at the January 21 County Council meeting. The paper “Perspectives on the Historical Significance of the Research and Development in Satellite Telecommunications Undertaken at COMSAT Laboratories” can be found here. To view the Planning Document as approved by the Montgomery County Planning Board, click here.
January 2025
There have been some interesting developments recently regarding the possible designation of the COMSAT Labs property for listing in the Montgomery County Master Plan for Historic Preservation. The Historic Preservation Commission (HPC) of Montgomery Planning has received a recommendation on January 22, 2025 from John Liebertz, Cultural Resource Planner III, Countywide Planning and Policy Division,Montgomery Planning, supporting inclusion of the COMSAT Laboratories property in the Master Plan, with the intention of forwarding this recommendation to the Montgomery County Planning Board in connection with its consideration of the Clarksburg Gateway Sector Plan now under consideration by the Planning Board and ultimately the County Council. Based on the recommendation (see pages 4-5 in particular), it appears as though the materials that we have assembled in the I Remember COMSAT Project, as well as other inputs provided by COMARA, played an important role in support of this recommendation.
Click here to read the Montgomery Historic Preservation Commission Report dated January 22, 2025.