Montgomery County has long been hailed as a national pioneer in the implementation of inclusionary housing policy, having passed the region’s first zoning ordinance, which has been responsible for the creation of over 12,000 moderately priced dwelling units (MPDU) since the 1970s. The explosive growth at both ends of the Red Line in the past decade prompted the county to take another landmark step this week when the County Council unanimously passed a proposal to enforce the inclusion of “workforce housing” in future residential development. 10% of units will be set aside on top of the 12.5% already reserved for MPDU’s. County Executive Doug Duncan is expected to sign the measure after some tweaking.

Workforce housing is all the buzz in housing policy circles these days, as skyrocketing real estate costs have combined with flat wages to create a subset of the traditional middle class that is too wealthy to need (or want) public housing, but priced out of new market rate developments. The Washington region generally defines this group as making 80-120% of the Area Median Income, so a family of four making anywhere from $70,000 to $108,000 meets this criterion – hardly traditional candidates for publicly subsidized housing.