Bethesda needs a recreation center. Can it get one?

Progress on a proposed Bethesda recreation center is slow moving.

As the county prepares its next budget, which outlines spending for July 2026 – June 2027, the Bethesda community is pushing a recreation center as a priority.

The Montgomery County Planning Department predicts downtown Bethesda’s 2050 population will be more than double the 2020 population. As the area grows, so will the need for county services, like parks and recreation.

The planning department called out the need for a dedicated recreation center back in the 2017 Bethesda Downtown Sector Plan. There’s been little progress.

“There isn’t a timeline. When the stars are aligned then things can happen,” said Elza Hisel-McCoy, west county planning chief. “I definitely would not say it’s stalled. A free-standing Recreation Center on a piece of property somewhere in the county is a complex undertaking.”

In a written statement to the county government submitted Oct. 8, Kristen Nelson, chair of the Western Montgomery County Citizens Advisory Board, said Bethesda doesn’t have equitable access to recreation spaces.

On behalf of the advisory board, Nelson urged government leaders to take meaningful steps towards a recreation center.

“Bethesda’s continued success depends on ensuring residents – and businesses — have access to the same community infrastructure found elsewhere in the county,” Nelson said.

“A civic and recreation center would improve public health, expand equity, and reinforce downtown Bethesda’s role as a connected, inclusive, and vibrant place to live, work and gather.”

Rec center ‘long time coming’

Montgomery County has 22 recreation centers, eight senior centers, five indoor aquatic centers and seven outdoors pools maintained by the recreation department.

Monika Hammer, recreation department spokesperson, said it’s important people have access to adequate resources to exercise to stay health and active.

“There’s a lot of different factors that are taken into consideration when it comes to locations of centers. That can include center usage, population, looking at things with the racial equity and social justice lens,” she said. “We want to be accessible to everyone in the county.”

There’s a lot of moving parts to decide where a new recreation facility will go, Hammer said.

At least four different county agencies are involved in planning and execution, Hammer said. Plus, capital projects like recreation centers are expensive.

Downtown Bethesda hasn’t seen any new parkland or recreation spaces since the passage of the 2017 plan. Other priorities in the plan, like economic growth through new development, have seen major progress.

The area has seen over 3.8 million square feet of new development. The county has already approved 3.6 million more.

Amanda Farber, a Bethesda resident, said downtown needs more parks and recreation spaces. But finding a location is hard.

“The recreation center has been a long time coming,” she said. “There was a point in time where the county really was investing a lot in these sorts of amenities in downtown Bethesda.”

Then, she said, the county shifted focus towards private development to support public spaces.

What’s next?

Montgomery County is exploring public-private partnerships to get the recreation center off the ground.

“There was a general feeling that the amenities were a little bit slower in coming than everybody would have preferred,” Hisle-McCoy said.

Working off that feeling, the county adopted an updated plan in May 2025 with incentives to entice developers to partner with the county and make the recreation center a reality.

Developers who take up the offer could get a tax break and approval to build a taller facility than regular zoning laws would allow.

Hisle-McCoy said the incentives will help everything “get into the right alignment” to deliver the recreation center.

The public-private model worked in Silver Spring.

A partnership between the county and an affordable housing provider made way for the Silver Spring Recreation and Aquatic Center, which opened last February.

The $72 million facility offers a variety of free programming, like dance and fitness classes, recreational sports, water aerobics and more. Attached to the facility is a 15-story affordable housing building for seniors.

“I call it the Ritz Carlton of rec centers,” Farber said. “They included everything. It’s amazing.”

To see the same success in Bethesda, the county government has to decide what it wants to see in a recreation center.

Multiple community organizations, including the Western Montgomery County Citizens Advisory Board, have asked the county council to fund a Program of Requirements Study, which would define physical requirements for the space and operational goals for the center.

The county is hosting public input sessions on the upcoming budget throughout October and November. The budget must be set by June 1, 2026