County Seeks Ideas for Mini Curbside Pop-Up Parks

Parking spaces to be transformed for annual celebration of PARK(ing) Day

By Bethesda Beat Staff

A pop-up park in downtown Silver Spring in 2016 Montgomery County

Got an idea for a pop-up park that will fit into a couple of curbside parking spaces?

If so, the Montgomery County Department of Transportation wants to hear from you.

The department is again seeking ideas from people and groups to transform curbside parking spaces in downtown Bethesda and Silver Spring into tiny urban parks in September.

The transformations will take place on International PARK(ing) Day on Sept. 21, when communities around the world will turn parking spaces into pop-up parks to call attention to the need for public spaces in urban settings. The annual event started in San Francisco in 2005.

The county’s PARK(ing) Day event “encourages people to rethink the urban landscape, their transportation choices and how infrastructure can be more transit-oriented, bikeable and walkable,” according to the transportation department’s website.

The department is looking for ideas for parks that will fill two metered parking spaces in about 30 designated spots on county roads. In previous years, participants have filled parking spaces with pop-up parks that included an outdoor café; a campsite complete with a tent, artificial Christmas trees and a fake log fire; a cornhole court; and a mini-park complete with benches, fake grass and a small plastic swimming pool.

This year, the transportation department is allowing businesses to advertise or promote their services and provide free samples or giveaways if they are selected to set up a pop-up park. Sales, vending, fundraising or conducting business in the parking spaces is prohibited, according to the rules governing participation.

The parks can only be in place from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.—including set up and tear down.

There’s no cost to participate and aspiring park designers can sign up online. The deadline for applying is Sept. 12.