Question 1: The Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments projects that Montgomery County’s population will increase by 200,000 over the next 30 years. How should the county prepare for future growth?

Transcript: So the question is that over the next 30 years, the population of Montgomery County is supposed to be growing over 200,000 people, so how do we prepare as a county for that growth? I think the main thing that we really need to do is look at the infrastructure, look at our transportation system. You know, there's issues with traffic right now, but I think a lot of it is just related to the fact that our transportation system is just not, you know, vast enough for most people to use, is not equitable in the way that we have it set up right now. So that's one thing, you know, we have to have a way for people to get around. And we also have to make sure that we get cars off the roads to be able to prevent a lot of these carbon emissions that are being put out. You know, the majority of the carbon emissions are coming from transportation. So we have to make sure that we address that. The next major thing that we really have to focus on, because we're so far behind right now, is affordable housing. We have a shortage of housing right now. And right now with this market, it's absolutely, you know, difficult to find housing in general, but affordable housing is even more difficult to find. So I think we're going to have to focus a lot on creating more transit oriented housing and building around, you know, transit centers in the Metro and having access to busses. But affordable housing is going to be the biggest challenge for me and honestly, for our generation right now here in Montgomery County. So that would be my focus.