What is Urbana like?

[Anonymous]

We are considering moving there and wonder if it would make sense. We would be commuting to Bethesda and DC near Judiciary Square. Is it a family friendly place? How are the schools? Is there a place to shop? or a downtown area? Is it diverse? Would the commute be worth it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are considering moving there and wonder if it would make sense. We would be commuting to Bethesda and DC near Judiciary Square. Is it a family friendly place? How are the schools? Is there a place to shop? or a downtown area? Is it diverse? Would the commute be worth it?

Very friendly place, great schools. Really, really far away. I guess the Bethesda commute is okay (hopefully No Bethesda, like NIH). DC commute will be soul sucking.

[Anonymous]

We looked in Urbana and it seemed really nice but we had some concerns about the location. We eventually ended up deciding to move to Clarksburg. Here is a glimpse of our decisions:

Schools: Urbana has a great school but we also feel Clarksburg has a decent enough school that we were not concerned either way.
Commute: Urbana would have added significant time to our daily commute. We drove up there after work on a typical day (no accidents and traffic moving) but it is slow. Clarksburg exits are right before the reduced lane numbers so it was easier traffic wise. We both work Bethesda area and already leave around 6. We feel like Clarksburg only adds 10 min to our current drive but Urbana would have been at least 30 min.
Downtown area: they have enough stores that you could get what you needed. We again liked the location of Clarksburg with access to Milestone
Diversity: This may have been the final push to keep us in Clarksburg. The school in Clarksburg has more diversity and we are a biracial family so this was very important to us. Urbana has a much larger Caucasian population in the school system. (On DCUM that would be considered a bonus but for us it was a negative).

I would recommend making the drive to Urbana from work one or two days and see how it feels to you and if it is worth the extra commuting time. We liked the area but felt being closer in was more ideal for our family.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are considering moving there and wonder if it would make sense. We would be commuting to Bethesda and DC near Judiciary Square. Is it a family friendly place? How are the schools? Is there a place to shop? or a downtown area? Is it diverse? Would the commute be worth it?

Very friendly place, great schools. Really, really far away. I guess the Bethesda commute is okay (hopefully No Bethesda, like NIH). DC commute will be soul sucking.

Urbana, despite its name, is not urban at all. Its an exurb really. Its a greenfield community in the middle of nowhere south of Frederick but far north of the urbanized areas of Montgomery county. If you like diverse, whatever that means nowdays, you probably will not find it there. But that's something you need to research more. You can get much of what you need around there and within maybe a 10 mile drive. Plus these days with Amazon and Peapod and other delivery, retail stores are a little less critical.

90 minutes to a downtown DC job, generally. 60 minutes to Bethesda. These are rush hour numbers. Keep in mind, even with Metro, after 30 minutes metro travel from Bethesda, you get another 30 minutes of driving up the freeway in the worst traffic the 270 has to offer, where it drops a lane above Clarksburg.

I'm not dissing Urbana as a place, if its what you want. I'm just saying its far more suited for a family where one parent works in Frederick and the other works in Germantown or Gaithersburg (maybe Rockville) But not for two careers oriented in Bethesda and DC. Unless you have no kids and love never being at the place you call "home."

[Anonymous]

Not an option unless you love commuting.

[Anonymous]

We have friends there who work from home so commuting is not an issue for them. They have a very nice house and the neighborhood is nice and well-kept. The pool complex is amazing! It's a bit cookie-cutter. There is not much out there- definitely feels like the middle of nowhere and in terms of restaurants and such it's really lacking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We looked in Urbana and it seemed really nice but we had some concerns about the location. We eventually ended up deciding to move to Clarksburg. Here is a glimpse of our decisions:

Schools: Urbana has a great school but we also feel Clarksburg has a decent enough school that we were not concerned either way.
Commute: Urbana would have added significant time to our daily commute. We drove up there after work on a typical day (no accidents and traffic moving) but it is slow. Clarksburg exits are right before the reduced lane numbers so it was easier traffic wise. We both work Bethesda area and already leave around 6. We feel like Clarksburg only adds 10 min to our current drive but Urbana would have been at least 30 min.
Downtown area: they have enough stores that you could get what you needed. We again liked the location of Clarksburg with access to Milestone
Diversity: This may have been the final push to keep us in Clarksburg. The school in Clarksburg has more diversity and we are a biracial family so this was very important to us. Urbana has a much larger Caucasian population in the school system. (On DCUM that would be considered a bonus but for us it was a negative).

I would recommend making the drive to Urbana from work one or two days and see how it feels to you and if it is worth the extra commuting time. We liked the area but felt being closer in was more ideal for our family.

Thanks - this is not OP but we are also considering both options and this is quite helpful

[Anonymous]

Cute homes, but far out esp. during rush hour. A friend owns a gorgous 4 level townhome, and works off of 495. She did the commute a year or two and then gave up on the drive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Cute homes, but far out esp. during rush hour. A friend owns a gorgous 4 level townhome, and works off of 495. She did the commute a year or two and then gave up on the drive.

sounds like she likes driving...and stairs!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are considering moving there and wonder if it would make sense. We would be commuting to Bethesda and DC near Judiciary Square. Is it a family friendly place? How are the schools? Is there a place to shop? or a downtown area? Is it diverse? Would the commute be worth it?

Very friendly place, great schools. Really, really far away. I guess the Bethesda commute is okay (hopefully No Bethesda, like NIH). DC commute will be soul sucking.

Urbana, despite its name, is not urban at all. Its an exurb really. Its a greenfield community in the middle of nowhere south of Frederick but far north of the urbanized areas of Montgomery county. If you like diverse, whatever that means nowdays, you probably will not find it there. But that's something you need to research more. You can get much of what you need around there and within maybe a 10 mile drive. Plus these days with Amazon and Peapod and other delivery, retail stores are a little less critical.

90 minutes to a downtown DC job, generally. 60 minutes to Bethesda. These are rush hour numbers. Keep in mind, even with Metro, after 30 minutes metro travel from Bethesda, you get another 30 minutes of driving up the freeway in the worst traffic the 270 has to offer, where it drops a lane above Clarksburg.

I'm not dissing Urbana as a place, if its what you want. I'm just saying its far more suited for a family where one parent works in Frederick and the other works in Germantown or Gaithersburg (maybe Rockville) But not for two careers oriented in Bethesda and DC. Unless you have no kids and love never being at the place you call "home."

Not the OP, but we're looking in this area and this post was really helpful. I SAH, DH will be commuting to Bethesda, so we'll definitely reconsider Clarksburg. The homes there are more expensive than Urbana, but I guess that's the price premium you pay for a shorter commute.

[Anonymous]

Lots of people here are allergic to commutes, they'd rather live in an area with terrible schools than add another 15 minutes to their commutes. Also, their kids are under 5, so schools aren't REALLY a factor yet.

With that said, it's an exurb/outer suburb/whatever the hell you want to call it. Big new houses for not much and a fair amount of big-box shopping nearby. Dunno if there's much in the way of ethnic eats the way that has happened in Loudoun.

If MARC, 270-Metro, or working off hours are not options, then I'd recommend against moving there if jobs are further in than Rockville.

As for percentages, Urbana High School:
White 69.7%
Hispanic 10.3%
Asian 9.6%
Black 4.3%
Two or more 5.7%

It's not as lily-white as folks would have you think, certainly it's more diverse than Middletown, Thurmont, etc.

Clarksburg IS way more diverse though.

[Anonymous]

FWIW, I haven't heard bad things about Clarksburg HS.

[Anonymous]

Yes, you should definitely sign up for three hours of commuting each day. That seems like a healthy and uplifting plan.

[Anonymous]

+1 for Clarksburg. It's great here. There is a lot of development going on but people are nice and it's a very family-friendly area. DH commutes to Rockville and it's not bad at all going straight down 355.

[Anonymous]

I love cars. I love driving. I have three cars, two of them are stick. But Urbana to Judiciary Square makes me want to slit my wrists. If you're focused on new construction you do it closer in. If you're focused on economizing you can do it closer in. Please don't do this to yourselves.