Wednesday, February 27, 2013
County planners still are determining the details of just how the Purple Line would cut across the region, but the biggest issue of all is funding.
County planning staff are slated to update the planning board about the Purple Line, Capital Crescent Trail and Silver Spring Green Trail projects at the board's meeting at 2 p.m. on Thursday. A variety of issues still remain in the Purple Line planning process: planning the rail's connections to the Red Line's east and west branches, its connections to the MARC train and the Capital Crescent Trail, its crossing over Connecticut Avenue, the landscaping along the rail—but one of the biggest issues is how it will be funded, according to a memo from county planning staff to county planning board members. The preliminary engineering phase of the Purple Line is expected to be completed this summer, after which the Federal Transit Administration…
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
The county planning staff will make recommendations to the board about future bus rapid transit systems at the meeting on Thursday.
Discussion about the implementation of dedicated bus lanes or bus rapid transit systems in Montgomery County will continue at the Montgomery County Planning Board's next meeting, on Thursday, Feb. 21. The county planning staff will update the board on its recent work on the Countywide Transit Corridors Functional Master Plan. A public hearing for the plan will be held on May 2, according to a planning department briefing. The planning staff recommends that Maryland State Route 355 "is the best candidate for pursuing a high-quality BRT treatment to serve future planned growth," and that U.S. Route 29 "is the best candidate for implementing dedicated bus lanes in the near term," according to the briefing. There is a concern, however, that …
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
The Montgomery County Planning Board will discuss a development in Bethesda, the county's Zoning Rewrite Project and other issues at the board's Feb. 14 meeting.
Montgomery County Planning Board members and staff planners will discuss the proposed Bethesda development at 7900 Wisconsin Ave. at the board's meeting on Thursday, Feb. 14. The development—a 444,000-square-foot residential building with 475 units and more than 20,000 square feet of ground-floor retail between Wisconsin and Woodmont avenues at St. Elmo Avenue—fits all zoning requirements and amendments, according to the board's briefing materials for the meeting. Planning staff received only one email expressing concern about the development, according to the briefing documents. Residents of the adjacent Fairmont Plaza Condominium Building (4801 Fairmont Ave., Bethesda) expressed concern about construction hours and noise (several …
Thursday, February 7, 2013
The county's zoning rewrite would allow a residential neighborhood to change, gradually, to diversify its housing stock.
The revisions in the works for Montgomery County's aging zoning code—which dates to 1977 and is more than 1,200 pages long—are meant, among other things, to help Montgomery County's residents age in place, architect and sustainability expert Carl Elefante said. In the planning department's December 2012 cable show Montgomery Plans, Elefante—who served on the planning department's advisory panel when planning staff drafted the zoning code rewrite—explained how the county's ambitious Zoning Rewrite Project would make it possible for residents to stay in their communities as they grow older. The zoning rewrite—which is entering into its final stages of revisions—is meant to allow for more variety in residence size and type within a …
Thursday, January 31, 2013
And is being "hip" necessary to Montgomery County's future success?
Can suburban Montgomery County be made hip? County Councilman Hans Riemer reportedly believes so: "I really think that we are on the verge of a golden age in Montgomery County," Riemer said at a happy hour called "Can we make the suburbs hip? The future of White Flint," Bethesda Now reported. "The region that we are in is ... dynamic, growing, exciting... . ... But we have to and we are positioning ourselves in that region to capture that future growth," he added, Bethesda Now reported. The White Flint Sector (430 acres bounded by the CSX tracks, Montrose Parkway, Old Georgetown Road and the White Flint Mall) has been approved, so far, to be redeveloped with 2,220 residential units added to the existing housing stock of 2,321 units; 9,801 …
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
A discussion of the county's recently updated Athletic Field Use Permit Policy has been postponed to a later date.
When the Montgomery County Planning Board meets on Thursday, board members will be in for a long day, according to the meeting's agenda. In the morning, the board will consider a revision to a property plat in the Bethesda neighborhood of Bradley Hills, and a revision to a property plat in the Churchill Town Sector of Germantown. Design guidelines for the Chevy Chase Lake Sector—a large development still in the planning stages—will be presented by county planners to the board. Planners are suggesting ways to make new buildings in the sector appear smaller through design tweaks, the use of traditional materials and other design methods, Patch reported. Next, the board will discuss a preliminary plan to re-subdivide an existing 11-acre lot …
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
The county planning board discusses county planning staff suggestions for streamlining county development review and approval processes at the board's Thursday meeting.
Obtaining a development permit in Montgomery County is not always the most straightforward process. In fact, county planning staff identified 67 issues with the county's development review and approval process, and will present a summary of the issues and possible solutions to the issues to the county planning board at the board's weekly meeting on Thursday. Identifying 67 issues and solutions is—like the permitting process—time-consuming. The planning staff has been working with county departments and the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission since December 2011 on the project. "These efforts have identified numerous processes that can be simplified to reduce the time it takes for a project to move from concept to building permit," …
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
Developers say a narrow vehicular street, rather than a pedestrian walkway, will make a planned White Flint development be more welcoming to pedestrians—and similar to Bethesda Row.
A development proposal for the White Flint area recently received a makeover when developers decided to give it a more pedestrian-friendly orientation. Intended for the area just south of the White Flint Metro station, the North Bethesda Gateway development "might get a vehicular road instead of a pedestrian walkway. The project’s architect said that could actually make the area more inviting to pedestrians," The Gazette reported. In place of the pedestrian walkway that had been planned to go through the property (at 5516 Nicholson Lane—one block east of Rockville Pike), architects now suggest a narrow vehicular road lined with sidewalks. George Dove, managing principal of WDG Architecture, told The Gazette that "having cars on the road …
Planning staff recommend that the board's comments on the proposed subdivision regulation amendments be sent to the county council for a public hearing on Jan. 22.
The Montgomery County Planning Board will consider three amendments to county subdivision regulations at its meeting on Thursday, Jan. 17, at the county planning headquarters at 8787 Georgia Ave., Silver Spring. All three subdivision regulation amendments will be discussed in the morning portion (approximately 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.) of the meeting, according to the meeting agenda. Planning staff recommend that the board's comments on the proposed amendments be sent to the county council for a public hearing on Jan. 22. The first amendment (SRA No. 12-02) regards platting exemptions for small parcels of land in Community Legacy Plan Areas. When small parcels of land in Community Legacy Plan Areas are developed, the platting requirements can be …
Friday, May 18, 2012
The Montgomery County Planning Board appointed Rose Krasnow to serve as interim director of the planning department, while the search continues for a permanent replacement for Rollin Stanley.
The Montgomery County Planning Board appointed Rose Krasnow to serve as the interim director of the county's planning department, according to a statement issued by the planning department Friday. Krasnow will begin directing the 130-member agency on Monday, following the departure of Director Rollin Stanley, who resigned last month. The board has begun a nationwide search for a permanent director, and intends to hire one within six to nine months, said Montgomery County Planning Board Chair Françoise Carrier. Krasnow has worked for the planning department since 2004. For the last year and a half, she directed the department’s Area 1 team, which crafts master plans and reviews development applications for the inner-ring communities around …
Joe Galvagna
12:46 pm on Friday, February 1, 2013
Hip I donor know but more to the center or right would be great. Less giveing away the house more geared to the real working people in the county and less entitlements. Make people work for what they do not just give away the county income. Yea like that is going to happen. more ›