Monday, May 13, 2013

7100 WISCONSIN AVENUE EASTHAM'S EXXON REDEVELOPMENT SITE PLAN FILED

Washington Property Company has filed its site plan for the Eastham's Exxon property at 7100 Wisconsin Avenue with the Montgomery County Planning Department.

The dimensions of the mixed-use building remain the same: 12 stories along Wisconsin, stepping down to 45' at the rear of the structure.

More details of the public amenity space can be seen in the new image below.

However, the two renderings are deceptive, so I have added an aerial view, which gives a truer representation of how the building will literally "eat" neighboring Crescent Plaza like a large grizzly bear.  Residents on the affected side of Crescent Plaza did not have knowledge that views would be lost at the time they purchased their condos. At that time, the Eastham's property was not zoned to allow a 12-story, mixed-use development.

Publicly, parties state that Crescent Plaza residents are thrilled with the final plan. But I continue to invite any Crescent Plaza resident who disagrees with that assessment to give their side of the story in the comments below.

The new building will contain 145 apartments, a parking garage and well over 6000 square feet of retail and commercial space.  15% of the units will be MPDUs. By my calculation, that comes to 21 affordable units in a town where there is a demand for thousands.

Meanwhile, the loss of Eastham's will create more automobile trips in search of gas and auto repairs. Not everyone in Bethesda has concierge, valet dealership maintenance, nor a luxury car.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I viewed a unit open house in Crescent a few years ago. It had a wonderful bay window that looked out on Wisconsin.

Looks like that unit will be looking into the other apartment building now.

Robert Dyer said...

That certainly will impact property value of those units.

Ron C said...

Having a walk around community is great but to push out the mom and pop shops and small buisness like Eastham's Exxon service that have made this town and country like family is disgraceful, you could go to Easthams and get product and service and talk with Mr.E himself, when that highrise is built you will never meet the owner you will meet some minium wage rep that could careless about you, enjoy driving 30 miles for gas or superb car care

Robert Dyer said...

The current planning concept is entirely driven by developers. They wrote the new zoning code in back rooms with the politicians they paid big money to get into office. The result is more auto pollution, as drivers must go upcounty for auto repairs and, eventually, gas. Total hypocrisy on the part of our "green" elected officials.