Friday, February 13, 2015

NIH DECIDES ON GROWTH PLANS: HOW WILL THEY IMPACT BETHESDA?

The National Institutes of Health has reached a decision to implement a long-range master plan for its main Bethesda campus, according to a document scheduled to be published today. NIH chose this alternative from several options, following public comment and environmental studies. The decision will now allow for "potential growth in NIH personnel, new construction, additions, renovations, demolitions, and upgrades in site utilities," as the report states.

NIH claims that Montgomery County Public Schools will be able to accommodate any increase in students, should it add additional employees over the next 20 years. At present, NIH expects 3000 current Bethesda-area off-site employees and contractors to be shifted to the Bethesda campus. It assumes, therefore, that their kids are already enrolled in the school system.

The report says that NIH is committing to retaining the campus-like feel of the facility in any further on-site development. Reviews will be conducted every five years over the 20-year life of the plan.

Allowed under the plan will be renovation and expansion of laboratory facilities.

Traffic impacts will not be insignificant. The planned shift of 3000 people to NIH will add 12% more NIH employee-driven vehicles to rush hour traffic on Bethesda roads around the site. It will generate an estimated additional 432 AM and 439 PM automobile trips. The report places great faith in the Purple Line and Bus Rapid Transit being implemented by the time the employees are transferred to the main campus. Of course, the Purple Line is in serious jeopardy, the BRT hasn't a dime in funding, and neither may have a significant impact on NIH-related traffic. That's because the Purple Line is far south of NIH, and the BRT ridership potential has been greatly overstated by its proponents. Why would someone board a BRT when there is a Metro stop on-site? Metro is far faster than BRT would be.

Parking provisions, which have been controversial in the community, will allow 1 new space for every 3 new employees moved to the campus. Noise levels will remain the same, and air quality will be within current government standards, the report predicts. NIH does predict, however, that its production of wastewater will increase, and it will enter discussions with the WSSC about upgrading its sewer facilities on-site.

30 comments:

Anonymous said...

A link to the actual document would be nice.

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

Prepare to have your comment terminated. You mentioned "the other"

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

"Why would someone board a BRT when there is a Metro stop on-site?"

How about people who live off Pooks Hill or Alta Vista and are forced to drive because they don't have direct access to mass transit. Well a BRT at Pooks Hill Rd would be beneficial for them.

Anonymous said...

Don't worry Hogan will add a new for-profit toll lane down 270 so the new employees can drive in from Hagerstown. Much faster than BRT from Pooks Hill or the Purple Line from Silver Spring.

Anonymous said...

@8:49 AM I doubt a 270 toll lane will help.

We need the Corridor Cities Transitway and a second river crossing to help the daily 495-270 bottleneck.

Anonymous said...

To the 8:40 AM comment. You must not be a regular rider of Metro, or when you do you get on so stoned you are oblivious to the daily problems incurred. Any alternative to that crumbling, deteriorating, third-world system is an improvement.

Anonymous said...

@8:49 Will it mirror the success of the ICC?

Anonymous said...

@10:40 Based on your comment, I question if you are a daily metro rider.

Anonymous said...

The BRT argument seems ridiculous. Dyer is right -- there's a Metro stop right on campus. People can take that, which is faster, to the stop nearest their house, then take a Ride-On from there.

It's idiocy to put in a BRT that basically runs parallel to the Red Line AND takes away a lane of traffic in the process.

What's next, a monoral to be placed in parallel to the BRT, to be placed in parallel to the Red Line?

Monorail! Monorail! Monorail!

Anonymous said...

Why was my comment removed? I simply was helping out by posting a link to the Record of Decision report.

It's nonsense like this, and the general lack of fact-based arguments on the opinion pieces why I come back to this site less and less.

Robert Dyer said...

2:32: Perhaps just post the link without the ad for competing site? The report was not hosted by that site. Every argument is backed up by facts on this site. Unlike much of what I read in local media.

Anonymous said...

Why do you call any reference to any other website an "ad"? That's stupid and paranoid.

Anonymous said...

STFU and read that Bethesda parody blog instead of Dyer if you want.

Robert Dyer said...

Baba Booey.

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

"Every argument is backed up by facts on this site."

Suuuuure. Like your repeated claim that "George Leventhal tried to secede from Maryland."

Robert Dyer said...

5:56: Watch the press conference. "The People are in the Big Counties!! [Insert Howard Dean scream here]"

Anonymous said...

How does that equal "tried to secede"? Is Howard Dean a notorious secessionist?

Anonymous said...

"Every argument is backed up by facts on this site."

You're kidding right? I would state that it's almost the exact opposite. Some of the claims made on this site are honestly jaw-dropping.

Robert Dyer said...

4:39: Such as what?

Anonymous said...

Like "George Leventhal tried to secede from the state of Maryland".

Or, "White Flint Mall was viable" immediately before its closure.

Or, "Hans Riemer is responsible for every night club that has closed in Bethesda. Including those which have been replaced by other nightclubs. He is also responsible for every food truck that has closed."

Robert Dyer said...

9:35: The second point is factually correct. I've never made the jumbled statement you describe in your third point. Hans Riemer was behind the Nighttime Economy initiative. It failed. So he can be blamed for the shuttering of multiple Bethesda nightspots. Was he responsible for every single food truck that ceased operation? No. He was, however, responsible for about 90% of food trucks vanishing from downtown Bethesda at lunchtime. His political operative, who endorsed him, donated to him, and may have used civic association funds for a mailer attacking one of his 2010 opponents with false statements - and was rewarded with a $150,000 County job for those actions, as well as helping to ram through the White Flint Sector Plan - was the mastermind behind "solving" the food truck "problem."

As for your assertion regarding Leventhal - I never published an article on that topic. I did refer to Leventhal's dog whistle statements that, had he been a Republican and had a local media that was healthily skeptical rather than adoring of politicians, would have certainly been described as an attempt to secede by said media.

I'm simply applying the same treatment to his statements. No Republican said we needed a new entity to represent large counties when Martin O'Malley won in 2006. And they certainly never said that The People only live in the large counties.

I haven't heard him talk about it since, likely because he recognized the danger in sounding slightly unhinged (alas, Mike Miller lacks the same political judgment as Mr. Leventhal, as his post-State-of-the-State remarks prove).

Anonymous said...

"Was [Riemer] responsible for every single food truck that ceased operation? No. He was, however, responsible for about 90% of food trucks vanishing from downtown Bethesda at lunchtime."

So you're saying he was only responsible for 90%, not 100%. LOL, big difference. And ignoring, for a moment, your obsession with Riemer, your claim that "90% of the food trucks vanish[ed] from downtown Bethesda" is a big heaping pile of malarkey, too.

"As for your assertion regarding Leventhal - I never published an article on that topic."

When did I say that you had "published an article"? I just said that you keep making that stupid claim, repeatedly.

"Leventhal's dog whistle statements that, had he been a Republican and had a local media that was healthily skeptical rather than adoring of politicians, would have certainly been described as an attempt to secede by said media."

Keep clinging.

"[Leventhal] said that The People only live in the large counties."

82% of Maryland's population lives in seven counties plus Baltimore City. The other 16 counties have only 18% of the state's population.

Robert Dyer said...

8:07: If my claim is malarkey, where is the Lobster Truck at lunch? Where are the two cupcake trucks? Funny, I don't see them parked near Veterans Park or Bethesda Row recently, to name just a few. Hmm....

What you're saying about population is not what Mr. Leventhal said. He didn't say many or most people live in the large counties. He said "The People live in the big counties." You know, as opposed to the robots and scarecrows that apparently populate the small counties in Mr. Leventhal's dimension.

Anonymous said...

Here is what Leventhal actually said:

"This [caucus] is certainly in response to the suggestion by our new governor, who we want to work with, that his emphasis will be on counties with very small populations."

It was in response to Hogan's statement a month earlier, which described Montgomery County, Prince George's County and Baltimore City, as "the three lonely counties that unfortunately voted the wrong way from the rest of the state."

Too bad that you cannot be bothered to quote anyone accurately or in context.

Robert Dyer said...

2:21: You've only quoted part of what he said. I haven't quoted anyone inacurrately. What I put in quotes was his actual statement.

Anonymous said...

"You've only quoted part of what he said...What I put in quotes was his actual statement."

That's hilarious.

Robert Dyer said...

7:05: Nah, it's just the truth, that's all. The truth is what always trips up the MoCo Machine hacks.