Some of the groundwork has been laid by the existing and future segments of the Montrose Parkway itself, and a proposed Bus Rapid Transit system along the Pike. No Metro station is located within the sector plan's boundaries, but the location is between the Twinbrook and White Flint stations on the Red Line. Planners will review all of these, but also address the need for better pedestrian and bicycle connectivity between Rockville, White Flint 2 and White Flint. The latter two areas are now branded as the Pike District by Montgomery County.
Properties under study by planners for the WF2 Sector Plan include Montrose Crossing, Pike Center, Loehmann’s Plaza, and the industrial properties east of the railroad tracks along Parklawn Drive. The Midtown Bethesda North condos, and the adjacent Target store, are harbingers of what the future may bring to these commercial properties.
Issues planners want to address in the sector plan process are transportation and connectivity, community facilities (in particular, capacity - or lack thereof - in the Walter Johnson school cluster), environmental sustainability, and land uses and urban design.
One public kick-off meeting was held on June 25, 2015. You can review the public feedback I reported on from that meeting the next day.
A series of workshops will be held this fall to obtain more feedback from residents, businesses and landowners. Planners will present a working draft of the plan to the Montgomery County Planning Board in the spring of 2016, and a draft plan to the Montgomery County Council and Executive by August 2016. The Council will vote on the plan, and a necessary Sectional Map Amendment, by summer 2017.
The next step in the process will be planners' presentation of the Scope of Work document to the Board on Thursday, September 3, 2015.
A common argument about the BRT is that why build it if there is already the Red Line. The Red Line is an okay way to commute longer distances into Bethesda and DC from these outlying areas of the county. But as this article points out it is dismal/useless for connecting areas along the route and for lowering the need to drive along the Rockville Pike. The stations are poorly placed for that purpose and too far apart.
ReplyDeleteI sense another steaming pile of meltdown on the way.
ReplyDeletePopcorn, fellow skeptics?
Meltdowns are the specialty of the anonymous Bethesda blogger who trolls here :)
ReplyDeleteThat anonymous mean blogger lives in silver spring and is a pizza fanatic who dislikes Dyer out of jealousy.
ReplyDeleteHans Riemer, Aaron Kraut and Dan Reed all have one name and it is Emmanuel Goldstein.
ReplyDelete