The TD Bank is now under construction at the corner of Woodmont Avenue and Old Georgetown Road. A Shell station was demolished to clear the way for this, a puzzling development decision for a site across the road from a Metro station and surrounded by high-rises on every side.
Ban the bank.
ReplyDeleteWe should start giving it one star reviews on google and yelp.
#rethinktdbank
DeleteI saw that yesterday. Sad thing is that structure won't be getting any taller. That's it!
ReplyDeletethe top photo shows how out of step this development is with surrounding buildings (all high rises).
ReplyDeleteHow did our planning board approve this? Are they insane?
We could use some of that Westbard height over here. :)
DeleteAs a resident of one of the neighboring high rises, I am delighted with the decision to replace the gas station with a low-rise bank and tired of the kvetching by Dyer and others who do not live on this corner with 4 large high rises already. If you think having another high rise built right outside your window is so great, move into a home like that yourself. It isn't as if there aren't plenty of other high rises being built in the neighborhood already, and plenty of other poorly used lots near the metro where high rises could be built. And what about the adverse side effects of the all the high rises that have already been built? It is increasingly difficult to walk in this neighborhood without being hit by a car when you cross the street, mugged (judging by Dyer's crime reports), or stepping in dog poop. Not to mention the increased congestion on the Capitol Crescent. Why don't you focus on fixing those problems? Dyer may be correct that there are many bad development decisions in Bethesda, but this isn't one of them.
ReplyDeleteOne more thing from the person who lives in a neighboring high rise - I was told that one reason this decision was made is that there isn't enough space on this corner lot to build an underground parking garage with access from the street. If this is true, do you really think it is a good idea to build a high rise where residents would have to park on the street? At the very least, you should investigate whether this is true before posting another story whining about the TD Bank.
ReplyDelete9:18 AM It's right next to the Metro. MoCo's leading lights tell us high rise residents in the downtown don't own cars. The county garage is across the street anyway.
ReplyDeleteIt's larger space than the old BP on the corner of fairmont/old gtown. If they plan to fit a highrise there, why not this corner lot?
You have a good point on a potential high rise impacting you next door. However, the Council and Planning Board don't care. It's about who is moving into the new building, not current residents. Remember, those poor people at Crescent Plaza have to deal with the Planning Board approving a high rise that literally wraps around their building. Those folks own their units in Crescent, so I suspect their values have gone down. They can reach out and touch the other building from their balconies. Another irresponsible decision from the Planning Board that seems to be out of control recently.
As far as I know, parking in the county garage is free on weekends and evenings, but not during weekdays. And in any event, don't commuters to Bethesda need a place to park?
ReplyDeleteMy point is the parking garage angle needs to be investigated.
The residents of neighboring buildings were consulted about the TD Bank. The only resident I've heard of who objects to the TD Bank is a central planning, 'smart growth' environmental wacko who wants to impose her ideology on everyone else.
10:00 AM Residents can buy a monthly permit for the garages, I believe.
ReplyDeleteIt's common at some buildings like 8200 where there's not much garage parking internal to the building.
The new Douglas Development building planned for wisc ave will have barely any parking, so that's the direction things are going.
"the top photo shows how out of step this development is with surrounding buildings (all high rises).
ReplyDeleteHow did our planning board approve this? Are they insane?"
Is that a joke? You want government to force the owner to build a taller building? TD Bank is dumb as hell, but that's they're right. It's called America, F-yeah.
Dyer wants the government to force the owner to build a shorter building at west bard.
Deletetheir*
ReplyDeletewtf dyer, get your site into the 21st century to I can edit a typo.
Hey, in response to some recent comments on this I’d like to offer:
ReplyDeleteFirst, Mr. Dyer is providing us with excellent ‘news’ about our town. I hope he forges forward despite a periodic and hopefully infrequent cranky reader. Some of us deeply appreciate his efforts.
Second, I’ve lived within 400 feet of that parcel of land for almost 40 years, and in other parts of Bethesda for the preceding ten, and have seen huge changes in this town, some good, some not so good.
Third, the ways of the planning board and zoning decisions over those forty years provide comedy, frustration, yes- some growth, but never logic. One thing I can’t really fathom is why these comments are bring out the concept of ‘park’ or the need for parking. Yes, we still can’t abandon our car(s), but Bethesda has evolved into a walking - public/transportation town. If one owns a car there seem to be more than enough options in central Bethesda to satisfy that need; and might suggest to commenters who want more parking and fewer ills of city life, that maybe Brookeville or Darnestown might be the preferred place to live.
Finally, good architecture must always adapt to its surroundings (not the other way around) – something one of the most famous architects the world has ever known pushed hard for and we see it in much of his work. So a little squatty bank surrounded by taller buildings seems to have significantly missed one of urban planning’s fundamentals.
No one had said anything negative about dyer prior to your comment here. So why so defensive in his place?
DeleteRest of your comments are well spoken.
Funny how one more apartment building would be so detrimental to those near by high rise people. Their special little building can't have another building next to it. I bet people protested their ugly buildings going up next to theirs and here they are doing the same. As if their high rise just naturally jutted from the Earth without disruption to anyone else. The cycle of NIMBYism in Bethesda is entertaining.
ReplyDeleteThe neighboring resident again. First, I also appreciate Dyer's blog for providing local news, but after all his carping about the TD Bank I finally decided to speak up with another view.
ReplyDeleteSecond, I am one of those rare DC area residents who does live without a car. But having lived overseas for 3 years in an European city (and not Western Europe!) with a reliable metro system, I would say it is unrealistic to expect urban residents to give up their cars and parking spaces with the atrocious quality of service provided by the DC metro system in general and the Red Line in particular, and by all indications the quality of service will never measure up to that of metro's European counterparts in my lifetime (and no, it isn't the amount of money going into it, but how that money is spent, or in this case, wasted).
Third, good architecture - huh? In Bethesda? Where? As one colleague who is also a Bethesda resident replied when I said Bethesda is beginning to resemble NYC, "or Arlington."
Finally, with respect to the NIMBism comment, yes, human beings are selfish by nature, but there will always be plenty of nasty little would-be dictators who want to impose their preferences on other people by force "in the name of the people" or "for the public good."
This isn't the Soviet Union. The Planning Board, along with everyone else, acknowledged the stupidity of this project, but it was "by-right" which means that the PB isn't legally allowed to stop it.
ReplyDeleteRegarding the NIMBYism: This region is the most entitled, self-absorbed in the nation. People pretty much want to move here then quickly shut the door behind them. "After I move into my high-rise/McMansion, there shouldn't be any others built.
The developers adjacent to the Crescent shortened the rear of the building considerably, to provide additional sunlight and air, something they weren't required to do. Yet people are still complaining...
Yeah, the planning board was always public with their disdain for this building. But nothing they can do about it.
DeleteMaybe we need more incentives to entice developers to build bigger and higher in high density lots.
I agree NIMBYism is so stupid. Your own building is fine. But anyone else no way. Ha.
The crescent situation sucks but that was an eventual possibility the developers knew about when they built it on their own oddly assembled lot. The problem is developers can't fully assemble and don't care about the long term continuity and layout and such. They have no reason to care.
Delete"This region is the most entitled, self-absorbed in the nation." Please provide evidence proving this statement. How does one even go about measuring the degree to which a region is "self-absorbed"? Try building a high-rise or even a new housing development in other highly affluent areas of the country, such as SF or Silicon Valley. These places, among many others, have much greater restrictions on new development than does Bethesda.
ReplyDeleteThere are 4 - count them, 4! -- high-rise residential buildings at this particular intersection, but Comrade Stalin here is not satisfied and wants one more. The last is the Lion's Gate, but I don't recall a big push from residents of the 3 older high rises to save the low rise with that old book store and the Greek deli that used to be located on that corner, or to replace it with a low-rise structure. Are there no other intersections left in Bethesda with fewer than 4 high rises?
The one building next to the bank isn't at the intersection. So 3 really.
Delete*I'm pretty sure self-absorption can be scientifically measured by the number of NIMBY's and the lengths they are willing to go to have their cake and eat it too at the expense of others.
ReplyDeleteToo bad Crescent owners couldn't negotiate a one level bank instead of the highrise wrapping around them.
ReplyDeleteThere's another TD Bank on Wisconsin by West Virginia too. They put the foundation in weeks ago and it's been just sitting there since with no action.
ReplyDeleteWhy two so close together? maybe TD bank could help us understand better?
Well the rumors I've heard is this is a financial play by TD Bank. They're going to put the bank on there a few years while the land appreciates, then sell/develop it into a high-rise. The reason not to do it now is there are too many high-rise projects underway and there's a risk of a glut in the market driving prices/rents down.
ReplyDeleteI heard from someone else that the permitting office is intentionally slowing granting of certain building permits in downtown Bethesda. The reason is if they were all approved at once you'd have entire streets as construction and that's not going to work.
As it is, I'm surprised the developers got away with being allowed to close a lane of Old Georgetown road by Wisconsin Ave (in front of Tyber Bierhaus). That's a major throughfare and that means effectively only one lane is for thru traffic. Most of the time, I see that lane being used for free parking for the worker's pickup trucks.
Weren't we supposed to get a pedestrian ombudsman as of last July? Whatever happened to that?
I'd rather everything closed all at once and just finish it all already.
Delete"Maybe we need more incentives to entice developers to build bigger and higher in high density lots." Absent land use restrictions, markets provide an inherent incentive for property to go to its highest valued use because those who value a property most highly are willing to pay a higher price. Not surprisingly, the biggest voices against NIMBYism are also economic illiterates.
ReplyDelete"*I'm pretty sure self-absorption can be scientifically measured by the number of NIMBY's and the lengths they are willing to go to have their cake and eat it too at the expense of others." Presumably a joke (not a funny one). If serious, explain how the number of NIMBY's can be identified and how their willingness to have their cake and eat it too can be measured.
NIMBY critics apparently think that everyone except NIMBY's are angels, including themselves.
Why does everyone only have to be able to process one way or the other? Laughing against NIMBY doesn't mean pro-developer. This is a big thing dyer doesn't get. Anyone questioning his perspective and he thinks they are full on the other train.
Delete"*I'm pretty sure self-absorption can be scientifically measured by the number of NIMBY's and the lengths they are willing to go to have their cake and eat it too at the expense of others."
ReplyDeleteThis can be said about either side.
High-rises are good in terms of increasing density, which is a goal of creating a well-planned, walkable city. The taller buildings are, the more people and businesses you can fit into them. People can live in an area where they don't have to have a car, and they can easily walk to whatever amenities they need. I live in Woodmont Triangle in a high-rise and I just sold my car. I love this city and love that I can walk everywhere or take the Metro.
ReplyDeleteP.S. Dyer--love your blog and the updates that you give. It's hard to find out anything going on in this town in regards to real estate development, but your blog is really helpful.
#RethinkTDBank
ReplyDeleteTwo locations in Woodmont Triangle .5 miles from one another. Both low rise buildings. Sigh.