Friday, March 25, 2016

Toll Brothers to host public meeting on WMAL property preliminary plan April 9

Developer Toll Brothers has announced it will be hosting a community meeting regarding their preliminary plan for the WMAL tower site in Bethesda on Saturday, April 9 at 10:00 AM at North Bethesda Middle School (8935 Bradmoor Drive). Mark Nosal, President of Toll Brothers' Maryland Division, says the preliminary plan will detail the configuration of lots, roads and public space within the development.

Landscaping and amenities will be fleshed out at a future planning stage, Nosal said. The plan that will be unveiled will reflect the ten months of public input Toll Brothers has received, he said, as well as feedback from Montgomery County Government.

The site at 7115 Greentree Road houses four transmitters for WMAL Radio in a partially-forested, parklike setting surrounded by single-family residential neighborhoods. There is limited road access to the site, expected to be remedied by connecting Greentree Road with Greyswood Road, as suggested by an earlier master plan. How Greyswood Road residents might feel about that is another story.

It will be interesting to see the final mix of housing types proposed. At a meeting last year, Toll Brothers predicted there would be a 50/50 mix of single-family houses and townhomes, with 330 homes altogether. Current residents have raised several concerns, including already-overcrowded schools in the Walter Johnson cluster, and traffic, given the overwhelmingly auto-oriented nature of the site.

WMAL is expected to relocate its transmitters to Germantown if the development is approved.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

We do need more housing for sure though in this area. Such limited supply and so much demand is pushing pricing up at bubble levels!

Anonymous said...

"the overwhelmingly auto-oriented nature of the site."

Hopefully there will be bus service to that area soon - a slight re-routing of the Ride-On 36 bus should cover this area.

Anonymous said...

@ 6:44 AM - Good news, most of that site (approximately 2/3 of it) is less than half a mile from the Metrobus J bus stops along Democracy Boulevard, and this will improve after internal roads are built.

Anonymous said...

"There is limited road access to the site, expected to be remedied by connecting Greentree Road with Greyswood Road"

Yeah, turning Fernwood Road into a further clusterf*ck during rush hour morning and night.

Robert Dyer said...

9:28: The only way we'll avoid that is by passing term limits this November.

Anonymous said...

Solo drivers complaining about other solo drivers. LOL

Anonymous said...

@ 5:21 AM, 6:44 AM - And the Ride On 47 bus runs along Fernwood Road, which is even closer. But don't try convincing Dyer. He thinks that only minorities ride the bus.

Anonymous said...

I drive Fernwood every day sometime between 7AM and 10AM. I've never seen more than 2 people at a bus stop, usually one or none. Everyone drives. Why think new residents will be any different?

Anonymous said...

The 47 goes straight up Rockledge after it leaves Fernwood. Hopefully these new bus-riding residents can breathe some new life into that moribund office park.

Peter said...

The Moribundly Sloth-Level-Energy quoth a low-energy statement about voting.

Of course, he forgets that EVERY ELECTION DAY is your opportunity to change who represents you for your particular district -- thusly term-limiting your rep via the process!

If you are not exercising said ability then you should not complain.

Anonymous said...

Term-limits legislation should not apply only to officials who have already been elected. It should also apply to candidates who have been rejected multiple times by the electorate. If you have run for the same office twice in a row, you should be blocked from running for that office again. "Two strikes and you're out."