Residents have expressed concerns about the impact on the Walter Johnson school cluster from the proposed residential development in the plan, as well as pedestrian safety and green space. Most of the development will come from redevelopment of existing office parks, and on a significant greenfield property across from Walter Johnson High School, which has been delayed for years. The permit for construction of that promising project, Rock Spring Centre, is nearing its expiration date.
9 comments:
Marriott-Starwood is moving to downtown Bethesda, many of the medical offices related to Suburban Hospital will move there when the expansion is complete, and it's just a matter of time before Lockheed Martin moves near the Metro.
#MoribundOfficePark
#PruittIgoe
Not so sure Lockheed Martin will move. Defense contractors like their privacy, and haven't really jumped on the transit-oriented bandwagon. In fact, Northrop Grumman is relocating from Falls Church to a new very secluded, backwoods headquarters near Reston. Also, NIH just signed a sizable lease there.
Host Hotels and New York Life might follow Marriott's lead though.
1:35: You have about as good of a grasp of the real estate needs of top secret military contractors as your bosses on the County Council do. Classified weapons systems in a zero-perimeter urban building "near Metro"? Not quite.
I hope that the approval of term limits will make the Planning Department, the Planning Board and the County Council more responsive to citizens' concerns when developing sector plans.
The County needs to be far more attuned to residents and more responsive in this process.
Robert, I agree that Lockheed Martin is likely to want to stay on its current campus. That said, why the snarky response to 1.35 pm? And why the assumption that 1.35 pm works for the County?
@ 9:43 AM - Robert Dyer believes that the thousands of Montgomery County residents that voted against him in 2006, 2010 and 2016 are on the staffs of Hans Riemer, Bethesda Magazine and EYA.
Just read the Rock Spring Master Plan, and feel that it does a good job of documenting office/retail uses and ideas to revitalize the aging office districts that dominate the area. The bus rapid transit concept is sensible.
The plan seems deficient to me, in that it does not sufficiently evaluate the suitability of the area for additional residential development, notwithstanding the small EYA townhome development and the inclusion of 161 apartment units in the DRI proposal. Additional discussion of this point would be useful.
The recommendation that bike lanes be installed is a nice idea, but Rock Spring-- as the planners admit-- is highly trafficked and unlikely to become substantially less auto-dependent. I question whether bike lanes will be widely used in this environment.
I notice that the Planning Department employs the term "urban village" in numerous sector plans for what is in fact high density/high rise mixed use development. The Planning Board's use of the term "village" is inaccurate and deceptive and should be retired.
10:07 AM almost 7 in 10 just voted to bar Roger and George from the Council, so..yeah...
9:43: A snarky troll comment deserves a snarky response. I never said the guy works for the County - he works as a Guy Friday for Riemer & Leventhal, by his own admission.
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