At last night's meeting at Westland Middle School, applicant 1784 Capital Holdings displayed new renderings of the proposed 53' tall structure, which will be on the site of a building currently occupied by Bethesda Collision behind McDonald's. There will also be several below-grade floors in the facility, and surface parking spaces for customers in-between the building and Bethesda Collision.
An owner of Bethesda Collision said his business will continue to operate out of the other building on the site. Plans for the project include a public access path, that will run between the self-storage building and the McDonald's retaining wall. It is envisioned as a pedestrian access point to the future Willett Branch greenway park. A parcel of the property northwest of the building footprint will be dedicated to the greenway park, as it lies in a flood plain and cannot be developed.
Advocates for the Willett Branch stream expressed concern about the intrusion of the southwest corner of the building into the stream buffer, the visual impact of the building height on the future park and access path, and whether or not there would be trash receptacles on-site to discourage storage unit owners from illegally dumping items in or near the stream.
Several representatives of the project team were on hand to answer questions. This applicant has done a much better job of keeping the nearby community informed than the two other most recent self-storage buildings in the Westbard area, both of which were constructed with little community engagement a decade ago.
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| Several basement levels will be below-grade |
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| The site is between McDonald's, Bethesda Collision and the Crown Castle telecommunications tower |
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| The parcel outlined in red, just northwest of the future storage facility, will be dedicated to the Willett Branch greenway park |
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| The Willett Branch stream and stream buffer bisect that part of the property, and Equity One's property next door |
11 comments:
The Westbard area just loves those damn self-storage units.
Is this the same Tim Dugan on the Bethesda citizens advisory board?
5:41: Yes, he is on several local boards.
The parcel that they are not developing is part of the White's Tabernacle No. 39 cemetery land -- i.e., the same cemetery that is causing EquityOne fits. I suspect that fact also contributed to their disinterest in building anything there.
These places just enable hoarding.
Throw stuff away people, fercrissake!
Or donate, or don't buy it in the first place.
Photorhea.
8:15 AM You don't have to worry about too many Bethesda photos if you are covering the city afar in Frederick and Arlington :)
Anyone down to try out Bistro Sensations in Monty Mall today?
Well, it looks as well as a storage facility can look I guess.
Other points to add to the excellent coverage:
-The parcel dedicated to the County by the developer should be (and presumably will be) included in the archaeological studies to delineate the location of the African-American cemetery.
-Question: will the developer of the storage facility be asked to pay a pro-rated share of the cost of the archaeological studies?
-The site borders on an area that I believe links to the Capital Crescent Trail. That area should be vegetated.
Westbard has some of the most valuable land in the DC area. Why are there so many self-storage places? The views from some of the apartment buildings are spoiled with all of these places popping up.
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