The Woodmont Avenue Streetery outdoor dining area, located between Elm Street and Bethesda Avenue at Bethesda Row, will reopen early tomorrow evening, Friday, October 14, 2022. It will be in a new configuration, which will allow dining to continue, but also permit two lanes of automobile traffic to operate through the block. The new setup is a compromise plan developed by the Montgomery County Department of Transportation, after considering feedback from residents and business owners.
A new bikeway extension with protected bike lanes has been constructed by MCDOT along one side of Woodmont. There will also be a pickup zone with short-term parking for takeout restaurant customers and delivery drivers. Cars will now be able to drive around the entire block of Bethesda Row again. And outdoor dining will continue in a smaller space.
“Roughly half of the businesses in Bethesda asked for Woodmont to reopen to vehicles,” Bethesda-Chevy Chase Regional Services Center Director Pete Fosselman said in a statement. “The surveyed businesses are located in the Urban District, as well as just outside of the district. While we want to keep our streetery in place because we know how important it is to the community, we also recognize the current setup is not working as well as it could for the business community. This solution is a way to best meet the needs of all those impacted by the use of Woodmont Avenue.”
MCDOT Director Chris Conklin said today that temporary barriers will be used initially to define the various zones of the street. They will later be replaced with more aesthetically-appealing planters.
Many business owners have complained that the streeteries have reduced their visibility, and made it harder for their customers to park. The owner of Harp & Fiddle said the Norfolk Avenue Streetery was a significant "last straw" factor that resulted in the demise of his decades-old business.
Mark Bucher, owner of Medium Rare in Bethesda, supports reopening the streeteries to traffic. He said businesses are losing customers because people aren't seeing their storefronts while driving past. "The ability for cars to pass through drew people in, and that is something we need more of," Bucher said. "I support reopening the street. Bethesda hospitality businesses need to be drawing in new customers constantly to be able to meet the high rents and stay open. Additionally, there is nowhere for customers and commercial vehicles to load and unload as it is.”
Federal Realty, the owner of the Bethesda Row development, also supports allowing vehicle traffic to pass through along Woodmont. “Being able to drive by a highly visible destination is the first and most important element of successful street retail, which is the expectation for retail stores and restaurants that front Woodmont Avenue," Federal Realty SVP of Development John Tschiderer said. "Woodmont Avenue is a critical part of the overall Bethesda Row roadway network. The circulation pattern allows for potential customers to loop around the streets of Bethesda Row—making visual notes of the retailers, and then to park.”
The Norfolk Avenue Streetery remains fully open for outdoor dining, and closed to auto traffic at this time.
Holy smokers! That's good news. The Streetery actually made it look like there was a nighttime economy instead of being moribund.
ReplyDeleteWho would have ever thought that allowing driving on a street would ever be a thing? Of course streets are and should be for driving. What else are they for? Well, it isn't bikes or picnic tables that's for sure. Next we'll see an older driver plow right into a family enjoying some Jose Andres tapas on a Saturday evening. Traffic driving thru? They just keep screwing this up. Get rid of them. I will say that this was a rare thing to see businesses triumph over the citizens. They wanted to keep it closed permanently. Thank goodness they listened to business owners whom they mostly loath. So, they open this after 3 years now only to close down half of Little Falls.
ReplyDeleteFinally. It was effectively 6 lanes wide (2 vehicle travel lanes, 1 parking lane -- each way). No need to take that all away.
ReplyDeleteThey sent out a survey about it a while ago and I filled it out in favor of reopening.
Why did they even bother with the survey for residents if they were only going to listen to business owners? No residents wanted Woodmont Ave to reopen.
ReplyDelete3:13 And thank goodness they listened to common sense.
ReplyDeleteOne stuck throttle, clueless old person, escaping perp, rushed food delivery driver or H20 style PTSD aluminum valve rattling maggot car owner (or stolen) is all it's going to take to become another vehicular/restaurant/patron tragedy adding to the list of all the other goings on in this rapidly decaying town...
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ReplyDeleteEspecially if parking is expensive or hard o find, people want to see what's there before committing to stop. Pike and Rose did it right, "Look there's LLBean". Also you get 1 hour of free parking. Rockville Center is closed off from cars. Nobody going down 355 really knows what's back there. To me it's hard to navigate. So why bother when you have nice stores at Congressional Plaza.
Learning
That's true. Rockville Town Square is a case study of what not to do.
DeleteThere is a principal of having teaser parking at least on the street. Bethesda Row has removed the pandemic pick-up parking, so folks need some nearby parking to pickup food.
As a Rockville I wholly disagree with your comment about town ctr. There are always far more people shopping and dining there than somewhere like congressional plaza. A lot of residents don’t want to drive anywhere and would rather just walk down the street to have a meal and sit in the plaza.
Delete"“Being able to drive by a highly visible destination is the first and most important element of successful street retail,...."
ReplyDeleteReally? Then I guess all of the stores on Bethesda Lane between Elm and Bethesda Avenue are screwed. Or are they doing just fine?
It should have 1 northbound lane adjacent to the new bike lanes, and leaving the 2 west-side lanes as streetery. Or perhaps 1 lane streetery, 1 lane 1-hour parking.
ReplyDeletePreventing southbound traffic on that block is necessary to keep thru traffic on Wisconsin Ave.
So much of this reads like boomer “back in my day it was better, anything new is bad”.
ReplyDeleteThis is a direct fallout from Covid. Government's justify this insanity and get away with it. Total control over your life. You have a car and need to easily get places? Tough. Walk or ride a bike. NOVA is pretty purple even medium Blue now yet they don't have streeteries in places where traffic and commerce need to take place. No, they use the WO&D rails to trails for all that. We have our own version and it's called the CCT. No bike lanes needed and no steetry needed at all. Open up Woodmont Triangle next please. This will never get reverted you realize that? Just like LFP, and that insane idea, once it's changed it won't go back to the easy it was designed.
ReplyDelete10:41: It think it's great that Rockville Town Center is used by local residents. It would be nice if all town centers have options so you don't need to drive to get groceries etc.
ReplyDeleteBut as non local, I find it confusing. I had business in Rockville and negotiating the one way streets I stumbled upon Dawson's. But I couldn't figure out where to parks so instead of checking it out, I left.
Learning
“Keeping southbound traffic on Wisconsin”. Have you driven on Wisconsin lately. It takes 15 minutes to get from east west highway to Bradley.
ReplyDeleteAnd many long time Bethesda residents supported reopening wood not to cars. In fact we should make wood month two ways on all sections of the road.
I think the bike line and giving extra space for outdoor eating is fine given the width of the road. But no there is no reason to shut it down to cars. Ridiculous
There is plenty of room there to reopen the street provide more outside eating and the bike lane. And as a resident of downtown Bethesda I am grateful it is opening to cars again. And btw Wisconsin is a parking lot.
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