Virtual meeting on Cheltenham Bikeway in Bethesda tonight at 6:30 PM

The Montgomery County Department of Transportation will host a virtual public meeting regarding the proposed Cheltenham Drive Bikeway project in downtown Bethesda tonight, June 10, 2026, at 6:30 PM. MCDOT will present the project design, estimated cost, and timeline. The agency will also provide an opportunity for public testimony and questions. In its meeting announcement, MCDOT stresses that the final project design can still be altered based upon the feedback it receives from the public tonight. 

Residents and other stakeholders who cannot participate tonight may still submit written testimony by this Friday, June 12. Written testimony will be given the same weight as oral testimony. To find out how to join tonight's meeting, or to submit written comments, visit the meeting announcement website online.

Redevelopment proposed for 4719 Hampden Lane, 4720 Montgomery Lane in Bethesda

A proposal to redevelop 4719 Hampden Lane and 4720 Montgomery Lane will be put forward at a virtual public meeting tomorrow night, Tuesday, April 7, 2026 at 7:00 PM via Zoom. See the announcement sign pictured below for full information on how to participate. The proposed apartment tower would include up to 250 residential units, a parking garage, "private amenities," and public open space. No mention is made of retail or restaurant tenants on the ground floor.

Public meeting scheduled for redevelopment of Bethesda Crescent buildings

Residents and other stakeholders are invited to weigh in on the proposed redevelopment of the Bethesda Crescent buildings at 7475 Wisconsin Avenue at a required pre-submittal meeting on Thursday, March 26, 2026. The meeting will be held in the first floor conference room of Montgomery Towers at 4550 Montgomery Avenue in Bethesda at 7:00 PM. If the proposal is approved, the existing office buildings would be demolished to make way for 439,000 square feet of mixed-use development, with 420 apartments and 11000 SF of retail. 17.6% of the apartments would be Moderately-Priced Dwelling Units.

Public meeting scheduled for redevelopment of Jewelry Exchange/Old Georgetown Grille in Bethesda

Developer Stonebridge is preparing to submit its Preliminary and Site Plans for its proposed redevelopment of 7749 and 7755 Old Georgetown Road, and adjacent property along St. Elmo Avenue, in downtown Bethesda. It has scheduled a required pre-submittal public meeting for Monday, June 10, 2024, at 6:00 PM at the Connie Morella Bethesda Library at 7400 Arlington Road. Give Stonebridge some credit for having the meeting prior to when most people begin going on summer vacations. We've all seen public meetings for projects that were actually controversial sometimes held between mid-June and August, or during the December holidays.

The assembled project site includes the office building that holds the currently-operating Old Georgetown Grille and Colonial Opticians, and the former Jewelry Exchange retail building. Some one-level retail buildings directly adjacent on St. Elmo will be torn down as well, but Serpentine Dance Studio and House of Milae will remain between this new high-rise, and the Sophia Bethesda apartment tower.

Bethesda Downtown Minor Master Plan Amendment process beginning

The public process to introduce and potentially approve a Minor Master Plan Amendment to the 2017 Bethesda Downtown master plan will begin next week. Three community events will provide information to, and take preliminary feedback and commentary from, the public. The first will be held during the Bethesda Central Farm Market at Bethesda Elementary School at 7600 Arlington Road this Sunday, May 19, 2024, from 9:00 AM to 1:30 PM. Two more events are scheduled for Wednesday, May 29 from 7:00 - 9:00 PM at the Connie Morella Bethesda Library at 7400 Arlington Road, and on Saturday, June 1 from 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM at the Chevy Chase Town Hall meeting room at 4301 Willow Lane.

Minor Master Plan Amendments have been controversial for three reasons. They have an abbreviated public process compared to a full sector plan. Second, there is often a particular developer seeking to redevelop a particular property beyond what current zoning allows, and - to get around the illegality of benefitting one property owner - a map is drawn up including a few properties around that site to provide a veneer of legitimacy to the amendment. Finally, the Montgomery County Council and Planning Board have failed to extract significant concessions or public benefits and amenities in exchange for the upzoning that typically results from an MMPA. 

Case in point for the latter is the MMPA that covered the redevelopment of the Apex Building at 7272 Wisconsin Avenue. The Council could have, but did not, require a replacement cineplex for the Regal Bethesda 10 that was in the ground floor of that now-demolished building. It also did not mandate that the developer provide the replacement Capital Crescent Trail tunnel under Wisconsin Avenue. As a result, we now have neither. 

The CCT tunnel? It's now very likely never to happen, especially as long the County budget continues to favor the developers and "non-profits" run by Friends of the County Council over the residents and taxpayers. The whole point of the MMPA process is to wrest at least some public benefit out of the upzoned development, in exchange for the greater profits being realized by the private developer. It's safe to say the Council failed spectacularly in that last MMPA, despite holding 100% of the leverage, and it's clear the failure was intentional.

Now, the MMPA being proposed this time is said to be focused on the cap on development allowed by the 2017 plan's Bethesda Overlay Zone. When development since 2017 comes within 2,000,000-square-feet of the 32.4 million cap, the plan recommends the County Planning Department "check in with the County Council to see if additional recommendations are needed to help implementation of public amenity and infrastructure recommendations like new parks and transportation-related improvements."

So far, despite the lofty promises of the Planning Board and County Council, the 2017 Bethesda Downtown Plan has delivered zero amenities and zero new parks. At the same time, it has provided substantial real estate development for tremendous private profit. Keep this in mind if you participate in this MMPA public process. Demand you get a return for your tax dollars that are being spent (the County's structural budget deficit has raised your property taxes every year except FY- 2015, in which the average homeowner received a $12 tax "cut") and the noise, higher housing costs, inconvenience, overcrowded classrooms, traffic congestion and net loss of existing affordable housing created by all of this development.

NCPC schedules "public scoping meeting" on Little Falls Parkway road diet

The Montgomery Parks and Montgomery County Planning departments have been in violation of the Capper-Cramton Act of 1930 for eight years, implementing a road diet on Little Falls Parkway in Bethesda without receiving permission from the National Capital Planning Commission, which has authority over all alterations to the parkway. Eight years after multiple versions of the road diet began disrupting travel on the primary route between the growing Westbard and downtown Bethesda areas, the County will now go before the NCPC to seek belated permission. "Ask for forgiveness, not permission," is just one of the guiding mantras of the Montgomery County cartel, it appears. "Betrayed by the County Council" remains the mantra of residents, as councilmembers are - as I predicted last May - continuing to back a road diet for the parkway.

A virtual "public scoping meeting" has been scheduled for March 12, 2024 at 7:00 PM. To join the meeting online, or to leave comments on the road diet proposal, visit the NCPC website page for the agenda item. While the County Council tried to sell the public on the idea that it was stopping the road diet that is opposed by the vast majority of residents, it actually only directed Montgomery Parks to come back to the Council with a new plan. Parks did so, and the Council hastily approved the new plan with no notice to residents.

The new Montgomery Parks/County Council plan would maintain the road diet between Arlington Road and Dorset Avenue. It would convert the existing configuration back to the one implemented right before it - one lane in each direction, but on each side of the existing grassy median, rather than right next to each other. What this means is that there would be a slight safety improvement, as the restoration of a median will reduce the danger of head-on collisions.

However, the Parks department and County Council would remain victorious over the residents who pay their salaries, and whom they presumably serve. They get to keep the road diet they wanted, with a long-term eye still on eventually closing the parkway entirely. They keep the rush hour traffic jams and cut-through traffic into Kenwood, Somerset and Hillandale Road. Montgomery Parks continues to illegally use funds allocated to other projects and purposes for its road diet adventures; the Montgomery County Council has yet to make a capital budget allocation for a Little Falls Parkway road diet. And Montgomery Parks is once again moving ahead despite a pending court decision on the lawsuit by Kenwood residents to overturn the road diet between Hillandale Road and Dorset Avenue. Laws for thee, but not for me!

The Council is about to bend their knees to their developer sugar daddies once again with a "minor master plan amendment" allowing more development in downtown Bethesda than the 2017 master plan allowed - and before delivering a single new amenity out of that plan for Bethesda residents! That steroid shot to the thousands of new housing units delivered or under construction in downtown Bethesda since 2017 means more cars on the road. Nearly a thousand new residents will be moving into new homes in the Westbard area over the next few years, Westbard Sector Plan Phase II (River Road) is coming down the pike with a Purple Line extension, and the Council is working hard on converting the churches along River Road into luxury housing developments under the guise of "affordable housing." Yet the Council believes that reducing vehicle capacity by 50% on the main conduit between the two areas is a sensible plan.

Is the NCPC any better at math - or in representing the interests of residents - than the County Council? We will find out this year.

Public meeting scheduled for new Westbard townhome development in Bethesda

A required pre-submittal public meeting has been scheduled for the new Brownstones at Westbard Square townhome development proposed for 5501 Westbard Avenue in Bethesda. The virtual meeting will be on Thursday, March 21, 2024 at 7:00 PM. To join the meeting, go to https://shorturl.at/hAWZ2, or via telephone, dial into the meeting at 1-301-715-8592. The initial site plan is proposing 32 townhouses; more are planned for the future at Westbard Square, and on the former nursing home property. EYA is the developer of the project.

Rendering courtesy EYA

Montgomery Parks seeks input on future of Capital Crescent Trail in Bethesda

Montgomery Parks is seeking public input on potential alterations and renovations to the portion of the Capital Crescent Trail between Bethesda Avenue and the Washington, D.C. line. Two meetings will be held for this purpose. One will be in-person, on Thursday, November 2, 2023 from 7:00 - 8:30 PM in the All-Purpose Room at Somerset Elementary School at 5811 Warwick Place in the Town of Somerset. The second meeting will be a virtual Zoom meeting on Wednesday, November 8, 2023 from 12:00 - 1:30 PM. The content of both meetings will be identical. Registration is optional, but you can register online for either meeting if you want to ensure that you receive email updates about the project over the coming years (you'll have to utilize that web page if you want to join the Zoom meeting).

What sort of changes or updates are under consideration for what Montgomery Parks is calling "Capital Crescent Trail 2.0?" First on the list is the potential widening of the trail, which has been discussed for many years, as pedestrians using the trail have been struck or nearly struck by cyclists on the narrow route. New signage, access points, improved connectivity and new amenities round out the list the department has provided. But improvements and changes could include ones that residents like you propose that planners haven't thought of, if you provide your thoughts at one of these meetings.

MDSHA to host virtual meeting on River Road corridor safety study September 21

The Maryland State Highway Administration will host a virtual meeting on its corridor safety study of a portion of River Road (MD-190) in Bethesda on Thursday, September 21, 2023 from 6:30 - 8:00 PM. To join the meeting, follow the instructions pictured below. MDSHA states that the study's purpose is to improve pedestrian and cyclist safety on River Road between Springfield Drive and Little Falls Parkway. 

During the meeting, MDSHA will present the findings and recommendations from the study, which - interestingly but not surprisingly - was conducted with zero input or notice to the community. The Larry Hogan legacy at MDSHA persists beyond his term of office, it appears. A longtime real estate developer, Hogan oversaw a seismic culture shift at MDSHA that threw the traffic engineering book out the window. Long known for its practice of making engineering best practices a priority over political or development interests, the agency under Hogan suddenly began folding like a card table, and acquiescing to any local politician's demands. Traffic signals, speed limit changes, access restrictions, and road diets repeatedly rejected in the past as unsafe or adding to congestion were suddenly being approved left and right.

Hogan's two terms in office coincided with a drastic speed limit reduction on River Road that defies the state highway's design, requiring drivers to ride their brakes along many stretches of the road, which was designed for a 45 MPH minimum. While Midas franchisees across the county celebrated with champagne, the change did not improve safety. Drag racers and motorcyclists can be heard roaring up and down the road all night long at three times the posted speed limit or higher. 

During his governorship, Hogan was accused of approving road changes and projects that benefitted development interests, including some of his own real estate projects. The River Road record is no different, as developers and the Montgomery County politicians they control have a long term plan to bring the state highway down to 25 MPH, in preparation for urbanization and redevelopment of the corridor. 

Developers are betting that rising land values, and a long-desired state tax on country clubs, will encourage or force sales of multiple properties between Brookside Drive and the Capital Beltway. They envision townhomes and apartment buildings on the current sites of the Kenwood Golf & Country Club, of many or all of the churches and schools along that stretch, and on the American Plant property at Burdette Road. MDSHA even owns a plot of land near the intersection of River and Braeburn Parkway that is currently used as a depot, but is coveted by developers. The long-"secret" plan to extend the Purple Line to Westbard will only juice the heights and density of many of these properties.

So, don't be surprised that MDSHA is coming in with a pre-formed proposal for more changes to River Road at this virtual meeting. There was no public meeting introducing a study. There was no public input. Remember when they changed the speed limit without going through the legal and required public process, and without the required advance notice posted on the roadway? Once again, they've already got something in mind, and they're going to tell us, "This is how it's gonna be." Democracy in action!

Bethesda gas station site environmental cleanup public meeting scheduled

The former Exxon gas station site at 7340 Wisconsin Avenue in Bethesda has been accepted into the Voluntary Cleanup Program by the Maryland Department of the Environment. Subsurface soil and groundwater tests have indicated petroleum compounds are present in both. Greystar Development East, LLC plans to redevelop the property with a 308-unit apartment tower with ground floor retail and restaurant space. A proposed response action plan (RAP) includes removal and off-site disposal of the impacted soil and groundwater, and implementation of controls to mitigate potential exposure to toxic material by construction workers and future residents on the site.

Greystar applied to the MDE for acceptance into the program for the long-dormant site in May 2023. A public meeting on the RAP has been scheduled for August 14, 2023 from 6:00 to 7:00 PM in the Medium Room of the Connie Morella Library at 7400 Arlington Road in Bethesda.

7749 Old Georgetown Road redevelopment will include Old Georgetown Grille building property

Developer Stonebridge's proposal to redevelop the former Jewelry Exchange building at 7749 Old Georgetown Road in Bethesda will include the adjacent 7755 Old Georgetown office building property that is home to Old Georgetown Grille and Colonial Opticians. Renderings show the lots assembled for the project also include one-story retail buildings on St. Elmo Avenue next to 7755 Old Georgetown. They depict the Serpentine Dance Studio and House of Milae buildings remaining in place between the future high-rises of 7749 Old Georgetown and currently-under-construction St. Elmo Apartments.

Stonebridge is proposing a 175' tall apartment tower that would include up to 240 rental apartments, 15% of which would be Moderately-Priced-Dwelling-Units (MPDUs), the minimum required by Montgomery County. Up to 6000-square-feet of ground floor retail and restaurant space are proposed, as well as a 150-space underground parking garage. Rooftop features would include a partially-covered terrace, a not-yet-determined amenity, and a green roof area. 

The architectural firm contracted by Stonebridge for the development is Bethesda's SK+I Architectural Design Group. Renderings show the building will follow the base-and-tower massing design that has become ubiquituous among projects built under the guidelines of the 2017 Bethesda Downtown sector plan. VIKA is the engineering firm.

A required public meeting regarding the project Sketch Plan will be held tonight, Monday, June 26, 2023 at 7:00 PM at the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Regional Services Center at 4805 Edgemoor Lane in downtown Bethesda. The meeting will be held in the Wisconsin conference room at the center. Stonebridge will present the project to the Bethesda Design Advisory Panel on June 28, and submit its Sketch Plan to Montgomery County in July. 

The Montgomery County Planning Board is expected to review the Sketch Plan at a future public hearing in October or November of 2023. It would then review the subsequent Preliminary and Site plans for the project in 2024. If all plans are approved, a Q1 2026 groundbreaking is anticipated.

Images courtesy Stonebridge/SK+I

Strathmore Street Residences plans revealed in Bethesda

More details about the proposed redevelopment of the Strathmore Apartments at 7025-7039 Strathmore Street in downtown Bethesda were revealed at a virtual public meeting last night. The Strathmore Street Residences applicant appears to be the current ownership of the property, which has hired Bethesda firm Architects Collaborative to design a brick-facade building that will favor classic aesthetics over current trends. No renderings of the architectural design were available last night. Architects Collaborative is also designing the proposed Apartments at Sumner Place project in Bethesda.

Robert Harris, the applicant's attorney, called Bethesda "the economic engine and arguably the most desirable place to live" in Montgomery County. The general outline of what is being proposed is a 7-story rental apartment building with 160-170 units, with 15% of the units being set aside as Moderately-Priced Dwelling Units, the minimum required by Montgomery County. There are 32 naturally-occurring-affordable-housing units at the current property, so the project would represent a net loss of 7 affordable apartments in downtown Bethesda.

Residents will have 2 levels of underground parking. The current plan is to provide at least one parking space for every unit, but the total number of garage spaces could be reduced by the end of the approval process. Montgomery County's public Capital Crescent Garage is about two blocks from the Strathmore Apartments site via Woodmont Avenue.

Faik Tugberk, principal and founder of Architects Collaborative, said the new development will make the Woodmont-Strathmore side of the property the focal point with a circular design element. The loading dock will be on the alley side of the building, with a lay-by for trucks so that other traffic using the alley will not be blocked. However, Tugberk said the garage entrance will be placed on the Strathmore Street side, so as not to overburden the alleyway. He added that this was not ideal from a design standpoint, but a compromise to be a good neighbor with the surrounding properties and users of the alley.

Tugberk said the new design will allow an uninterrupted pedestrian crossing from Strathmore Street to Wisconsin Avenue via the cut-through at The Camille on Wisconsin. He added that the pedestrian pathway on the Strathmore Street Residences portion of the route will be enhanced with public art. A rooftop amenity is planned, such as a lounge or terrace, but there are no plans for a swimming pool. 

Apartment units will have balconies, Tugberk confirmed, but some elements of the project are still in flux at this early stage. The mix of unit sizes hasn't been finalized yet, a factor he said will be determined by market demand. No retail space is planned at this time.

"We're at the front end of a multi-tier approval process," Harris told virtual meeting attendees. He said the applicant is preparing to submit a Sketch Plan for the project to the County, and that a groundbreaking is likely still a couple of years away. The property owner "respects" the current tenants of the existing garden apartments, but it has not yet been decided if they will be offered any discounts or incentives to be able to return in the new development.

Images courtesy Architects Collaborative

First images of building to replace Strathmore Apartments in Bethesda (Photos)

Here is the first look at the new building that would replace the garden-style, naturally-occurring affordable housing property of the Strathmore Apartments at 7025-7039 Strathmore Street in downtown Bethesda. No fully-developed architectural renderings are shown in this slide presentation, which will be the basis of a required public meeting being held tonight, Tuesday, June 20, 2023 at 7:00 PM (see sign pictured below for information on how to join the virtual meeting this evening). Instead, there are several top-down images of the layouts of the ground level, typical residential floor and rooftop level.

The proposed building would hold up to 180 rental apartments. If only the required 15% of apartments are set aside as affordable Moderately-Priced Dwelling Units (MPDUs), representing a net loss of 5 affordable units at the property. Renderings show a lobby facing the corner of Strathmore Street and Woodmont Avenue, a fitness room, a party room, a rooftop terrace, a green roof, and a pedestrian connection along the south side of the property, which would create a walking route between Strathmore Street and Wisconsin Avenue via the rear alley and The Camille development at 7000 Wisconsin.

Bethesda Jewelry Exchange building to be redeveloped by Stonebridge

The former Jewelry Exchange building at 7749 Old Georgetown Road was purchased by Bethesda-based development firm Stonebridge last fall for $3.6 million. Stonebridge was represented in the purchase by Jack Alexander and Mark Rittenberg of another Bethesda real estate firm, AMR Commercial, LLC. At the time, speculation by local real estate observers centered on two questions: How soon would Stonebridge seek to redevelop the 0.165 acre property, and could it assemble it with any adjoining sites to create a larger potential project? We now have a solid answer to the first question, and are sixteen days away from a solid answer to the second.

Stonebridge initially leased the building to Nazlymov Fencing. But it now intends to move forward with redevelopment of the property. Stonebridge is proposing a mixed-use residential building with 240,000 square feet of residential space, and up to 6000 SF of ground floor retail and restaurant space. As proposed, the development would provide the minimum-required 15% Moderately Priced Dwelling Units (MPDUs). The site is zoned with a maximum height of 175 feet (approximately 18 stories) unless bonus density is sought through the optional points system, such as providing more than 15% MPDUs.

Here's the interesting part: The Jewelry Exchange site is 0.165 acres. Stonebridge describes its redevelopment project as being 0.43 acres. That would suggest it will be incorporating additional, adjoining property. The math of adding the 0.099 acre site of 7755 Old Georgetown next door doesn't quite add up for me. Perhaps one of my math whiz readers can figure out where Stonebridge is adding .265 acres of land to get to 0.43 acres?

7749 Old Georgetown Road is outlined in green;
potential adjoining properties are outlined in red;
directly to the right of 7749 is the 12-story
Fairmont Building at 7735 Old Georgetown, which
at .52 acres is alone larger than Stonebridge's .43 acre
plan, ruling it out as a potential addition to the project

We'll have the answer soon enough: A required pre-submittal public meeting on the proposed Sketch Plan for the project has been scheduled for Monday, June 26, 2023 at 7:00 PM at the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Regional Services Center at 4805 Edgemoor Lane in downtown Bethesda. The meeting will be held in the Wisconsin conference room at the center.

Redevelopment proposed for Strathmore Apartments property in Bethesda

The great vanishing act of naturally-occurring [relatively] affordable housing in the Bradley Boulevard corridor of downtown Bethesda may be about to begin. A developer is proposing to demolish the Strathmore Apartments at 7025-7039 Strathmore Street, and replace them with a 180-unit residential building. 

According to the Strathmore Apartments website, 1-bedrooms with dens are currently available for only $1985. By contrast, the average rent of a 1-bedroom apartment in downtown Bethesda is $2525-$2658 as of June 2023.

There are 32 apartments in the existing buildings; if the new development has the minimum 15% requirement of 27 affordable units, it will be a net loss of 5 affordable apartments. The sign does not indicate what percentage of affordable Moderately Priced Dwelling Units (MPDUs) the developer is proposing to offer. Moreover, residents of naturally-occurring affordable apartments often make too much to qualify for MPDUs, but too little to afford market-rate apartments in newer buildings in downtown Bethesda.

A required pre-submittal public meeting has been scheduled for Tuesday, June 20, 2023 at 7:00 PM. The virtual meeting can be accessed by internet or telephone. See the instructions on the sign below to participate in the meeting.

Apartment building proposed for Shops at Sumner Place in Bethesda

W.C. & A.N. Miller can't wait any longer for the Purple Line. The longtime developer and landowner of The Shops at Sumner Place shopping center (a.k.a. Little Falls Mall) at 4701 Sangamore Road in Bethesda is proposing to redevelop part of the property as an apartment building. According to a sign posted on the property yesterday, The Apartments at Sumner Place would be 45' tall, and house 132 apartments, up to 20 "live/work units," and "amenity open space." 

The sign does not specify what additional parking facilities would be provided for tenants of the new apartments, nor the specific location of the proposed building on the site. A section of the large parking lot that is currently used for vehicle storage by W.C. & A.N. Miller and other authorized tenants includes a vacant building that was formerly a PNC Bank. The shopping center is surrounded by other multifamily housing developments on three sides, including Sumner Village and Sumner Highlands, and the Intelligence Community Campus is across the street on Sangamore Road. 

Sign posted on the property
(please click to enlarge)

A required public meeting has been scheduled on the proposal for Thursday, April 13, 2023 at 7:00 PM at Capital Workspaces (located over the Safeway at The Shops at Sumner Place) at 4701 Sangamore Road, Suite 100N. In a rare move for the pandemic era, no virtual meeting URL is mentioned on the sign. However, the sign does give a URL where the presentation materials will be available starting April 10, and gives an email address you can contact for "virtual options."

Currently underutilzed area of the 
Sumner Place parking lot indicated
in red (former PNC Bank at center-left)

By moving forward now, the additional density the Purple Line would allow will not be there to take advantage of with this project. While the theoretical justification for going to Sumner with the light rail line would have been the major employment centers of the ICC campus and Sibley Hospital, I am curious if the behind-the-scenes discussion is turning against extending the Purple Line in that direction. Every inch of the Purple Line extension beyond downtown Bethesda will be a fierce political and legal battle. After all the smoke and courtrooms clear, and the extension were actually built, I firmly believe it would be 2050 or later.

Vacant PNC Bank building

Much "YIMBY Astroturf" discussion in recent years has debated taking the Purple Line to River Road to urbanize the Westbard area, but then having it run out River Road to the Capital Beltway, and then to Tysons over the American Legion Bridge. We do know for certain that the Montgomery County and Maryland state governments have taken several drastic traffic-engineering steps along that stretch of River Road in recent years that clearly indicate their (and developers') perverse desire to redevelop the churches, Kenwood Golf & Country Club, schools, State Highway Adminstration depot, and American Plant site between Kenwood and the Beltway into multifamily housing. That is a greedy and damnable effort you can expect to persist regardless of the Purple Line's future route. But one reader recently suggested something in the comments I hadn't thought of: Is the Montgomery County government's fever to capture half of Little Falls Parkway really about securing that space for the Purple Line to run down the parkway to River Road? 

Friendship Heights considers hiring off-duty police officers as crime concerns persist

The Village of Friendship Heights is considering hiring off-duty Montgomery County police officers as private security for its neighborhood, as rising crime persists in the Bethesda-Chevy Chase community. Mayor Melanie Rose White and the Village Council will discuss and vote on the proposed hiring plan at its public meeting this coming Monday, February 13, 2023 at 7:30 PM at the Village Center. It is one of several ideas to tackle crime generated by Mayor White's ad hoc Public Safety Committee last month.

Another proposal from the committee was the installation of new security cameras around the Village. This Monday night, the Mayor and Council will vote to approve the installation of cameras at Red House at 4608 N. Park Avenue. These cameras will provide a video surveillance field covering the area around the house, parts of N. Park Avenue where several crime incidents have recently occurred - including assaults and a robbery - and the bus stop at 4620 N. Park Avenue. The committee has also suggested encouraging all property owners in the village to install additional cameras on their buildings. 

Hiring private police may be a trend we see increase in neighborhoods with the means to do so, if County elected officials continue to prove unable - or unwilling - to address the rise in violent crime countywide.

Road diet proposed for Tuckerman Lane in Bethesda

Montgomery County has proposed a road diet for Tuckerman Lane in Bethesda. The plan would reduce the road to one lane in each direction between Old Georgetown Road and Rockville Pike (MD 355). Montgomery County's Department of Transportation will hold a virtual public meeting on the road diet proposal on Wednesday, February 15, 2023 at 3:30 PM, a very unusual time for a meeting. 

Make your feelings known at this meeting. To enter the meeting, use the link on the project page. You can also see the full blueprints for the new road configuration there. The County says the proposed road diet is part of its Vision Zero effort to eliminate road fatalities.

UPDATE: Westbard townhome development meeting canceled

Current status of the property at
5101 Ridgefield Road in Bethesda

UPDATE - February 2, 2023: The meeting has been canceled

Just as Phase 1 of the Westbard Square construction has more than passed the halfway mark at 5400 Westbard Avenue, gears are beginning to turn on the townhome development portion of the megaproject. A virtual public meeting has been scheduled for a site plan for 32 townhomes at 5101 Ridgefield Road, the former Springhouse of Westwood nursing home property. The property is being enlarged by the realignment of Westbard Avenue, and already completed destruction of that block of Ridgefield Road, creating a parcel of approximately 2.25 acres. 

The virtual meeting has been scheduled for Tuesday, February 7, 2023 at 7:00 PM. To participate, log-in at shorturl.at/ghQT6 online, or by telephone at 301-715-8592. Westwood Associates, LLC is the applicant for the proposed site plan. Stormwater infrastructure is already being installed on the site of the future townhomes, as you can see in the above photo. Also still to come after delivery of the Giant grocery store building late this year are an assisted-living nursing home development on the former sites of Westwood Center II and Citgo, a mixed-use apartment building with ground floor retail on the site of the remaining section of the Westwood Shopping Center strip mall, and a second townhome development on what is now the shopping center's parking lot between the retail building and the Kenwood Place condominiums.

Montgomery Parks to present data on controversial Little Falls Parkway road diet at February 15 virtual meeting

Montgomery Parks will present its traffic count data from the controversial road diet on Little Falls Parkway in Bethesda at a "virtual meeting" on Wednesday, February 15, 2023 from 7:00-8:30 PM. Previous traffic counts from May, July and September 2022 can be viewed now online; the new data on February 15 will include December 2022 traffic counts. The data show traffic counts for the parkway, as well as for nearby roads that have experienced cut-through traffic as a result of the two-stage road diet, in Kenwood, Kenwood Forest and the Town of Somerset. 

The meeting announcement does not state whether participants will be able to speak or provide feedback, but it says that the public will be able to testify when the data is presented to the Montgomery County Planning Board in late March or early April. No public process has been held on the road diet, which was implemented without public meetings or feedback, nor with a legal budget appropriation by the Montgomery County Council. Click here for the Zoom link for the virtual meeting on February 15.