The owner of a McMansion at 4705 West Virginia Avenue in Bethesda is asking the Montgomery County Planning Board to rezone the property as commercial.
Planning staff is recommending approval of the rezoning. The home is adjacent to small parking areas, a home being used as a commercial business, and a single family home zoned and utilized as residential.
The plan would require undergrounding of utilities, construction of a 5-foot-wide sidewalk, a wheelchair ramp, lighting, and other landscaping improvements. Several parking spaces would be permitted for the business on-site, but no on-street parking would be allowed.
This is an unusual proposal at the moment, as most projects in downtown Bethesda are at least partly residential in nature.
It will be interesting to see if there is any opposition from homeowners further east on West Virginia Avenue to this plan, going before the board on May 9.
