Westwood Wednesday tonight at Westwood Shopping Center in Bethesda

The inaugural Westwood Wednesdays event got washed out a couple of weeks ago. But there will be good weather for it tonight, May 25, at the Westwood Shopping Center at 5400 Westbard Avenue in Bethesda.

Bethesda construction update: The Lauren ultra-luxury condos (Photos)

Some of the finishing touches are being added to the facade of The Lauren, the ultra-luxury condo building at 4901 Hampden Lane. The balcony railings have a bit of a South Beach art deco accent to them. You can also see the work being done on the sidewalk pavers, which match the Bethesda Streetscape guidelines. Some of the grander aspects of the main lobby entrance are taking shape, as well (trust me, the "4901" sign temporarily tacked up over the canopy isn't a permanent one).

Inside the building's units, which range from the several millions to a $10 million+ penthouse, each owner will have a standard Thermador Wine Preservation Column. That will come in handy to chill selections from the in-house sommelier, Jarad Slipp. Valets, concierges and other staff will be trained to the standards of the world's finest hotels and the best Manhattan luxury condos, according to the promotional materials.

The 29-unit building is aiming to be downtown Bethesda's most-exclusive address. On the rooftop, developers 1788 Holdings and Persimmon Capital Partners plan pergola-covered dining areas, "living green walls," a gourmet outdoor kitchen, plasma TVs, and sweeping views over Bethesda Row and the Central Business District.

You also don't have share guest suites in this building. There is an option to purchase private guest suites for use by friends, relatives or business colleagues visiting from out of town. And inaugural buyers at The Lauren will also receive a year-long membership in the RdV Ambassadors program, which bestows a variety of perks related to the RdV Vineyards where Slipp is the master sommelier and estate director.

To find out more, visit the property website, or call 301-909-8846 to schedule a preview.

Westbard residents organizing for long haul against developer-driven MoCo planning

Residents organized by Save Westbard gathered at the Washington Waldorf School in Bethesda last night to discuss next steps in what is becoming a Montgomery County-wide citizen uprising against a planning process dominated by development interests. With the recent passage of the Westbard sector plan, attempts by the County to place several bus depots in residential neighborhoods in Rockville, controversial developments planned in Lyttonsville and downtown Bethesda/Chevy Chase, and the Planning Board approval of an urban-style low-income apartment complex in rural Damascus, disparate citizen groups are linking together to change the process, and boot out the County Council that voted unanimously to approve the Westbard plan and Carver bus depot.

One indication of the frustration with County elected officials was activist and attorney Robin Ficker collecting a bounty of new signatures for his term-limits initiative. Ficker believes he will come in with more than the 10,000 signatures required for term limits to be placed on the ballot for voter approval or rejection. If approved by voters, Councilmembers Roger Berliner, Marc Elrich, Nancy Floreen and George Leventhal would be forced to step down in 2018, and could not run again for those seats for four years.

Two new websites are being launched in the effort at Westbard and countywide.

MCCPR.org is planned to be the hub of activism for a county-scale citizen operation to reform the planning process, and reduce the influence of development interests in County planning and politics. Currently, the Council receives more than 80% of its campaign contributions from developers and development attorneys, with the exception of Elrich, who accepts no funds from development interests.

Evidence recently emerged that the Council has actually been cynically crunching the voter numbers, and had concluded that the number of voters at Westbard alone could not boot them from office. That Machiavellian calculation emboldened them to unanimously pass the Westbard plan, despite overwhelming community opposition and anger. With large, mobilized citizen groups now linking up, all bets are off for their reelection in 2018.

More specific to Westbard (but potentially duplicable in other areas facing sector plan rewrites), is a second site, PlanWestbard.org. Jack Lopez, a resident and professional urban planner, will head up the site. It will not only dive in-depth into the Westbard plans expected to be unveiled next week, but also present alternative concepts going forward.

Lopez says he will try to bring new tech innovations other jurisdictions and the private sector are using in planning to the analysis. Many of the methods currently used by the County to study traffic, for example, are vague, inaccurate, and incomplete.

Longtime County activist Stan Wiggins presented an analysis of the option to incorporate, which a majority of residents voted to explore back in April. It was hoped that an incorporated southwest Bethesda, or Lyttonsville, for example, would give local residents authority over land-use decisions like Rockville and Gaithersburg currently enjoy. Wiggins found that a new municipality's land-use authority would be retained by the County, unless a provision in the law was overridden by the state legislature. Given that many state-level office holders also receive hefty checks from the same developers, that is unlikely to happen.

This is just the beginning, as the large turnout at last night's meeting suggests.

Bethesda Row revamps The Front Row event for 2016

Bethesda Row is changing things up for its annual fashion event, The Front Row at Bethesda Row. Instead of a 3-day spread of events Thursday to Saturday, The Front Row 2016 moves to an entirely new day - Sunday, June 5 - and time - 11:00 AM to 2:30 PM.

Instead of a big national or international star VIP guest, a strategy that peaked in 2013 with the squarely-A-list Jessica Alba, Federal Realty is inviting stars closer to home. Anchors and reporters who have organized to fight breast cancer under the DC Newsbash breast cancer charity organization (formerly known as DC Newsbabes until last year) will serve as VIP hosts this year. A portion of the event proceeds will go to the charity.

VIPs expected to appear include Laura Evans, Autria Godfrey, Angie Goff, Alexandra Limon, Jummy Olabanji, Lauryn Ricketts, Andrea Roane and Shawn Yancy.

Your $25 ticket will get you two mimosas to pre-game with at 11:00 AM, when you'll check in and pick up a swag bag. You'll also receive a Fashion Bingo Card that you can get stamped at boutiques around the Row. Three $250 gift certificates to boutiques of your choice will be given away.

The main event, the runway fashion show on Bethesda Lane, will begin at 12:30 PM.

After the show at 1:30, enjoy shopping and exclusive VIP parties at the boutiques, where there will also be giveaways, while supplies last.

Order your tickets now online, and save the date for The Front Row 2016.

Blaze Pizza, Lobster ME close at Westfield Montgomery Mall in Bethesda (Photos)

Blaze Pizza and Lobster ME have closed at Westfield Montgomery Mall in Bethesda. A sign outside of Blaze Pizza is directing customers to other area locations. According to a source at the mall, Blaze employees were told at the end of their shift on Sunday not to return Monday.

Lobster ME was dark in the Dining Terrace yesterday.

Also dark Monday was Jamaican Mi Crazy, which had a sign stating it was temporarily closed for renovations.

Blaze Pizza opened in August 2014, and their pizza earned a "strong four stars" out of five in my review. Lobster ME, which opened in November 2014, also earned a "solid four stars" in my opening day review of the Las Vegas export.

Sex offense on Chestnut St., burglary on Huntington Parkway + more - Bethesda crime update

Here's a roundup of crimes reported across Bethesda on May 20, according to crime data:

Theft. 7800 block Wisconsin Avenue.

Other sexual offense. 4400 block Chestnut Street.

Theft. Medical Center Metro.

Burglary. 5600 block Huntington Parkway.

Theft. 8700 block Preston Place.

Vehicle burglary. 3700 block Stewart Driveway.

Drug arrest. 7100 block Whittier Boulevard.

Vehicle burglary. 5100 block King Charles Way.

Theft. 5900 block Ipswich Road.

Assault. 10400 block Old Georgetown Road.

Vehicle burglary. Federal Plaza (Pike District).

Tower crane installed at Stonehall Bethesda condo site (Photos)

Assembly of the tower crane at the Stonehall Bethesda luxury condo construction site is now complete. The process required temporary closure of Woodmont Avenue between Wisconsin Avenue and Battery Lane over the weekend.

The 46-unit building will include a club room and rooftop terrace when completed in 2017. Duball, LLC is the developer.

The crane can be seen in the
distance from Woodmont Avenue
further south

Montgomery County planning massive tax-cut for developers as they raise taxes on you

This Thursday, Montgomery County will raise your taxes to the highest level ever. And next week, they will discuss the biggest developer tax cut ever. 

Awk-ward.

On Thursday, the Montgomery County Council is expected to unanimously approve an FY-2017 budget that raises your taxes to a record, all-time high. It will include a property tax hike so massive, it required a unanimous vote by the Council last week to exceed the County's charter limit on property taxes. And it will hike the recordation tax you will pay when selling your home, or even just refinancing your mortgage. Notably, the budget shifts the cost of school construction from developers to taxpayers.

But the Council isn't done helping developers, who account for over 80% of councilmembers' campaign contributions, yet.

The Montgomery County Planning Department is now proposing a massive tax cut for developers.

That is not a misprint.

Just as the County has rejiggered its traffic congestion measurements to reduce taxes for developers, now the County political cartel is proposing to do the same for school capacity and construction costs.

Three key school funding equations would be changed under the planning staff's recommendations, and would result in developer tax cuts up to 59.4%!

Here's how the scam will work:

New math will make it
appear fewer students
are being generated
by new development

First, much like the "new math" planners now legally use to make failing intersections and overburdened roads appear to pass traffic tests, planners are proposing to change the equation for student generation rates. The "new math" will base the forecast only on housing built in the last ten years, which will - surprise! - slash the student generation rate significantly (anybody remember a little thing called "The Great Recession"?). Just a quick glance at the "before and after" colored bars in the graph above shows you just how drastic the change will be (green represents the number of students forecast under the proposed new math).

Massive developer tax cut
number one

The new, lower student generation rate will be combined with a biennial recalculation of school construction costs, to - surprise again! - massively slash school facility payments for developers. For example, the elementary school payment for a mid-rise apartment unit is currently $2,838. Under the new tax cut, that ES payment would drop to $1,495. How about a high-rise payment for the high school level in Bethesda, Silver Spring or Rockville? It will absolutely plunge from $804 to $394.

Sounds like a sweet deal, right? "But, wait - there's more!"

Massive developer tax cut
number two

Impact taxes developers pay will also be lowered under the new biennial formula. As the planning staff acknowledge in their report, under the new formula, "all School Impact Taxes will decrease." The mid-rise apartment building school impact tax per unit would drop from $12,765 to an astoundingly cheap $4,659.

In an additional proposed change, the current .9 multiplier in the school impact tax would be removed. This would preserve the type of massive tax cuts proposed for all but single-family homes. Which would also further discourage developers from building single-family homes, which cannot be built in the same density as townhomes and apartment buildings, and therefore generate fewer students on a lot of the same size than multi-family housing.

Think back to recent development fights in places like Westbard, downtown Bethesda, Rock Spring, White Oak and Lyttonsville, as well as the Adequate Public Facilities battle royale in the City of Rockville. At the outset of many of those discussions, the County Council and Planning Board Chair Casey Anderson told us they were going to "start a conversation" about how they could allow the massive development their developer supporters wanted, and somehow provide the infrastructure that would be required to support it.

Would you have imagined at that time that the plan was actually a ruse to open up the formulas and instead give those same developers a massive tax cut?

Well, if you read my blog back then, you might have known something was up.

It's unlikely anyone has any doubts about how arrogant and patronizing the County Council and Planning Board are at this point. You can be sure there's much "mansplaining" ahead from both, as they try to educate us to understand schemes and treachery - er, sorry, "Subdivision Staging Policy" - so complex it is simply beyond the small mind of you, the citizen.

Are you ready for term limits yet?

The Planning Board is expected to hold a public hearing on the proposals, and the rest of the SSP, on June 2, 2016.

So, to summarize, this Thursday, Montgomery County will raise your taxes to the highest level ever. And next week, they will discuss the biggest developer tax cut ever. You can't make this stuff up, folks! This is what happens when you have a political cartel where government policy is for sale to the highest bidder. And more than 80% of the money is coming from developers.

Res ipsa loquitur.

Assault at The Promenade, theft from vehicle in Green Acres + more - Bethesda crime update

Here's a roundup of crimes reported across Bethesda on May 19, according to crime data:

Vehicle burglary. 5400 block Bradley Boulevard.

Theft from vehicle. 5000 block Smallwood Drive (Green Acres).

Assault. The Promenade (Pooks Hill).

Assault. 5700 block Grosvenor Lane.

Assault. 9900 block Montauk Avenue at 1:27 PM.

Gusto Italian Grill applies for liquor license in Bethesda

Gusto Italian Grill has applied for a liquor license from Montgomery County, to serve beer, wine and spirits. Their hearing will be on June 16. Gusto is located at 4733 Elm Street in downtown Bethesda.

Kneipp coming to Westfield Montgomery Mall; Sephora moving (Photos)

It's not often Bethesda retail signage features a priest. But Father Sebastian Kneipp is making a cameo appearance on Coming Soon signage for his namesake store at Westfield Montgomery Mall in Bethesda. Kneipp USA will be moving into the former Bose space on Level 2.

A German naturopath afflicted with tuberculosis in the 19th Century, Fr. Kneipp used plants, herbs and hot and cold waters in the natural environment around him to cure himself. That made him quite a popular figure, and led to the retailing of natural bath and body treatments under the Kneipp brand.

The products are actually made in Germany, and include herbal baths that are natural treatments for back pain, stress and sleep issues, among other ailments.

Meanwhile, the reshuffling of stores on Level 2 continues with Sephora now scheduled to move to a new location in September. They will be on Level 2 next to Solstice.

Bethesda crime update

Here's a roundup of crimes reported across Bethesda on May 18, according to crime data:

Theft from vehicle. 3700 block Thornapple Street.

Theft from vehicle. 4000 block Virginia Place.

Theft. 7100 block Democracy Boulevard.

Bethesda construction update: Cheval Bethesda ultra-luxury condos (Photos)

Things are just getting started at the construction site of the future Cheval Bethesda ultra-luxury condos. The site has been cleared of demolition debris from the structures recently taken down there. You can see that quite a bit of grading work has been done.

Duball, LLC is the developer of the building, which is expected to deliver in 2017. The 17-story tower will house 72 condo units, and 7000 SF of non-residential space. Prices will be ultra-luxury tier indeed: From the $900,000s to over $2.5 million.

Update on Washington Gas project in Edgemoor neighborhood of Bethesda

Washington Gas, as of yesterday, has completed replacing its main lines under streets of the Edgemoor neighborhood in Bethesda marked in blue on the map above. One home is left to be completed on Fairfax Road in that area of the community.

Starting next Thursday (May 26, 2016) similar work will begin on: 1) Hampden Lane from Beverly Rd to Exeter Rd; 2) Denton Road from Hampden Lane to Elm St; and 3) Exeter Road from Hampden Ln to Elm St.

Other streets like Clarendon Road and Wessling Lane (any marked in yellow above) will have their mains replaced in a later phase of the project.

The Montgomery County Department of Transportation is simultaneously performing extensive concrete work replacing curbs, gutters and sidewalks that already exist in Edgemoor, and the roads will be resurfaced this fall once utility and concrete work has been completed. Concrete work is expected to end by late summer.

Tower crane going up at Stonehall Bethesda construction site (Photos)

The latest tower crane to take to the skies over downtown Bethesda is being assembled at the future site of the Stonehall Bethesda luxury condos at 8302 Woodmont Avenue. Blasting will be necessary there to break up bedrock, as I reported a few weeks ago. Time once again to brush up on your knowledge of crane signals.