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Luxury homebuilder Toll Brothers is requesting reductions in its Hampden Row condominium approved site plan from the Montgomery County Planning Department. "Wait a minute... 'Approved site plan!?' I thought this thing was just announced," you might be saying. Apparently, the Toll Brothers City Living project for this Hampden Lane site is not originally theirs, but a revamp of a previous developer's plan, approved during the real estate bubble period.
Toll Md. IV, the applicant, is requesting a reduction in units from 60 to 55, a reduction in parking spaces from 88 to 69, and a trim of the building's recreational space to 6077 square feet.
According to a document filed by the applicant's attorney, Pat Harris, a more thorough preparation of building permit plans made clear that the proposed structure could not hold 60 units. The developer also believes the current market trend is toward larger units. Harris argues that the new proposal of 69 spaces provides one more than is required by the county, due to the site's proximity to Metro, and location within a transit development area. Likewise, Harris says the new recreational space is still 9% more than the county requires. Finally, the applicant says the new architecture will be more traditional than the site plan originally approved. Therefore, Toll Brothers is requesting amended changes to landscaping and benches.
Overall, Harris describes the proposed changes as minor. The final building design has not been viewed by the public, but the project has gained national attention as suburban homebuilder Toll Brothers enters the urban real estate market.
6 comments:
"Wait a minute... 'Approved site plan!?' I thought this thing was just announced," you might be saying.
Nobody is saying that.
Kind of hard to tell on your new webpage with all the photos in the background. I guess I'm a purist, but I really preffered your old site. Less clutter and more info!
Happy Holidays by the way....
What better way to spend Christmas Eve, than by posting mean-spirited comments on my blog! My response? Merry Christmas to you! Only God has the power to know what every single person in Bethesda is saying about the Toll Brothers news.
Thank you for the feedback. I've been testing this design, but it is not the finished product. I think your criticism is in line with some of my thoughts about the photo background, and white text on black background. Happy Holidays to you, too, and I appreciate this input as I update the site to a new design. And I welcome other readers to add any thoughts they have about this design, or any others I test out in the coming days.
I agree with the other commenter. The photo background is too distracting. Maybe just a top banner graphic instead? Same goes for Rockville Nights.
As you may notice, the website design has now been fixed and updated.
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