If Montgomery County Council President Nancy Floreen's assertion that the Westbard sector plan is "a 30-year plan" caused you to chuckle, you won't be surprised to learn that the first major project is getting started immediately. Developer Equity One has announced today that it expects to submit a sketch plan to the County planning department within the next few weeks.
This is expected to cover much if not all of Equity One's 22 acres along Westbard Avenue and Ridgefield Road.
The company says it will be meeting with adjacent property owners as part of the sketch plan process. No pre-application community meeting has been announced to the public as of this writing.
24 comments:
Dear Westbard Baptist members, with the release of the sketch plan for your new community, you can kiss your assphalt goodbye. This is a done deal.
The bulldozers are ready to go.
Woohoooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!
1:17: It was a "done deal" before the process even started. Just a waste of tax money and everyone's time - that's the planning "process" in MoCo these days.
Can't wait to see the new stores in the sketches. Maybe a truffle oil boutique for poppy and the upscale residences and a welfare office and methadone clinic for the new low income housing.
Will Dyer be a jeans-folder at one of the new boutiques?
You do realize that a "sketch plan" is a long term process? Look at the White Flint Mall sketch plan, even without the lawsuit it will be decades before its fully built out.
When does Giant's lease run out? We need a second Whole Foods.
@2:18 think even bigger. Think Balducci's.
Dyer should welcome the low-income housing being built next to his house. There will be KFC, Popeyes and Bojangles coming in the retail complex!
@2:39 Holy smokers I never thought of that! I am certainly excited to see what fast food awaits! I really hope there is a Taco Bell though. The quesalupa is muy bueno!
I hope there are EV charging stations at the chicken places and Taco Bell.
I will buy a 1960s Cadillac and retrofit it with an electric powertrain. It will be perfect for that location!
Oooh, I know what they REALLY need there.
Have robots bringing you your fast food meal to your car while you're having it charged in the EV station in the enclosed garage.
That will be as much fun as hanging out in the parking lot of a Hot Shoppes, back in the 1960s, while waitresses on roller skates bring your food to your car and hang the tray on the door frame. Crank up the Beach Boys!
2:18: 2019. I would prefer Wegmans to Whole Foods. The small scale Wegmans is about 70000 SF; Equity One's grocery space was said to be in the 60000 SF range. Why not just add 10000 and go after Wegmans (who have the weirdest business model, opening in low-income areas before coming to Bethesda)?
2:39: I would be delighted - don't forget Taco Bell, Burger King, Hardee's, Roy Rogers, and Jack in the Box. A drive-thru location on River Road would generate more revenue than an in-line restaurant space on Westbard, though.
Dyer is right. A drive-thru would generate some real money. I go to the McD's drive thru on a regular basis and there's always a line for it. For me, I have 2 small children in the car so it's a lot faster than trying to go inside, but would prefer options other than McD's.
Dyer has proven to be correct on how quick this development will happen.
We won't have to wait decades as some have said :)
Phew! I did not want to wait till I was an old man to enjoy new Westbard. Millenials rise!
In 10 years most of you will BE the old & grey-haired NIMBYs.
"opening in low-income areas before coming to Bethesda"
Please enlighten me as to what "low-income" areas Wegmans opened in? (Although I guess you could consider pretty much everywhere in the country "low-income" compared to Bethesda)
Wegmans only builds in high-income suburbs with lots of space. Bethesda is very urbanized with very few large developable parcels, and Wegmans prefers surface parking (although the Germantown store has a "parking deck" above its lot). Also, Wegmans won't build a store smaller than 90,000 SF in Bethesda.
"Stores are scheduled to open in: Midlothian, Virginia in Spring 2016, Short Pump, Virginia in Summer 2016, Owings Mills, Maryland in late Summer 2016, Charlottesville, Virginia in Fall 2016, Natick, Massachusetts in 2017, Hanover Township, New Jersey in 2017, and Lancaster, Pennsylvania in 2018."
"High-income suburbs?" Not really. Not low-income either. But they do favor further-out suburbs.
Don't worry. When they want to develop New Westbard into New New Westbard us millenials will fight to keep our mixed use/mixed income neo-suburban development in place.
8:03 is right about Wegmans. The smaller store concept is a new one for them, in the planning stages for Brooklyn and Tysons. Their usual concept is big box. Thus the exurbs.
If you REALLY want to create a traffic problem in Westbard, put in a Wegmans. They're a destination grocery store.
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