Developer Toll Brothers City Living is paying a fee to renovate Battery Lane Park in lieu of public space on the 8008 Wisconsin Avenue site. The delay was caused primarily by Montgomery County's insane insistence that original developer Douglas Development hand over a chunk of the land along Wisconsin for a Bus Rapid Transit right-of-way. What made the demand truly insane, is that such a right-of-way cannot be continued all the way down to Bethesda Avenue as the County has claimed. There are multiple buildings in the way that won't be demolished, including the historic Bethesda Theatre (which can't be demolished).
Planners are recommending approval of the project with conditions. Some of those conditions, not surprisingly, involve the land grab along Wisconsin.
16 comments:
This building is on the west side of Wisconsin, right? The theater is on the east side? Does that mean the county is envisioning the BRT chunk on both sides?
7:28: Yes, because with the land grab, they'll have 61' from the median on Wisconsin to the Toll property line. And the total width they want is 122' down Wisconsin between Chestnut Street and Bethesda Avenue. They'd have to demolish the theater, and many, many other buildings to get that. It's absolutely preposterous.
Has the county planners replied to your inquiry about what they are thinking with your excellent points?
@749 - no, what is absolutely preposterous are your idiotic rants about how "moribund" the MoCo economy is but literally are against almost every single new development. You do realize you can't get one without the other right, Birdbrain?
Only the eastern half of MoCo is moribund. Let them eat cake.
8:38: No clue what you're talking about. I've been in favor of virtually every downtown Bethesda project. In this article, I'm actually sticking up for the landowner against the County.
If you think that building more residential housing alone will help us catch up to the economic development prowess of Northern Virginia and the District, well, that's why we're in this mess, thanks to your bossmen Riemer and Leventhal.
8:38am you're making stuff up.
Dyer never said he was against this development. He is raising questions about the BRT right of way. Legitimate to question that.
(I was with Dyer...right until he went back onto the irrational "moribund"/Riemer tangent.)
Back OT: I don't understand this BRT alignment easement at all since, as Dyer stated, they can't realistically expect to condemn and bulldoze all those the properties on the east side of Wisconsin. This strikes me as another "car before horse" bureaucratic miscue, like the Shady Grove school bus garage relocation.
Don't think that this type of thing is unique to MoCo though. There's a plethora of Arlington County projects that fall under the same category.
Correct me if I'm wrong here - don't property owners and developers decide to build residential vs commercial based on their read of the marketplace?
Maybe they will single track the BRT through downtown.
Dyer believes that all development in southwestern MoCo should occur within the cordon sanitaire of downtown Bethesda, and absolutely nowhere else.
So what was the county response / rationale when asked for comment?
@ 8:49 PM - And Dyer could also obtain clarification of whether that entire stretch of road is actually proposed to be built to that width. But that would involve talking to a live person.
4:57: Why would you talk to a person when the document clearly states 122' all the way between Chestnut and Bethesda Avenue?
Me thinks when you ask someone "what were you thinking" and don't ask them what they were thinking and just call them an idiot... It's not so productive.
Well that was an idiotic typo while sitting in the John. Lol. But you get my point. :)
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