A church property in the elite 20816 zip code of Bethesda could become the next cookie cutter townhome or - even more controversial - apartment development. Washington Baptist Church at 5144 Massachusetts Avenue has just listed its property as available for sale. The asking price for the 2.15-acre plot is $14,995,000. While a Montessori school tenant and cell service antenna leases can provide short term revenue to the purchaser, the online sale listing notes the redevelopment potential of the site, which is in the exclusive Westmoreland Hills neighborhood.
One must wonder if this planned sale was a driving force behind including Massachusetts Avenue in the zoning text amendment rammed through last year by the Montgomery County Council. According to the ZTA map, this property is eligible for multifamily housing.
Such redevelopment would be contentious, but the Montgomery County Council and Planning Board have established a rock-solid track record in recent years of steamrolling over resident opposition, ignoring civic associations who don't sell their membership out to the Council, and paying zero price at the ballot box for doing so. "For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?"
4 comments:
We're now complaining about potential multifamily development on (checks notes) sleepy Massachusetts Ave? Lol.
Ever notice that they never raze, resell & build housing from synagogues, temples or mosques around here?
8:35: Yes, bad planning should be called on the carpet every time.
Country clubs and Catholic churches are the last large properties in that part of the county that could be redeveloped.
I could see St Bart's and Little Flower merging and another "new neighborhood" from EYA take their place.
I don't fully understand the obsession of redeveloping within the Beltway. There are large swaths of land and strip malls in White Oak and Burtonsville, for example. Two new shopping centers in those areas included zero new housing units.
A whole new shopping center with a new Amazon Fresh grocery, but no new houses.
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