Future Battery Lane luxury condo building Woodmont View will not provide parking for customers of its ground floor restaurant, nor the promised rooftop pool and Jacuzzi (for residents), if their waiver request is granted by the Montgomery County Planning Board.
The 9-story luxury project will house only 46 units, and - by my calculation - 8 MPDUs, at the northwest corner of Battery Lane and Woodmont Avenue. Currently, the site is home to a small structure that includes a dry cleaners. Past tenants included a tattoo parlor.
Developer Duball, LLC argues that there will be plenty of parking in Public Parking Garage 35 on Woodmont Avenue, less than a block away. Duball says the on-site restaurant parking would require a costly valet service, thereby raising condo fees.
It is unclear what the effect of this waiver would be on already-tight on-street parking on Battery Lane. Last year, a group of residents organized to fight a county plan to place parking meters on Battery Lane. With at least three new mixed-use projects on the books nearby, parking pressures should reach new heights in the coming years.
Duball further argues that moving the fitness center and community room closer to the ground floor will "activate" the street. I doubt that, given that such facilities rarely are full around the clock. You really need retail or restaurants to activate an urban sidewalk through the evening.
The request to delete the rooftop pool is interesting. That 70s Building (a.k.a. The Gallery), a short distance away, will have a rooftop pool. Woodmont View will be at a disadvantage, then, with wealthy buyers seeking premium amenities.
Both buildings will allow an easy walk to work for employees of NIH and Walter Reed.
One intriguing note on Woodmont View: If I recall correctly, its original project approval hinged on the requirement that the building's eatery be a "quality restaurant."
We often hear that developers can't be required to include a particular commercial use, much less a class of that use.
But here we have an apparent legal precedent set in Montgomery County. It not only requires a restaurant, but a quality one. Should the Apex Building be torn down, the board could therefore require a "quality" movie theater be located within the new development.
Finally, the design of the building is not bad, in my opinion. It isn't exhilarating, but does have the distinctive roof accents you can see below. Certainly, it's far better than the hospitalesque design of the Trillium-replacement project across Woodmont.
