NIH, NSA Bethesda Campus Plans Set for Review Thursday

Campus plans for Naval Support Activity Bethesda and the National Institutes of Health are set to go before the Montgomery County Planning Board for advisory reviews Thursday.

A public hearing on the Chevy Chase Lake master plan is also set to go forward at Park and Planning.

The hearings are set to begin at 2 p.m. with a review of an NIH draft master plan. Proposals for NIH campus upgrades include consolidation of surface parking into new parking structures, the construction of a new administrative building, and the addition of workers from leased space in satellite locations.

The planning board hearing will include a look at traffic impacts of the proposed construction, but a draft environmental impact statement being prepared by NIH isn’t yet ready for Park and Planning review, according to M-NCPPC.

Following the NIH agenda item, a review of proposed upgrades at Naval Support Activity Bethesda, the campus of the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, is set to move forward.

The campus also houses the Uniformed Services University, where proposed developments include adding a new 341,000 square foot research and education facility and a 400-space parking structure. In addition, proposals for improvements to Walter Reed hospital facilities call for constructing a new five-story, 573,000 square foot medical facility and a 500-space underground parking garage.

A Navy study, available for review online, concluded that the upgrades would add no more than 15 seconds to commute times on thoroughfares around the military hospital.

The Planning Board is set to transmit their comments on both master plans to the National Capital Planning Commission.

At 3:30 p.m., a public hearing is set for the Chevy Chase Lake Sector Plan, which will re-develop the Connecticut Avenue commercial area where a stop on the future Purple Line is planned. Individuals will be afforded three minutes to testify on the plan, and community groups, government agencies and property owners with land affected by the recommendations will be allowed five minutes of testimony before the board. The hearing is expecting to stretch into the evening hours.

The hearings will be broadcast online at the Planning Board’s website.