Height Wars: In Chevy Chase Lake, How Tall Is Tall Enough?

Debate continued over how tall buildings should be in Chevy Chase Lake at a Montgomery County Council worksession on Tuesday.

Councilman Roger Berliner (D-Bethesda, Chevy Chase, Potomac, Kensington, Poolesville) proposed limiting the height of new construction in the Chevy Chase Lake sector (before construction of the Purple Line) to 90 feet, as originally suggested by county planning staff, according to a letter Berliner circulated to council members Monday night.

But Berliner's proposal was voted down by the council on Tuesday, Bethesda Now reported.

The Montgomery County Planning Board had revised planning staff's suggested 90-foot limit up to 150 feet, and the Chevy Chase Land Company has suggested a compromise of 130 feet in order to increase revenue from the project. The council's planning committee has suggested lowering the cap to 120 feet, The Washington Post reported.

The council's staff economist, Jacob Sesker, determined, Berliner wrote, that "an integrated mixed use project of 90 feet—with the retail and amenities the community desires plus underground parking—is economically feasible."

Both the 90-foot and 120-foot heights would be feasible, Sesker said in his analysis.

"At 120 [feet] the project generates $17.8 million in residual land value [the difference between the estimated value of the property when built out and the cost of building it out]. At 90 [feet], the project generates $16.0 million in residual land value," Sesker wrote.

The Chevy Chase Land Company disagrees with the analysis. Cutting the height to 90 feet "eviscerates the economic benefit of the project," Miti Figueredo, vice president of public affairs for the Chevy Chase Land Company, wrote in a letter to the council, The Post reported. A lower height would require the retail portion of the project to subsidize the residential portion, and likely would mean that wood—as opposed to concrete—would be the primary construction material, with above-grade (as opposed to below-ground) parking, she added.

Berliner wrote that he was not concerned about the housing units that would be lost by reducing the development's height to 90 feet.

"The reality is that we are in fact adding substantial housing here—an estimated 1,450 new units. The fundamental issue is whether the marginal loss in additional housing from reducing the height on this one parcel from 120 to 90 [feet]—approximately 50-75 units ... —is more important than maintaining the integrity and character of the surrounding neighborhood," he wrote.

Berliner also proposed requiring the Chevy Chase Land Company to set aside half an acre of open space in its Chevy Chase Lake East development (roughly, the parcel of land east of Connecticut Avenue between Manor Road to the north and Chevy Chase Lake Drive to the south).

"To provide the greatest public benefit," one-third of an acre of green space should be included in the one-half acre of open space, Berliner proposed in a memo.