Wednesday, March 27, 2013
The new filing system debuted last week.
Filing a development application with the Montgomery County Planning Department just got a whole lot easier. Instead of filing paperwork for up to 20 submittal items—from a forest conservation plan to a traffic study—and submitting multiple copies of each of the 20 documents (to accommodate reviews by several county and state agencies), applicants for development permits now may submit applications via ePlans, the planning department’s new online submittal and review system, according to a news release from the county planning department. Developers may submit all application materials for preliminary and site plan applications electronically through ePlans, and "[the] applications will remain in electronic form for agency reviewers, …
Thursday, March 14, 2013
Ever wanted to be on the county planning board? Now's your chance!
For anyone who's ever dreamed of serving on the planning board of a fast-growing county, your chance is here: The Montgomery County Council is seeking applicants to fill a vacancy on the Montgomery County Planning Board. Planning board member Marye Wells-Harley's term expires on June 14, 2013, and she has "indicated her intent to apply for reappointment to a second term," according to a statement from the office of the county council. Want to run for the $30,000-a-year, council-appointed position? Submit a letter expressing your interest and a resume "listing professional and civic experience, political party affiliation, home and office telephone numbers and an email address" by 5 p.m. on Wednesday, April 17, according to the statement. (…
Thursday, March 7, 2013
Projects are on the board's March 14 agenda.
County planning staff is expected to recommend the approval, with conditions, of a plan to redevelop 7535 Old Georgetown Rd., Bethesda at the March 14 meeting of the county Planning Board. According to a planning department memo: "The Applicant is proposing a mixed-use redevelopment with up to 120 multi-family residential units, including 12.5 [percent as] Moderately Priced Dwelling Units (MPDUs), 5,000 square feet of retail space, below-grade parking, and public use space and amenity space," the memo said. "The application proposes the 5.0 [Floor Area Ratio] allowed by the Zone. The building proposal is 15 stories, or 143 feet as measured from Commerce Lane. "The open public amenity plaza will create an appealing pedestrian experience …
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
Square footage and building heights scrutinized; others praise the plan's transit-oriented nature.
Residents took concerns about the size of the “Town Center” portion of the Chevy Chase Lake Sector Plan to the Montgomery County Council at a public hearing Tuesday night. Nearly 40 people testified before the council about the plan recommended by the county Planning Board. Many took issue with the size of the “Town Center” portion of the plan, particularly the number of square feet the board recommended be built before the Purple Line is constructed. The Purple Line, a proposed 16-mile light rail line from Bethesda to New Carrollton, would have a station in Chevy Chase Lake. The board recommended that the old Chevy Chase Lake Shopping Center (on the east side of Connecticut Avenue at Manor Road) be built up to 790,000 square feet of mixed…
Thursday, February 28, 2013
County planners still are determining the details of just how the Purple Line would cut across the region, but the biggest issue of all is funding.
County planning staff are slated to update the planning board about the Purple Line, Capital Crescent Trail and Silver Spring Green Trail projects at the board's meeting on Thursday at 2 p.m. A variety of issues still remain in the Purple Line planning process: planning the rail's connections to the Red Line's east and west branches, its connections to the MARC train and the Capital Crescent Trail, its crossing over Connecticut Avenue, the landscaping along the rail—but one of the biggest issues is how it will be funded, according to a memo from county planning staff to county planning board members. The preliminary engineering phase of the Purple Line is expected to be completed this summer, after which the Federal Transit Administration …
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
County planners still are determining the details of just how the Purple Line would cut across the region, but the biggest issue of all is funding.
County planning staff are slated to update the planning board about the Purple Line, Capital Crescent Trail and Silver Spring Green Trail projects at the board's meeting at 2 p.m. on Thursday. A variety of issues still remain in the Purple Line planning process: planning the rail's connections to the Red Line's east and west branches, its connections to the MARC train and the Capital Crescent Trail, its crossing over Connecticut Avenue, the landscaping along the rail—but one of the biggest issues is how it will be funded, according to a memo from county planning staff to county planning board members. The preliminary engineering phase of the Purple Line is expected to be completed this summer, after which the Federal Transit Administration…
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
The county planning staff will make recommendations to the board about future bus rapid transit systems at the meeting on Thursday.
Discussion about the implementation of dedicated bus lanes or bus rapid transit systems in Montgomery County will continue at the Montgomery County Planning Board's next meeting, on Thursday, Feb. 21. The county planning staff will update the board on its recent work on the Countywide Transit Corridors Functional Master Plan. A public hearing for the plan will be held on May 2, according to a planning department briefing. The planning staff recommends that Maryland State Route 355 "is the best candidate for pursuing a high-quality BRT treatment to serve future planned growth," and that U.S. Route 29 "is the best candidate for implementing dedicated bus lanes in the near term," according to the briefing. There is a concern, however, that …
Thursday, February 14, 2013
The Montgomery County Planning Board's speaker series this month features urban planners talking about how to turn ideas into reality.
Montgomery County's population may not be increasing as rapidly as it did in the 1980s—when the county accounted for almost one-third of Maryland's population increase, according to the county's website—but it's still increasing, and the Montgomery County Planning Board is bringing in two speakers this month to talk about ways in which to implement plans that will help manage the county's projected growth. In the speaker series, two urban planners will talk with the public (for whom admission is free-of-charge) about how a community can transition from planning ideas to making those ideas a reality. The Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments estimates that, between 2010 and 2040, Montgomery County's population will increase by …
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
The Montgomery County Planning Board will discuss a development in Bethesda, the county's Zoning Rewrite Project and other issues at the board's Feb. 14 meeting.
Montgomery County Planning Board members and staff planners will discuss the proposed Bethesda development at 7900 Wisconsin Ave. at the board's meeting on Thursday, Feb. 14. The development—a 444,000-square-foot residential building with 475 units and more than 20,000 square feet of ground-floor retail between Wisconsin and Woodmont avenues at St. Elmo Avenue—fits all zoning requirements and amendments, according to the board's briefing materials for the meeting. Planning staff received only one email expressing concern about the development, according to the briefing documents. Residents of the adjacent Fairmont Plaza Condominium Building (4801 Fairmont Ave., Bethesda) expressed concern about construction hours and noise (several …
Thursday, February 7, 2013
The county's zoning rewrite would allow a residential neighborhood to change, gradually, to diversify its housing stock.
The revisions in the works for Montgomery County's aging zoning code—which dates to 1977 and is more than 1,200 pages long—are meant, among other things, to help Montgomery County's residents age in place, architect and sustainability expert Carl Elefante said. In the planning department's December 2012 cable show Montgomery Plans, Elefante—who served on the planning department's advisory panel when planning staff drafted the zoning code rewrite—explained how the county's ambitious Zoning Rewrite Project would make it possible for residents to stay in their communities as they grow older. The zoning rewrite—which is entering into its final stages of revisions—is meant to allow for more variety in residence size and type within a …
Carol O. Roberts
3:58 pm on Thursday, March 7, 2013
Professional planners from the County Planning Office worked for more than two years to develop a viable two-stage (pre- and post-Purple Line) scheme that recognizes north-south traffic on Connecticut will not be alleviated by the east-west Purple Line - if ever it is built. The CPO's study was dismissed summarily by the Planning Board without any apparent thought. I don't envy the Couny Council … more ›