PLANNING BLUNDER: BETHESDA GAS STATION SITE CLEARED FOR CONSTRUCTION OF BANK (PHOTO)

The site of one of downtown Bethesda's last gas stations on Wisconsin Avenue has been cleared. There had been concrete and plant overgrowth on the site, as it waited dormant for redevelopment to begin. It once was known as Bethesda's "last gas" before the Beltway.

Replacing it is a small bank building, one of the more bizarre land use decisions by the Montgomery County Planning Board in recent years (although the Hoyt property decision is still at the top of the bizarro list). Allowing a bank branch on an urban main street near Metro, while plotting to jam high-density urban growth into suburban residential areas like Westbard and Chevy Chase Lake, is simply indefensible. Yet it is happening again with the TD Bank approval - just steps away from Metro - on the Shell station site on Old Georgetown Road. At worst, give us some additional retail and restaurant space along with the banks!

These decisions are contrary to all of the claims about smart growth we hear on a daily basis in the county.

Photo: Jason Yang