FIRST LOOK: MOCO PLANNER'S PROPOSALS FOR KENWOOD PLACE IN WESTBARD SECTOR PLAN UPDATE (PHOTOS)

Senior Urban Designer Paul Mortenson, of the Montgomery County Planning Department Director's office, hosted a discussion with residents of the Kenwood Place condos Friday morning. The primary topic was the property's future borders with Equity One's planned town center, and a potential new elementary school alongside it.

Mortenson took residents' input, and then sketched out a few potential designs for the land around the condo complex's edges. Here is how it would look if left alone, which would likely result in a "double road" (the existing Westbard Circle, paralled by a new Equity One-built road), an outcome that planners and Equity One have said is undesirable:

Concept 2 is a composite that uses one road for both Kenwood Place traffic and "outside" traffic.

Concept 3 shows a greater barrier between the Equity One property and Kenwood Place, while still avoiding a double road at the lower edge of the condo site.

Also shown in Concept 3: A new soccer field for a potential shared site holding the existing Westland Middle School and a new elementary school (on the current Little Falls Library site downhill from there). Mortenson said the current tennis courts could be moved further back, with two of them being eliminated. The windows of residential units on the Westland side of the Equity One site would look down onto the field, increasing safety for pedestrians and field users, Mortenson said. He noted that would preserve the baseball diamond on the Westland site, but would also result in a significant loss of mature trees in that vicinity. Environmental planner Katherine Nelson said she would not recommend cutting down those trees, saying that the plan should instead preserve them under a forest conservation easement.

New soccer field to left of
Westbard Circle