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

DEVELOPER SEEKS DELAY OF PROPOSED CHANGES AT BETHESDA'S ARTERY PLAZA

The JBG Companies has requested a extension from the Montgomery County Planning Board for its proposal to modify Artery Plaza, located at 7200 Wisconsin Avenue in downtown Bethesda. If you recall, the developer is seeking to remove a large arch across from Jimmy Johns on Bethesda Avenue, in hopes of attracting "Bethesda's next great restaurant" to the building. That potential restaurant space features 825 SF of patio space along Bethesda Avenue.

JBG is also asking the board to allow it to convert the building's art gallery into a fitness center, and to move the art display into the lobby.

Planning staff are recommending the board approve the extension request, scheduled to be taken up at its September 18 meeting.

BAINBRIDGE SEEKS SWAP OF RETAIL SPACE FOR LARGER APTS. AT 7340 WISCONSIN (PHOTOS)

Developer Bainbridge is asking for a reduction in retail space at its 7340 Wisconsin Avenue mixed-use project, as its site plan and amendments go before the Montgomery County Planning Board on September 18. 7340 Wisconsin will be a 14-story residential building with ground floor retail, and a 4-level underground parking garage. Garage access will be from Montgomery Lane.

However, Bainbridge would like to scale back the planned retail component from the original 15,000 square feet to 5,500 SF - a substantial reduction. The architecture - particularly the way the multi-story segments of the building are laid out - is fairly impressive. One has to be disappointed with the low building height, at a project located between an eventual 3 rail transit station entrances (2 Red Line, 1 Purple Line). There are only so many plots of land near the Metro station, and once they're developed, the potential for an appropriately greater density there is gone for decades.

The pool deck will overlook
 Hampden Lane and
Wisconsin Avenue

The number of apartments will remain at 225, but now with larger units. Bainbridge will offer 15% MPDUs, higher than the required percentage by the County.

Remember the also-impressive "Point Field" LED public art installation I wrote about back in March? Boston artist J. Meejin Yoon's piece is still part of the design.

"Point Field" LED art
by J. Meejin Yoon

I'm not sure that anything can be done to change the height of the building at this point, which is less than the current height limit allows. But the idea of encouraging (if not requiring) taller buildings right at Metro - rather than shifting density to buildings that loom over neighborhoods at the edge of downtown, or worse, entirely into suburban areas like Westbard - was something I had hoped would be addressed in the Bethesda Downtown Plan rewrite. As it stands, this building at Metro will be only 2 stories higher than the 12 stories Capital Properties once believed it could build on Westbard Avenue, which is nowhere near a Metro station. That just doesn't make sense.

Planning staff are recommending approval of the plan and amendments, with conditions.

Photos via Montgomery County Planning Department

4831 WEST LANE APARTMENT PROJECT HEADING BACK TO PLANNING BOARD (PHOTOS)

Montgomery County planners are recommending approval of the reworked luxury apartment project at 4831 West Lane in downtown Bethesda. Originally approved as the Holladay at Edgemoor, a six-story building with 48 units, the project has been upped to seven stories and 120 units. Nearby residents have expressed concern about the size of the building, and the potential for the small access roads to be overwhelmed by traffic.

The building will include 15% affordable units, which exceeds the County's minimum requirement, but alone will not achieve the total number of affordable housing units originally envisioned for the Arlington Road corridor. It is also in very easy walking distance to the Bethesda Metro station.

Architecturally, it will not feature the house-like roofline previously recommended by planners for buildings in this corridor. That recommendation was also not enforced for other projects previously approved, such as 4825 Montgomery Lane. The developer is SJG Residential.

Yellow outlines the
project area

The lobby entrance will be at
the corner of West and
Montgomery Lanes