Grand Makeover Is Set for Maryland Strip City

By Eugene L. Meyer
The New York Times

ROCKVILLE, Md. — Over the last century, Rockville Pike in Montgomery County, Md., has grown, unfettered and unplanned, into a sprawling strip city — a hodge-podge of shopping centers, parking lots and gridlocked traffic that frustrates motorists and discourages pedestrians.

But now, a grand makeover is planned for one section of the pike, which begins as Wisconsin Avenue in Washington and is officially State Route 355, that would create a pedestrian boulevard using the principles of the “smart growth” movement. Planners say it could be a model for transforming clogged suburban arteries into livable, walkable communities with denser development and less sprawl, an improved quality of life and a healthier tax base.

The project, called the White Flint Sector Plan, is a collaboration of major developers, planners, politicians and community groups whose interests are not often in sync. A partnership of six developers, normally competitors, got it off the ground.

“Developers got together three years ago and said ‘We can’t move forward unless we solve this traffic problem,’ ” said Rodney A. Lawrence, a principal of the JBG Companies. JBG, based in Chevy Chase, Md., is completing a 24-story apartment tower and retail complex known as North Bethesda Market, which was begun under a previous plan but is in line with the new one.

The White Flint plan, which is expected to take 20 to 25 years to complete, aims to create a new destination where residents live, dine, work and shop, all within walking distance. All together, there would be 9,800 new residential units and 5.69 million square feet of commercial space.

Developers will be allowed higher densities than current zoning permits, in return for providing more amenities and also by paying farmers in the county’s 93,000-acre rural preserve to keep their land in agriculture. They would be required to finance infrastructure improvements through the creation of a tax district.

The county council approved the White Flint plan March 23, but only after gaining the support of adjoining suburban neighborhoods worried about losing their leafy appeal among the new adjoining high-rises, which they feared would generate more traffic on their streets along with other urban problems.

Some still don’t want to see the scale of what’s recommended, but not a majority,” said Duchy Trachtenberg, a county council member who lives in Old Georgetown Village, a nearby 98-unit townhouse development. “Most are satisfied it will be staged appropriately. People are yearning for a sense of community. They’re really looking forward to development of the boulevard.”

In fact, though, the plan is not expected to decrease traffic but to shift it by creating more parallel roads and cross streets, and by making driving less appealing than mass transit. There will still be six traffic lanes, but bus rapid transit will run along a median strip between two existing Metro rail stations, from which it is about a 25-minute ride to downtown Washington.

Surface parking would be drastically reduced to 20 to 30 acres, from 161 acres today, while high-rise offices and apartment buildings will contain several levels of garage parking.

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