Today, the Montgomery County Council received an update on economic indicators and the County Fiscal Plan. The Council will look toward Fiscal Year 2012 with estimates showing the County’s major known commitments are projected to increase by about 4.3 percent (not including wage growth for County agency employees) while the approved fiscal plan permits growth in agency expenditures of just 0.1 percent. For more information on this update, click here.
The County Council also received a briefing on the progress made in recent months toward developing a plan and taking action toward financing the infrastructure necessary for the development envisioned in the adopted White Flint sector plan to go forward. To read more about the White Flint financing, click here.
Showing posts with label White Flint Sector Plan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label White Flint Sector Plan. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Monday, September 20, 2010
Montgomery Council Committee to Discuss Development Oversight Coordination Today
Worksession Will Look at Proposal That Would Keep Closer Look at Evolving Future Development Districts and Intensive New Development
ROCKVILLE, Md., September 17, 2010—The Montgomery County Council’s Planning, Housing and Economic Development (PHED) Committee on Monday, Sept. 20, will discuss Bill 1-10 that would require the County Executive to designate an employee in the office of the Executive or the County’s Chief Administrative Officer as development coordinator for each approved development district and each geographic area where a newly revised master or sector plan has authorized intensive new development or redevelopment.
The worksession will begin at 2 p.m. in the Seventh Floor Hearing Room of the Council Office Building at 100 Maryland Ave. in Rockville.
Duchy Trachtenberg, chair of the Council’s Management and Fiscal Policy Committee, and Mike Knapp, chair of the Council’s PHED Committee, and Councilmembers Phil Andrews and Roger Berliner are sponsors of the proposed legislation.
The bill does not require the Executive to create a new position to fulfill the requirements of the bill unless it is decided that no current employee or employees can perform the required functions.
Council staff will tell the committee on Monday that in their opinion, the bill would require the Executive to designate coordinators for the Clarksburg Town Center development district, which has been approved, but not implemented. It also would require coordinators for the recently adopted White Flint sector plan.
ROCKVILLE, Md., September 17, 2010—The Montgomery County Council’s Planning, Housing and Economic Development (PHED) Committee on Monday, Sept. 20, will discuss Bill 1-10 that would require the County Executive to designate an employee in the office of the Executive or the County’s Chief Administrative Officer as development coordinator for each approved development district and each geographic area where a newly revised master or sector plan has authorized intensive new development or redevelopment.
The worksession will begin at 2 p.m. in the Seventh Floor Hearing Room of the Council Office Building at 100 Maryland Ave. in Rockville.
Duchy Trachtenberg, chair of the Council’s Management and Fiscal Policy Committee, and Mike Knapp, chair of the Council’s PHED Committee, and Councilmembers Phil Andrews and Roger Berliner are sponsors of the proposed legislation.
The bill does not require the Executive to create a new position to fulfill the requirements of the bill unless it is decided that no current employee or employees can perform the required functions.
Council staff will tell the committee on Monday that in their opinion, the bill would require the Executive to designate coordinators for the Clarksburg Town Center development district, which has been approved, but not implemented. It also would require coordinators for the recently adopted White Flint sector plan.
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
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.
Click here to read the complete article in the New York Times.
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.
Click here to read the complete article in the New York Times.
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