Another residential project for Bethesda was approved Thursday.
Unlike the high-rise buildings popping up around downtown, this 168-unit townhome community will be placed in the Rock Spring office park on land bordering Fernwood Road and Rock Spring Drive. The site is located just west of Walter Johnson High School.
The project was approved despite the protest of Walter Johnson PTA representative Jennifer Cope, who explained to the board the potential of overcrowding at the school.
Walter Johnson is at 97 percent capacity, and the school system estimates it will exceed capacity by the 2017-2018 school year.
“I urge you to stop approving non-priority projects,” Cope said, “especially those not near rapid transit.”
The developer, Bethesda-based EYA, will have to pay a school facility fee of $2,000 for each unit and an impact fee of $19,533 per unit to offset the costs of the development to local infrastructure, according to planning staff.
EYA made arrangements with the county to provide an easement along Fernwood Road and Rock Spring Drive for the future site of a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) extension. The plan calls for a station on Fernwood road. The BRT is part of the planned North Bethesda Transitway that would connect the White Flint Metro station to the Montgomery Mall Transit Center.
McLean Quinn, a vice president at EYA, said the firm took architectural cues for the townhomes from the architecture in the surrounding office park. Quinn said the project will link the area with Old Georgetown Road activity destinations such as the Wildwood Shopping Center and Westfield Montgomery mall.
He said that although the office park might seem like a “strange place” for a residential development, EYA chose the location due to its proximity to future transit and activity centers.