A developer hopes to build 16 townhomes between the Capital Beltway and Rock Creek in Chevy Chase.
Nova-Habitat, Inc. is proposing the three- and four-story townhomes for 9213 Kensington Parkway and three single-family home lots on the adjoining Glenmoor Drive.
The site is sandwiched by the Beltway off-ramp to Connecticut Avenue, Rock Creek and the WSSC’s Water Tunnel Shaft project to the west of Kensington Parkway.
The project would be called Creekside. On Thursday, the Planning Board will consider weather to recommend the rezoning the project requires.
A county hearing examiner will take up the zoning change on April 13. Nova-Habitat hopes to change the zoning from single-family residential to the new Townhouse-Floating Zone included in the new county zoning ordinance that went into effect last October.
The County Council would have to approve the zoning change.
“The Applicant proposes to redevelop the entire site under the new (TF-12) zoning category, in order to allow flexibility in residential development, including site layout, lot size, and placement and to provide residential development that is compatible with the surrounding neighborhood,” wrote Planning Department staff in their recommendation to allow the zoning change. “Their stated goal is to develop a project that will balance the natural settings and recreational amenities of adjacent Rock Creek Park with the site’s close proximity to employment centers and transit infrastructure.”
The project would put three-story townhouse units backing up to Rock Creek Park on the north side of the site. Those units will feature rooftop terraces and a walk-out basement facing the creek.
Six of the units on the south side of the project are set to be four stories high but about 35 feet tall because of a step-back.
The zoning change would let the developer abandon Glenmoor Drive and create a private street for Creekside residents.
Planners said the 16 townhomes would generate about three extra elementary school students, one extra middle school student and two extra high school students for the Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School cluster.
If the zoning change is approved, Creekside will have to go through the Planning Department’s separate approval process for new development.
Via Planning Department
