The concrete exterior proposed by developer StonebridgeCarras for the Montgomery County police department’s new 2nd District station in Bethesda’s Woodmont Triangle isn’t getting much love from county planners.
Planners reviewing the project before it comes before the county planning board May 7 recommended in a memo that the developer swap out the concrete for brick or “local Bethesda” stone. At a minimum, planners suggested, brick or stone should be used on the Rugby Avenue façade.
As designed, the four-story police station resembles a rectangular, gray cinder block with numerous windows on the front and a few on the sides. The plan is to build the station on the site of a Rugby Avenue surface parking lot in front of the Woodmont-Rugby garage. Construction of the station will eliminate the entrance to the garage from Rugby Avenue, but the pedestrian connection to Battery Lane will remain.
Designs included in planning department's staff report for the new 2nd District police station
Police are planning to use about a quarter of the garage’s 496 parking spots for vehicles and other equipment. The portion of the garage used by police will be secured with a fence from the public portion. A separate entrance on Woodmont Avenue will be used by the public to access the garage.
At a February community meeting, residents and nearby business owners expressed concern about the project’s impact on parking and traffic in the area. Approximately 375 parking spaces in the 496-space garage will remain available for public use. Police are also working to minimize noise in the area around the station—which will be near the Palisades, Gallery Bethesda and Triangle Towers apartment buildings, according to the planning staff memo.
StonebridgeCarras is developing the station as part of a land swap with the county. In exchange for the new station, the county will turn over the 7359 Wisconsin Ave. site of the former police station, which StonebridgeCarras plans to redevelop. The county and developer plans to start construction sometime in the first quarter of 2016 and finish sometime in early 2017.
