Planning Board Members Offer Possible Changes to the Bethesda Downtown Plan

Planning board members asked that county planners consider several adjustments to the Bethesda Downtown Plan, including increasing building heights and making bike infrastructure improvements necessary on certain roads, during a review of the plan’s staff draft Thursday.

Montgomery County Planning Board member Norman Dreyfuss, a local developer, encouraged planning staff to increase building height limits in areas not directly adjacent to neighborhoods—such as at the emerging neighborhoods in Arlington South and the established Bethesda Row area.

Dreyfuss said 70-foot height limits recommended in the plan for the Arlington South area surrounding the Bradley Shopping Center wouldn’t provide enough economic incentive for property owners to consider redeveloping their properties. He noted that multiple buildings in that area already top out at between 40 to 60 feet.

At Bethesda Row, where planners presented height limits of 45 feet, Dreyfuss said this would also limit future potential development.

“I don’t think you should be dictating heights off the edges,” Dreyfuss said. “The market will solve this problem for you… You should be more liberal with the ability for redevelopment to occur through the Bethesda area as long as it’s not impacting a neighborhood, as long as the edges [of the sector plan] are compatible.”

Planning staff said the owners of the Bethesda Row property, Federal Realty, aren’t currently interested in redeveloping what’s a fairly new and successful development. But Dreyfuss countered that the plan will be in effect for more than two decades and the market could change, creating an interest to redevelop the area.

Planning board chairman Casey Anderson tempered Dreyfuss’s recommendations by noting that he doesn’t believe the county should provide more height and density “across the board” because infrastructure—roads, schools and county services—may not be able to keep up with new development.

He said restricting height limits in some areas will allow for more “orderly development.”

Anderson also recommended some minor changes to bicycle infrastructure under the plan.

Matthew Folden, a county transportation planner, said the idea behind the bicycle recommendations in the staff draft is to connect points of interest like Bethesda Row and the Metro station with bike infrastructure such as bike lanes and protected cycle tracks.

However, two major arteries stand in the way of doing so—Old Georgetown Road and Wisconsin Avenue, according to Folden. On Old Georgetown, Folden said the sheer number of vehicles makes it difficult for all but the most experienced cyclists to use. Wisconsin Avenue is constrained by future plans for bus rapid transit, which will limit the space available to install bike infrastructure.

Instead, Folden said, Norfolk Avenue and Woodmont Avenue can be used to provide cyclists with reasonable alternatives for traversing downtown Bethesda.

Anderson agreed that these roads provide good alternatives to the major arteries, and recommended that the bike routes not be considered optional, but necessary under the plan.

He also said the plan should recommend several ways to bring down vehicle speeds on Old Georgetown Road.

“It might be useful to bring down traffic speeds on [Old Georgetown Road] to make that entryway to Bethesda more amenable to human beings and street life,” Anderson said. “There are properties that are going to develop on that corridor so hopefully that won’t just be a canyon of cars blowing through it at 50 miles per hour past the wonderful new development that happens.”

The Bethesda Downtown Plan, once approved by the County Council, will guide development in the Bethesda’s urban core for the next 20 to 30 years. It includes recommendations on parks, zoning, land use, roadways, environmental policies and transportation infrastructure.

Planning board member Natali Fani-Gonzalez recommend that staff add a section dedicated to affordable housing, rather than have the recommendations dispersed throughout the 158-page plan. Dreyfuss liked that idea and told planning staff that all county master plans should have a section on the subject.

On Thursday, planning board members approved the staff draft, moving another forward step in the approval process. Next up is a public hearing on the latest version of the plan, which is scheduled for June 24 at the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Regional Services Center. Members of the community are invited to comment on the plan either at the 2 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. hearing, or during the evening hearing from 7 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. The Regional Services Center is located at 4805 Edgemoor Lane in Bethesda.

More information on the plan:

Chevy Chase Neighborhood Decries ‘Development Creep’ in Bethesda Downtown Plan

County Planners Envision More Friendly And Inviting Norfolk Avenue

5 Things To Know About the Bethesda Downtown Plan