A Montgomery County official on Thursday said the county wants the flexibility to redevelop the site of the Little Falls Library in Bethesda into affordable housing.
Greg Ossont, deputy director of the county’s Department of General Services, told the Planning Board the county doesn’t have a redevelopment project in the works, but would like zoning for the library property that could allow for redevelopment in the next 20 or 30 years.
Ossont and the county made the request in the last week, just as the Planning Board is winding down its deliberations on zoning and density in the Westbard Sector, an area that includes the Little Falls Library site near the corner of Massachusetts and Westbard avenues.
“It needs to be reiterated that the county has no plans to relocate or redevelop the library site currently,” Ossont told the Planning Board Thursday. “That said, we did discuss with planning staff—in consideration that this is a 20- or 30-year plan—what the future might hold.”
Planning Department staff agreed to recommend a commercial-residential “floating zone” that would allow for a building as tall as 75 feet and provide enough density for about 150 to 200 residential units. And the five-member Planning Board unanimously agreed Thursday to allow for the floating zone in the Sector Plan.
The library property is now zoned for single-family residential homes.
Planners earlier this year first suggested the idea of moving the library, now in a nearly 60-year-old building, into a newer civic building planned as part of the expected redevelopment project at the Westwood Shopping Center.
Area residents almost immediately rejected that idea and county government officials, including Ossont, set up and participated in an April meeting at the library to assure residents they had no plans to move the facility.
Ossont on Thursday emphasized the county still has no plans to move or redevelop the library and is moving ahead with a planned refurbishment next year. But the county’s suggestion to allow for a mixed-use affordable housing project in the future is a new wrinkle to a plan that the Planning Board could complete as soon as Dec. 17.
At that point, the County Council would then review and make its own recommendations, which would be final. The council will hold its own public hearing and workessions on the recommendations.
One resident, upon hearing Ossont’s exchange with the Planning Board commissioners, suggested that the community would move to designate the existing library as historic and said there are plenty of other spots in Westbard for affordable housing.
Board Chairman Casey Anderson pointed to the age of the building, which Ossont said is one of the oldest publicly owned buildings in the county.
“I know a lot of people are going to be unhappy with the idea that there’s even some possibility that some change can be accommodated on that site, but that is a very old building,” Anderson said. “All I’d say about it is it would be surprising to me if it lasted another 20 or 30 years.”
Planning Department Director Gwen Wright said the council would still have to approve the rezoning for any future redevelopment plans on the property.
