More than 1,000 residents who would be impacted by the county planning departments’ University Boulevard Corridor proposal participated Thursday night in a public hearing in Wheaton, the majority voicing opposition to the upzoning.
The proposed University Boulevard Corridor Plan includes recommendations focused on traffic safety, zoning, pedestrian connectivity and transit-oriented growth. According to Zubin Adrianvala, who is leading the project for Montgomery Planning, the proposal is part of the implementation of Thrive Montgomery 2050, the county’s 2022 update to its general master plan that’s expected to guide planning and development for roughly the next 50 years.
The planning board and other officials from Montgomery Planning heard in-person testimony from 72 people and said they also received hundreds of emails and letters. According to the department, 130 people attended the hearing in person and 1,152 watched online.
Throughout the hearing, community members held green signs with a cross-out symbol over the acronym for the plan, “UBCP,” and the message, “Respect our voices.” Countless times after opponents to the plan testified, the hearing room erupted in applause and cheers.
Those opposing the plan cited concerns about the plan’s proposal to rezone single-family properties that face University Boulevard and how that might impact existing infrastructure, institutions and traffic congestion. Supporters of the plan were far outnumbered and argued in favor of the plan’s recommended pedestrian and transportation safety improvements and rezoning to allow housing types other than single-family detached homes.
The plan area covers a 3-mile stretch of University Boulevard from East Indian Spring Drive in Silver Spring to Amherst Avenue in Wheaton. Within that corridor are Montgomery Blair and Northwood high schools; Forest Knolls, Glen Haven and Pine Crest elementary schools; Yeshiva of Greater Washington; St. Bernadette Catholic Church and its school; the Woodmoor shopping center; the WTOP radio tower property; and North Four Corners Local Park and Wheaton Forest Park.
Many opponents testified against the plan’s recommendations to rezone properties that face University Boulevard to add more height and density and allow property owners an opportunity to build different housing types.
“Your proposal for more density and taller buildings is … not wanted in at least Four Corners,” resident James Williamson said. “These are established single-family residential neighborhoods along the corridor. People moved here for that reason.”
Others worried about the impacts of increasing density along the corridor on existing infrastructure, school populations and traffic congestion, an issue many residents and drivers deal with during daily commutes.
Regarding the plan’s transportation recommendations, opponents said they were concerned those would increase traffic congestion and travel times for commuters, cause cut-through traffic onto streets in their neighborhoods and impact the safety of residential streets along the corridor.
Jeremy Rosenthal, a resident who grew up in the Kemp Mill and now owns a home in the area, said the plans to him seemed like “a classic case of creating large benefits for a small group, including developers, at the expense of diffuse harms imposed on others, both citizens and our planet.”
Many of the speakers and public hearing attendees are part of the county’s Jewish community that lives in and around Kemp Mill and expressed concern over the planning department’s engagement with their community. Within the scope of the corridor plan is the Yeshiva of Greater Washington and the Kemp Mill shopping center, which is home to a Kosher supermarket and eateries.
Rabbi Yitzchok Merkin, the headmaster at the Yeshiva of Greater Washington, told the Planning Board that he questioned how rezoning proposals would impact the existing institutions in the corridor.
“There are a number of Jewish businesses in the Kemp Mill shopping center, which are linchpins to the community. What’s going to happen to them? How many of them will be able to survive if in X number of time they’re not going to be able to be open,” Merkin said.
He noted that he had a lot of questions and believed that community members needed more information to understand the value of the plan and its recommendations.
Other opponents to the plan were neighborhood groups and associations such as the Northwood Four Corners Civic Association, the South Four Corners Citizens Association, the Springbrook Forest Citizens Association and the Woodmoor Pinecrest Citizens Association. Representatives of all four groups testified at the hearing.
Nick Brady, the president of the Woodmoor Pinecrest Citizens Association, said the group is requesting county planners to pause the plan because it is “premature.”
According to Brady, the Maryland State Highways Administration is already conducting a study of safety improvements on University Boulevard. Brady said that the study should be completed before further action is taken. In addition, Brady said that the plan should be paused to allow the County Council to determine its next steps on rezoning proposals that it has taken up in recent months and for more progress with the county’s expansion of Bus Rapid Transit on University Boulevard.
Brady also noted that right now “residents in the … area are under great stress due to the constant news updates regarding the federal government.” He said the plan should be paused until “more facts are provided.”
Sheila Kragie, a Four Corners resident, was one of the few who testified in support of the plan’s recommendations for pedestrian safety and rezoning. Kragie said that when she was a student at Montgomery Blair High, one of her classmates was killed while crossing University Boulevard.
“And yet 25 years later it remains dangerous for my children,” Kragie said. “I’m disgusted by the delay it’s taken in order to actually transform this stretch of highway where hundreds of children pour out into the street to pick up busses, to walk across to the Four Corners neighborhood or to try to get home.”
Kragie also noted that she believed planners could go further when it came to rezoning proposals. She said that while her home is outside of the area that would be rezoned, she hoped to one day be able to “transform” her single-family home into a duplex or triplex to allow for multi-generational housing so she can live with her in-laws.
“Right now, our only options would be to shove them in the basement or a shed in the back,” Kragie said.
What’s next?
Montgomery Planning staff will discuss the community’s testimony with the Planning Board during several work sessions to be held into the spring.
After the work sessions, the board is expected to develop its draft of the corridor plan. Upon approval, which is expected sometime in the summer, that plan is sent to the County Council. The council will hold its public hearing and work sessions before voting on the plan.
Once the council approves a plan, it will be sent to the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission for adoption, according to the Montgomery Planning website. The adoption is expected to take place in the fall.
