Plans for a mixed-use residential development that will house the future Wheaton Arts and Cultural Center as well as apartments and townhomes are up for review Thursday by the Montgomery County Planning Board.
Silver Spring-based developers Montgomery Housing Partnership (MHP) and the county are collaborating on the project, which aims to provide affordable housing and a center to support Wheaton’s cultural and arts activity.
Montgomery Housing Partnership is a non-profit real estate developer focused on providing and preserving affordable housing in Montgomery and Prince George’s counties and Washington, D.C.
In November 2023, the Planning Board approved a sketch plan and mandatory referral – plans that are typically submitted for review by government agencies – for the development. On Thursday morning, the board will review preliminary and site plans for the project. The board will then vote to approve or deny the plans.
County planners are recommending the board approve the plans. “Given the Property’s location within a half mile of the Wheaton Metro station, the project will provide housing in a transit-rich commercial area, furthering the goals envisioned in the 2012 Wheaton Central Business District and Vicinity Sector Plan,” planning documents state.
The development, which has been dubbed MHP Amherst, proposes the construction of two multifamily buildings, one of which will house the cultural and arts center, on an undeveloped parcel on Georgia Avenue next to the AVA Wheaton apartments. The plans also propose the demolition and redevelopment of an existing MHP-owned garden-style apartment complex along Elkin Street called Amherst Square Apartments.
The future arts and cultural center will include two performance spaces, classrooms, a gallery, back-of-house support space and administrative offices, according to the project webpage. The center will host theater and musical performances, visual arts classes, gallery exhibits and community events.
Construction of the project is expected to happen in two phases, according to planning documents. Those documents say there will be 272 apartments, with 25%, or 68, to be designated as moderately priced dwelling units (MPDU), and 39 townhomes is expected to take place in two phases, according to planning documents.
The first building to be constructed will face Georgia Avenue and contain the county-owned Wheaton Arts and Cultural Center on the ground floor. The rest of the building will house up to 173 residential units within seven stories, according to planning documents.
The first phase also includes construction of a mixed-use L-shaped building adjacent to the first building that will have 99 residential units and up to 20,000 square feet of office space, planning documents state. MHP is planning to relocate its current Silver Spring office to the proposed space.
The second phase consists of the construction of up to 39 townhomes on the northeastern portion of the site along Elkin Street, planning documents state.
The project also involves the creation of a new private road that will connect Georgia Avenue to Elkin Street and be the primary access to the property, and construction of a parking garage between the two mixed-use buildings.
Plans also call for a 3.3-acre park along Elkin Street. However, the timeline for its construction is dependent on the demolition of the existing Amherst Square Apartments on a property between Elkin and Amherst streets, planning documents state. The park’s completion is also dependent on the relocation of current Amherst Square tenants to the new complex, a landownership swap from MHP to Montgomery Parks as well as the development and design of the park, which is a public process.
Affordable housing
The project has been in the works on the county level since 2018. In 2023, the Elrich administration allocated about $40.3 million in the capital budget for the development.
With a plan to designate 25% of the development’s multifamily units as moderately priced, the project will provide double the county’s 12.5% MPDU minimum for new developments in Wheaton. According to the Department of Housing and Community Affairs, MPDU units are available for “renters and first-time home buyers with incomes up to 70 percent of the Washington Metro Area Median Income, which is approximately $79,500 for a family of two or $99,500 for a family of four.”
Rents for the project’s other residential units are planned to be set at a “range of affordability, with many of the units at income levels substantially below those required by the MPDU program,” planning documents state. In addition, the project will be financed through Maryland tax credits, which require at least 50% of the units to be available to households earning less than 60% of the Area Median Income for at least 30 years.
County partnership
For years, county officials and community leaders had envisioned an arts and cultural center in the Wheaton community’s urban core and Thursday’s review of the plans is the next step in the project moving forward.
According to the project page on the county’s Department of General Services website, in 2018 the county retained arts facilities planners for the project to conduct an analysis for the space. In the years following, focus groups and community outreach was conducted and a final public town hall about the center was held in June 2024.
As county leaders worked to find a location for the project, some opponents argued that the center would be better placed in Wheaton’s central business district. However, county officials said the Georgia Avenue and Elkin Street site would provide a better opportunity for the county to partner with MHP on the affordable housing portion of the project.
The proposed location of the development is less than half a mile from the Wheaton Library and Recreation Center on Georgia Avenue and roughly half a mile from the Wheaton Metro station.
