Plan for a proposed mixed-use development behind the Fillmore music hall on Colesville Road.As July draws to a close, The Government prepares for its August break by tying up as many loose ends as possible. If there's one week in the year when your elected officials are taking care of business, it's this one. Here's a look at what the County Council's tackling this week:
- By day, he's a middle-school teacher and unstoppable blogger, but come Wednesday nights in the near future, Eric Luedtke will also sit on the East County Citizens Advisory Board, pending his appointment tomorrow morning. A Greencastle resident, Luedtke blogs on the statewide progressive site Free State Politics. Big on the environment but bigger on environmental justice, Luedtke may bring a new perspective to a board whose members admitted to never having ridden a bus before (scroll down to "East County Orientation Tour").
- Later in the day, the County Council will review two proposed zoning amendments intended for a mixed-use development attached to the Fillmore music hall in Downtown Silver Spring. Two weeks ago, the Planning Board rejected the changes, which were offered by County Executive Ike Leggett to the Lee Development Group, who owns the land behind the venue on Colesville Road and plans to build an office and hotel complex on it.
While the site has been planned for a music hall for seven years, the County only signed a letter of intent with international promoter Live Nation, who runs a chain of Fillmore-branded venues across the country, last September. Construction on the Fillmore is slated to begin in 2009.
ALSO: Barry Lou Polisar, Burtonsville resident and friend of Just Up The Pike, pointed us to a meeting for a proposed retirement community on Old Columbia Pike between Dustin and Bell roads. Set on nine acres, the complex will include eighty-six apartments in four buildings, with an additional building for recreational activities. Situated between the Burtonsville Village Center and the Patuxent River, the project would require the extension of water and sewer services. The meeting will be held at 7:30pm on Wednesday at the Praisner Library.
7 comments:
Nice catch. But the problem is now I have to put my money where my mouth is, and actually try to get something done instead of criticizing people.
Why haven't you ever applied for the citizens advisory board?
Don't really have the time or patience for it, I guess. That and those Wednesday night meetings conflict with my a cappella group. My mother wanted to apply, though, but she didn't follow through with it.
Of course, she would've probably laid waste to it as she did our homeowners' association . . . or former homeowners' association.
Do we really need anymore development along Rt.29.?
It is time to slow down development everywhere, take a deep breath and look to the future.
More traffic. more sewer lines, more destruction of green property--it has got to stop.
I must admit, I share the opinion of "rtsind", more or less.
We don't need more Sprawl, we need more refinement, more maturation, not more adolescent endless growth.
First and foremost, we need to change the County policy of enticing and supporting population growth. We need to keep in mind that a lot of people really are gregarious and want to live in hives like bees. Let's redevelop aging properties to support this sort of people, but let's also try to retain and regain our rural areas for those people who like a bit of distance between themselves and their neighbors. In any case, we don't need many more people here in the County just so we can say our population is growing. We need to adopt sustainable and renewable lifestyles based on local consumption of local products where possible, and in any case we need to redesign our infrastructure to support the people that we have in the best possible way. We need more "alternative energy" as much or more than we need "increasing diversity". We need freedom of choice rather than having the Powers That Be jamming their trendy advisors' trendy opinions into our ways of life. And more than anything, we need the County to stop spending money it doesn't have, and funding that by taxing the elderly and other fixed-income people into destitution.
rtsind said...
Do we really need anymore development along Rt.29.?
It is time to slow down development everywhere, take a deep breath and look to the future.
More traffic. more sewer lines, more destruction of green property--it has got to stop.
July 29, 2008 2:18 PM
RE: I'm sorry but I have to disagree with most of your statement. Yes the can slow down on Housing Development along the US 29 Corridor but there is Very Little to No Employment Opportunities along the US 29 Corridor in which it needs to change. There are TOOO MANY COMMUTERS Jamming Down US 29 in the Mornings when these same Commuters can have short Commutes if the High Paying Employment Secters Moved their locations in DC/Northern Virginia to Eastern Montgomery County. It will also be nice if Eastern Montgomery County can get a Nice Upscale Retail Shopping Mall so the People that Live in Eastern Montgomery County don't have to make long drives to Western Montgomery County, Fairfax County, DC, Arlington, or Howard County to find the retail stores that they are looking for...
Thomas Hardman said...
I must admit, I share the opinion of "rtsind", more or less.
We don't need more Sprawl, we need more refinement, more maturation, not more adolescent endless growth.
First and foremost, we need to change the County policy of enticing and supporting population growth. We need to keep in mind that a lot of people really are gregarious and want to live in hives like bees. Let's redevelop aging properties to support this sort of people, but let's also try to retain and regain our rural areas for those people who like a bit of distance between themselves and their neighbors. In any case, we don't need many more people here in the County just so we can say our population is growing. We need to adopt sustainable and renewable lifestyles based on local consumption of local products where possible, and in any case we need to redesign our infrastructure to support the people that we have in the best possible way. We need more "alternative energy" as much or more than we need "increasing diversity". We need freedom of choice rather than having the Powers That Be jamming their trendy advisors' trendy opinions into our ways of life. And more than anything, we need the County to stop spending money it doesn't have, and funding that by taxing the elderly and other fixed-income people into destitution.
July 29, 2008 11:54 PM
RE: To add on to that. We need the county to support building new Limited Access Highways so that the people that have to drive through the county won't be entice to use our Local Neighborhood Streets as a NASCAR Speedway.....
Rtsind -
Nuh-uh. We slowed down through the 1990's and look what happened: we lost pace to Rockville and Gaithersburg and Germantown in terms of job growth and home prices.
The issue isn't whether to develop, because we need the amenities and want to promote the Route 29 corridor as a desirable place to live or do business. The issue is where to develop. I, personally, disagree with extending water and sewer services north of Burtonsville because it will open up the Ag Reserve to development that doesn't belong there.
If you want to preserve green space, we should encourage development in areas where the infrastructure already exists - places like the office parks in Calverton and White Oak, or by redeveloping older strip malls, apartment complexes, etc.
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