what's up the pike: i hit somebody's car today

A reader asked me, "what's new with the Fillmore (pictured above)?" I didn't know. I'd kind of forgotten it was there. But now I know.

- The Fillmore hits a major snag as the Planning Board rejects zoning amendments County Executive Ike Leggett proposed for the proposed music hall on Colesville Road. Lee Development Group, which wants to build a mixed-use development behind the new venue, would be allowed to count it as a public space required under the current zoning code. In addition, they'd be allowed up to fifteen years to build the project, whereas most approved development plans have a five-year deadline for construction.

Most of the controversy over the Fillmore has come from its operator, Live Nation - an international concert promoter who has rebranded several existing music halls around the country as "Fillmores." In February, local writer Carol Bengle Gilbert attempted to draw attention to the County's deal with Lee Development, suggesting that the use of a privately-run (but publicly owned) venue as a public amenity was unethical. In two weeks, the County Council will consider the same legal changes.

- Richard Layman of Rebuilding Place in the Urban Space discusses last week's pair of posts, "sick of emo kids on ellsworth" and "how to grow an old town in no time," about Downtown Silver Spring. Definitely check it out.

so much more AFTER THE JUMP . . .

Rendering of how the Purple Line could look if built along Wayne Avenue east of Downtown Silver Spring.

- Local builder Winchester Homes is demanding the right to buy back 118 acres in Burtonsville seized by the state for construction of an InterCounty Connector route that was eventually eliminated. The property, at Route 198 and Peach Orchard Road, was being cleared and graded for the construction of 130 homes before being bought for the proposed highway's Northern Alignment, which would have paralleled Route 198. When the southern Master Plan Alignment was selected instead, the land was retained to fulfill EPA requirements that the ICC's environmental damage is mitigated.

The Montgomery County Circuit Court ruled that Winchester has the right to re-purchase the property, though the state is appealing that decision. Another Winchester project, Fairland View at Fairland Road and Route 29, was halved in size in order to accomodate a future interchange with the ICC's current routing.

- A week after one Purple Line opposition group was outed as a front for a country club, another organization has appeared, this time in East Silver Spring. This week's Gazette features the people behind the "No Train On Wayne" signs that have appeared along Wayne Avenue. Along with a route between Silver Spring and Thayer avenues, Wayne is one of a few alignments still on the table for the proposed transitway - which will eventually connect Bethesda and New Carrollton - east of Downtown Silver Spring Regardless of which side of the issue you're on, it's hard to deny: that's a catchy slogan.

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essay time: the francis s. filbey building

An occasional look at the overlooked artifacts of East County's past and present.

Meadow slowly takes over the parking lot of the abandoned Filbey Building on Columbia Pike.

It all started with a trip to the bank last week. In the drive-through, I saw something I'd never seen before at the edge of the parking lot. There was a building, a one-story box not unlike many other one-story boxes that dot the office parks of East County. It was unremarkable, except that the parking lot was turning to meadow before my eyes. An abandoned building? Here? I didn't believe it. The building looked like a mirage in the midday sun.

I began to explore. Around the front of the building, there were piles of rubble lined up in neat rows over spaces marked "DIRECTOR" or "SECRETARY." Definitely an office building. The sign over the front door said "THE FRANCIS S. FILBEY BUILDING." Next to it, an address: 12345 NE COLUMB A PIKE.

I couldn't find anything about New Columbia Pike, except that the road we call Columbia Pike was completed in 1964 - nearly twenty years before the building was completed - and that no other building along Route 29 uses the "New" designation. Francis Filbey, meanwhile, was a more interesting find.

so much more AFTER THE JUMP . . .

Despite its prominent location at Route 29 and Industrial Parkway, few notice the Francis S. Filbey Building - or that it's been abandoned for years.

A Silver Spring resident, Filbey was a controversial figure, a veteran of the postal union mergers and a victim, it seems, of larger tensions within the new organization. Born in 1917, Francis Stuart Filbey grew up in Baltimore, becoming a postal clerk and quickly rising through the ranks of the National Federation of Post Office Clerks. In 1969, he was appointed president and immediately had to contend with a strike. By publicizing the federal government's role in the "low wages and intolerable conditions" postal clerks had to deal with, Filbey was able to reach a settlement with the Nixon administration that eventually yielded the U.S. Postal Service.

A series of mergers throughout the 1960's and 70's combined five national postal unions into one, the American Postal Workers Union, with over 285,000 members. Politics forbid them from kicking anyone out of a job, so the executive boards of each union were combined into one forty-nine-member mega-board. In a 1977 memo, Filbey - now president of the APWU - compared it to that of a "banana republic," complaining that the leadership was too top-heavy to be effective.

Newer development surrounds the Filbey Building on two sides, making it less conspicuous.

Filbey wasn't popular for his calls of attrition, especially at a time when postal workers' jobs were being threatened. By the time he died of cancer in May 1977, he was considered a "lame-duck president," and the union was in turmoil once again. His successor Emmet Andrews would face potential pay reductions and the possibility of cutting mail service to four days a week. Complaints - or "grievances" from union members were rising, and those in charge would be ill-equipped to address them.

The Francis S. Filbey Building was completed in 1981 as an office for the APWU's Health Plan division, though not long ago it was abandoned in favor of new offices in Glen Burnie. Much like Filbey's career, the building named for him has come to a quiet and ineffective end, less than thirty years old but already abandoned.

Other derelict buildings along Route 29 have already been bulldozed into oblivion; a warehouse directly across Industrial Parkway was razed several years ago with no plans for redevelopment, though the former printing press at Tech Road has been replaced with the WesTech Village Corner shopping center.

But the Filbey Building remains, almost invisible despite its prominent location on the Pike. Assessed at $8.7 million in 2006, it - and the six acres it sits on - would make great candidates for redevelopment, though so long as the APWU still owns it, that seems unlikely. I doubt anyone waiting for the Ride-On bus at 29 and Industrial Parkway even realizes it's abandoned. Perhaps that's the best way; a fake occupied building is better than an real empty one.

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maple lawn threatens burtonsville's "small-town" cred

Clean, sleek and master-planned: Howard County's Maple Lawn wants to give Burtonsville a run for its small-town status.

Ask anyone doing business in Burtonsville what their biggest threat is, and they'll probably name Maple Lawn, the sprawling mixed-use community rising just one exit north at routes 29 and 216 in Fulton. Saturday's Post Real Estate section covers the sprawling development, where the biggest selling point seems to be its so-called "urban" features - like homes named for established D.C. neighborhoods like Adams Morgan and Capitol Hill - among what one resident called "all this rural paradise" of Howard County.

It's ironic that Maple Lawn compares itself to a "small town" on its website, because there's a real small town just two miles south. With its porches, small yards and village green, it looks the part, but it doesn't play it very well. If you're looking for a taste of small-town life, Burtonsville comes a lot closer than anything a new neighborhood can contrive.

At only two homes an acre, Maple Lawn isn't much denser than many of Burtonsville's big-lawn single-family neighborhoods. An interactive map reveals that most homes are on very small lots - roughly an eighth of an acre - but the swaths of open space that are supposed to compensate for it aren't usable. They're pushed to the edges of the development or along the power line that divides Maple Lawn in half - a poor substitute for the Agricultural Reserve that skirts Burtonsville's northern boundary.

People in the article boast of being able to run into their neighbors while "walk[ing] their dogs at 1 o'clock in the morning," but you can't walk to school. Four schools literally sit in the middle of the development, but there are no pedestrian connections to them.

so much more AFTER THE JUMP . . .

Messy, cluttered and unplanned: Route 198 in Burtonsville is a triumph of the small-town business district.

And that might be okay, because you can drop the kids off on your way to running errands, most of which will still require getting in the car. There just isn't enough density to support "convenience retail" within walking distance, even before community backlash over the project's original size forced the developer to lop off over five hundred homes.

As a result, Maple Lawn's "Business District" has such upscale goodies as a tapas bar, lingerie store and a clothing store called Urban Chic that are geared less to locals and more to people scooting up 29 towards the Mall in Columbia. Residents admitted that they still head down to Burtonsville to shop for groceries at Giant, not to mention other "useful stores" like Zimmerman's hardware store or, of course, the Bedding Barn.

Those five hundred lost homes also means that Maple Lawn had to jack up its prices in order to remain economically feasible. Houses here are big - townhouses range up to 4,200 square feet - and expensive, running from the $300's for a condo to $1.7 million for an "estate home." When asked about the community's variety, one resident said "there are retired people whose children are gone, and there are married couples with no kids." The new homeowners are ethnically diverse, the article explains, but the economic mix is scant.

That isn't the case in Burtonsville; in its older sections, lots were developed individually, meaning that families could build as big or small as they had to; as houses turn over, they sell at a variety of prices. Newer developments - subdivisions like Briarcliff Manor or the apartments and townhouses on Blackburn Road - are segregated by income, but still they contribute to a more diverse whole. Almost anyone can afford to live in Burtonsville, meaning that you can and will be exposed to a variety of people. That will not happen in Maple Lawn.

At its best, a small town provides the best of urban and rural - everything you need to live, but with lots of wide-open spaces. Burtonsville can out-do Maple Lawn in both regards. In order to thrive alongside it, we need to start making a point of our "small town credibility," if you will. We may not lure any families or businesses away from Maple Lawn, but we can rub it in their faces when they come down to Giant.

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what's up the pike: wine and whine

Columbia Country Club has been outed as the anonymous owner of a website for an anti-Purple Line group. The proposed transitway would run through the club's Chevy Chase golf course.

- Barely out of the gate, new anti-Purple Line group Alliance for Smart Transportation has been revealed as a front for Columbia Country Club, with a write-up in yesterday's Post. The Chevy Chase-based club, who's been fighting the proposed transitway that would slice their fairways in half for nearly two decades, sought to bankroll a "grass-roots campaign" opposing the Purple Line.

Purple Line supporters Action Committee for Transit, who discovered the connection between Columbia and the group, plans to hold a press conference outside of the club early this morning. The event will include a guided tour of the transitway's proposed route through the club and a wine tasting.

- Last week's Planning Board hearing to give Falkland Chase historical status went nowhere, says Silver Spring Scene. We won't find out the future of the New Deal-era apartment complex at 16th Street and East-West Highway until September, though the Planning Board is leaning towards a mix of preservation and redevelopment. Falkland owner Home Properties agreed to reconsider their earlier concept for redeveloping the complex's North Parcel, at 16th Street and East-West Highway, aiming for something closer to suggestions made by Planning staff.

Meanwhile, newly minted board member Joe Alfandre excoriates the project's architects for ignoring the precedents for Falkland Chase. "I don’t know where you guys are going with this, but I don’t appreciate the disrespect that you show the Garden City movement," said Alfandre, referring to the 19th-century planning movement that catalyzed modern-day suburban planning. Alfandre's best known as developer of the Kentlands in Gaithersburg. Currently, he's working on the Courts of Woodside, a small townhouse project a few blocks north of Planning Place on Georgia Avenue. Read more!

still sick: how to grow an old town in no time

"The Turf" in Downtown Silver Spring (shown in 2006): it may be plastic grass, but the crowd says it's a first-class urban space.

Last week, Henry from Silver Spring Scene and I had a lengthy comment-debate about the mall-like attributes of places like the Downtown Silver Spring complex or Rockville Town Square. I got hung out to dry for "Downtown Silver Spring-bashing," which is a common sport among anyone who feels the place is fake or merely disagrees with its approach to urban design.

I've spent many an evening on Ellsworth Drive in Downtown Silver Spring - and, over the past year, in Rockville Town Square - admiring how well both spaces nurture the diversity and vitality that urbanists like Jane Jacobs and William Whyte say a city deserves. The Post's Marc Fisher calls "the Turf" at Ellsworth and Fenton "the venue for some of the best people-watching in the region," while Dave Murphy over at Imagine, DC wrote about just how well Silver Plaza works as a gathering space a couple of weeks ago.

But while they may get people together, Ellsworth and projects like it can't replace all of the functions of a city. If you want a book, an expensive dress, or some makeup, Ellsworth has you set. But if you're looking for quirky little shops, exotic restaurants, and underground music, do you go to Ellsworth Drive? No. You go to Fenton Village, just south of the redevelopment area; to Takoma Park, where big chains are all but run out of town; or to Wheaton, whose ethnic restaurants have earned it the title of "MoCo's Adams Morgan."

so much more AFTER THE JUMP . . .

Wheaton: small parcels mean individual ownership, diverse businesses, and a high risk tolerance.

What is the difference? Ellsworth is the creation of one developer, The Peterson Companies, on one giant block of land, assembled by Montgomery County ten years ago for redevelopment. Fenton Village, Takoma Park and Wheaton are a collaborative effort, built over decades by multiple owners on multiple properties. People complain that Downtown Silver Spring looks "new." Well, duh, it is new. But Takoma Park isn't the way it is because it's old, either.

A diversity of buildings - large and small; new and old - offer spaces at all price ranges, meaning a variety of uses (short of large supermarkets or department stores) can set up shop there. And that diversity exists because Takoma Park's business district consists of small parcels of land, platted over a century ago, that were bought up by individuals who each built their own buildings. It's a tradition that continues today in Takoma Park, Wheaton and Fenton Village.

Small lots and small buildings are cheaper to build and maintain, and with the right support, a local business can get off the ground with considerably less financing than a major developer. If the market changes, they can also respond more easily than a developer can, and with less risk. Peterson threw a lot of money into Downtown Silver Spring, and they don't want a poor return-on-investment, so they must take as few risks as possible. This negates some of the diversity that a city ideally provides.

Last week, I suggested that our county's strip malls are ripe candidates for redevelopment into dense, mixed-use centers to serve our neighborhoods and downtowns. One way to encourage this redevelopment may be to break them up - whether by turning the existing buildings into condominiums and selling off each individual store, or by clearing the site and re-platting it with smaller lots. Mixed-use zoning would allow each owner to build as he or she chooses, creating a lively and varied streetscape. To ensure that development happens in a timely fashion, properties will be sold with a five-year deadline to start construction.

Bonifant Street in Fenton Village: Small businesses feel the heat from redevelopment.

In Burtonsville, we've seen how slow and arduous the Burtonsville Shopping Center redevelopment has been, and with little to show for it. More often than not, large developments are met with resistance or at least skepticism from the surrounding community. Splitting up the job might be more palatable to the neighbors. It'll guarantee the smaller-scale retail community groups call for, within the timeline of a larger project, but without the feeling that everything "went up overnight." This is a way to create a place like Takoma Park without waiting a century for the charm to come around.

That being said, those quirky shops and exotic restaurants aren't going to exist on their own. Takoma Park has a culture that attracts small-scale retail and repels big chains, often with force. But Wheaton's awesome restaurants are in large part buoyed by traffic (or at least name recognition) from Wheaton Plaza, whose chain stores are just as big an attraction. And despite the renaissance on Ellsworth Drive, many smaller businesses in Downtown Silver Spring are getting pushed out - so much so that a University of Maryland study recommended Montgomery County should do more to retain them.

It remains to be seen how small businesses will fare in Montgomery County's downtowns, where changing demographics and a newfound interest in city living has drawn people to make their lives here. When at their best, cities are able to handle these changes effectively - the key is to make sure that they have the tools to do so.

Special thanks to John Massengale of New York's Veritas et Venustas, whose post "The Best Way To Develop Atlantic Yards & Hudson Yards" was the main inspiration for this post.

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what's up the pike: two bike paths diverged . . .

Simple and inexpensive, bike trails like the Capital Crescent Trail (pictured in Bethesda) offer an alternative to driving in an era of increasing gas prices and traffic. In actuality, bike paths get the short end of the stick. Here's a look at what's happening this week in trails:

For joggers and bikers in Silver Spring, the Purple Line may be the only way that the popular Capital Crescent Trail gets completed east of Rock Creek Park. As the MTA nears its decision on how and where to build the proposed transitway between Bethesda and New Carrollton, those on both sides have stepped up their game recently, from reaching high school students to launching a "grass-roots coalition" bankrolled by the exclusive Columbia Country Club.

While the contact page of new anti-Purple Line group Alliance For Smart Transportation lists an address in Silver Spring, suggesting a connection with the east side, their list of talking points focus on the Purple Line's effects on the trail in Bethesda, or a Town of Chevy Chase-funded study that was largely debunked by state Secretary of Transportation John Porcari.

You'd think that a so-called "Alliance" would move away from Bethesda and ally themselves with their anti-Purple Line counterparts in Silver Spring - SSTOP and the nascent "No Train on Wayne" group, some of whose members do support the project, if not in their backyards. It reminds me of my meetings last summer with activist Pam Browning, who admitted she didn't know about anything east of Silver Spring, or former Chevy Chase mayor Mier Wolf, who'd never really driven on congested East-West Highway (which parallels the proposed Purple Line route) before.

Not that I personally support the forming of a cross-county anti-Purple Line coalition, though it would be nice to see Silver Spring and Bethesda come together on something. I mean, think of all the lemonade that could come from it!

so much more AFTER THE JUMP . . .

A redevelopment of the Burtonsville Shopping Center could include a bike path along Route 29 between Route 198 and Dustin Road.

IN ADDITION:On Thursday, the Planning Board holds a hearing for the ICC Limited Functional Master Plan, which lays out how the InterCounty Connector, currently under construction, will accomodate bike paths and interchanges. Dismayed by the highway's potential effects on the environment, many anti-ICC groups - or groups seeking more alternatives to driving - saw the State Highway Administration's plan to include a bike path parallel to the ICC as a compromise. As The WashCycle explained in a two-part series last month, the state wasn't willing to meet bikers halfway.

In 2004, SHA deleted the trail, saying it would do even further harm to local parkland and streams by increasing the paved area. And while seven miles of the path were added back to the ICC in 2007, the new route follows local roads, like New Hampshire Avenue and Fairland Road, that add extra travel time. Not only that, says the Washington Area Bicyclist Association, but they may also be more unsafe for bikers than a path next to the highway.

FINALLY: Up The Pike, a bike path makes a minor hurdle for the long-awaited Burtonsville Shopping Center redevelopment. Also on Thursday, the Planning Board will decide whether Bethesda developer Chris Jones, whose BMC Property Group will be knocking down the forty-year-old strip mall later this summer, will be required to install a trail and landscaping along old Route 29 between Route 198 and Dustin Road. The project would require cooperation with other properties north of the shopping center, including a church, a garden center and several houses, and planning staff isn't entirely sure that it's feasible to do so.

While it does concern a bike trail, the report from Park and Planning has no images what the project make look like. After years of controversy over potential "big-box" stores in the new center, Jones has returned with a plan for what he calls one the most "environmentally friendly plaza" in the country. But for all the press the Burtonsville Shopping Center over the past year, few people - outside of an East County Citizens Advisory Board meeting last month - have actually seen it.

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another vision for falkland's north parcel

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY! We know you're probably out celebrating that sweet, sweet American independence. Don't forget your forefathers who gave you the right to barbeques, fireworks and the right to take pictures in Downtown Silver Spring.

A rendering of how Park and Planning envisions the redevelopment of a portion of the Falkland Chase apartments.

The debate over whether to preserve the Falkland Chase apartments at 16th Street and East-West Highway has raged for over two decades. It's a fight littered with successes for the pro-preservation camp (rulings in favor of saving the complex in 1985 and 2007) and the pro-development camp (a portion of the complex was demolished to build the Lenox Park Apartments in 1992). In recent months, everyone from the Post's Marc Fisher to Thayer Avenue has weighed in on what to do with the New Deal-era apartment complex.

On Thursday, the Planning Board will finally decide if Falkland Chase is eligible for historic preservation. If they say no, owner Home Properties can move forward with their plans to redevelop the North Parcel with a mix of apartments and retail, including a potential Harris Teeter supermarket.

What's the cost of bringing Harris Teeter to Downtown? And what else is the Planning Board looking at next week? so much more AFTER THE JUMP . . .

Home Properties' proposed Falkland North shies away from the street, discouraging pedestrian access to the site.

I've previously said that Home Properties' plans aren't very promising as they are now. With superblocks, sweeping driveways and little street presence, the proposed Falkland North tower discourages pedestrian activity on a site next to a Metro station. When the site was re-zoned for higher density in 1993, Park and Planning had no idea if redevelopment could even happen, but when the 2000 Silver Spring CBD Sector Plan came out, they made it clear that short blocks and a strong street wall were musts. In preparation for Thursday's hearing, Planning staff created the above rendering to show how the North Parcel was intended to look.

A current Falkland Chase resident who's been working with Home Properties has told me that the developer's largely revised their original plans for Falkland North, but the jury's still out on whether it'll be a positive contribution to the CBD. If the Planning Board chooses not to call the complex a historic landmark, hopefully whatever replaces it will be worth the years of contention that led to this point.

ALSO: The Planning Board will also review the Gene Lynch Urban Park, so named for the former Board commissioner who passed away last February. One of two parks intended to replace the current park above the Silver Spring Metro station, which will be redeveloped as the Paul Sarbanes Transit Center, the park will occupy the current bus turnaround behind the Discovery Building at Colesville Road and Wayne Avenue.

Notable features will include seating areas, a bike station, and a memorial to Lynch. His family wanted to commemorate Lynch's role in the revitalization of Downtown Silver Spring and, as a result, all of the below-the-Beltway neighborhoods who took part in the planning process will be listed on a plaque in the park.

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b'ville charrette: defining "undesirable" (updated)

part TWO of a series on last week's Burtonsville Community Legacy Plan Charrette. Check out part ONE, where myself and a few local residents try to chart a new path for Burtonsville's village center.

Table 6 tries to reconcile the "old" Burtonsville with plans to redevelop its village center at last week's charrette.

After the discussion period, each of the six tables appointed a speaker who told the entire charrette what their group had come up with for Burtonsville's village center. While our table had tentatively embraced mixed-uses and increased density on a strip of Route 198 between Old Columbia Pike and Route 29, others were decidedly against it. One table advocated implementing "green design" in new construction, but insisted on keeping parking out front of the stores, even if they had to face away from Route 198.

"We don't want to attract undesirables," says a speaker from another table, suggesting that the village green proposed in every option we'd been given for the site would be a draw for crime. The "village green," currently three acres of unkempt County-owned land behind Tony's Garage, was first discussed in the Fairland Master Plan eleven years ago. while local activist Stuart Rochester - who served on a citizens advisory board for the Master Plan - argued that the inclusion of affordable housing would be "contrary" to the plan's goal of increasing diversity.

I gritted my teeth as I got up to speak for my table. People can be NIMBYs all they want . . . but "undesirable"? Did someone really say that? No matter what they meant by it, their words pointed straight to the predominantly-black apartments on Castle Boulevard, the townhouses of Greencastle, the kids hanging out on corners and parking lots or riding the Z9 bus into Downtown Silver Spring. I have friends in Greencastle. I had family not too far away.

I hoped this was a misunderstanding.

so much more AFTER THE JUMP . . .

All-residential and mixed-use concepts for redeveloping a portion of Route 198 between Old Columbia Pike and Route 29.

Calmly, I explained the conclusions my group had come to and when I was done, I turned to Stuart Rochester. "I wanted to address those speakers who referred to the 'undesirables' in East County," I added. "I do not believe there are any 'undesirable' people in my community, especially not in this gathering place we are trying to create. We need to make it welcoming, and we need to make it safe. But we are not going to keep people out. That is not the community I want to live in."

The room roared in applause. Don Hauprich, speaking for Table 5, jumped to the village green's defense, saying that it makes Burtonsville a destination. "There are people who like to go out at night with the family or with other people," says Hauprich, youth pastor at Liberty Grove United Methodist Church. "And it isn't always unseemly behavior."

Table 6 seemed to agree, saying they liked the idea of "bringing back a sense of what the town is," in the words of one speaker who recalled when Burtonsville Day parades were held in the village center as opposed to down Old Columbia Pike by the Praisner Library. "We liked Kentlands, we liked Seaside, but not as homogenized," she continues, referring to the products of more famous charrettes, "but we liked the idea of making some order in the space."

After the meeting, Hauprich says it's important to help older residents understand that development can be an asset. As a father, youth pastor and former president of the Paint Branch High School PTSA, he's interested in creating spaces for younger people to call their own, even if some people he knows would "rather poke their eyes out than go to Downtown Silver Spring," he says. "Your best bet is to get the seventy-year-old people to understand we're not bringing crime," adds Hauprich. "you may fight change, but the world is gonna change around you."

He points out that many businesses in the village center don't last long. "I don't want people to panic about 'oh, old Joe's Lawnmower Shop,'" he says. "Businesses have turned over in the past ten years, and it's not because they jacked the rents. The place is a dump."

The Bedding Barn at Route 198 and Route 29 is a local mainstay and, to many, a symbol of Burtonsville's past.

By the time I've finished talking to Hauprich, it's 9:30 and the school parking lot is empty. Chuck Crisostomo from the East County Regional Services Center is carrying display boards out to a little Chevy with the county seal on it. Stuart Rochester is leaning against his car, talking to another gentleman. "I want to have a word with you," he says the other man walks away.

I approach cautiously. It's dark, and we're more or less alone. We've known each other for roughly a year now, and Stuart Rochester has since been a good source for quotes at events throughout East County. (In fact, I last interviewed him little more than a week earlier.) He begins speaking quietly without stopping to take a breath. I put my notebook away, assuming he wants this to be off-the-record, but take it out again and start writing, and he doesn't object.

"I have seen this community brought down by transients," Stuart Rochester begins. "Too many rentals. I am not opposed to affordable housing, as long as it's not the type exploited by absentee landlords . . . too many townhouses, too many Section 8. And it's the poorest communities, Avonshire [a townhouse development at Briggs Chaney and 29], the Boulevard, that will be affected the most."

I bite my lip. I think of my cousin, who raised a daughter in an apartment in Aston Woods before moving to Calverton; my mother, who jumped back into real estate after a long hiatus by working neighborhoods like Avenshire and the Boulevard; a white friend from high school who, growing up in Greencastle, was forbidden to leave her house for fear of crime. "Then who are the 'undesirables'?" I ask.

Boarding the Z9 bus to Silver Spring at Old Columbia Pike and Briggs Chaney Road, south of Burtonsville.

"I do not believe any human being is 'undesirable,'" Rochester replies. "Healthy communities require a proportionate share of home ownership and a healthy socioeconomic balance. Our area in the 1980's took on so many MPDUs that we fell into imbalance in terms of our turnover rate in our housing. And what they call the "mobility rate" in our schools. Greencastle Elementary has one of the highest turnover rates in the County! I think diversity is important, but you want it to be a healthy diversity in terms of demographics."

"But you're not going to fix Greencastle Elementary by building a bunch of single-family houses," I reply. "This goes to the deeper root of the issue, within those neighborhoods, those households."

"Listen," Rochester implores. "The Dutch Market was important because it brought people together, across generations, across races . . . that was what was special about the Dutch Market, and that's what we need. Places that transcend race and class and bring us together as a community."

As a student of planning, can I disagree with Stuart Rochester that building thousands of apartments within the span of a couple of years is a horrible idea? But can I accuse all of their tenants of "bringing down" my community? And what exactly is this "healthy diversity"? How would you set these quotas?

And that's when it hits me. For twenty years Burtonsville had its "gathering place," at least three days a week, where all sorts of people from all over the region could come and shop and eat and mingle. You could get a whole roomful of consultants together and not come up with something as wonderful, and now it's gone. Sure, it's only moved to Laurel, you say, but it's not really the same. How much harder will it be for us to come together - on this charrette, on the revitalization as a whole - when the one thing that brought us together is gone?

Read more!

what's up the pike: getting things done

The Chelsea School has launched a fundraising campaign for a striking addition to their current facility in Downtown Silver Spring.

Just Up The Pike took part in last night's Burtonsville Community Legacy Plan Charrette, where the future of a little town on the edge of East County seems, well, more muddled than ever. As we sort out the pieces, here's a look at some local developments that are, well, developing:

- Ellsworth Drive is poised to crash through the architectural vanguard with as the Chelsea School has hired "starchitect" Daniel Libeskind's firm to design an addition to their small campus off of Cedar Street. Libeskind, who may be best known for his still-unbuilt Freedom Tower in New York City, was contacted by the headmaster of the small school for learning-disabled students, which has launched a fundraising campaign to have the addition built.

Sheathed in glass and steel, the expansion consists of a new library meant to resemble an open book. In deference to the surrounding Seven Oaks-Evanswood community, the addition - and the school's new entrance - will be located on the Ellsworth Drive side towards Downtown, while existing bulidings facing the neighborhood will merely be rehabbed.

- The Prince George's County Planning Board enthusiastically approved a concept plan for Konterra Town Center, a large mixed-use project that'll serve as the centerpiece to the sprawling mini-city outside of Laurel. With 488 acres and 4,500 residential units, the project is larger than the King Farm development in Rockville; its nearly six million square feet of commercial space is nearly ten times that of the Downtown Silver Spring redevelopment. Developer Kingdon Gould must be excited about seeing Konterra inching closer to reality, given his first proposal for it was rejected by the Planning Board a quarter-century ago. "When you bring good stuff, you don’t have to fight," gushed Vice Chairman Sylvester Vaughns.

LATER: the Burtonsville charrette turns into a debate on who and what is welcome in East County. Read more!

different views clash in developer spat over proposed bethesda tower

UPDATE: The Planning Board has unanimously rejected Meridian's proposal for 4 Bethesda Metro Center. Board member Jean Cryor says the building "overshot the mark. I am not opposed to seeing more development right there . . . But this building a couple of feet away from another building isn't it."

We know, Bethesda is NOT East County. But there's a photo of Downtown Bethesda in my room, one taken inside 3 Bethesda Metro Center, from which you can see the Silver Spring skyline. It's a view that may or may not exist in a couple of years. When I was asked to write this piece, all I had to do was look at my wall and I said "yes."

A rendering of the Meridian Group's 4 Bethesda Metro Center, a controversial proposed office building in Downtown Bethesda. Clark Enterprises, who owns 1 Bethesda Metro Center (at right), claims the building violates zoning restrictions.

Two summers ago, I interned at an architectural firm in Bethesda. Our office filled the entire floor of a building downtown; from one side, I could see out to Tysons Corner, and from the other, to Downtown Silver Spring. Staring out the window proved to be an excellent way to fight boredom. This week, the Planning Board will look at a proposed office building in Bethesda that could change the way Montgomery County’s downtowns are developing – and the way many office workers waste their time.

“Right as we're speaking, I’m looking down East-West Highway from the eighth floor of BMC 3,” says Bob Harris, lawyer for Holland and Knight. He’s representing the Meridian Group, whose proposed 4 Bethesda Metro Center would sit more or less in front of his office, atop a food court that most agree has seen better days. Will the new building block his view? It’s already blocked, says Harris, “by Frank Saul’s building, towards the north of Silver Spring.”

Frank Saul, or B.F. Saul II, is the chairman and founder of Chevy Chase Bank. His twin Chevy Chase Bank Towers sit directly across Wisconsin Avenue from the Metro Center, a complex Meridian purchased in 1999. “You can reportedly see the Tysons Corner skyline from his office,” a penthouse, says Harris, “and this would partially block the view.”

so much more AFTER THE JUMP . . .

Looking east from 3 Bethesda Metro Center towards Downtown Silver Spring in 2005. Most or some of this view would disappear behind 4 Bethesda Metro Center, if built.

But the view isn’t the only reason why Chevy Chase Bank, along with local developers Chevy Chase Land Company and Clark Enterprises, are opposing 4 Bethesda Metro Center in what the Washington Post calls a "struggle among real estate titans." As Adam Pagnucco explains on Maryland Politics Watch, it comes down to the process. The six-acre block known as Bethesda Metro Center, with its four 1980’s-era concrete towers, has reached the maximum density for its site.

Harris says a 1989 zoning law allows developers to include “any land attributable” to a property, including surrounding streets. Old Georgetown and Wisconsin are “public use easements,” he argues, given to the State and County to use but legally owned by Meridian, providing the additional land to give them a density bonus.

The method’s legality has been controversial. “We don't think it has any merits,” says communications director I.J. Hudson, representing Clark Enterprises, owners of 1 Bethesda Metro Center. “There were trails here before there were property rights,” he adds, pointing out that Wisconsin Avenue was once a Native American trail.

Hudson, who was a Channel 4 anchor for over two decades, works for Garson Claxton, located a few blocks away. He’s no fan of the Metro Center’s aesthetics – white concrete and tinted glass – but he and his client remain faithful to the project’s original vision.

“These people working on the urban study back in 1980 . . . they were talking about ‘smart growth’ before that word was used,” Hudson says in that smooth, encouraging TV voice. “The buildings aren’t the most attractive, you know, tastes change in architecture. But they followed the rules. This thing is built out.”

The Bethesda Metro Center plaza, seen from ten stories up. Saul's Chevy Chase Bank towers are to the left, and the BMC food court is at the bottom.

Montgomery County planner Josh Sloan disagrees. As project director for 4 Bethesda Metro Center, he’s confident that Meridian’s proposal is legit. “We're not setting a precedent with calculating the density this way,” Sloan says, pointing out that other developers have done the same. “If we thought that [the opponents’] claim was valid, we wouldn't have recommended approval.”

For over a year, Sloan and his staff worked with the developers, wrangling as best a product he could from their vision and what the zoning would allow. “We all had concerns about several things about the project, in the building, and typical review process we get input from all the divisions,” Sloan says.

Last fall, a series of memos were circulated by one staff member who argued that the proposal would burden local infrastructure without providing enough amenities. In response, Sloan made sure that Meridian would keep its promise to activate the windswept plaza below. As for the views? “The building is quite narrow, so it's not going to completely block it,” he offers.

“We really worked on the footprint of the building and accessibility through the building to increase pedestrian access and liven more areas of retail,” says Sloan. “The entire first floor is retail. It's more accessible than the building.”

Recent developments like Bethesda Row and Bethesda Lane (pictured) have drawn customers away from the nearly thirty-year-old Metro Center.

For Harris, whose office looks down on the plaza, the Meridian proposal could dramatically change his perspective. “I must confess that I don't always have my nose to the grindstone,” he says sheepishly. “I sometimes gaze out the window. I see the plaza seven times a week, almost always six times a week, and it has never performed the way people thought it should.”

The problems are numerous. “It's inaccessible,” he says. “It's hot in the summer because of the reflection off the white pre-cast buildings that surround it, and it's cold in the winter. It will get moderate use on a day when the temperature is between sixty-five and seventy-five degrees, and between the hours of twelve and one-thirty when the office workers are eating lunch. On the weekends it's particularly dead.”

“We believe that by putting an office building whose front door is on the plaza so it will draw people there to begin with,” says Harris. The Meridian Group is also in talks with restaurants like the Corner Bakery, whose presence in the building they hope will “encourage other restaurants to set up business there.”

To keep visitors from slipping away to Bethesda Row, Meridian promises “significant improvements to the plaza itself,” Harris says, including “landscaping and greenery” and “new water features that will draw people in.” The bus terminal below will be revitalized with artwork and new lighting.

Looking southwest from 3 Bethesda Metro Center, towards Bethesda Row.

They will also install a stage and screen for outdoor movies, an idea that came up in the developer’s meetings with the surrounding neighborhoods. Harris doesn’t say that won them over, but he hasn’t heard any complaints from the neighbors, either. “We have met with various civic associations,” he says. “To my knowledge, the ones that we met with have not opposed it.”

“Everyone agrees that the plaza space could be improved, probably quite a bit, but the answer is not to attach those improvements to a sixteen-story building,” says Hudson. “It goes against the master plan, it goes against the sector plan. It measures density in a way that no one else gets to do it.”

When it was drafted in 1994, the Bethesda CBD Sector Plan didn’t anticipate a fifth high-rise in the Metro Center, though it does recommend “[improving] visibility of the food court by modifying building entrances, façade treatments, and lighting in a manner compatible with the surrounding buildings.”

Hudson would like to see “a smaller building, something less obnoxious than a huge building,” he says. “Open space is a premium in Bethesda these days . . . and there’s the matter of process.”

Whether or not Meridian’s method for measuring density is legal, their example could be repeated all across Montgomery County, fears Hudson. “What happens here, they kind of call it a ‘ground zero’ for what the county has to say about these sector plans,” Hudson says. “How important are they? If they can do it here, they can do it in your neighborhood.”

Read more!

what's up the pike: more b'ville shopping center shenanigans

Congratulations! You're reading Just Up The Pike's 401st post! With our second anniversary coming up soon, JUTP is making a few changes to give You, The Reader, an easier time. First up: moving the "What's Up The Pike" segments, usually at the top of our posts, into a whole new post. After all, aren't our posts long enough as it is?

Anyway. From the Gazette:

- Developer Chris Jones tells the East County Citizens Advisory Board that his new Burtonsville Shopping Center will be the "greenest suburban retail" in the nation, but denies that he's snagged Giant from across the street as an anchor.

- Speaking of Burtonsville Shopping Center: the Burtonsville Post Office, which has been located in the shopping center for over ten years, was evicted because the Postal Service couldn't commit to a ten-year lease, says Jones. Councilmember Don Praisner fears they may not be able to relocate in Burtonsville but, then again, they can't exactly follow the Amish Market to Laurel, can they?

NEXT WEEK: Find out about the future of the White Oak Recreation Center and Burtonsville's village center at open forums next Wednesday and Thursday.

Read more!

ordinary or not, falkland chase sets high standard for redevelopment

WHAT'S UP THE PIKE: Greater Greater Washington talks about Falkland North's "suburban sensibililty."

"From the way preservation advocates talk about the Falkland buildings, you'd think they were architectural masterpieces rather than garden-variety garden apartments . . . The county made its choice when it started redeveloping downtown Silver Spring. To cling to ordinary, 70-year-old brick apartments is an act of mere nostalgia." - Marc Fisher, Washington Post

In yesterday's column "Nostalgia May Trump New Housing in Montgomery,