The Silver Spring Penguin

A group of East Silver Spring residents said Monday night that development in Fenton Village would stress the neighborhood’s roadways.

“East Silver Spring is in terrible shape,” Sligo Avenue resident Ernest Bland told 30 neighbors at a meeting of the East Silver Spring Citizens Association. “We’re taxing this infrastructure.”

Many at the meeting worried that Fenton Street and intersecting avenues could not handle additional traffic if new housing and commercial developments proceed as planned.

One development — the Studio Plaza project — includes offices, ground-floor retailers, 255 apartments and 720 parking spaces, according to Ann Martin, the developer’s legal representative. Parking would be accessed via Mayor Lane, a one-way alley running parallel to Georgia Avenue between Thayer and Silver Spring avenues (above).

The inclusion of 720 spaces in a high-density development would do little to discourage people from driving, area resident Karen Roper argued. Silver Spring’s current sector plan calls for growth around mass transit hubs to ease automobile traffic.

However, councilmember Nancy Floreen (D-At large) told the audience that traffic predictions surrounding Studio Plaza were “academic.” The start of construction, developer Robert Paul Hillerson admitted, was at least three years away.

“[The project] can’t go forward unless the planning commission finds it consistent with the master plan,” Floreen said.

The councilmember also suggested revisiting the area’s sector plan, which she called a consensus statement on “the future of one’s neighborhood.”

“There should be a balance between the roads and community,” Floreen added.

Photo by Ron Pace for The Silver Spring Penguin.