On Wednesday night, developer Robert Paul Hillerson rolled out updates to Studio Plaza. The project would take up space along Silver Spring Avenue near Georgia Avenue (below). Here’s the score.
According to Hillerson and his lawyer, Ann Martin, the proposed Studio Plaza development would include:
Two residential buildings on Silver Spring Avenue with up to 165 units.
The buildings originally housed 255 residential units. However, the buildings’ footprints were reduced to accommodate public-use space. Plans now call for up to 165 residential units and 7,000 square feet of retail space between the two buildings.
Each building would be 90 feet tall. Because of a slight incline in topography, the building on the avenue’s northern side comes to 10 stories. On the southern side, the building comes to nine stories (above).
Martin says Hillerson has not decided on whether to sell or lease the units, although 15 percent of them will be moderately priced.
An office building and ground-floor retail space on Thayer Avenue have been eliminated.
Zoning laws would have required the office building to dedicate two-thirds of its space to residential use. Instead of contesting the requirement, Hillerson decided to eliminate the seven-story, 146,000 square-foot office building and 20,000 square feet of ground-floor retail from his proposal.
Two urban parks on Silver Spring Avenue have been eliminated.
Instead, public-use space will be set in front of the two residential buildings on Silver Spring Avenue. The new public-use space pushes the north building 30 feet from the public sidewalk (below, left), and the south building 12 feet from the sidewalk (below, right).
A total of 186 parking spaces.
Parking would be spread out between two subterranean garages. However, the county’s department of public works and transportation is contesting garage access via Mayor Lane, a one-way alley running parallel to Georgia Avenue between Thayer and Silver Spring avenues.
Photos by Jennifer Deseo and Ron Pace for The Silver Spring Penguin.
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[...] Studio Plaza, a mixed-use development planned for Thayer and Silver Spring avenues, is also shaking two small parks and up to 20,000 square feet of retail space, the project’s developer told Silver Spring’s commercial and economic development committee Wednesday night. [...]
Any word on how this new development deals with potential route of the BCT (Purple Line)? There are 3 proposed Purple Line routes running from the SlvrSpr transit hub east of Georgia — one route runs directly through or under the Studio Plaza site. See:
http://www.bi-countytransitway.com/PDFs/English/FG-4_Sheet07_SilverSpring.pdf
Oh Wiley, that’s a good question!
The Penguin drops the answer next week.
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[...] recently told the urban-district advisory committee. “If you start on a sector plan now, the Hillerson project won’t get done, the library won’t get [...]