The planning board on Thursday evening approved plans for downtown’s Veterans Plaza, ice rink and all.
The unanimous decision stuck a fork in the popular artificial turf at Ellsworth Drive and Fenton Street, where the plaza and adjacent civic building will be built.
However, the board’s four commissioners agreed that the proposed hardtop plaza wouldn’t have the same appeal as the turf.
“I’m struggling with how usable the plaza is as a gathering space,” board chairperson Royce Hanson told county representatives at the review meeting. “I’m just concerned that it’s a large area with no greenery in it.”
According to the county’s proposal, the plaza will be paved with terra cotta bricks, and a row of trees will line a walkway leading to the civic building’s entrance. The 6,000 square-foot rink will sit beneath a 7,000 square-foot acrylic pavilion.
To get things cooking, the plaza will offer visitors stationary benches and movable lawn furniture. The movable chairs and tables will allow visitors to build their own flexible environments, Matt Oden, the project’s architect, explained.
However, the movable furniture — more precisely, its possible theft — gave planning board commissioner Wendy Perdue the willies.
“People will conclude that this is not great because the furniture keeps leaving, so let’s bolt it down. Then people lose interest because you can’t move the furniture,” Perdue argued.
Commissioners Allison Bryant and John Robinson also had reservations about the plaza. Both said its look was harsh and uninviting, and Bryant worried that the space would be downtown Silver Spring’s last shot at green space.
Despite their concerns, and after hearing three hours of public testimony, the commissioners voted unanimously to approve the plan.
“I don’t think we can come up on the fly with suggestions [to the plan] that would be helpful, and I don’t want to do more harm,” chairperson Hanson remarked just before the vote. “I’m really stuck.”
Some in the hearing room’s peanut gallery applauded at the planning board’s decision. However, Royce was reluctant to congratulate them.
“There’s a very high probability that the plaza area is not going to work as well as you hope,” he said.
Read 
What the hell are they building now? Learn more from 
Boxed wines and rosés are back in vogue. Just ask The Penguin's sommeliers.
Some experts think there’s no way the ice rink couldn’t work: check out Just Up The Pike.
As long as the plaza’s furniture is arranged in a manner that promotes socialization, there should be no problem with it. The only time I find that plazas are not successful are when benches and chairs are stuck in odd positions that do not seem to make it possible to have a conversation with more than 1 person. Downtown Silver Spring has such a large amount of foot traffic now that I find it hard to believe that any sort of open space, be it paved or green, wouldn’t be successful to some degree (just like Silver Spring Plaza, half a block away, which also has movable furniture).
Oh yeah, and the builder should order movable chairs that are fairly heavy and made of metal, just as in Silver Spring Plaza. Movable, but hardly “stealable”, especially with the number of cops patrolling (and patronizing the shops in) the area everyday.
The plaza and ice rink will no doubt attract a crowd, but the “turf scene” will be lost. Will groups of people sit down together in small groups on the paved surface, or will there be impromptu soccer games on the plaza? Will parents let their toddlers run around on the pavement? Some of the space’s laid back attractiveness will likely dissapear.
That’s fine, there’s plenty of soccer fields and parks in the immediate area.
As far as the lack of greenery, it is true that for the first five years it will not look too comfy out there. If the landscape plan calls for shade trees that tolerate urban conditions well and are relatively quick growing (ie. willow oaks) AND the county maintains their trees the same way that Foulger-Pratt maintains theirs in the DTSS development, then they will grow pretty large over time (the key phrase here) and provide plenty of shade on one side of the plaza with the acrylic cover above the ice rink space providing shade on the other. The first few years, though are going to be pretty hot out there.
Maybe we can lobby for them to buy larger, more mature trees. Granted, they are more expensive and harder to plant and maintain at first (because of their size), but it would be a great move on the county’s part.
While there are parks and recreation fields nearby downtown silver spring in Woodside and in East Silver Spring (and, of course, in Rock Creek Park) there is no planned green space within the Central Business District. Given the rapid increase in housing in the downtown area, it would be nice to have some park and rec. space located downtown, especially if the County is interested in attracting families with children to the Cental Business District. Going to LA Fitness and Washington Sports Club should not be the only options.
Don’t forget Sligo Creek Park (which is much closer than Rock Creek Park). The CBD is already is attracting families and children. Many condos have their own playgrounds/green space either on rooftops or on the grounds. I suggest using the park at the corner of Spring St and Georgia Ave, as well as Fairview Road Park, and make better use of Jessup Blair Park (which is near where most of the new condos/apts are being built).
Also, if you’re really that concerned, try lobbying Discovery to actually tear down that damned fence they have around their green “public space”, since that really is in the center of the CBD.
If the CBD were geographically bigger, it might make more sense to try to create a park such as a small Dupont Circle or Rittenhouse Square in Philly, but since the SS CBD is relatively small, and the already existing parks are within walking distance of most people living downtown, it makes more sense (environmentally to prevent sprawl, and economically) to have a space that can be used for many different events, something a green cannot provide.
I actually believe that Silver Spring Plaza could have been made into something like a small Dupont Circle, especially with the shape it has now, but the decision has been made, and I’m sorry if you were on the “losing side”. This civic space is for the betterment of not only downtown Silver Spring but the entire Silver Spring region as a whole.
Pennster wrote:
Here’s why I don’t dig Jessup Blair Park (at least the part closest to Georgia Avenue and the Montgomery College footbridge).
First, it’s got such a bizarre layout. The paths wander aimlessly, and the placement of young trees seem to disuade use of the grassy areas.
Second, that part of South Silver Spring doesn’t have a lot of retail or other street activity to attract people. If Moorenko’s was just a little further south (or if the KFC on Blair Rd wasn’t robbed so often), maybe more people would picnic there.
Pennster also wrote:
I agree. Discovery needs to TEAR THAT SHIT DOWN.
Don’t forget the park next to the Silver Spring Library. You can go to the library and to the park without moving your car if you drive there.
Regarding moving mature, here’s an idea : move the trees in front of the Birchmere, which would allow the future Birchmere to actually look like the version posted on the web.
I don’t get this:
“I’m struggling with how usable the plaza is as a gathering space,” board chairperson Royce Hanson told county representatives at the review meeting. “I’m just concerned that it’s a large area with no greenery in it.”
So why the heck did you vote for it?
Sorry for the typo. I meant to write :
Regarding Pennster’s suggestion about getting mature trees, the trees in front of the future Birchmere could be moved, so that the architect’s rendition of the Birchmere is actually realizable, which it currently is not because of those trees.
WTH asked:
The commissioners were really REALLY close to giving the plaza plan a unanimous thumbs down. However, they couldn’t think of alternatives on the spot, and no one was willing to vote in favor of AstroTurf.
In the words of chairperson Royce Hanson:
The board could have postponed a decision. However, a rep from the department of public works intimated that the county would be willing to tweak the plaza plan a little. That tipped the scales.
And the rest is history.
PENNSTER (or anyone): What’s the next step after site-plan review? At what point can the plaza’s design be revisited? Thanks!
The next step would be building permit.
I have been thinking about the trees in front of the future Birchmere. They would be just the type to dot the plaza without overwhelming it.
[...] Local artists would be meeting at Adega Wines that night to discuss a stealth project using the downtown turf. The cabal would convene at 7:00 p.m., possibly 8:00 [...]
[...] some calls to keep the turf, the county decided last summer to proceed with its plans to build the plaza, veterans memorial, seasonal ice rink and pavilion. A [...]