Montgomery County’s got a new policy to keep development in check with services and infrastructure. But what does any of it mean for downtown Silver Spring? For starters, it could mean fewer new homes and more office space.
According to Gary Stith, director of the Silver Spring Regional Center, a growth moratorium in the Einstein school district could ice some new residential projects along the central business district’s northwestern edge.
Development at Falkland Chase’s north parcel, Silver Place near Woodside Park, and the Perpetual Building on Georgia Avenue and Cameron Street could be affected, Stith said Thursday at a meeting of the urban-district advisory committee. None of these projects have undergone the planning board’s project-plan review process.
However, previously approved projects would be grandfathered into existence without a hitch, Stith explained. A cluster of new houses along Georgia Avenue in Woodside is in the clear, as is The Portico near Cameron Hills.
Most of Silver Spring’s central business district sits within the Montgomery Blair school district. Brand-spankin’ new residential projects would be subject to more stringent school adequacy tests, but they wouldn’t have to flip the school facilities payment. That charge could cost developers between $19, 500 and $28,500 for each potential student, according to a county council press statement.
The school-district squeeze limits new residential development, but it could open doors for more office development, Stith said. Because office space doesn’t affect school enrollment, such projects must prove only that they wouldn’t put too big a dent in mass-transit services and road traffic.
According to the county council, office projects near Metro stations already pay half the usual impact tax for transportation studies. That means redevelopment of the United Therapeutics HQ on Cameron Street wouldn’t be subject to the 70-percent increase in impact tax approved by the county council last week.
Previously approved commercial projects, like the new hotel on Colesville Road near Spring Street, and the City Place office tower, get a pass on any increased impact tax.
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Silver Spring needs people more than office space. Every time I visit NYC, I come back shaking my head as how vibrant it is compared to the D.C. region. A huge reason for that, besides its wonderful mixed-use zoning (businesses at street level, apartments above) is the sheer number of people. All of those New Yorkers mean that more restaurants and bars and stores, etc., can survive and flourish.
But then there’s the Wall Street area, which is a virtual dead zone after work hours — just like Farragut North/West. Do we really want Silver Spring to become a canyon of vacant office buildings after 6 p.m. and on weekends? I kow I don’t.
What good does that do when everybody is heading for D.C. to work? You’re just asking for exacerbated traffic problems and a bedroom community.
Do you know that downtown Silver Spring already has more residential units planned, under construction and completed in the last five years than downtown Baltimore and its surrounding neighborhoods?
In fact I’m pretty sure downtown Silver Spring has the largest concentration of residential projects underway than any jurisidiction outside D.C. proper.
We already have enough residential now we need the office jobs to balance that out.
I only wish people new what was going on in the surrounding jurisdictions before complaining that Silver Spring has enough office space.
We need more jobs and more office space, also, there are far more office buildings than residential in NYC’s core.
Silver Spring has the vacant part down already.
More people would be nice. Unfortunately, the cost of living in Silver Spring has been a deterrent to many people. Gentrification can hurt as well as rebuild the economic fabric of communities.
IHY, I’m completely sympathetic to your argument, but Jeebus, what’s the alternative? A soul can either work in D.C. and pay mucho to live within a reasonable commuting distance, e.g, Silver Spring, or pay less but sacrifice a huge slice of their lives by living out in the far exurbs.
That’s life in our modern America, Flying Spaghetti Monster bless it. Those of us fortunate enough to be able to afford to live in Silver Spring are very fortunate indeed.
I would sacrifice half of my income to live closer in the city where there is work and things to do.
Silver Spring needs BOTH residential and business still, which I think was the first comment made – regarding NYC’s mixed use neighborhoods. However, unless I’m totally mistaken here, NY’s mixed use neighborhoods came more from lack of zoning than from zoning. They are mostly old old neighborhoods, long before local governments were poking their fingers into it nearly as much if at all (and no, I don’t claim that to be good or bad, just saying it like it is). I was noting the other day while I was in Georgetown… the most vibrant mixed use neighborhoods in the world are hundreds of years old. DC’s boundaries were drawn (pre-civil war of course) to enclose the port towns of Georgetown and Alexandria. Those are vibrant mixed neighborhoods that exist simply because they were vibrant neighborhoods hundreds of years ago – zilch to do with mixed use zoning! I love the idea of it, I love the concept of it… and I think it’s unfortunate that we’ve been entirely unsuccessful at “manufacturing” these neighborhoods. I love downtown SS and everything it offers. But it’s always going to look “manufactured” because it is. And before everyone gets on my case here – I have no idea what the answer is. I wish we could make neighborhoods as vibrant as 200 year old neighborhoods. I don’t know how – I’m just offering some observations. IF we’re going to zone the heck out of everything (for which there are certainly arguments) mixed use is certainly a good start, since that is historically what has created the greatest neighborhoods.
To digress… I think the other thing that was touched on that makes NYC great is simple density. greater density of people means more people to support more services within a shorter more walkable distance. It means more people on the street when you’re getting of the metro at 2am on Saturday night – i.e. safer streets. I think that’s where smarter zoning comes in. Buildings in an urban district, if we truely want it to be urban, need to be tall and close together. Everyone hates these stupid pocket parks anyway – let them build a bigger building instead and make the contribute $$ to a REAL park somewhere.
The population of the country is growing… no stopping it. They’re all going somewhere. And they are all paying taxes, which over time, are supposed to pay for all that infastructure. Particularly in a downtown urban area, where the VAST majority of new residents are 20-30’s with no kids anyway, I don’t think we should be trying to stiffle smart growth with higher and higher fees. Here’s a not-so-secret piece of info most people living in 2 bedroom condo’s DON’T HAVE KIDS – as hard as the NIMBY’s try to make you believe they do.
Anywho… I’ve been busy and haven’t ranted in a while.. sorry, had to get it all out :-)