The county’s planning board voted Thursday evening to support an historic-designation bid for the Falkland Chase apartment complex — all 22 acres of it.
Historic designation would protect the New Deal-era buildings from significant architectural changes. Home Properties, which owns the rental complex, planned to raze the complex’s northern parcel along East-West Highway and 16th Street to build a cluster of high-rise apartment buildings.
“Can you take a Michelangelo, rip off some of its corners, and still retain its value?” Richard Longstreth, an historic preservation expert with George Washington University, testified before the board.
“From a national perspective, this represents the most important architectural structure in Montgomery County,” Longstreth said.
The high-rise project would have set more than 1,000 new apartments about one block from Silver Spring’s Metro station. A 50,000 square-foot Harris Teeter supermarket and other ground-floor retailers were also in the mix.
Action in Montgomery, an affordable-housing advocacy group, argued that the board should allow development to move forward. The proposed apartments — 128 of them moderately priced — would have added to the county’s stock of affordable housing, group members testified.
However, because the board was weighing only Falkland Chase’s eligibility for historic designation, it could not consider the impact of the proposed development on the community. Ultimately, board commissioners sided with the preservationists.
“The idea of preserving historic and architecturally important communities even in dense urban areas may be as important, if not more important, than preserving them somewhere else,” board chairman Royce Hanson said. The final decision to preserve the Falkland Chase complex now falls on the county council.
A favorable vote from the council may not spare a couple of buildings from the wrecking ball. The Purple Line mass-transit project could clip two structures on Falkland Chase’s north parcel.
However, the county’s historic-preservation commission determined that demolition of the two buildings would have a “negligible” effect on the complex’s architectural significance.
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Ooooh boy. Get your popcorn. Historic preservationists versus The Real Estate Developer and New Urbanists. Anyone who reads Silver Spring Scene religiously is considered a New Urbanist in my opinion. Anyway, whenever this Falkland issue comes up at a future MontCo County Council meeting, I will be there enjoying this cage match. Popcorn and all.
Local government meetings are real fun when you have Historic Preservationist Nazis duke it out with the Pro-Dense Development, New Urbanist Stalinists. Oh yeah, then there are like 10 lawyers representing the developer too. Good stuff!
IHY… there really are no moderates in your world are there? I consider myself at least a SUPPORTER of new urbanism… not being an architect or city planner I don’t think I myself am a new urbanist…. but I think stalinist probably goes to far to describe myself. By the way.. what exactlly is the connection between new urbanism and stalin…. or for that matter, historic preservation and 1930’s germany? In fact.. I don’t think they were interested in preserving much as they levelled a decent chunk of Europe.
On an all together different note… WHERE’S MY HARRIS TEETER GOING TO GO??? I am so sick of the lines at Giant… and I think the produce at safeway literally could MAKE me sick… and i loooove sniders, but there’s always one or two things I have to go elsewhere for…. my kingdom for a new grocer’ing option….
Editor’s note: Let’s get past the Nazis, Stalinists, etc. Thanks! — JD (Dec 7, 2007)
Harris Teeter would look nice in the south end of Silver Spring.
I agree with you though. I can’t stand the service at Giant. One shopping experience at Whole Foods will cost me half my paycheck. Trader Joe’s involves driving a car some place. Sniders requires driving as well. You get better food selection at a grocery market in North Korea than at the Silver Spring Safeway.
Grocery stores suck in this area.
I should just join a self-sustaining vegetarian commune in Oregon.
The Safeway on Thayer Ave is supposed to be rebuilt from the ground up at some point.
Has anyone had any experience with the Silver Spring Food Co-op?
I like the Silver Spring Food Co-op. They have a great selection of organic veggies and for vegans & vegetarians, they’re at least as good as Whole Foods, if not better. (They also have better bagels than Whole Foods). Their prices are also very good.
I would shop there all the time except for one big problem: I’d have to drive there; on weekends that’s merely a hassle, but on weeknights, you’d starve to death in all the East-West Highway traffic.
Though it’s expensive, I do almost all of my shopping at Whole Foods for the simple fact that I walk past it every day on my way home from work.
I find it hilarious that a group advocating affordable housing is pushing for a development where the starting price of a one bedroom was projected to average around $1600 a month. Falkand may not be cheap, but its better than that.
And while it sucks that the Harris Tweeter might be lost, the thought of East West Hwy with ANOTHER traffic light in an already heavily congested, dense area makes me shutter.
Let me paint a picture for you: Residents of Summit Hills walking to the metro for a nice day in DC crossing the entry on East West while ancey grocery shopping motorists from all around MoCo edge forward to pull out onto East West. Someones getting hit.
And while the Safeway is due for a makeover, I highly doubt it will truly get any better anytime soon since most of us in ESS will continue to go due to its convenience.
Is this the first major step toward halting/rolling back SS redevelopment? The old Perpetual Bank building on GA @ Cameron also is up for historic status, in order to block a high-rise there. Some people have expressed concern about the prospect of high-rises displacing the small industrial buildings (and the Shepherd’s Table) near the railroad, and plans to build in Fenton Village are generating opposition. It may be that SS can be returned to the “quiet, simple place it once was, where ethnic shopkeepers cared about their customers, accepted only limited profits and didn’t insist on having pristine spaces.” Wouldn’t that be GREAT?! I know it’s some people’s dream — though I lived through the “nightmare” of it (including totally stagnant property values, deserted streets at night and a constant need to get in my car to buy or eat almost anything worth having) and am not anxious to return.
I hover in the middle. I am pro-development, but that doesn’t mean I’m pro-development in the form of over-priced high-rise apartments. Silver Spring is past the need for “Development for the sake of development,” unless you want the “new” Silver Spring to be a mass of overpriced residential.
Put a health mix of res, office, and commerical on Falkland with more than one entrace/exit (16th street for example) and I’m there in a second. Turn Fenton Village into a mix of nicer commerical shops and I’m there too. Attempt to tear it down to build more overpriced residential ($1600 a month for a one bedroom, but ITS WITHIN WALKING DISTANCE OF ONE OVERHYPED BLOCK!) and I’d rather the village stay.
Let’s say a historic building (or rather a potentially historic building) was to be replaced with something really nice. Something that would age gracefully and eventually be eligible for historic preservation. Something with more character in it too, because if that was the fate for those houses for sale in East Silver Spring, or the perpetual Bank Building, or part of Falkland, or just about anything in Silver Spring, I wouldn’t have a problem. Would any of you?
I’m with Batman on this, actually. You keep some samples of the best things, but gradually discard what has outlived its usefullness and maybe wasn’t so great in the first place. In the Falklands’ case, we can get rid of PART of it (the part in the location where greater density makes the most sense, next to Metro) but keep a sample of the “old SS” nearby. Some buildings, however, just aren’t worth saving — unless your goal is to freeze the world circa 1955.
I’m also less than supportive of keeping old buildings simply because they are old. For example, I never understood the push to keep the old Canada Dry bottling building. It was a decrepit brick box.
If a building is aesthetically unique or just plain beautiful, or if a building truly has historical significance, then keep it. But, if it’s just an old building, with a design that’s a dime a dozen, and decrepit to boot, then tear it down.
I’m also for big new apartment buildings. This entire region is lacking in enough housing, and the more residents in Silver Spring, the better.
The Canada Dry Bottling Plant is one of the buildings I like, but that addition on it really sucks. I’m referring to buildings like what you see on the north end of Colesville road. None of those buildings are historic, they’re just old. They have no character, they’re butt-ugly and economical. The stretch from the McDonald’s to the gas station is prime real estate. Leaving it ugly and stagnant is not very smart growth.
Great website. I am new to the East Coast and looking for an apartment within 1/2 mile of the metro. Does anyone have any experience with the Falkland Chase complex? Or know if it is a decent place to live? I am also looking at Lenox Park.
I have to agree with Easley… After living in Falkland Chase, more congestion and chaos added to that intersection while there are so many that live right there at 16th St & E/W Hwy and walk to the Metro is definitely asking for people to get hit. There were several times when I lived there that it almost happened.
As for the historical status, I hope that it stays. I’m all for accessibility and convenience, but when condos and apartments that have been built are already empty, there’s no need to add to that mess. Plus, I enjoyed the fact that FC was historical… I loved living there, and plan to try to get back into them once I move back to the area next year. They’re a goldmine, and I would hate to see them go.
I strongly oppose any high-density development that will create far worse traffic in the 16th Street, E-W Hwy. area. There have been numerous accidents at that intersection already. The developers are going to face heavy questions about the traffic planning and rightly so. I think a Harris Teeter in that location would be a disastrous idea. The traffic flows would be not efficient. Heck, I have had near collisions making a U-Turn at 16th Street/E-W Hwy intersection. Again, there is plenty of available property for the taking in South Silver Spring for a new grocery store development.
Do me a favor Montgomery County? Grant more permits to build high-density projects in other vicinities. We don’t need more high-density residential/retail plans for the West of Colesville district of Silver Spring.
Well said IHY. With the amount of unused and/or poorly used space in South Silver Spring, especially off Georgia Ave, there is no need to rebuild an area of West of Colesville that is in fine shape and needs no new reason for traffic.
I personally witness at least one near-collision between a pedestrian and a vehicle every time I’m at the 16th/East West Intersection and the colesville/East West Intersection. There is no end that is more responsible that the other. Adding more traffic to this stretch is not the answer.
Everybody keeps yapping about condos and apartments. With a commercial real estate occupancy rate at 4% or less, we need more office space to sustain the influx of business revenue.
And I know how much IHY wants the area to look like Bethesda. If we get enough office space, maybe we can just call our area EaBe.
Thayer Ave.,
You are right about more office space. I really hope we can attract NPR and some other media-related organizations. Silver Spring has a Metro rail station, plenty of public parking spaces, and major Metro bus lines. This would be the perfect location for new businesses!
But you are wrong about the Bethesda thing. In fact, I have argued repeatedly that Silver Spring should be the exact OPPOSITE of Bethesda. When real estate developers in Silver Spring only propose building expensive condos for the affluent, they are making a carbon copy of Bethesda. So, how does my preference for keeping Falkland Chase make me pro-Bethesda? Last time I checked, Falkland Chase has affordable rents for middle-class professionals. Any new development on that property would price out a majority of the population…and cause insufferable traffic problems.
I think we should make Progress Place a historic building.
http://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/hhstmpl.asp?url=/content/hhs/offices/progress.asp
IHY: There was a little bit of sarcasm there in my last post. Anyone well-versed in the comments sections of the local blogs knows better than that. ;-)
Somebody refresh my memory: if the north parcel of Falkland Chase ends up getting redeveloped, will anything in the ugly-as-sin, rat-infested “Metro Center” mini-strip mall be changed? If they’re going to all the trouble, the least they could do would be to do something with that damn Rite Aid.
Nose, I haven’t heard anything personally about that strip mall seeing any rennovations. I agree that the Rite Aid is ugly as sin and should be razed in favor of another CVS. It’s cramped, dirty and is commonly served as merely a post-bar food shop for the younger late night crowd heading back to Summit Hills (myself included once upon a time). I believe we are doomed to a life of inferior bagels at Einstein and a cramped Starbucks.
Easley, you raise a very important point: bagels. Why can’t you find a decent bagel in Silver Spring? I go to visit my parents in Jersey and load up on bagels. Real bagels, hard on the outside, chewy on the inside. Come back to MoCo, and it’s just round bread with holes.
It ain’t right.
Thanks, Easley. It just doesn’t seem sensible to open a Harris Teeter and keep that Rite Aid (though I too have used it as a pit stop on the way home to Summit Hills – oh the perils of a small bladder), to say nothing of the Einstein and Starbucks. I imagine that the Metro service station/what-have-you next to the FedEx is something of an obstacle for development of that shopping center, but there’s gotta be some alternatives.