The Silver Spring Penguin

Development of a mixed-use project and new planning board HQ could get oversight from an independent third party, the job’s project manager said Thursday afternoon.

Dan Hertz, the guy at the wheel for the planning department’s Silver Place project, told the planning board that third-party review could happen if the county council requested it, and if county council was willing to foot the bill for it.

Calls for independent review have come from residents in Woodside and Woodside Park, which are adjacent to the development site at the southeast corner of Georgia Avenue and Spring Street. Some neighbors worried the project’s housing element — and the perceived congestion that comes with it — would steer the design.

“It seems we’re dancing around the driving force,” one area resident said at a meeting with project managers in July. The project’s priorities should be more clearly outlined, he suggested.

“You’re not just the regulator, you’re the beneficiary,” another resident said. “It must have some oversight.”

However, planning board chair Royce Hanson was sure to spell out on Thursday that the third party would monitor only the process, and have no veto power over recommended designs.

“The group or person could make any recommendation it wishes to make,” Hanson told his fellow commissioners. “We can take their recommendation, and they can make their report to the county council.”

But “the board ultimately has the final decision,” Hanson concluded.

The county council holds a public hearing next Tuesday on whether to approve an additional $4.9 million appropriation for Silver Place’s design. It’s unclear whether the money would cover third-party oversight.