The county’s planning department has unleashed ideas for planting more nature in downtown Silver Spring, giving urban dwellers greater opportunities to hug a tree, and increasing property values for developers.
Part One of a week-long series.
The department’s green-space plan, released Thursday during the planning board’s weekly meeting, would rearrange the furniture in some parts of town. The idea is to replace parking lots and garages with lush lawns, and to frame them with street-level retailers. Large lots in Fenton Village, the Ripley District, South Silver Spring and The Blairs were all pegged for makeovers.
But on top of giving downtown residents premium Frisbee space, planning board commissioners said the plan would improve property values for developers. Previously, developers saw little benefit to building retail space into their projects. They made more money selling housing units than renting out storefronts.
But a lively green space has the potential to sex up the retail opportunities, making storefronts a must-have for any nearby development project, board commissioners said.
The plan “points out the potential of getting good green space in Silver Spring, and the extent to which the provision of these amenities provide economic incentive for development around it,” said Royce Hanson, chairman of the planning board.
However, existing buildings, commercial agreements and other plans in the works could make the green-space plan tricky to implement. For example, Giant Foods‘ recent renewal of its 30-year lease at The Blairs poses a hurdle to reworking the landscape there, planning staffer Sandra Perreira told the board.
The planning board has asked its staffers to continue their examinations of the specific sites.
Lead photo courtesy of Flickr user OrangeAcid.
Edited Apr 28, 2008, at 5:10 p.m.
August 21, 2008
3 Comments at "Space: Elbow room in Silver Spring’s urban core"
Don’t assume that the final design, if ever realized, would look anything like the conceptual drawings, which show grand formal spaces with large central lawns. I bring this up since the public got so attached to the fake turf at the Civic Center site. The county is suggesting “green space”, which can be expressed in countless other, more practical ways than turfgrass, which is not only impractical, but also not very environmentally responsible. Maintaining a lawn requires an enormous amount of water, weed control, fertilizer and maintenance (mowing) to look acceptable.
Point taken.
As a matter of fact some of the examples of excellent open spaces cited in the report, Market Square in Alexandria and Union Square in San Francisco, for example, are mostly hardscape, with trees and shrubs in planters. If it is well designed no one notices.
On the other hand, it is hard to replace turf (natural or artificial) for the flexibility of use that it allows. A developer would have to be committed, going into the project, to a fairly intensive maintenance regimen, with the expense that it entails. Even Market Commons in Clarendon has a bit of natural grass.
JM
I live across from the Blair Shops, and pray none of these ever happens. Has everyone gone nuts? There’s constructions everywhere; as I look out my window I see several projects underway, and the transportation center (almost adjacent to my building) will be torn up for years. I’ve read one possibility is to close the Giant (and open a new, pricer food store). That will kill off all the locals like me who count on walking to affordable stores. I’ll have to re-join the ranks of those who have a car and live much further out. Good luck with the shiny new Silver Spring.
Holler back.