Ike, county council clash over new Silver Spring library
MoCo exec Ike Leggett (D) wants the county council to clear $5 million for Silver Spring’s new public library. Not so fast, says the council.
A slim majority of council members want the money pegged to programs linking the library’s development to overall design in Fenton Village, council member Nancy Floreen explained to Silver Spring’s citizens advisory board Monday night.
“My colleagues are concerned that we get the best design for the library,” Floreen told the advisory board. Money’s in the budget for the library’s design, but the at-large Dem said her colleagues were attaching strings to the appropriation that would set the project’s focus “on design and feel, rather than on the [development] rules.”
It all comes down to an idea called form-based zoning — codes that create a predictable street front through a building’s physical form, rather than its land use and compliance with regulations, according to the Form-Based Codes Institute. Council members Valerie Ervin (District 5), Marc Elrich and George Leventhal (both at large), Roger Berliner (District 1) and council president Mike Knapp (District 2), all Dems, would like to see the library and the rest of Fenton Village serve as the county’s pilot for such zoning, Floreen said.
But Leggett doesn’t want Fenton Village’s overall game plan to stand in the way of scoring that $5 million for the new library. In a May 6 memo to the council, Leggett said discussions of “design excellence” shouldn’t keep Silver Spring residents from replacing the 13,600 square-foot library on Colesville Road with 40,000 square-feet of reading room on Fenton at Bonifant Streets.
“I am concerned that some of the approaches that are being discussed now … would result in a 3- to 5-year delay in realization of the new library, and at a significantly increased cost,” Leggett wrote.
To get that design excellence, Leggett’s memo said the council was willing to put the library project through a design summit, where architectural bigwhigs would put the job through the wringer, and a design competition. Silver Spring’s future civic centerwent through a design competition, where several architectural designs slugged it out mano-a-mano for the gig. But the same process added $200,000 to the civic center project, Leggett wrote.
Leggett also said council members were tying the library funds to a proposed zoning change that could raise building heights in Fenton Village. The proposed change would allow buildings between Fenton Street and Georgia Avenue to reach 143 feet in height if they contain workforce housing for middle-class residents.
Raising the roof is a good idea, but don’t anchor the recent proposal to that $5 million for the library, Leggett said. A public hearing on the zoning change doesn’t drop until June, whereas the council goes over the library appropriation on Thursday.
The county has nearly all the land it needs to drop a library on Fenton Street between Bonifant Street and Wayne Avenue. The state transit administration also has examined how the Purple Line mass-transit project would roll past the library’s ground floor on its way to Wayne Avenue.
Once done, the 40,000 square-foot library will be the smallest of the county’s new libraries. By comparison, Rockville’s shiny new joint has 67,000 square feet of space dedicated to bookworms. Even Germantown’s new library — at 43,000 square feet – outsizes the future Silver Spring library.
Lead photo: A make-believe Silver Spring and its new make-believe library, courtesy of MNCPPC.
Penguin editor Ron Pace contributed to this article.
Corrected May 13, 2008, at 1:45 p.m.
I understand the Council’s desire to think comprehensively about development of Fenton Village but I am concerned that they are putting unnecessary obstacles in the way of a much-needed community improvement. Please Councilmembers, don’t make the perfect the enemy of the good - we need a new library!
Just imagine how many homeless people can fit in 40,000 square-feet!
They should get on with the project. As was said, “the perfect should not be the enemy of the good.”
However, if the project is delayed, the site decision should be reconsidered. There is now a very good new reason to build the new library on the site of the current library. The current site has adquate space for free parking. The County Council recently abandoned its promise of free parking for library users at the Rockville Library. The Council will undoubtedly do the same thing and charge Silver Spring Library users to park at the new downtown site. So why not build the new library where there would be plenty of space to maintain the traditional free parking for library users? Why make the new library expensive for people to use? The original benefits of the downtown site are rapidly disappearing — first it loses space to the Purple Line and now it will lose free parking.
I think I missed something, or it hasn’t been discussed: after the library moves from its current location, what’s going there?
Nancy Floreen stated at the SS Citizen’s Advisory Board meeting last night that the hot issue right now is whether free parking should be continued at the Rockville library. The money at issue is about $84,000. She also stated that the County Council will be focused on parking policy for this upcoming year.
Editor’s note: Where’s your gravatar, dude? — JD (May 13, 2008)
OH MY GOD someone might have to pay 50 cents to park at the library! Let’s be honest, parking in Silver Spring is far from expensive. Of course, on the weekends the lot across the street is free. Personally, I pay a lot more in late fees that I ever would for parking.
Besides, cheap/free parking is part of the reason too many people drive everywhere. Doesn’t it make more sense to move the library closer to the cluster of apartments and condos so the bulk of the people who live in downtown can easily walk there?
The old SS library is definitely shabby and needs work or replacing. And I’m in favor of paid parking; there’s just not the room there and as it’s been pointed out, there’ll be free parking nearby on weekends anyway. And folks need to be encouraged to walk or use mass transit anyway.
It’ll be a couple of blocks from my office, so it won’t be any trouble for me, and I can always hop on the bus from home if need be.
I think the library (and the transit center, as discussed on Silver Spring Scene) illustrate the county’s need for (1) important services, and (2) strong urban design. While I appreciate that we don’t want the perfect to mess up the good, I just don’t want “good” to turn around in a few years and bite us in the collective ass.
It would be awesome to get important services and strong design all in one shot. For some reason, the county hasn’t hit that balance yet. Don’t know whether that’s a problem with zoning laws, the planning board, absence of an architectural review board, dependence on the automobile, or alien overlords.
As far as parking goes, I don’t think we need much of it (free or paid) at the new library with a Purple Line running through the lobby.
“The Penguin Abroad” says: “As far as parking goes, I don’t think we need much of it (free or paid) at the new library with a Purple Line running through the lobby.”
This makes little or no sense to me. We all don’t live along or even near the Purple line. Many people would have to go farther to get to the Purple Line than to get to the library! The Purple Line may help some people living in east Silver Spring, Langley Park, or toward Bethesda get to the new library, but it will do nothing to help people in north or south Silver Spring get to the library. As much as we might want to reduce traffic in Downtown Silver Spring, the Purple Line isn’t going to eliminate the need for parking.
Sligo says: “Besides, cheap/free parking is part of the reason too many people drive everywhere. Doesn’t it make more sense to move the library closer to the cluster of apartments and condos so the bulk of the people who live in downtown can easily walk there?”
I would be willing to bet that there are or will be about as many apartment/condo dwellers closer to the current library site than there are to the new one. The current site is next door to one high rise apartment building and across Colesville Road from another at Colesville and Spring. There is a garden apartment complex a block away on Colesville at Fenton. A new high rise condo/apartment is being built about two blocks away on Cameron Street, and another new one is a couple of blocks farther west, all closer to the old site than the new one.
The new library is supposted to “spur the revitalization” of the East Silver Spring/Fenton Village area. Problem is, the residents in East Silver Spring would probably have rather kept the old library where it is. Most are not big fans of the plans for Fenton Village and are prepared to oppose them. I do not mean this in a negative way either - many of these people have owned homes in this area for years and enjoy the block as it is. Likewise, the library will go up well before new housing is put in - housing that will likely still be out of the price range of many people, despite the “workforce” requirement.
I agree with Bob - it would have made more sense to keep the current location of the current library where there is much more housing.
If I lived near Fenton village, I would rather have a library than a bunch of dilapidated/abandoned buildings.
Easley writes, “the residents of East Silver Spring would probably have rather kept the old library where it is…” This East Silver Spring resident says: bring on the new library! I do not enjoy the block as it is, with the vacant shops.
The new location is more accessible to more people. Drivers because of having better parking options, VanGo users because it’s on the route, Metro users because it’s closer, etc.
Plus, as Easley points out, the location was selected to help Fenton Village. Let’s not revisit location and lose the whole thing for 10 more years.
As someone who lives in East Silver Spring/Fenton Village and a parent of two, I cannot agree more with David: “Bring it on!” I can assure you, my family and neighbors cannot wait to walk the little ones over the new facility! OK, we have to wait but please, let’s not make it longer than necessary. Again, I support comprehensive planning and the Council/public should have a say but let’s not put too many obstacles in the way.
As for parking - as someone said before, free (or even cheap) parking encourages driving at a time when we need to be favoring public transportation for so many reasons. For goodness sake, the Purple Line and Van-Go are going to be right outside - who could ask for anything more? Suburbanites can park a bit further away and walk or take one of the above. And is 50 cents really too much to spend to take advantage of a free resource?
Finally, the new location will certainly be closer to more condo/apt dwellers. All you have to do is check out the current (not even including the pending) development plans to see that literally thousands of people will be able to walk to the new site. The current site is on the edge of the downtown district - we need to encourage development of this sort closer to the core to keep the downtown compact and vibrant, not lure more people to the edges. Public buildings should be on the forefront of that movement.
Another East SSer here who says - Build it already - Fenton & Wayne/Bonifant will greatly benefit with this new amenity. I just hope the hours of operation reflect what the PUBLIC wants - meaning all weekends BOTH Sat & Sun and later hours in the eve. Just take a look at Borders down the block to see the most frequent user hours.
As to “free” library parking - this public subsidy of a nonsustainable lifestyle should have been killed decades ago. Will be glad to see it finally go.
Editor’s note: This comment was edited for spelling. — JD (May 19, 2008)
As yet another East Silver Springer, The sooner the better! The Fenton-Bonifant location makes sense on many levels. First of all, there is a civic value of having a town’s library centrally located. Secondly, it would be acesible to more people by virtue of being closer to the Purple line and the Metro. The buildings there are scrappy and ugly, and the Library would be a great connector to Fenton Village. As for tieing it to the form based zoning, it would be a great idea which needn’t impact both the cost and the timing because the parameters (of form based zoning) would be included into the program for the library. This way the design would comply with all the criteria from the get go.
Based on the last four comments to this post, as well as my conversations with some of my friends and neighbors, I suspsect that although though there is a vocal group of people opposed to many of the projects planned for the area, many more East Silver Spring residents believe that projects such as the library and the Purple Line would be in the public interest and support them.If ever there was a poll taken of residents in the area, I’d bet good money that the majority of respondents would favor of the library, the Purple Line, and more residential and retail development in the area.
Speaking of zoning, HB373/SB 204 – Maryland Transit Administration – Transit Oriented Development, passed the last state legislative session, and was signed into law. An analysis on the state Web site mentions the Purple Line. The bill designates areas a half-mile from a transit stop, or even a planned transit stop, as eligible for Transit-Oriented Development (TOD). It does mention that local planning should be followed.
However, if the Purple Line becomes closer to actually being planned, any home, tree or anything else small nearby could be vulnerable to rezoning and removal — possibly by eminent domain. Developers constantly try to exceed the height limits in Fenton Village as it is, with the local master plan in place. If the library is built at Fenton St. and a Purple Line stop is put there, the people who live within a half-mile will eventually have to fight a rezoning battle just to keep their homes.
If a poll were taken in East Silver Spring, I think it would find that most people love their homes and trees. It would find that most East Silver Spring residents plan to stay in their homes for the rest of their lives, and want those homes available for future generations. Development that threatens those homes would be opposed.
There are places in the USA that really need development. Towns that used to hold proud, middle-class factory workers. It is time to revive those factories and towns to build solar panels and other useful things. Development possibilities in Silver Spring are just about maxed out.
I don’t even see what the point of building the new library is. Most people just don’t read anymore, and it’s not as if building a fancy new library is somehow going to change that. It may be a public good, but I’m not entirely sure it’s a wise use of funds for our cash-strapped county government.
If you wanted to encourage more people to read, you’d have the county just distribute (far more convenient to use) Amazon Kindles to interested parties at a subsidized price, and then work out some sort of on-going new content deal with publishers. I bet it’d be cheaper than paying for and maintaining the new library. Plus, it’d allow the county to control what people read, so as to better educate them away from any possible right-wing tendencies!
(That was half a joke, and half not. I’m a used book kinda-guy myself.)
Nancy, I agree that most folks in the neighborhood, myself included, do value their homes and trees and want to continue living in them—except for the residents of a portion of Easley Street and Bonifant Street who have put their block up for sale with the hope that a developer will pay big money to demolish the homes and build a more dense development.
I would oppose any effort to change the existing residential zoning of East Silver Spring in response to this land assemblage project or a Purple Line stop at the future library, and my sentiments are echoed in the ESS Master Plan, which recommends that the existing land use pattern should remain essentially the same (p. 26), confirms the existing residential zoning (p 26) and recommends that the County retain the existing single-family detached character throughout most of East Silver Springas well as the existing mix and distribution of apartment uses (p 26).
Maybe I’m naive, or just optimistic by nature, but I project enduring support amongst our local officials for land use planning that encourages more dense development in Fenton Village, while respecting the transition between the central business district and adjcent single-family neighborhoods (see p. 2 of the Silver Spring CBD Sector Plan) and preserving the residential character of ESS.
As for the spector of emininant domain being used to purchase land for private development projects, call me naive again if you’d like but I don’t see that happening either. A recent (and very controversial) Supreme Court decision did expand the authority of eminant domain beyond its traditional function of acquiring property for public projects (new highways, expanded fire stations, and the like). I just don’t envision this happening in the neighborhood.
The DC area is replete with examples of intense development around transit stations co-existing with established residential neighborhoods. (See the Rosslyn-Balston Corridor, Bethesda, Takoma and Columbia Heights). Life may not be perfect in these neighborhoods, but nor has TOD lead to apartment projects displacing blocks of single family homes. Rather, access to amenities and property values have surged in these areas and the residents have found themselves well-housed indeed.
David, you point out that property values have surged near Metro stops. The Chevy Chase/Bethesda area has indeed lost single-family homes. It has lost smaller ones to mansionization. Columbia Heights has experienced significant renter displacement. The old homes in Takoma Park survived — so far — only because of the historic district, and the additional protection of a municipality, the City of Takoma Park. We are unincorporated in Silver Spring.
Say that Mr. & Ms. Happy Homeowner love their home and want to live there forever. Their incomes will probably fluctuate over time. When they reach the point of retirement, their household income would decrease. If their property values skyrocket, they may need to remain in the paid workforce — keeping jobs away from younger workers — just to pay their property taxes.
A progressive income tax for all our government needs would be far better than this excessive reliance on the property tax. Pumping any given piece of land for maximum property value flies in the face of community stability and middle-class homeownership. Furthermore, I don’t know anyone who brags about the way the potential sale price of their home has ballooned. Instead they say “I couldn’t buy my own house if I were buying today.”
Nancy, you make important points about mansionization and displacement. Both are serious matters, though I consider them seperate issues from the question of whether more dense development in the Silver Spring CBD will spill over into the ESS neighborhoods. My point was that I don’t believe that development in the CBD threatens the single family residential character of the adjacent neighborhood.
I’m also a bit more optomistic about the prospects of Mr. and Mrs. Happy Homeonwer who are now retired and facing rising property taxes along with rising property values. What’s to say they have no retirement savings? If they’re lucky they may even have one of those defined benefit pensions that are no longer offered to my generation of workers. Also, they could tap into their home equity through a reverse mortgage, or they could choose to sell their home at 10 times what they paid for it, move to a home that requires less upkeep or is in a more accomodating climate or to be closer to the grandkids or whatever, and pocket the savings.To be sure, its not an easy decision to move but it is one that many people make of their own volition and there’s no injustice to it
That said, there are folks who face a rising property tax burden and don’t have money saved up or cannot afford to cash in on their equity and there should be a role for a property tax circuit breaker or some other mitigation so that these residents can remain in their homes and stay aflout. I’m not sure what measures are in place in Montgomery County, perhaps someone else can provide more information.
If Mr. and Mrs. Happy Homeowner can’t pay their property taxes, they need to sell their house and move into an apartment or another house, not stick me with the bill, because they are _living beyond their means_. Fact is, property taxes are a cost of home ownership just like maintenance - is the county going to start making me pay for their lawn to get mowed, too?
I agree with what DMZ has stated. Also, Mr. and Mrs. Happy Homeowner have probably paid off their mortgage by the time they are getting ready to retire so they have eliminated their biggest expense heading into retirement.
DMZ says: “If Mr. and Mrs. Happy Homeowner can’t pay their property taxes, they need to sell their house and move into an apartment or another house, not stick me with the bill, because they are _living beyond their means_.” Let’s carry on with that logic. I guess DMZ wants to eliminate all subsidized housing. No more MPDU requirements for new buildings or subdivisions, for example. No more workforce housing subsidies. No more Section 8 rental assistance. Let the market prevail! No more living beyond their means for anyone! Or is he proposing only that retirees have to leave their homes?
I am proposing exactly that: retirees sell homes they cannot afford. And, yes, I’m against subsidized housing, too - it’s what destroyed DTSS in the first place.
There’s no right in the Constitution that says that when you’re 65, you get to stop working and have everyone else pay your way. There’s no right in the Constitution that says that you get to live where-ever you want to at the government’s expense.
Play nice.
What’s all the fuss about Silver Spring getting a smaller library than Rockville. Rockville is the county seat and the library is the flagship library, containing offices for various county agencies. Rockville is clearly the more important city. Silver Spring should get something similar to the new Germantown Libary which has lots of frills. The Silver Spring libary would still be larger than the new libraries in Bethesda, Silver Spring’s model city