While the county’s planning board is still on the fence, its staff thinks part of the Falkland Chase apartment complex should be redeveloped.
During a two-hour public hearing Thursday afternoon, planning analysts told the board that the complex’s northern parcel — sandwiched between East-West Highway and the CSX railroad tracks — should be either partially or completely demolished to make way for more densely packed housing.
“The public benefit that full development can provide outweighs the benefit of preservation only,” Rollin Stanley, the director of planning, testified. The complex’s other two parcels — both of which straddle 16th Street on the south side of East-West Highway — can go to the history buffs, he suggested.
Most preservationists argue all three parcels should be saved as a package deal, most often citing the complex’s architectural and historic significance as garden-style apartments. “Losing part of the Falklands is not a compromise,” Mary Reardon, of the Silver Spring Historical Society, testified.
“I’m offended that the demolition of 140 housing units at Falkland Chase is considered a triumph for affordable housing,” Reardon threw in. According to her, current rents at the complex are at workforce-housing levels, and are lower than average for Silver Spring’s central business district.
And it’s the additional housing that redevelopment supporters are after. “I realize that access to affordable housing is of utmost importance,” Megan Moriarty, a three-year resident of Falkland Chase’s northern parcel, testified through a spokesperson. Moriarty said straight up that she was not in favor of preservation.
If all three parcels are preserved, some of the buildings on the northern lot may still be in danger of demolition. A proposed Purple Line route could run the mass-transit project right through a couple of buildings on the site.
But if development gets the green light, planning staffers can see it swinging one of two ways. The first option would save some of the northern parcel’s existing buildings while tossing up a couple of mid-rise apartment buildings along the CSX tracks. Each of those buildings would be no more than 143 feet in height, staffers reported (below).
Plan B would knock down all of the existing structures, set up 60-foot-tall buildings along East-West Highway, and 143-foot-tall buildings along the tracks. The shorter buildings would contain street-level retail spaces, though perhaps nothing big enough to contain a supermarket (below).
In a previous life, the property owners hoped to construct a set of interconnected high rises surrounding a large courtyard, plus enough retail space to house a Harris Teeter. It’s unclear whether those plans are still on the books.
The planning board will take the rest of the summer to digest all of the testimony and staff reports, and will get back to everyone regarding its stand on preservation in the fall, they said.
Lead image: The cuppola structure at Falkland Chase. Courtesy of the Celebrate Silver Spring Foundation. Embedded images courtesy of MNCPPC.
Updated Jul 14, 2008, at 6:20 p.m.
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Will the Historical Society go bonkers if the Falkland baby is split?
I’m glad to see that Megan Moriarty supports the plan. It’s nice to see a Falkland resident with long term vision and understanding.
Architectural significance as garden style apartments?? In the middle of a city? It’s not as if the existance of garden style apartments is this rare occurance in suburban america…… Saving SOME of the development because of it’s historical significance as a New Deal development… I hear that argument… but trying to claim some architectural significance is a little far reaching… there’s plenty of “architecturally significant” garden apartments to go around suburban maryland. Also… earning about the CBD median income, I take some issue with the claim the rents are at workforce levels across the board there… they’re more expensive than every southern managment building in town… even before you calculate it out per square foot – you do that and it’s even worse since msot of their 2 bedrooms are < 900 sqft…. I tried to live there… they are by no means the standard of affordable living for downtown.
The Falklands are beautiful. Which buildings would be knocked down for the Purple Line, the ones that would be smashed for this proposal, or ones that would remain standing?
The Purple Line is no cute purple trolley. The Purple Line is a big yellow bulldozer.
The Purple Line will require demolition of one or two end units – not whole “buildings”. Debate about redeveloping the north sector of the Falklands precedes the discussions about this alignment for the trolley by close to two decades, so the Purple Line can hardly be blamed for the redevelopment proposal. As is noted in the staff report, it is the only parcel within 800 ft of the metrorail station that doesn’t require crossing one of downtown Silver Spring’s lovely car infested mega roads. Maybe if the Purple Line is not built we can widen those roads even more so everyone can drive downtown!
“[o]ne or two end units” huh? So, it’s either widen roads or build a railroad. Small-scale neighborhoods with trees don’t stand a chance in your vision of Silver Spring, SSTransitguy. Yet the smaller, gentler solutions of more buses, more taxis, more shared cars and more telecommuting would take cars off the road while leaving homes, apartments and trees intact — for both right-of-way and rezoning/redevelopment purposes.
Yeah, that’s looking outside the box, or maybe looking outside the pork barrel.
The rendering shown above of the whole northern parcel being torn down looks great. The really nice tree’d area of the south should be preserved, especially since it has the landmark Coupola building at the circle on 16th street. The northern parcel is buildings surrounded by parking rather than gardens. As for “small-scall neighborhoods with trees” not standing a chance, there’s acres and acres of that stuff all around downtown SS, but we’re talking a block away from the busiest transit stop in all of Maryland??? And how are more buses, taxis and “shared” cares going to aleviate traffic congestion in DTSS? Let’s embrace the future and make it as beautiful and humane as possible rather than drag our feet and get a half baked solution because we are afraid of the future.
Thayer-D says: “there’s acres and acres of that stuff (small-scale neighborhoods with trees all around downtown SS” — NOT! The Falklands are increasingly surrounded by high-rises. If this portion of the Falklands goes, the Chevy Chase Crest townhouse condo development would be next.
“With thousands of acres of undeveloped and underdeveloped land within a half mile of Maryland’s 112 transit stations, theoretically a network of transit communities could absorb all 1.1 million new residents. It gives you an idea of the existing potential for smart growth.” Gov. Martin O’Malley, news release 3/19/08, on HB373/SB 204.
He signed the bill into law weeks later. This means anythng small and green that is a half-mile from a transit stop is vulnerable. The Purple Line would add another hunk of transit stops. Since the Purple Line would also stop at the SS Transit Center, I bet MoCo & state officials would come up with some sort of Overlay Super Duper Transit-Oriented Development Rezoning that would spread out even further. It would even spread to Thayer Avenue.