Neighborhood cats, local business owners and even the governor of the Free State hollered at the county council to give the Fillmore music hall a leg up.
The long-vacant JC Penney site on Colesville Road, which could be the venue’s new home, “is an embarrassment,” council member Roger Berliner (D-District 1) said during a public hearing Tuesday afternoon in Rockville. “It should not be endured.”
The problem: To get the ball rolling on this project, the council must tweak current zoning laws on a couple of levels. First, the music hall must be allowed to qualify as a public-use space for a larger, still unknown project in an adjacent parking lot. Second, the project’s developer wants up to 15 years to reveal that player to be named later.
And that makes the county’s planning board nervous.
“Our concern is not only with the integrity of the process, but with what comes out of the process,” planning board chairman Royce Hanson testified Tuesday. “What this [proposed zoning change] does is make critical design decisions before there’s a project to review.”
“This is not a good idea,” Hanson continued. “The Fillmore is a good idea, but this is not a good means to that end.”
But Bruce Lee, whose development company would donate the real estate for the Fillmore project, said the zoning changes would cover the company’s collective ass.
“Process is very important but not sacrosanct,” Lee read from a prepared statement. “If we’re providing the public amenities under today’s rules, we should be allowed in the future to develop [the parking lot] site under today’s rules.”
Council member Valerie Ervin (D-District 5) pegged the discussion for a pissing match between the the planning board and the county executive’s office, which engineered the three-way land-for-music deal between the county, developer Lee and concert promoter Live Nation.
“This is about who’s got discretionary powers,” Ervin told her colleagues. “We should not put this project in the middle of a turf struggle.”
Others just wanna rock. Area residents and business owners testified that approval of the zoning changes would keep downtown Silver Spring’s economic revitalization on the right track. Even Gov Martin O’Malley (D) put in his two cents through a memo delivered to the county council by MoCo exec Ike Leggett’s office.
“The construction of a live music venue in downtown Silver Spring would be a lynch pin in the next chapter of Silver Spring’s revitalization,” O’Malley wrote. “I urge you to adopt this legislation.”
But Marc Elrich, one of the county council’s at-large Dems, hoped the developer and the planning board would iron out their differences without zoning changes. According to planning chairman Hanson, a change in the county’s growth policy was suggested as a cure for this ill, but the two parties couldn’t agree on it.
“It’s kind of frustrating when everyone at the table says they can’t work things out,” Elrich commented.
Members of the county council will examine the proposed changes in greater detail this September, after the summer recess.
Lead image of Gov Martin O’Malley and those steel guns, courtesy of ShowBizIreland.com.
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Nice guns in that picture, but a recent shot of him at the beach shows he’s grown a belly and gone flabby like Ahhnold did in CA. Sorry, Jen, not trying to turn the Penguin into a back page from People Magazine : )
Oh…and hurry up and approve the Fillmore people and stop dicking around.
Hey Woodsider, know where I can find photographic proof of O’Malley’s flabiness? The most recent pics I could find went back to 2007, and he still looked relatively cut.
The Fillmore has already been approved folks. The lease has been signed. Its Lee Development Group that’s holding back the progress. Why don’t they just sell the friggin’ land and give up on their stupid amenity???!??? I bet Live Nation or even the 930 Club would pony up the money for the land!
I watched the hearing while at work and good lord it looked like everyone stroking the ego of Bruce Lee. What an absolute crock. His company is putting one over on DTSS in a big way. They’ve sat on the JC Penny’s building for 18 years and they are asking to sit on their parking lot for another 15 years but are expecting a handout for giving up land they’ve squandered. Bruce Lee called his company “patient capitalists,” but you might as well call them land speculators who are dicking over everyone in Silver Spring so they can get their way.
Why isn’t anyone pointing fingers at the Lee’s? [middle finger that is] I bet we’d have construction already underway if the Lee’s weren’t putting one over on the council. As I said before, we can do better than this.
Here you go.
OK, so he’s not quite as flabby as Ahhnold, but he’s lost some of his “cut”. Nothin’ a few weeks at the gym won’t take care of.
Editor’s note: Ick! O’Malley definitely needs to hit that gym in a BIG way. — JD (Jul 29, 2008)
Why should the Lees be forced to sell land they’ve owned for longer than any of us have been alive? Furthermore, what developer in their right mind would build (or sell for that matter) in this crappy market? The economy is going down the drain, prices are skyrocketing and NOTHING is moving in the real estate market.
Editor’s note: This comment has been edited for content. — JD (Jul 30, 2008)
Why have a zoning code if developers can keep blowing dump-truck-sized holes in it? The Lee deal would be bad now, and could be worse in the future when other developers cite it. The zoning lawyers must be rubbing their hands in glee at the thought of its passage.
What year in the 1990s was the Silver Spring Armory demolished? When was “The Turf” given a send-off so construction could start on the Veterans Plaza civic building?
Projects pegged as “amenities” are essential to a civil society. Letting developers slide on those means giving away the store.
The Lees continue to take advantage of Silver Spring.
Editor’s note: Thanks for your comment, John. Please elaborate on your statement. — JD (Jul 30, 2008)
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Rosie:
When a property owner holds onto said property, allowing it to languish in disuse and disrepair, essentially putting the kibosh on concentrated efforts to improve the surrounding area, whether inadvertantly or in an effort to maximize his/her own fiduciary gain (sadly, I believe we are presented with the latter), the government, and indeed PRIVATE developers have the right to acquire that property. The Supreme Court said as much in it’s decision in Kelo v. City of New London.
Sure, it’s not a popular option and I belive the Maryland assembly may have passed legislation aimed at banning Kelo-style takeovers, but if the Lees are all that stand between a disused anchor-space on a mostly dilapidated street and a marquee music venue that would add greatly to the revitalization of Silver Spring, it’s time to stop stoking the ego of the Lees and start playing hardball.
The only reason they are attacking this music venue (which almost everyone from the Governor on down sees as a benefit) is because they (read: Seth Hurwitz) want their own venue in that location. Well, you should have thought of that sooner. Stop riding on another person’s idea!
Editor’s note: This comment has been edited for content. — JD (Jul 30, 2008)
Right on, Nicole!
I am with Rosie and Nicole on this one. I definitely question where the others are coming from. No ordinary citizen would be agianst this project. A better downtown Silver Spring is better for us all.
Editor’s note: Please do not post multiple comments using different screen names. Thank you. — JD (Jul 30, 2008)
We are husband and wife, thank you very much! Last time I checked, we were both allowed to offer up our opinions!
Editor’s note: Please consult The Penguin’s Privacy statement to learn more about the information collected when you leave comments. — JD (Jul 30, 2008)
Can we start a petition to have O’Malley headline the opening event at the fillmore? I ALMOST bought tickets to the inauguration ball cause I had a hunch he wouldn’t be able to resist breaking out the old axe. But alas, I missed it. I say we get him to headline opening night.
As for the discussion at hand. I’ve said this on here six hundred times before and yes I’m repeating myself. The required-amenity zoning law is ruining DTSS. Concrete pocket-parks that nobody uses are destroying any sense of true urban density. Instead we get sprawling tallness seperating by too much space. It should be changed to a financial contribution, and the contribution of land or a building should count towards that. That way the county can decide what to do with that. If they decide a concert hall, so be it. If they decide REAL green space (instead of concrete pocket parks) they can pool together contributions from multiple developers and build something the community will actually USE.
Paul of SS wrote:
Sorry, Paul, but I can’t support O’Malley as an opening act until he hits the damned gym. C’mon, Marty, bring back those biceps!
The Lees sat on their land for years and only now want to build on it using a process that Royce Hanson equates to blackmail. I want the Fillmore in Silver Spring too but at what cost and method? What means justify the end?