The Silver Spring Penguin

Sure, the county’s planning department could use some cash to design its new offices on Georgia Avenue and Spring Street. But planning commissioners said Thursday they didn’t want any big debts — financial or otherwise — with the county government.

“I’m worried about not having this project completely under our control so we can keep moving,” commish Joe Alfandre told staffers at the board’s weekly meeting. “The more we’re needy, the tougher this is going to be for us.”

At least $1 million is needed to score preliminary architectural designs for the board’s new auditorium, a seven-story office tower, and the public atrium between them (above). That bit of cash could be borrowed (with interest) from the county council, Al Warfield, with the planning department’s financial office, explained to the board.

But then, the project would need an undetermined assload more money from the county to get architectural details cooking in earnest. The planning department hits up the county council for an appropriation sometime this month, though the council won’t work on it until after its holiday recess, project manager Dan Hertz said.

And it’s that county appropriation that has commish Alfandre sweating. “We might be beholden a litlle more than we think if we have to depend on the county,” he told his colleagues.

What the county might behold unto the planning department is unclear. So far, early concepts for Silver Place drop 150,000 square-feet of office space on Georgia and Spring, plus 305 residential units towards the site’s northeast end (below).

Community members previously said they worried about traffic volumes with the number of apartments to be built there. Meanwhile, people in the business community complained about Silver Place’s zero retail space. It’s unknown where any of the county council members stand on either issue.

Still, the planning board doesn’t want too much of the county’s money if it means wearing a studded, black-leather leash around its collective neck. Instead, the department might tap into “a couple hundred thousand” left over from June’s public design meetings, conduct DIY engineering surveys, and negotiate with dime-a-dozen architects scrounging for work in this crappy economic environment, project manager Hertz suggested.

The planning department meets with the county council’s planning, housing and economic development committee Monday afternoon to discuss the project. Construction on the office space could start in 2010, with completion in 2012.

Renderings courtesy of SilverPlaceWorkshop.com.