Chevy Chase Lake Sector Plan Draft Goes to County Council
The county planning board approved the draft for the sector on Jan. 17.
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The County Planning Board approved county planners' draft for the Chevy Chase Lake Sector Plan last week, according to the updated agenda for last Thursday's board meeting.
Next, the draft plan for the sector is sent to the County Council and county executive for analysis and approval, The Gazette reported.
"The county executive will do a fiscal analysis of the plan and report to the County Council, which will hold a public hearing and work sessions before voting on whether to approve it, [county planner Elza] Hisel-McCoy said. He expects the County Council to discuss the plan in early March," The Gazette added.
The draft plan's "recommendations emphasize mixed residential development [and] a shift from the current commercial zoning that will help balance the ... jobs-housing ratio" in the Chevy Chase Lake Sector—which straddles Connecticut Avenue between Chevy Chase Lake Drive and Manor Road—according to the draft. (The bulk of the development is east of Connecticut Avenue.)
County planning staff have recommended that the sector retain its human scale, and that there be a focus on traditional architecture and pedestrian-oriented, mixed-use development, Montgomery County Senior Planner Elza Hisel-McCoy said last summer, Patch reported.
Planning staff propose that the sector be zoned twice during development. The first zoning would allow mixed residential and commercial "uses in the Town Center—the properties on Connecticut Avenue between Chevy Chase Lake Drive and Manor Road, which currently have existing or approved single-use commercial development, plus the Newdale Mews and Chevy Chase Lake Apartments," according to the draft plan.
The primary change made to the draft in the past few weeks is the plan to rezone the Newdale Mews property (on the west side of Connecticut Avenue in the sector) before the building of the Purple Line, The Gazette reported.
"Currently, [Newdale Mews] buildings can be up to 35 feet tall [Hisel-McCoy told The Gazette,] but the board voted to allow them to be up to 45 feet tall before the Purple Line and up to 55 feet tall after it is built," The Gazette added.
Read more on The Gazette's website.
Review the full Chevy Chase Lake Sector Plan draft on the planning department's website.
JB
5:55 pm on Wednesday, January 23, 2013
Community input in this process has been ignored as the development grows higher, denser, and the process ignores the neighborhoods that would be most affected by the massive development. It's depressing.