Via E-Mail and FAX
Via E-Mail and FAX
Via E-Mail and FAX
Dear Piera,
I thought I would provide you our thoughts on the current staff White Flint Sector
Plan preliminary recommendations. I represent property owners of the Nicholson
Lane Urban Village. In the past, the staff received several individual property
owners’ letters, including a holistic approach to the Sector Plan from me on
January 31, 2007 and have held a variety of meetings. This letter will respond to
several issues in the latest staff power point materials posted on the White Flint
Sector Plan web site.
Intensity Principles
We do not agree that the “highest density” should be located only at the Metro
Station or that the highest density should be along Rockville Pike. An “urban
design” and a “metro centric” approach, which these recommendations are
based on, represent only two of many planning principles the county should use
in planning a new CBD. White Flint is a very large area and its planning should
not be based on views from a plane or by looking at a land use map in a book.
These 2 principles will have only limited impact. The creation of a “canyon” or
spine has also limited appeal from a design or city building theme. Atlanta’s focus
on Peachtree Road has created a linear development form but has left the rest of
the surrounding streets underutilized or barren.
.
A city should have many focal points and community needs to satisfy, including
creating a sense of community (neighborhoods), the achievement of regional
housing goals, the fiscal needs of the county, etc. The “tenting of development
principle” as advocated by the current staff land use recommendations is not
applicable to White Flint since the area is so large and the residential
communities surrounding our village plan are separated by a railroad line,
industrial development across the tracks, and in most situations will not be seen
by the community.
In terms of your more specific principles, we have prepared a land use plan, a
potential development mix for our village and a FAR/height map which we are
attaching for your information.
What’s in a Name?
Everything! I strongly suggest that you work with the advisory committee to
quickly name the “city” that will rise around the White Flint Metro Station. If White
Flint is to be North Bethesda Downtown, it needs an updated name and to be
classified as one of Montgomery County’s CBD; as an equal with Bethesda,
Silver Spring and Wheaton CBDs.’
Thank you for considering our request. We look forward to hearing from you.
Signed
A village is both intimate and vibrant. It is a place where people know a wide
range of others and have access to all of the requisites of daily living: a place
to live, work, shop, play, learn, worship, debate and explore. The scale of the
urban village helps to connect you to something larger. The urban village
provides the "mediating" structure – the bridge – that connects ordinary
individuals and families to the larger, much more anonymous world.
Re: White Flint Sector Plan Status Report _ Planning Board Item #11
Nicholson Lane Urban Village Property Owners Positions
We represent over 12 property owners within the White Flint Sector Plan area.
Together our property owners have prepared an urban village plan for the
Neighborhood Two Nicholson Lane area. We believe this plan supplements the
plan that is being presented to you by the staff.
There are many important land use goals which can be accommodated by
providing greater density in a variety of locations throughout the White Flint area.
Each of the plans communities is large enough to support its own focal point.
Moreover, there are a variety of other public objectives which need to be
considered in addition to Metro usage. Needed housing, roads, public facilities
will not occur with the densities recommended by the staff.
MARC Station
We support the Board’s decision to locate a new MARC station within White Flint
area. We disagree with the staff’s location and look forward to working with
community on finding the right location. We send ready to assist the staff in any
needed studies. A new full service station will link the new White Flint downtown
to Silver Spring’s employment base. We support a location of a MARC station at
the end of Nicholson Court since it provides the best access to the 1,000 plus
homes in Randolph Hills community. We stand ready to make this
recommendation happen.
Process and Implementation Issues
We are extremely disappointed that the staff does not provide any advance
notice of its recommendations to the property owners. One of our property
owners found out at the day of Tuesday’s meeting that his property was being
recommended for a MARC commuter rail station and another of his commercial
sites pierced by a road. Little justification was provided. No concern by the staff
was expressed. Equally troubling was the staff’s lack of concern for the
implementation challenges facing their recommendations. If the Clarksburg
lessons have taught us anything is that master plans should not promise
recommendations that can not be accomplished. You have several property
owners who want to assist the county in the provision of a commuter rail station.
This is an opportunity to make it happen.
Thank you for considering our request. We look forward to hearing from the
Planning Board.
Judy Daniels
Margaret Rifkin
MNCPPC
8787 Georgia Avenue
Silver Spring, MD 20
Perry Berman forwarded your email of April 25th to me. There are a number of critical
issues that need to be evaluated before anyone makes a final decision regarding the FAR
of our project:
1. We intend to file a joint site plan with BF Saul (Fitzgerald Property) on our
combined properties, inclusive of Huff Court, which we would like approval to
build under. If we need to plat the properties together, that can be accommodated,
but we will effectively have frontage on Rockville Pike.
2. Our project is designed to provide market rate workforce housing for the County.
It is within 7 minutes walking to Metro, it is the best site in the County for this
design, and it will be the largest workforce housing project in the County. Cutting
the FAR by just 1, will reduce the number of residential units by 300. We do not
feel that is in the County s best interest
3. Cutting the FAR to 3 negatively impacts the projects economics. It may not be
viable. Quite honestly, the profit is in the last 300 units.
4. We will offer to give to the County the space to build a parking garage to be
owned and controlled by the Parking District, and all of our tenants/condo owners
will agree to rent back from the County parking spaces at Market, if they in fact
want a parking space.
5. There would be very little visual difference between a 3 and a 4 FAR.
6. We may have a Marc Rail station closer to us than Metro
7. The Nicholson Lane Village must have a critical mass living there to make the
retail density work. Reducing the units by 300 will influence the viability of the
retail component.
8. Our density at a 4 FAR will have less traffic impact than what the staff assumed
in its model runs at 2-3 FAR
We would like to thank you for your help in basing the residential densities on FAR
rather than units per acre. That was of significant help. We continue to hope that you will
see the full benefit of our proposal both to the White Flint Area and the County, both
economically and practically, and that you will help us achieve the best utilization of the
ground, because once it is built, it will not be redone for a very long long time.
Sincerely,
Robert O. Eisinger
Managing Member
ProMark Real Estate Services, LLC