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The second topic for next Monday’s work session has to do with a proposal to redevelop a stretch of East Diamond Ave, just east of Summit Ave. This is a project that has been in the works for several years, and was on the drawing board even before the development of the Olde Towne Master Plan in 2004-2005. The properties that currently occupy this location include Jim Clifford’s current office building, a couple of small apartment buildings with a total of 74 units, the current Olde Towne Youth center, and an old, abandoned and decaying house.
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| Click on the above picture to pull up the Windows Live aerial photograph. |
I saw the previous plan for this site, and I was not entirely happy with what had been proposed — it was too massive, and it was too tall and crowded the street, and there were too many units — nearly 500 — jammed into that amount of space. This new proposal is greatly improved.
At first, and according to the Master Plan, this block was designated to have owner-occupied condos. But in the past year or two, the condo market has pretty much collapsed. Even the Rockville Town Square has had to back off on condo sales and pursue the rental market. I’m not particularly happy with this change, but I do understand the reality of the situation, and I hope that the developers will at at least build the units to be easily convertible into condos when the market returns, as it inevitably will.
But really, this is precisely what Olde Towne needs — more people living within walking distance of downtown restaurants and stores, and right across the street from mass transit. The current restaurants and retail stores are pretty limited, but I would hope that the addition of these apartments would help to bring in more. Also, that stretch of Diamond is pretty dismal late at night, and the wooded areas, while pretty from the street, are magnets for the homeless alcoholics (the first two color photographs in that post are from that stretch of E. Diamond) and no place to, for example, take quiet evening strolls.
The approval of this project is not certain, and I would encourage anyone who agrees that this should go forward to contact the Mayor and City Council to let them know how you feel.
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Part of the proposal is to turn Teacher’s Way — which currently connects to Girard St for access to Gaithersburg Middle School, becoming a foot/bike path past the schoolyard, and an alleyway next to Gaithersburg Elementary, connecting to Summit via a City parking lot — into a real street connecting Summit & Girard in parallel with Diamond Ave, and providing the primary access to the new building’s parking garage. This is another thing that Olde Towne has needed for a long time. Also as part of this project, the current Olde Towne youth center — which is just a repurposed residential structure — will be torn down and a new one would be built by the City further out Diamond Avenue, near the Middle School. The plans are for it to be exactly on par with the newly-completed Robertson Park Youth Center, which I’ve never been to, but everything I’ve heard has been positive.
As far as mass transit is concerned, MARC isn’t perfect, but it is great for people commuting to Capitol Hill and especially Silver Spring — in fact, I’d say it is very nearly the only sane way to commute from Gaithersburg to Silver Spring. MARC also connects to Metro at Rockville. One might imagine that this building, together with the Park Station apartments, might start to achieve the sort of density that would justify dedicated shuttle buses running between Shady Grove and Olde Towne. (There is one Ride On bus — the 57 — that goes through Diamond & Summit on the way to and from Shady Grove, but it takes the scenic — and horrendously congested during rush hour — route out through Flower Hill to Muncaster Mill Road.)
Some will complain about the destruction of the 74 “affordable” apartments, but as I’ve previously discussed, Olde Towne already has far more than its share of “affordable” housing — much of which is affordable only because it is so out of date and, in some cases, poorly maintained. Others have complained about the loss of historic properties, but at least one of those is on its way to being demolished through abandonment and neglect, and more properties could follow if something isn’t done to bring more investment into Olde Towne. Often, historic preservation involves making these compromises so that one can afford to keep what is truly unique and significant.
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Staff discussion from the work session background materials follows:
As you will recall, the concept of higher density residential redevelopment was a key theme of the fall 2004 Olde Towne Revitalization Charrette.
During the course of the Charrette, there was considerable discussion about potential redevelopment on East Diamond Avenue. For your review, we have attached the Olde Towne plan for Sector 3 that includes the proposed redevelopment area.
Mr. Clifford and Archstone approached the City about purchasing the Youth Center parcel and obtaining development rights for parcel 936, but staff would not recommend that the City Council consider disposing of these properties until we saw a fairly detailed plan for the proposed redevelopment.
In May of 2005, staff began meeting with Mr. Clifford and representatives of Archstone to discuss their plan, and numerous modifications and improvements were made over time.
On May 30, 2006, a work session was held to review the concept plan. During the course of the work session, the Mayor and City Council and the public expressed general support for the project but expressed some concerns about the massing and the density of the project.
Staff has been working with the development team to address the issues raised at the May 30, 2006 work session, and a number of key changes have been made to the draft plan. The development team is no longer proposing to include the surface lot behind Victor Litz (P 936) as part of the project, and the architecture and the massing on East Diamond Avenue has been modified significantly. For your review, we have attached the latest conceptual elevations from East Diamond Avenue and a conceptual footprint for the project.
To date, staff has worked with Archstone on four versions of the conceptual plan with densities ranging from 480 units to 390 units. At this point, staff is comfortable with the massing and density of the latest version and believes that it is in the City’s best interest to move forward with the planning process.
On December 19, 2005, the Mayor and City Council passed a resolution authorizing the City Manager to negotiate and execute a contract to sell the Youth Center property (parcel N 948), and staff is in the process of negotiating a contract with Archstone Smith. It is anticipated that a contract to sell the Youth Center parcel would be contingent upon Archstone ultimately receiving Planning Commission approval for a specific unit count; however, the City can not approve a concept plan via a contract and the applicant will have to proceed with the normal process before the Planning Commission.
As the City Council is aware, it is necessary for the City to obtain a new site for the Olde Towne Youth Center prior to allowing redevelopment of the existing site. We have identified an excellent location on the grounds of Gaithersburg Middle School, and have executed a long-term lease with MCPS that gives the City rights to build on the property. Additionally, we have reached an agreement in principle with MCPS to obtain a portion of the right-of-way for Teachers Way Extended to facilitate this project.
At the conclusion of the work session, staff will be seeking guidance on the following:
1) Is the City Council generally comfortable with the scale and density of the proposed project?
