Downtown Bethesda's Sector Plan Rewrite

As the urban hub's build out continues planning officials move to increase density to accommodate future growth

As I wrote last February (in what turned out to be the site's most popular post), downtown Bethesda is in the middle of a huge building boom with a number of development projects recently completed or currently under construction. In light of this flurry of development activity, the Montgomery County Planning Commission is in the process of rewriting the downtown area's sector plan (last rewritten in 1994) to accommodate the urban district's tremendous growth now and into the future. 

Among other things, the new plan seeks to: improve and increase the amount of public space, add a "greenway," increase the  number of affordable housing units,  improve connectivity (pedestrian, transit, bicycle, and auto), and focus growth in certain areas. Last December, preliminary concepts were presented by planning staff to the planning board for review. Between 2010 and 2040 the Bethesda downtown district was projected to add 14,200 jobs and 5,300 households. To help accommodate this growth, planning staff proposed raising height limits and increasing density in a number of specific areas of the urban district. Below is a map of these new height limits:

Blue - Symbolic Center and Civic Gathering Spaces
Red - Expanded/Emerging Centers of Activity
Yellow - Affordable Housing, Park Connectivity and Community Facilities
Green - Eastern Greenway

Unfortunately, some of the revised height limits are rather modest (particularly for the area at the north end of Wisconsin Ave). Elsewhere they seem to be more appropriate, although a short section of Wisconsin Ave at the south end of the CBD is oddly stuck at 75' while the immediate areas to the north and south have new 250' and 120' height limits respectively. 

During the zoning rewrite process (which is scheduled to be completed by the end of the year), different landowners and developers were encouraged by planning staff to discuss plans or submit ideas for their sites, and how they thought the new sector plan should accommodate them. 

Updated: Bethesda's Building Boom

The list of development projects in downtown Bethesda has been updated

Violent Crime in the Mid-Atlantic

Decline of Violent Crime/Homicides Continued in 2014

Metropolitan Police Dept. of the District of Columbia (MPD) Patrol Car, Washington D.C.
Photo Credit: Joe Flood via Flickr

While the Mid-Atlantic is widely known as home to some of the most dangerous cities in the nation, overall the vast majority of the region's cities are relatively safe. Moreover, the overall violent crime rate, as well as the homicide rate specifically, have been in decline in most of the region's big cities recently, mirroring national trends. Most notable is New York City, NY, which had an amazingly low 328 homicides in 2014 (3.9 per 100,000 residents)-- an improvement over the already impressive 335 total homicides in 2013 (4.0/100,000) and a rate unheard of for a large, densely populated city in the U.S. The city with the next lowest murder rate was Jersey city with 23 total murders (9.0/100,000)--over the double the rate of New York. 

New York Police Dept. (NYPD) Officer and Patrol Car, New York City
Photo Credit: Jay Miller via Flickr

Topping the list of large cities in the Mid-Atlantic, in terms of homicide rates for 2014, was Baltimore, MD with 211 murders total (33.9/100,000) barely edging out Newark, NJ which had 93 total murders (33.4/100,000). The good news is that, as in New York City, the number of homicides for 2014 in both Baltimore and Newark decreased from their 2013 totals. Murder rates in Washington D.C. and Philadelphia for 2014 were pretty much unchanged compared to the previous year (105 total,16.2/100,000 and 248 total,16.0/100,000 respectively). Unfortunately, homicide rates in the Rust Belt cities of Pittsburgh and Buffalo increased significantly. Even more troubling is the rate of violent crime and homicide in some of the small cities of the Mid-Atlantic. 

NYPD Precinct Times Square, New York City
Photo Credit: Tony Fischer via Flickr

Generally speaking, small cities tend to have significantly lower crime rates than their larger peers, but three of the region's smaller cities buck this trend in a major way. Camden, NJ; Trenton, NJ; and Wilmington, DE all had murder rates significantly higher than any of the largest cities in the region. Camden, NJ, often labeled as the "most dangerous city in America", actually saw a whopping 42.1% reduction in total homicides for 2014 compared to 2013 (33 in 2014 compared to 57 in 2013), but still had the highest murder rate (42.7/100,000) of any Mid-Atlantic city large or small in 2014. Trenton (41.5/100,000) and Wilmington (39.2/100,000) weren't far behind though.

Below is a table listing the frequencies and rates of violent crime and homicide in the Mid-Atlantic's largest cities in 2013 and 2014:

City	Population	Violent crime	Rate /100,000	Murders 2013	Rate /100,000	Murders 2014	Rate /100,000
Baltimore, MD	622,671	8,725	1,401.2	233	37.4	211	33.9
Newark, NJ	278,246	3,516	1,263.6	112	40.3	93	33.4
Buffalo, NY	258,789	3,249	1,255.5	47	18.2	62	24.0
Pittsburgh, PA	307,632	2,259	734.3	45	14.6	71	23.1
Washington, D.C.	646,449	7,880	1,219.0	103	15.9	105	16.2
Philadelphia, PA	1,553,153	17,074	1,099.3	247	15.9	248	16.0
Jersey City, NJ	256,886	1,655	644.3	20	7.8	23	9.0
New York, NY	8,396,126	52,384	623.9	335	4.0	328	3.9

*The 2013 numbers are from 2013 edition of the FBI's annual Uniform Crime Report published last fall. Homicide totals for 2014 are from local media reports and the rates are based on 2013 population numbers