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. 

The "Snobbiest" Small Cities in the Mid-Atlantic

Bethesda Row in Bethesda, MD - #2 Snobbiest Small CIty
Photo Credit: ehplen via Flickr

Last week, real estate website Movoto released its ranking of the "10 Snobbiest Small Cities in America." This ranking is in the same vein as Movoto's previous ranking of the "10 Most Exciting Suburbs." 

While I'm not sure I agree with the use of the word "snobby" to describe these admittedly affluent cities, since it could be viewed as derisive to their residents (personally I would use "preppy"), the ranking does seem to be somewhat accurate. (I tend to appreciate rankings that actually use statistical data as criteria, rather than anecdotal experiences or informal polls.) Out of the top 10, three of the cities are located in the Mid-Atlantic: Bethesda, MD (#2), Hoboken, NJ (#6), and Rockville, MD (#8). 

Washington St in Hoboken, NJ - #6 Snobbiest Small City 
Photo Credit: City of Hoboken

Bear in mind that to qualify as "small cities" according to Movoto (and similar to my definition) populated places (incorporated or not) had to have populations of between 45,000 and 65,000. This explains the absence of places such as Potomac (which just barely missed the 45K cutoff) and Chevy Chase, MD  and Scarsdale and Chappaqua, NY. I honestly think the ranking should have focused on smaller towns (pop. ~25,000-50,000) which have less income and cultural deviations. Some of these cities (such as Hoboken and Rockville) are rather large and multi-cultural to be considered "snobby" (preppy) as a whole.

The other issue with this ranking is that it doesn't take into account relative wealth. For instance, in Montgomery County, Rockville isn't really viewed as a "snobbish" or particularly exclusive city, especially compared to it's neighbors immediately to its south. Compared to other cities in other states it might seem very well-to-do, but in the 2nd wealthiest metro area, in the 2nd wealthiest county of the wealthiest state in the nation it is merely "upper middle-class."

Top 10 "Snobbiest" Small Cities in America
Rank	City
1.	Palo Alto, CA
2.	Bethesda, MD
3.	Brookline, MA
4.	San Rafael, CA
5.	Walnut Creek, CA
6.	Hoboken, NJ
7.	Oak Park, IL
8.	Encitas, CA (tie)
8.	Rockville, MD (tie)
10.	Laguna Niguel, CA

Bethesda's Building Boom: A detailed list of development activity in downtown Bethesda

Photo credit: BethesdaNow.com 

UPDATED 02/06/15

Since the delivery of a few projects between 2008-2009 (in the midst of the recent recession) there had been no new residential or commercial development projects completed in downtown Bethesda, Maryland. That changed just two weeks ago with the opening of the 17-story Gallery Bethesda apartment building in the Woodmont Triangle district. The Gallery is just the first in a slew of new high-density development projects to be constructed over the next few years in downtown Bethesda.

The vast majority of these projects  are residential in nature, with over 3,000 new apartment and condo units in the pipeline. However, a hotel is also in the works, and even a few office buildings, one of which is already under construction--a rarity in Montgomery County these days and Bethesda's first in over a decade. Nearly all of the projects in the pipeline are within walking distance of the Bethesda Metro station and/or the future Purple Line light rail station promoting transit usage.

THE FACTS
Coming to downtown Bethesda over the next several years:
- 30 projects
...including...
- 16 residential mid/high-rise apartment buildings
- 6 residential mid/high-rise condo buildings
- 5 office buildings 
- 2 hotels
- 1 police station
...containing...
- 4,003 residential units 
- 1,022,000 sq. ft. of office space
- 244,680 sq. ft. of retail space
- 452 hotel rooms

Here's a detailed list of all of the medium/high-density development projects going up around downtown Bethesda along with their current statuses (Remember to click on the photos to enlarge):

Montgomery County thinks urban...except when it comes to banks

M&T Bank in Downtown Silver Spring
Image Courtesy of Adam Fagen

This article one part of a multi-segment series titled The Urban Transformation, which takes a look at how certain public institutions and private businesses are adapting to nascent urban environments

Montgomery County, MD probably utilizes more new urbanist, smart growth principles in development planning than pretty much every other jurisdiction in the DC Metro region (outside of Washington D.C. itself), and more so than most suburban counties in the nation. However, while new walkable, transit-oriented urban centers in the county have been rapidly growing over the past decade or so with the construction of new high-density, mixed-use development built along these principles, it seems that one type of business has stubbornly resisted the urban transformation: bank branches.

The typical template for mixed-use development in Montgomery County's urban centers comprises either residential units or commercial office space (relatively rare in these days of high vacancy rates across the Metro area and limited government and business expansion) above ground-floor retail in mid- or high-rise buildings. When I use the term "retail" I'm encompassing a wide range of businesses such as: restaurants, nightclubs, barbers, supermarkets, pharmacies, bars, bank branches, etc. The combination of uses in these mixed-use developments is crucial to creating a true urban environment where residents can live, work, shop, and play, and the streets are active from dawn well into the night.

For some reason, banks (in Montgomery County's urban areas) have shied away from this type of development, while pretty much every other form of "retail" has embraced it. There are a number of new bank branches popping up in the county's urban areas, but many as traditional stand-alone single-story buildings with parking, rather than on the ground-floor of multi-story buildings. Some of these locations are pretty high-profile and on very valuable plots of land. 

Urban Maryland Development Map

Last summer I created a custom Google map of new high-density development projects (residential, retail, and commercial) in the Maryland side of the Washington Metropolitan Area. I used a smaller map, created by the Bethesda/Chevy Chase Regional Services Center for tracking development in Bethesda, as a template. The map is still incomplete, but after investing a ton of time in it I've managed to add locations/info on over 150 projects.

Included in the map are high-density developments (ranging from large scale multiple building mixed-use projects to single residential buildings) including mid-/high-rise buildings (5+ stories) completed since 2005,  under construction, or in planning stages. For each project there is a photo and description of the project. I'm a stickler for accuracy so to my knowledge all of the info is up-to-date and correct. 

My original plan was to cover all of the urban areas in Central MD from the DC suburbs to Baltimore (and maybe DC and Arlington Co./Alexandria), but with the rapid growth this area is experiencing (although it's currently threatened by a looming sequester) that quickly proved to be impractical. Currently the map includes all high-density projects in the following areas:

- Silver Spring (downtown)
- Bethesda (downtown)
- Friendship Heights/Village
- North Bethesda/White Flint
- Wheaton (downtown)
- Rockville (Twinbrook Area)
- Rockville (downtown)
- Rockville (office parks near Shady Grove Rd)
- other random projects

As I mentioned before, I probably won't be adding many more areas in the foreseeable future due to the amount of work involved (adding what I have currently took far longer than I expected it would). I would like to add certain projects in Gaithersburg and Germantown in Montgomery County, as well as College Park/Hyattsville/Riverdale Park, New Carrollton, and National Harbor in Prince George's County though. I will continue to constantly update projects already marked.



View Urban Maryland Development in a larger map

Maryland loses its fourth Fortune 500 Company in as many years

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Yesterday, Hartford, CT-based Aetna announced that it entered into a definitive agreement to buy Bethesda, MD-based Coventry Health Care for $5.7 billion in cash and stock, a move Aetna said would help it expand further into government-backed programs like Medicaid and Medicare. The deal is considered to be a reaction to the Supreme Court ruling upholding President Obama's comprehensive health care reforms and will help Aetna expand into government-based insurance. Unfortunately for Maryland, the deal also means that the state will lose yet another Fortune 500 company.  

The loss of Coventry will be the state's fourth F-500 company loss in four years, leaving Maryland with only three firms on the list of the 500 largest US companies (in terms of annual revenue). Admittedly, Maryland isn't really known for being a business-friendly state (particularly when it comes to large corporations) since its relatively high taxes and regulations, coupled with a liberal government in Annapolis, are often considered hostile to business. To make matters worse, unlike most other liberal states with stiff taxes/regulations, such as California, New Jersey, and Connecticut, Maryland has a large competitor nearby with just the opposite approach to big business.