Statement On Woodmont

A proposal by a team of developers to construct a hotel, condos, and retail space at the corners of Woodmont and Bethesda Avenues in downtown Bethesda, an area I consider the heart of Bethesda, provoked a storm of controversy among District 1 residents. The Capital Crescent Trail bisects the site and trail users protested the developer's initial suggestion to close the trail during construction. Other residents were upset at the loss of one of the remaining undeveloped green spaces in this rapidly developing area.

I also had many concerns about the project and organized a September 2007 public roundtable to allow residents to hear first hand about the project from the development team. In response to the presentation and the many comments and questions from the audience, I took the unusual step of sending a public letter in November 2007 to Royce Hanson, Chairman of the Montgomery County Planning Board outlining my reservations about the proposal. Attached to the letter were drawings done at my request by a highly talented Bethesda landscape architect that showed images of the kind of a "green commons" that the space could one day become. I am pleased to report that in the face of critical questions from the Planning Board, the development team withdrew the proposal from consideration and promised to rework their plans. The Planning Board's message to the developers was that Woodmont East needed to be designed with the public use given first priority. This site was too critical to the community to let the public interest be ignored.

On January 8th, 2008 I hosted another public roundtable to allow community members to review the revised proposal. At that time, the developers acknowledged that the public's adverse reaction resulted in a much better project. They were grateful that the community forced them back to the drawing board. Woodmont East now includes plans for an urban park at this critical intersection and the buildings have been scaled down to better fit within a small urban space with multiple users. While some residents and trail users still express concerns about the proposal, most people applaud the significant changes and believe the new plans better serve the interests of the community. The new plans have been resubmitted to the Planning Board and, if approved, they will present to Bethesda residents and trail users a much improved vision of what this site could be.

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