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guest post: Valerie Berton

July 29 will be the last meeting of the Montgomery County Planning Board until September 16. The Board, which meets weekly on Thursdays, typically takes a recess every August. This year, the Board will stay on break through the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah and reconvene in mid-September.

As you might expect, the Board’s agenda is packed on this last day before a six-week recess. On tap:

  • A mandatory referral review of the proposed Travilah Fire Station, on 5½ acres at Darnestown and Shady Grove roads in Shady Grove. The proposed station is expected to serve Travilah, Traville, Fallsgrove and western Rockville. The Planning Board will provide comments to the county’s Department of General Services on the station’s design, access, landscaping, environmental concerns and any other site planning issues to the county.
  • Downtown Silver Spring streetscape. In another mandatory referral review, the Planning Board will issue recommendations on the county’s upgrades to the pedestrian environment between Selim Road and Wayne Avenue – which covers most of the eastern part of downtown Silver Spring known as Fenton Village. It’s been 25 years since the county constructed the streetscape and these upgrades are intended to meet disability requirements and increase safety for pedestrians through sidewalk paving materials, landscaping and new curbs. Planners have recommended drought-tolerant plant species, brighter street lights and a wider mid-street pedestrian refuge that can accommodate shade trees.
proposed Georgia Avenue streetscape

Georgia Avenue streetscape

  • Wheaton Sector Plan public hearing. Planners have sketched out a vision for downtown Wheaton that encourages reinvestment and inviting public spaces as part of the proposed Wheaton Central Business District Sector Plan.  The Board will deliberate the plan’s recommendations before sending it to the County Council. The first step of the Planning Board’s process is the July 29 public hearing at which residents, property owners, employers and others are invited to provide input on the plan recommendations that include strategies for revitalization and mixed-use development – housing, shops, restaurants and offices – and renewed civic spaces as a way to make a more walkable community.

2 Responses to “This Week at the Planning Board”

  1. Woodsider

    Astonishing the county would cut down mature zelkova trees for this project. Sure there ares a few dead ones and a few crappy cherry’s that need to go, but imagine how freaking hot it will be in the summer afternoons when those stores are not shaded from the western sun. And now come we can’t have the nice granite tree well covering like they have in Bethesda? Those skimpy metal hooped fences get easily destroyed (look around DTSS) and the grouncdovers in the planters dry out and die (also look all over DTSS). Unless moco spends money on professional landscape maintenance and replacement, this section of GA will end up having nice hardscape and awful landscape.

  2. Thayer-D

    If they reduce or impare the ability to have a nice outdoor cafe seating area, that will be a shame.