SILVER SPRING – Residents of Glenmont have been frustrated for years about the Glenmont Shopping Center, their only significant commercial area. Just a stone’s throw from the Red Line Metro station, it’s auto-centric, hostile to pedestrians and lacks desirable retail and entertainment options.
Planners want to do something about that. On Thursday, they will recommend to the Planning Board a new vision for Glenmont that concentrates new development in and around the shopping center and Metro station. They want to improve the pedestrian experience and create a commercial core that is diverse, sustainable and draws people as a community gathering place.
The Planning Board will consider the staff draft of the Glenmont Sector Plan, then will set a public hearing to gain community input before scheduling worksessions on the plan early next year. Staff will request the public hearing for December 20.
The draft plan also looks at the multifamily apartment properties that surround the shopping center. The plan encourages those properties to redevelop as mixed-use projects with expanded housing choices for people of all ages and incomes. Planners also recommend more public spaces, open spaces and better connections for pedestrians and cyclists, primarily to the shopping center and Metro, but also throughout the community.
Existing single-family neighborhoods would retain their current zoning, but be strengthened by improved community services and better connections. Planners suggest gradual transitions between those neighborhoods and new development.
Glenmont is full of potential. A new grade-separated interchange will be built at the intersection of Georgia Avenue and Randolph Road. The presence of Metro and the Georgia Avenue and Randolph Road corridors that are proposed for bus rapid transit provide multiple transportation options. A stable and attractive residential community with access to parks, schools and a recreation center supplies a built-in base for a revitalized commercial core. With the redevelopment potential of large properties near the Metro, the stage is set to transform the Glenmont community.
On the other hand, challenges remain. The shopping center is split into about a dozen property owners, making redevelopment as a cohesive whole difficult. A Planning Department-commissioned economic study found that commercial and office rents would not be high enough to support redevelopment, because Glenmont currently cannot command market rents comparable to central business districts like Wheaton and Silver Spring. To achieve change, the economic consultant recommended a public-private cost-share.
Planners develop master and sector plans to create a framework for each community designed to last 15 to 20 years. Those plans help policy-makers – such as the Planning Board and County Council – develop land use strategies and decide on proposed development.
WHO:
Montgomery County Planning Board
WHAT:
Consideration of Glenmont Sector Plan Staff Draft
WHEN:
9:30 a.m. Thursday, November 8
WHERE:
Park and Planning Headquarters
8787 Georgia Avenue, Silver Spring