Community invited to meet with planners, learn about goals for the area and provide feedback about initial ideas for the Master Plan
SILVER SPRING, MD – The Montgomery County Planning Department, part of The Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, is launching the Rock Spring Master Plan on Tuesday, September 1, 2015 at 7 p.m. at an open house to be held at Walter Johnson High School (6400 Rock Spring Drive, Bethesda, MD).
Community residents and business owners are invited to discuss the goals of the Master Plan and learn about existing conditions and challenges for reimagining an older suburban office park as a vibrant, mixed-use community. Ideas for discussion include a new street network, public use spaces and amenities, residential and non-residential uses, sustainable environmental measures, and infrastructure needs within this area of North Bethesda.
County planners will explain the planning process and opportunities for public participation. Community feedback on the initial ideas for the Plan will be recorded on a “feedback wall” at the event. RSVPs are encouraged but not required.
RSVP for the September 1 Rock Spring Master Plan Open House.
Background on Rock Spring
The challenges of developing a strategy for the Rock Spring area stem from its single-use status as an office park with high vacancy rates and little in the way of amenities and uses that might attract a new generation of companies. The current office vacancy rate in Rock Spring is 21.6 percent, higher than the County’s vacancy rate of 15 percent.
The 1992 North Bethesda/Garrett Park Sector Plan recommended some mixed-use zoning in the Rock Spring area, but only one residential development of 390 multi-family units has been constructed. A new townhouse project has recently begun development. Most of the property in Rock Spring was converted to the Employment Office (EOF) zone during the recent zoning rewrite effort.
In addition, the 1992 Sector Plan recommended the North Bethesda Transitway to connect the White Flint area with Montgomery Mall via Old Georgetown Road and Rock Spring Drive. The Transitway is included in the approved 2013 Countywide Transit Corridors Functional Master Plan (CTCFMP) and provides a framework for re-evaluating Rock Spring.
Challenges confronting the Rock Spring planners include:
- Reinventing a suburban office park, with its auto-oriented street network and surface parking lots.
- Identifying opportunities for a new street grid.
- Examining places for public use spaces and amenities.
- Introducing residential and retail uses into predominately non-residential development to create a mixed use environment.
- Planning sustainable environmental measures.
- Evaluating infrastructure needs for the area.
Learn more about the Rock Spring Master Plan.
For more information about the Rock Spring Master Plan and September 1 open house, contact:
Don Zeigler, tel.301.495.4638, email Don.Zeigler@montgomeryplanning.org.
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www.montgomeryplanning.org/rockspring
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