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County planners will present their recommendations for the White Flint Sector Plan to the White Flint Advisory Group on Thursday, previewing the presentation they will make to the Planning Board on Sept. 11.

The presentation is the culmination of nearly two years of work by Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission staff on the White Flint Sector Plan, which will update the growth plans around the White Flint Metro Station.

The plan includes more mixed-use properties and a higher population density near Metro, as well as open space, additional roads, and possibly an additional elementary school.

Paula Bienenfeld, a member of the advisory group as well as the Luxmanor Civic Association, said she hopes the meeting will paint a clearer picture for residents about the proposed plan, especially regarding density and new housing populations.

"What I'm hoping to get out of it are some specifics about the master plan, some sense of the method that they use to come up with their numbers and their models so the advisory board and the citizens can review the methodology," Bienenfeld said.

County planner Nkosi Yearwood said there are 2,200 new housing units that are under construction or have been approved, and the proposal calls for 9,700 more. A conservative estimate is 1.25 persons per unit, Yearwood said, which means the proposed units would house 12,125 new people.

Bienenfeld said she is especially interested in whether the proposal is the "appropriate density" for the infrastructure, and is hoping to receive more "concrete" information about what the infrastructure can sustain.

"We want this to happen, the restaurants and everything all sounds really great," Bienenfeld said of the advisory group. "We just want to make sure people are being realistic about what the current infrastructure is able to support."

She cited public transportation and traffic as issues she thinks warrant further discussion, along with the long-term availability of resources, such as water, and the possibility of a new elementary school.

The plan brings with it the envisioned addition of new roads to smooth the flow of traffic within White Flint, but Bienenfeld said she is concerned that additional public transportation, such as buses and flex bikes, have "hardly come up."

"I think the residents are very concerned about that," Bienenfeld said. "Really, there's one Red Line stop, and that's it. I don't know if [White Flint] is really a ‘transit center.' If you really want to get to the bank, or say you need to take your kid to the doctor, you can't really do that. The subway really only goes through the through the district and into Shady Grove."

Suzanne Hudson, another advisory group member, said she is similarly concerned with traffic, as well as the proximity of high- and midrise buildings to houses.

She said while the bulk of the tall buildings are slated to be near the Metro and taper down, there still may be some disagreement between the advisory group and Park and Planning about what is an acceptable building height level near areas with single-family homes.

Hudson said she is also concerned that growth in Rockville, Bethesda and surrounding communities will affect White Flint, and even with the addition of new roads within White Flint, outlying arteries like Old Georgetown Road and Rockville Pike will not change and will become clogged.