Rockville Pike center to become mixed-use area

Residents question merits of approving buildings without growth plan in place

The shopping center is on the west side of Rockville Pike, just south of Marinelli Road and caddy-corner from the White Flint Metro Station. According to a proposal, one 13-story building would have condominiums and apartments and would span a service alley. An 11-story office building would face Marinelli Road and Rockville Pike.

But members of the Luxmanor Citizens Association voiced displeasure at the Planning Board for moving forward on several mixed-use, high-rise condominiums and office buildings near the White Flint Metro Station before a growth guide for the area is completed.

‘‘You’ve got the [White Flint] sector plan over here and then the Planning Board approving one-by-one each of these proposed developments,” Paula Bienenfeld, Luxmanor Citizens Association president said at Thursday’s Planning Board meeting.

The sector plan is a guide for commercial and residential growth in White Flint. Planners are drafting an updated version from the 1992 plan, which called for more commercial and retail buildings than apartments. Planners would like to see a better mix of uses in the area, similar to Bethesda or downtown Silver Spring.

If plans are approved, Woodglen Drive would be extended from Nicholson Lane north to Marinelli Road, and two two-lane streets would handle the east-west traffic on the property, according to developers from the Holladay Corporation.

The streets would add to the grid of streets county planners have said they hope will run throughout the future White Flint, and are expected to be included in the sector plan drafts.

Most of the parking for the development would be in underground garages, with parallel parking spaces available on the new streets. Being close to the Metro station means the center will have less parking on site than the county requires of buildings farther away from stops.

Communal gardens on each tier of the building will provide grassy meeting spaces for residents, since there are few places for parks and open space in White Flint.

The shopping center and adjacent McDonald’s restaurant would be demolished prior to construction.

Developers are expected to return to the Planning Board with initial site plans within three months.

But Planning Board members said they wanted to see more apartments in the buildings. Gene Lynch, planning commissioner, said the property is too close to the station not to have more residences.

‘‘Essentially we’re saying go get some more density,” Lynch said to the developers.

Having high-density buildings near metro stations reduces traffic elsewhere and makes good planning sense, he said. ‘‘I think we can get all these things in. I think we can get more housing around the metro and you ... can make more money.”

High-density residences and mixed business and retail are goals of the White Flint Sector Plan, a growth guide for the area from Mid Pike Plaza south to White Flint Mall and from Executive Boulevard east to Nebel Road.

Bienenfeld said neighbors would like to see more open and public green space included in designs for other buildings.

We have parks in our neighborhoods, she said, but nowhere else. ‘‘We are happy to see black asphalt replaced with green space,” she said. ‘‘We are concerned that they [will not be] truly public spaces.”

Learn more

An open forum for the White Flint Sector Plan is scheduled for 7 p.m., Nov. 4 at the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission building, 8787 Georgia Ave., Silver Spring. For more information, visit www.whiteflintplanning.org.