Silver Springer
March 9th, 2007, 06:22 PM
A road for the future
City officials want to pave a new way -- starting with an overhaul of Rockville Pike
Washington Business Journal - March 9, 2007
by Prabha Natarajan
Staff Reporter
Larry Giammo drives on Rockville Pike just about every day. And each time, the mayor of Rockville rattles off a list of things he'd like to change about the thoroughfare.
There are too many big-box retailers and not enough offices or condos.
It's univiting and unattractive.
There are no people on the sidewalks.
And there are cars everywhere. On the road. Waiting to get on the road. And parked in lots on both sides of the road.
"Rockville Pike represents our past," Giammo says. "Now, we are a suburban community moving toward an urban setting. That's our future look."
His frustration and hope is echoed by the thousands of shoppers and commuters on the six-lane road as they navigate through cars turning in and out of parking lots and crawling along the highway that serves as Montgomery County's main retail corridor.
Rockville Pike, or Maryland Route 355, starts where Wisconsin Avenue ends in Chevy Chase and stretches 11 or so miles up to Rockville Town Center, where it becomes Hungerford Drive, and continues on until north of Frederick.
Both Montgomery County and Rockville planning departments are involved in an effort to transform the pike's retail core from White Flint to Rockville into a mix of uses with high-rise homes, offices, retail, parks, trees, pedestrian and bike paths, and shuttles connecting to the Metro. The idea is to model it after other suburban boulevards such as Wisconsin Avenue in Bethesda, Columbia Pike in Arlington and Georgia Avenue in Silver Spring.
High-density structures close to the Metro stations and fronting the pike will alter its current core of spread-out, low-rise, big-box retail.
This grand design, however, is still just a dream. County and city planners are putting together plans to make it a reality with more concrete concepts that may lure property owners into redevelopment.
Rockville Pike represents a unique challenge in that economically it's a gold mine and would remain so, even if left unchanged. Every name brand and store has or wants a home there. No vacancies or boarded-up buildings scar the corridor.
Further, the pike's raison d'etre itself is a problem. The county is committed to maintaining the six-lane thoroughfare, and that makes it less conducive for mixed-use or walkable neighborhood developments.
The city is looking at mutliple transportation choices, says Jim Wasilak, Rockville's chief of planning. Options include links between shopping centers through service lanes or dedicated shuttles, and an overpass or underpass for pedestrians to cross the pike.
Not all of Rockville Pike lends itself to such massive mixed-use redevelopment. There are dozens of smaller lots, especially between the Twinbrook and Rockville Metro stations, that are owned by individuals and families and don't offer much potential for redevelopment. When the Metro came to Rockville in 1984, it cut through their lots and took away a lot of their land. The thought is to use eminent domain or a similar option to redo that stretch of strip malls, Wasilak says.
Many developers and owners who've already bought into the redevelopment idea are working on their own projects, while others are waiting to see what the new plans recommend or allow.
There are other issues the city and county need to resolve such as retaining the small and mom-and-pop businesses on the pike, says Sally Sternbach, executive director of Rockville Economic Development.
"We need to make sure they have a place," she says. "When you change the environment, it changes the valuation of the land, and it often has the unwelcome side effect of eliminating small businesses. It's tough. But that has to be a conscious part of any redevelopment plan."
There also is some concern that Rockville, despite talking the talk about smart growth and urban development, won't have an appetite for too much of it.
While the county's portion of the pike, which is essentially south of the Twinbrook Parkway and in White Flint, would have towering 250-foot buildings, the Rockville side would be more of a low-scale development along the lines of its town center. Such height limitations could become a contentious issue as the city moves forward with planning -- as evidenced by early pushback.
"The redevelopment of Rockville Pike is not going to be all that it could be because of these caps," says David Freishtat, a land-use attorney with Shulman Rogers Gandal Pordy & Ecker. "Rockville is giving up and not maximizing its potential."
The mayor says the restrictions aren't going away.
"We are uncomfortable to see some of the heights the county is approving along the pike," Giammo says. "We would never in the past, present or future approve of anything like that in the city of Rockville. You have to worry about road capacity and aesthetics."
Giammo thinks a maximum of eight stories is the appropriate height.
Margaret Rifkin, a planner heading the county's pike and White Flint planning effort, says both sides are working together, listening to each other's plans and ultimately share the same vision.
"We would like to see a beautiful green boulevard," she says. "A street people can be proud of and makes them feel good that this is their community. It should be environmentally sound, with a good design. [It should be] a street people can cross at a variety of locations and a source of civic pride and beauty. All of which may be odd to say of a six-lane highway. But we aim high."
E-mail: pnatarajan@bizjournals.com Phone: 703/258-0836
City officials want to pave a new way -- starting with an overhaul of Rockville Pike
Washington Business Journal - March 9, 2007
by Prabha Natarajan
Staff Reporter
Larry Giammo drives on Rockville Pike just about every day. And each time, the mayor of Rockville rattles off a list of things he'd like to change about the thoroughfare.
There are too many big-box retailers and not enough offices or condos.
It's univiting and unattractive.
There are no people on the sidewalks.
And there are cars everywhere. On the road. Waiting to get on the road. And parked in lots on both sides of the road.
"Rockville Pike represents our past," Giammo says. "Now, we are a suburban community moving toward an urban setting. That's our future look."
His frustration and hope is echoed by the thousands of shoppers and commuters on the six-lane road as they navigate through cars turning in and out of parking lots and crawling along the highway that serves as Montgomery County's main retail corridor.
Rockville Pike, or Maryland Route 355, starts where Wisconsin Avenue ends in Chevy Chase and stretches 11 or so miles up to Rockville Town Center, where it becomes Hungerford Drive, and continues on until north of Frederick.
Both Montgomery County and Rockville planning departments are involved in an effort to transform the pike's retail core from White Flint to Rockville into a mix of uses with high-rise homes, offices, retail, parks, trees, pedestrian and bike paths, and shuttles connecting to the Metro. The idea is to model it after other suburban boulevards such as Wisconsin Avenue in Bethesda, Columbia Pike in Arlington and Georgia Avenue in Silver Spring.
High-density structures close to the Metro stations and fronting the pike will alter its current core of spread-out, low-rise, big-box retail.
This grand design, however, is still just a dream. County and city planners are putting together plans to make it a reality with more concrete concepts that may lure property owners into redevelopment.
Rockville Pike represents a unique challenge in that economically it's a gold mine and would remain so, even if left unchanged. Every name brand and store has or wants a home there. No vacancies or boarded-up buildings scar the corridor.
Further, the pike's raison d'etre itself is a problem. The county is committed to maintaining the six-lane thoroughfare, and that makes it less conducive for mixed-use or walkable neighborhood developments.
The city is looking at mutliple transportation choices, says Jim Wasilak, Rockville's chief of planning. Options include links between shopping centers through service lanes or dedicated shuttles, and an overpass or underpass for pedestrians to cross the pike.
Not all of Rockville Pike lends itself to such massive mixed-use redevelopment. There are dozens of smaller lots, especially between the Twinbrook and Rockville Metro stations, that are owned by individuals and families and don't offer much potential for redevelopment. When the Metro came to Rockville in 1984, it cut through their lots and took away a lot of their land. The thought is to use eminent domain or a similar option to redo that stretch of strip malls, Wasilak says.
Many developers and owners who've already bought into the redevelopment idea are working on their own projects, while others are waiting to see what the new plans recommend or allow.
There are other issues the city and county need to resolve such as retaining the small and mom-and-pop businesses on the pike, says Sally Sternbach, executive director of Rockville Economic Development.
"We need to make sure they have a place," she says. "When you change the environment, it changes the valuation of the land, and it often has the unwelcome side effect of eliminating small businesses. It's tough. But that has to be a conscious part of any redevelopment plan."
There also is some concern that Rockville, despite talking the talk about smart growth and urban development, won't have an appetite for too much of it.
While the county's portion of the pike, which is essentially south of the Twinbrook Parkway and in White Flint, would have towering 250-foot buildings, the Rockville side would be more of a low-scale development along the lines of its town center. Such height limitations could become a contentious issue as the city moves forward with planning -- as evidenced by early pushback.
"The redevelopment of Rockville Pike is not going to be all that it could be because of these caps," says David Freishtat, a land-use attorney with Shulman Rogers Gandal Pordy & Ecker. "Rockville is giving up and not maximizing its potential."
The mayor says the restrictions aren't going away.
"We are uncomfortable to see some of the heights the county is approving along the pike," Giammo says. "We would never in the past, present or future approve of anything like that in the city of Rockville. You have to worry about road capacity and aesthetics."
Giammo thinks a maximum of eight stories is the appropriate height.
Margaret Rifkin, a planner heading the county's pike and White Flint planning effort, says both sides are working together, listening to each other's plans and ultimately share the same vision.
"We would like to see a beautiful green boulevard," she says. "A street people can be proud of and makes them feel good that this is their community. It should be environmentally sound, with a good design. [It should be] a street people can cross at a variety of locations and a source of civic pride and beauty. All of which may be odd to say of a six-lane highway. But we aim high."
E-mail: pnatarajan@bizjournals.com Phone: 703/258-0836