Congratulation Montgomery County Council members. You mission is achieved. I am sure you are enjoying driving this major investment away from the County and Wheaton to serve your own personal interests.

Agree with you, Anton. While other areas within DC (H Street, Anacostia), Virginia (all areas of Arlington and large swaths of Alexandria), and even Montgomery County (Silver Spring and Rockville) have revitalized over the last 15 years with large-scale plans, Wheaton continues to stagnate. Officials here see none of the possiblities for Wheaton that were seen by officials in these other areas, despite the Metro proximity. Their reasons for not having a large-scale effort were fears that we could not get a business or government agency to fill the space. Why did other areas with similar challenges take a chance and, for the most part, succeed in their redevelopment efforts? What makes prosperity so implausible for Wheaton?

Still, redevelopment in Wheaton occurs in spite of concerted efforts to slow it down and keep housing and business lease prices down; only time will tell what Wheaton will end up being.

So much for all of the talk by County officials at recent WRAC meetings about B.F. Saul still being so very interested in Wheaton's redevelopment. As the officials made clear, B.F. Saul and other developers will want to come to a place that has excellent business prospects and offer profitability. Obviously, they won't come to places that don't. Like Wheaton.

Next question: Will the MNCPCC building really be mixed use, or will it ultimately be solely for the MNCPPC employees who, primarily, drive to work and never walk to or from the Metro?

Agreed, Congratulation Montgomery County Council members! What a shame! As a Wheaton homeowner and someone who WANTS to spend my money and time in Wheaton rather than going to other parts of the county or into DC, I am still VERY disappointed that the Council choice this short-sighted view of redevelopment that "appears" to benefit only the county rather than people that live in the area. All the time and resources that went into workshops and meetings to develop a downtown that the PEOPLE wanted is now wasted. How many productive and precious hours, days, weeks did people lose from their life working towards the B.F. Saul plan only to be replaced by this the Council's spur of the moment proposal? Whether or not you liked the idea to develop the bus bays they have done more damage re-arranging the sequence of potential redevelopment since the cost to develop the bus bay in the future will definitely be more given the rising cost of supplies, studies, labor, etc. than it would be currently. Prices ALWAYS increase! Hypothetically, if we say the bus bay redevelopment was going to cost $50-80 million in todays market, it will definitely be more 10 years from now, think closer to $100 million. Good work team, glad you thought that through! What are the odds that this MNCPCC building will really be mixed use? My guess, highly unlikely. Your move Council!

I wounder why none of these so called Council members or their staffers ever respond to the community's concerns as we post them here on the patch. I am sure they all read our comments, but they are all hypocrites and could careless what is good for Wheaton or Wheaton's people want.

Thanks, Council Members. Now Wheaton-Glenmont will remain the token cesspool of Montgomery County. Mission accomplished.

I'm not sure how anyone can really say that Wheaton is stagnating, or is a cesspool, considering that there are 2 large developments being put in right at this very moment - plus the Costco. I live within a mile of the metro and it doesn't feel like a cesspool to me. B.F. Saul was getting a sweetheart deal, and now they've taken their toys and gone home. Fine. Other developers are putting in residential and retail without the county first spending 39.5 million dollars, for a building that was going to house, among other things, a bunch of offices - in an area that has a huge vacancy rate in office space. That makes zero sense. It remains to be seen how well the alternative plan voted on by the council is implemented, and hopefully they will do a good job and it will be something positive for the area. It would be very smart for someone else to come along and build a hotel in Wheaton, because that is one thing we do not have at the moment at all. Yes, the space above the bus bays is highly valuable, and should be put to use - but it doesn't seem like all that bad of an idea to do some more research into it, and get some other things done first. Then we can see what kind of interest is generated among developers.

I think that this sets a bad precedent moving forward for a public-private partnership for Wheaton. I mean, in this case, the council pretty much torpedoed years of work between Leggett's office and B.F. Saul. I could definitely see other investors shying away from using their resources to pursue a similar partnership in the future after seeing the council basically throw out years of negotiations with Leggett. This basically shows that the county executive is almost powerless to make a deal happen, and that the county council can shoot the deal down at any point without much discussion or negotation with the investor. Not a good message to send to the business community, in my opinion.

I am not at all impressed with this County Council. They think they can dictate the terms of development, but they drive away the private sector that makes development happen. Dealing with this Council is unpredictable and time-consuming. For an investor, not what you want.

I am unimpressed by the Council's "vision" for Wheaton because it doesn't take into account Wheaton's vision for Wheaton.

I am unimpressed that:
-the Council talks of walkable space and then plans a centrally-located office building that will potentially have no foot traffic at night or on weekends (but hopefully has at least mixed use);
-the best spot near Metro is reserved for an agency where most workers drive and thus likely will not walk beyond the Triangle;
-the County Council and Executive cannot get along, leading Councilmembers to remind Wheaton that the Council outspent the Executive (as they did again in the Memo on the potential Working Group) instead of actually talking with Wheaton's stakeholders on the WUDAC and WRAC about what Wheaton wants;
-the Council did not say: The Executive's plan costs too much. We need to hear from Wheaton stakeholders immediately to get their ideas;
-the Council listened to WRAC and WUDAC members only AFTER the Council had created and approved their own plan for Wheaton;
-at least one Council member stated a desire to keep business rent affordable around the Triangle to support "creative businesses" without explaining how this doesn't also support unattractive, low-rent businesses;
-these same Council members do not seek to maintain low rents for businesses in other areas of the County (i.e., they're pro-capitalism in other areas and anti-capitalism in Wheaton).

I'm done writing for a while. Good luck.

The county and the state have promoted smart growth for years. Parking lot 13 is prime real estate in a location screems smart growth. Smart growth says that there should be higher-density, mixed-use development in urban core near transit and lower-density, dedicated-use development in outlying areas. Having high density development near transit promotes more transit and less driving. Mixed-use (retail, office, entertainment, dining) creates a symbiotic relationship. During the day, office workers patronize local dining establishments. During evenings and weekends, residents patronize the same dining establishments. However, people do more than eat: People also want to browse/shop, maybe get coffee/dessert and enjoy entertainment. Silver Spring and Bethesda also attract people (day and evening) who don't work or live there because they offer more than restaurants. So, offering retail and entertainment strengthens the restaurants and encourages office-based businesses an attractive place for workers. It also improves lagging housing prices. So far Wheaton missed this opportunity because of an overlay zone which created additional barriers to high-density, mixed-used development near the metro, where it belongs. If Park and Planning's property uses prime real estate near the metro for a low-density, dedicated-used property, aren't they, in effect, causing as much harm as an overlay zone??