Drawings: Costco Gas Station's Green Wall

At Wednesday night's open house, , community members interacted with consultants hired by Costco to examine potential effects on traffic patterns, air quality and stormwater flow.

But while some from the community had plenty of negative comments for the emissions and traffic studies, no one loudly criticized the landscape architects.

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Without the burden of convincing community members that the gas station would not clog the neighborhood with traffic and pollute the air, the Phoenix, Md.-based Mark Willard & Associates offered a mitigating vision of a green wall dividing the neighborhood from the gas station.

“We’re trying to do everything we can to buffer it from a landscape standpoint,” Mark Willard said.

The green retaining wall ranges in height from 8-14 feet and stretches to 780 feet long. The wall itself is a matrix, so that plants can grow inside, giving the wall the appearance of a gigantic hedge. But the community may not want such a solid buffer.

“Everybody wants a cut-through in the wall,” landscape designer Brad Nowicki said. The wall does not extend to the swim club or the , but it would block a path from the neighborhood to the Ring Road. One possible solution is to stagger the wall, Nowicki said, to allow passage through.

Antoinette Kranenburg, who has gone to some of the public hearings about the Costco gas station, said that she was encouraged by the landscape architects.

“They’re plant people,” she said. “They’re doing their best.”