Business & Tech

BB&T Site Approved Over Staff, Civic Association Disapproval

Site has been unused for several years.

The civic association said no, the planning board staff said no, but the Montgomery County's Planning Board recommended that BB&T be allowed to consolidate three lots on University Boulevard and build a branch on the land. 

The land, immediately opposite of the Giant grocery store, is currently occupied by three unoccupied houses and includes the eastern corner of University and Valley View Drive.

BB&T wants to build a 23-foot high building, along with a canopy for an ATM and parking spaces, as well as combine the three existing lots into two larger lots. A similar process was repeated in 2005 with Commerce Bank, but that project was indefinitely postponed by the land owner.

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The staff report disapproved the action because the BB&T proposal did not fit the current zoning on that lot – a commercial-transition zone, designed to create a transition between a commercial district and a residential area– and the 1990 version of the Sector Plan. The amendment will go next to the Hearing Examiner, which decides on how the law applies to this case, and then to the county council.

Valerie Berton, media relations manager for Montgomery Planning, said the decision to approve the BB&T amendment, with exceptions, was largely because of the current Sector Plan was in the process of being changed.

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"The plan is 20 years old and there's language in there at reflects that the community could change," she said.

The planning board, lead by Francois Carrier, approved the merging of the lots and the building, but with binding conditions. These conditions would prevent future building from straying too far from the current plan and cap the height and density of the growth. The amendment first goes the hearing examiner for a legal review, before being sent to the county council.

Kensington View Civic Association sent a letter to MNCPPC in May detailing the outcome of their review of the proposal. They opposed the specific amendment because the current sector plan discourages any lot assemblage. The association did approve the removal of the current buildings.

"A lot of us our frustrated about what that street looks like," Judy Higgins, land use chair of KVCA, said, adding that their concerns were largely with future development.

Higgins said the community will meet with lawyers from BB&T on Monday to discuss their plans and the binding elements that were conditions of the Planning Board's approval. The association's concern is less with building the bank, but instead the consequences of combining lots and granting an exception that could lead to higher, denser development in the future.

"It's a draw for now," she said, "I'm still hesitant, we have to see how binding these binding elements are."


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