Montgomery County government is not going to proceed with a feasibility study for redeveloping the bus bay area in Wheaton, in the triangle between Reedie Drive, Georgia Avenue and Veirs Mill Road.
That's what Steve Silverman, director of the Department of Economic Development, told members of the Wheaton Redevelopment Advisory Committee at their January meeting.
"We've made a determination at this point to move on," Silverman said.
Last year, the Montgomery County Council approved $650,000 for various studies as part of the Wheaton redevelopment package, including the bus bay feasibility study.
The study's inclusion in the budget came after the council rejected a proposal for private developer B.F. Saul to build a platform over the bus bay--a proposal that County Executive Isiah Leggett had supported. The council instead chose a plan that focused on a new headquarters for the Maryland National Capital Park and Planning Commission (M-NCPPC) on Lot 13.
B.F. Saul withdrew from the plans, but the bus bay feasibility study left the door open for future redevelopment on the triangle piece of land owned by the Washington Metropolitan Transit Area Authority.
Jacob Sesker, the senior legislative analyst who was instrumental in shaping the new plan for Wheaton, told the council in April why he believed redevelopment should start with the Park and Planning office building on Lot 13:
“The bus bays are a significant site, but they are the most challenging and expensive redevelopment site in downtown Wheaton,” Sesker said. “The redevelopment of Parking Lot 13 and the town center, with an office building headquarters for Park and Planning, along with what is going on with the Safeway project, the Lowes building...will change the market downtown, and it may make getting a platform cheaper for us at some point in the future. It may not.”
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More reading on this topic:
County Council Focuses Redevelopment on Park & Planning Headquarters
Ive got $5 that they will go to "LEDC Outreach" and "Unionize Wheaton" and other support/kickbacks to Navarro supporters.......
As ED referenced, the two remaining studies are a parking study and a jobs study. The first will help inform a transition parking plan to help customers/area residents access local businesses during the 2-3 years of redevelopment construction. The second looks at how best to connect local residents with new redevelopment jobs to help execute the project. So in theory, if done well, the results will make it easier for customers to access the downtown area during the construction, give small businesses a fighting chance to survive massive construction outside their front door, and support local job creation.
Next prediction, the studies will say we should give between $3 and $5 million in "transition assistance grants" to local minority owned businesses and require that there be a project labor agreement with the various trade unions for all work that occurs in the triange. So cant wait to have the cash to move to VA.....
The County's goal appears to be to avoid developing Wheaton too much, which could cause business and home rents (including group home rents) to increase. Some Patch stories relate how hard it is to find a MoCo home for less than $500k. You can get 2 in Wheaton at that price. At the same time, the County seeks to avoid Wheaton becoming too decimated economically, which would look bad as well. So, for example, the County manipulates school figures by keeping in their home schools Wheaton-area students who do NOT receive free or reduced meals (FARMs). Specifically, the middle school magnet-school selection process considers how FARMs percentages would be affected if non-FARMs students left their home schools. The result is the restriction of opportunities for non-FARMs students slated to attend schools with already-high FARMs figures, like Newport Mill, as compared to students from wealthy areas. Why would anyone waste their time being on the WRAC or WUDAC when these committees obviously have no say? Do they just exist to allow some steam to come out of the potentially-boiling kettle of Wheaton homeowners?
The Purple Line, however beneficial for other areas of the County, does nearly nothing beneficial for Wheaton residents and insures that other areas will continue to benefit from large-scale funding.