Politics & Government

Health and Human Services Dept. Floats Move to Wheaton

Councilmembers said they wanted the proposal, which is not part of the six-year Capital Improvements Program, to better integrate with plans for Wheaton redevelopment.

The county’s Department of Health and Human Services is considering a move to Wheaton, occupying office space in the heart of downtown redevelopment.

When the department’s director, Uma Ahluwalia, presented these plans to a joint meeting of the County Council’s Housing and Human Services and Planning, Housing, and Economic Development committees on March 5, councilmembers reacted with frustration that the ideas had not been better incorporated into discussions about Wheaton redevelopment.

“It’s a lot of moving parts, and a lot of uncertainty here, and this was kind of a surprise,” said Councilmember Nancy Floreen, who chairs the PHED committee. “It seems awfully preliminary.”

However, in the worksession's legislative memo it stated that Floreen, who chairs the PHED committee, was the one who “raised the possibility of locating a DHHS facility in Wheaton as a part of the redevelopment of the area and using the current DHHS facility at 8818 Georgia Avenue for recreation purposes.”

Councilmember Nancy Navarro said that the plans, which are not part of the six-year Capital Improvements Program, are part of a larger effort to consolidate department programs move them out of leased space and into county-owned property, Ahluwalia said.

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The department envisions a seven-story building with 140,000 square feet, located a little more than three miles from its current base of operations at 8818 Georgia Avenue in Silver Spring.

Although Ahluwalia told councilmembers that Wheaton meets the requirements for mass transit accessibility, available parking and effective delivery of services, she added that no specific site in the downtown area has been selected yet. 

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“We’ve got to find a better time for discussing bright ideas, short of having to make a decision on a budget,” Councilmember Marc Elrich said. “It’s not very well formed at this point.”

Elrich added that if the Department of Health and Human Services moves programs to Wheaton in the future, it should be to county-owned property.

“I don’t want to lease space in a new building in Wheaton,” Elrich said. “If we are building a building for us on a platform, I do not want us leasing space from B.F. Saul. It makes no sense to get out of leases and say we’re building a new space and then sign ourselves back into a new lease."

Ahluwalia said that the DHHS programs currently housed in the  on Reedie Drive, such as Proyecto Salud, would be able to move to the proposed new DHHS building in Wheaton.

But Councilmember George Leventhal pointed out the proposed DHHS project is outside the CIP’s six-year timeframe. Therefore, if the council approved the Wheaton Redevelopment Program as part of the CIP, and the Mid-County Regional Services Center is torn down according to plan, the DHHS programs would still need a place to go.

Greg Ossont of the Dept. of General Services told the councilmembers that the county executive’s CIP recommendations for Wheaton Redevelopment do include funding for relocating those programs.

The councilmembers decided to hold off further discussion of Wheaton redevelopment until the PHED committee’s March 12 meeting.


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