Packed Crowd Shares Ideas for B.F. Saul Project

"We have more people here than expected," said Tom Gallas of Torti Gallas partners, "which is great." 

If you wanted to attend something like a famed town meeting of New Hampshire's hamlets or the intense personalization of Iowa's presidential primary, last night's meeting to discuss the public-private partnership between B.F. Saul, the county and WMATA came close.

After a series of introductions and a short presentation about who the B.F. Saul team is, residents, county and planning board representatives and anyone else who had wandered into the main hall of Crossways Community Center broke into eight tables to discuss four issue areas that directly affected the project, aimed to redevelop county and WMATA properties, all within the triangle area of downtown Wheaton.

More specifically, the group of properties that B.F. Saul and partners Torti Gallas and Loiederman Soltesz will have access to includes the current bus bays, the Mid-County Regional Services Center, the Metro parking garage, Parking Lot 13, between Triangle Lane and Grandview Avenue, and the county parking lots on the south side of Ennalls Avenue and University Boulevard.  

B.F. Saul and fellow team companies Torti Gallas and Partners and Loiederman Soltesz will formalize the partnership with the county through a concept plan that will be the outcome of the Nov. 17 meeting and other individual meetings with residents.

Robert Wulff, senior vice president at Saul and the most visible member of the team over the past few months, described their input as bringing the capacity and access to funding to build, as well as "triangulating what was possible" — between what the community wants, what businesses want and what the real estate market will bear. 

Attendees got the chance to spent 30 minutes each at two of four tables discussing four different themes around the project: desired land uses, streets and sidewalks, town square and activities and overall vision.

Activities from ice skating to farmers markets to fireworks were suggested, but the actual look of a town square was split between a piazza style, medium-density development with pavement and trees or more of a green open space. 

"The Metro exit should go right into the town center," Eleanor Duckett, a resident and a member of the Wheaton Redevelopment Advisory Committee, suggested, instead of the current exit into the bus bays. 

At both desired land uses tables, people commented about the need to retain small businesses and the opportunity to start them.

"My concern is that it becomes downtown Silver Spring, with chain restaurants that I'm not interested in," said Chip Py, adding that more affordable rents and easier tenant processes allowed new immigrants to more easily create and sustain business.

"Wheaton provides opportunity," he said.

"I'm still individually owned," said William Moore, manager of the , across the table. "And I've been here longer than many of the small businesses. My concern is that with redevelopment comes higher rents."

One table specifically requested that had to stay. 

A main traffic concern was how to alleviate the current and future congestion along Reedie, especially between Georgia Avenue and Veirs Mill Road. How to balance the increase in density with the need for parking concerned residents from either side of the debate over more or fewer parking spaces.

Adding in green elements to the infrastructure was a popular idea, with suggestions of a green area built on multiple levels on top of a parking lot or a modified bus bay. 

Diane Cameron, one of the members of Green Wheaton said her group had a three-part agenda for downtown: green features in the buildings, such as planted roofs and gardens, a focus on green jobs and "Keeping Wheaton, Wheaton." 

"I was impressed by the knowledge of this community about environmental sustainability," said Rachel Newhouse, who works in the parks division of MNCPPC, about the discussion she heard around the tables, adding that people were passionate about getting more open space. 

While the B.F. Saul public engagement team had published materials in Spanish as well as hired a multicultural consultant, the man handing out interpretive devices said he had no requests.

Ash Kosiewicz, the communications manager at the Latino Economic Development Corporation, said that while he was sitting at the the vision table, he came away with the fact that the residents wanted "an inclusive, local space." 

"They understand what the pressures are," he said about small businesses during periods of redevelopment. He mentioned examples of what could be done to mitigate the impact, i.e. the Adams Morgan Business Improvement District successfully lobby for a $7 million fund to financial support to small business hurt by a lengthy streetscape project in the neighborhood.

Tom Martin, a member of the Wheaton Redevelopment Advisory Committee, said the discussion was especially interesting for someone who had followed the progress of the Sector Plan so closely.

Martin mentioned that with the zoning densities that the county had set for both the new and old sector plan, some of the ideas he heard might not be feasible.

"When you're talking about public space," he said, "there's only one part where it can go."

B.F. Saul's team will continue meeting with individual groups over the next couple of months and will present a concept plan to the community in March or April of next year.

Correction: The description of the Adams Morgan streetscape fund was for general financial support, not temporary relocation.