Politics & Government

Potential Park & Planning Headquarters Move Not Unwelcome

The Wheaton Redevelopment Advisory Committee has not officially endorsed the potential move, but securing a government tenant for office space in downtown Wheaton would further WRAC aims.

The Wheaton Redevelopment Advisory Committee does not yet have an official position about the Montgomery County Planning Board’s recent decision to approve $200,000 for a feasibility study on moving the headquarters of the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission to downtown Wheaton from Silver Spring.

However, there does not seem to be anyone on the advisory body speaking out against it.

“I haven’t heard any opposition to it from the committee,” WRAC vice chair Susan Petersen said. “I think people are generally excited about it and hopeful.”

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Rob Klein, who presented the redevelopment report to WRAC at its Oct. 19 meeting, called the funding approval “a major step.”

“It’s an opportunity to make an office complex,” said Klein, who manages the development programs in the Department of General Services. “It’s one of the things we want to do.”

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The area being eyed for the M-NCPPC headquarters sits in the triangle between Georgia Avenue, Veirs Mill Road and Reedie Drive.

This triangle fits into a larger plan by developer B.F. Saul for a new downtown Wheaton, one with a hotel and three office buildings. If the park and planning headquarters moved to Wheaton, it would likely occupy the office building closest to the intersection between Georgia Avenue and Veirs Mill Road, Klein said.

But any plans for moving the park and planning headquarters are still in early stages.

“All that has happened so far is that we have been asked to study the idea of a move,” said Valerie Berton, spokesperson for the Maryland Planning Board.

A M-NCPPC report presented at the Oct. 13 board meeting concluded that consolidating the headquarters in Wheaton would meet “multiple public policy objectives.”

The park and planning agency currently occupies three offices in Silver Spring, so a move to Wheaton would also be one of consolidation.

This is not the first time that the M-NCPPC has considered a new headquarters, but its plans for the Silver Spring office space SilverPlace fell through in 2008 after it did not receive approval for funding, according to the M-NCPPC report.


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