Opponents of the proposed Costco gas station at Westfield Wheaton have written two letters to the Board of Appeals for Montgomery County, requesting a delay of the hearing for Costco's new special exception application.
The Board of Appeals has issued a notice that the hearing is scheduled for March 11, 15, 18, and 22 at 9:30 a.m. in the Stella B. Werner Council Office Building, Second Floor Davidson Memorial Hearing Room, at 100 Maryland Ave. in Rockville. (See PDF attached to this article.)
The Stop Costco Gas Coalition is worried that there will not be enough time to review Costco's special exception materials and express concerns to the Planning Department (which will review the special exception and give a report to the Board of Appeals) by a deadline of Jan. 15, 2013.
The coalition is requesting that the hearing not be scheduled earlier than June 2013.
The Montgomery County Council approved a zoning text amendment this summer that prevented Costco from constructing a gas station in the original proposed location because of its proximity to a neighborhood pool. But Costco has submitted a new application that shifts the gas station east.
The new proposed location would still border the Kensington Heights neighborhood and would be closer to the Stephen Knolls School for special needs students.
The hearing notice and the two letters by the Stop Costco Gas Coalition have been attached to this article as PDFs.
"the idea that the world can become increasingly better in terms of science, technology, modernization, liberty, democracy, quality of life, etc."
My understanding is they ran into the same shoddy cement work as happened at the Silver Spring transit center.....they started loading the shelving and the floor cracked all over the place. Once they are sure that we wont all fall into the basement they should be opening
There is one word for that "Suckkas" In the end if you arent careful, COSTCO will buy out the pool, bulldoze the lot, and put the gas station there. This would make me smile.
"Quality of Life" The less I have to spend on gas (or goodies) means the more I can have of both. Which In my world equates to a higher quality of life.
Also, although some people would rather have had the mall razed, Westfield has attracted a fair number of nicer shops since Costco agreed to come. If the mall had disintegrated like some of the Wheaton strip malls (I think the one on Gerogia and Blueridge has lost a florist, jeweler, and Baskin-Robbins), we'd be in worse shape all around Wheaton.
The people objecting prefer to refer to themselves as "Kensington" technically the sub-division is "Kensington Heights" and they are in the 20895 zip. I'd say they are in Wheaton, but the 200k difference in property values says they are not.
Ok, lets take the "I" out of it and put it to a vote of the mid-county residents... Cheap convenient gas on one side and Eco concerns on the other. You lose 2 or 3 to one would be my bet
How far would the proposed gas station be from the school? What is the gas line expected to be like during weekday school hours versus weekends? When there are lines, where will they be located? Would they be closer to houses and the school than the station is? How will the volume of gas sales compare to the 12-pump Free State on Veirs Mill, or the combined 20 pumps at the Free State/Sunoco stations there, which are both very near people's homes? I don't think that the health of a significant number of people, especially children, should be sacrificed for a gas station. Thanks in advance for sharing any facts/analysis on these issues, including any analyses of health concerns specific to Costco's station (as opposed to any gas station being built near a residential community).
More importantly, the point is that Costco's Special Exception application for this monstrosity is being unfairly fast tracked through the process without giving our community the time it needs to plow through the many hundreds of pages before the January 15th deadline. Do you support due process?
I don't think many people are against due process (I'm not), though I'm not sure it's always a focus in our county.
On a different note, there are 6,500 parking spaces at Westfield Wheaton. At most there might be 50 cars at any one time waiting for Costco gas. I seriously doubt the fumes that they emit will make much of a difference given the thousands of cars that are already driving to and fro there.
That is all very true except for the fact that, except for the rare 85+ year old holdout, every homeowner in the affected area freely chose to locate their family next to a major regional shopping mall with parking for 6,500 cars. It sounds cold, but I feel it is the same with the school. If you are truly concerned about high risk carcinogens, why would you choose to raise your family/teach your children next to one of the highest concentrations of carcinogen emitting vehicles in the County? The Mall was there first by decades, and given the already existing huge volume of vehicles going there for other reasons, I view it as the perfect location for a major gas station. Overall we'll probably lower the emissions in the County due to the already existing convergence of vehicles there.
Your concern is the already existing high volume of traffic, but you have always been in favor of the Costco. Did it ever cross your mind that the volume of traffic will dramatically increase once Costco opens? There are lots and lots of places to buy all of the things that Costco sells - under your logic, why do we need Costco at all, much less Costco gas? It is all economics - cheap staples and cheap gas. If we are lucky, maybe some of the ugly gas stations on Connecticut Avenue will go out of business and be replaced with something more attractive.