Chevy Chase Lake

Nighttime Economy Task Force

Miti Figueredo — Wed, 15 May 2013 19:18:09 +0000

I am honored to have been selected by County Executive Leggett to participate in the County’s Nighttime Economy Task Force (NETF). Focusing on Bethesda, Silver Spring, Rockville, Wheaton and Germantown, the NETF will study ways to enhance and promote the music, theater, bar and dining options in these areas. By encouraging safe and vibrant “hospitality zones,” we can keep more entertainment dollars in Montgomery County, rather than having them spent overwhelmingly in Washington, D.C. We also want to encourage young professionals to live in Montgomery County’s urban, transit-oriented neighborhoods and become long-term, active members of our community. Our meetings will be public, and I urge interested residents to attend, ask questions and raise issues. I will post updates and meeting notices as the Task Force’s work progresses.

Purple Line Open Houses

Miti Figueredo — Fri, 03 May 2013 21:00:14 +0000

The Maryland Transit Administration is holding a series of Open Houses in May focused on the Purple Line. On May 14, they’ll be holding one at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School from 5-8 p.m. Come hear about project updates, next steps, and the Final Environmental Impact Statement.

Building Heights: Taller can be better

Miti Figueredo — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 20:04:33 +0000

In an article defending the height of a proposed mixed-use project in Arlington, Greater Greater Washington’s Ryan Arnold recently made this important and compelling point:

The Washington region has folks who commute to DC from as far as West Virginia. Their daily journey illustrates a variety of serious problems we say we care about: affordable housing, suburban sprawl, oil consumption, high emissions, and traffic. When a commercial landowner seeks to add significant housing to a single-use site, they’re offering an opportunity to help solve all those problems.

As the Chevy Chase Lake Sector Plan has moved from the Planning Board to the Council, we’ve heard questions about the recommended 150 foot height limit for one of the buildings in the plan area. Some community members have expressed concern that this height limit is excessive, and that the building should be several stories shorter, even though it would be immediately adjacent to the future Purple Line station and to an existing 150 foot tall building. Neither building would abut a residential neighborhood.

We take community concerns very seriously and have made significant changes to our redevelopment plans in response to feedback. But we also believe that this building height is appropriate in the larger context of our design, for several reasons:

The additional height creates the opportunity for more open space in the project
The additional units available in a taller building are necessary to offset the high cost of underground parking, which is essential to creating a walkable, pedestrian friendly environment
As this article points out, a slightly taller building can be more elegantly designed, and ultimately more aesthetically pleasing, than a shorter, blockier building
The visual impact from the street of an additional 2-3 stories is minimal

The Council hasn’t yet made a final decision on the Sector Plan, so we don’t know what the height limits will be. But rather than focus primarily on the height of one building, we hope to have constructive conversations about the environmental and community benefits to be gained from the redevelopment of an old, asphalt-heavy strip center into a lively, beautiful and transit-oriented community.

The Chevy Chase Land Company’s Submission to the Montgomery County Council on the Chevy Chase Lake Sector Plan

Miti Figueredo — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 15:11:00 +0000

Below is a link to the Land Company’s redevelopment proposal for Chevy Chase Lake, as submitted to the Montgomery County Council on March 5, 2013.

Chevy Chase Land Company Submission to the Montgomery County Council on the Chevy Chase Lake Sector Plan

Housing Supply & Affordability

Miti Figueredo — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 20:04:14 +0000

Markets work with housing much as they do with any other commodity: limited supply results in higher prices. Here in the DC Metro area, we have some of the highest housing costs in the country. Yet according to a 2011 study by the George Mason University Center for Regional Analysis, local jurisdictions aren’t planning for a sufficient number of residential units to house the estimated one million new workers expected by 2030. In Montgomery County, we expect to need about 100,000 additional housing units over the next twenty years. Due to changing demographics and declining household size, housing forecasts show that the greatest demand will be for multi-family housing. In order to combat sprawl and traffic, most of this new housing should be located within the urban core and near transit, jobs and amenities.

Slate writer Matthew Yglesias has written extensively on how market forces affect housing costs. However, affordable housing discussions usually center around the role of government in subsidizing housing or in requiring developers to provide below-market rate units as part of any new housing development (in an earlier post, we discussed what constitutes “affordable housing”). In Montgomery County, for example, any new subdivision with twenty or more housing units must set aside at least 12.5 percent of them as “moderately priced dwelling units.” The county then markets these homes and rental units to moderate-income households making 60-70 percent of the area median income.

Montgomery County’s MPDU program has been praised as a progressive effort to create mixed-income communities countywide and maintain the affordability of private rental stock. Combined with the county’s other affordable housing efforts, which include direct subsidies and other services and supports, the MPDU program attempts to address a serious lack of affordable housing.

But these “demand-side” efforts are insufficient to ensure enough affordable housing for Montgomery County residents, especially its young workers and seniors. We simply don’t have enough rental housing to satisfy the demand at all levels of the economic spectrum, especially in desirable locations near transit. Building more units, even at the high end, releases pressure on rental housing at the lower end. For this reason, artificially restricting the supply of multi-family units while lamenting the lack of affordable housing doesn’t make sense. In addition to pursuing traditional demand-side affordable housing policies, we need to focus on supply and make sure we build enough housing to meet the needs of all our residents.

A Critical Moment for Transportation Funding in Maryland

Miti Figueredo — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 23:22:42 +0000

Yesterday, the Maryland House Ways and Means Committee voted to approve HB 1515. This bill, proposed jointly by Governor O’Malley, Senate President Mike Miller and House Speaker Mike Busch, would raise about $3.4 billion in transportation revenue over the next five years. Without this funding package, we will have no money for any new transit, road or bridge projects beginning in 2017. Virginia recently passed its own transportation revenue package, and our elected leaders need to take similar steps to ensure that Maryland has a twenty-first century transportation system.

The Chevy Chase Land Company is a member of the “Get Maryland Moving” Coalition, which has been organizing support for transportation funding from business groups, environmental organizations, and transit advocates. Along with many other coalition members and Maryland residents, we submitted testimony at a Ways and Means Committee hearing on Friday strongly supporting HB 1515. County Executive Leggett also testified in support of the bill, and the County Council has unanimously endorsed it.

The Purple Line is one of the critical projects that would be affected by the lack of funding. The state and federal governments have already spent more than $100 million in planning and engineering for the project, but if Maryland cannot demonstrate to the federal government how it will pay for its half of the construction costs, the Purple Line will not qualify for federal funding and will fall behind other projects in the pipeline.

Maryland’s gas tax hasn’t been raised since 1992, and it’s time for our leaders to act on this issue now. Please click here to see how you can help by signing the petition and contacting your legislators.

Testimony of the Chevy Chase Land Company on the Planning Board Draft of the Chevy Chase Lake Sector Plan

Miti Figueredo — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 22:29:08 +0000

On Tuesday night, the Land Company presented its testimony to the County Council on the Planning Board Draft of the Chevy Chase Lake Sector Plan. Thirty-seven people testified at the public hearing, including Planning Board Chair Francoise Carrier, who described the Board’s overall recommendations.

We are very grateful for the supportive testimony we heard from diverse groups like the Montgomery County and the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Chambers of Commerce, the Washington Area Bicyclist Association, the Action Committee for Transit, and a number of individuals. In their testimonies, supporters cited the need for transit-oriented development, pedestrian and bicycle improvements, more housing for seniors and young people, and additional amenities like parks, restaurants and shopping.

We’d also like to thank all the residents who took the time to express their views and concerns about the Plan. We appreciate the frank and open discussion of these issues, even on those points where we disagree, and hope that as the plan progresses we can continue to engage in a thoughtful and constructive dialogue with our neighbors in this community.

Below is the complete text of our testimony, as given by David Smith, President and CEO of the Chevy Chase Land Company.

Chevy Chase Lake Sector Plan Testimony on Planning Board Draft Plan before the Montgomery County Council March 5, 2013

Testimony of David Smith, President and CEO Chevy Chase Land Company

Good evening President Navarro and members of the Council. My name is David Smith and I serve as President and CEO of the Chevy Chase Land Company. Joining me is Miti Figueredo, who is leading the Sector Plan efforts on behalf of the Company. It is a pleasure to be here tonight to present the Land Company’s vision for Chevy Chase Lake.

All of you have visited Chevy Chase Lake and are familiar with the area, which includes a 62-year-old strip shopping center that is ready for redevelopment and located inside the beltway. While we have a preliminary approval to proceed with a suburban style retail/office strip center, this would be inconsistent with the “smart growth” vision that this Council has articulated in recent master plans and with the input we’ve heard from residents.

As we worked with the community on this project over the last two years, we heard that additional retail, restaurants and parks are wanted and needed. Residents would like a pedestrian-friendly destination where they can shop, dine, and see their friends and neighbors.

We would like to create this kind of destination within walking and biking distance of the neighborhoods in Chevy Chase Lake, and near existing job centers like NIH, Howard Hughes, and Navy Med. Because the proposed mix of uses is primarily residential, this project will have fewer traffic impacts than our approved preliminary plan for a strip center.

We have only one real area of disagreement with the community on Phase 1 of the plan, and that is regarding the height of the building on Connecticut Avenue just north of the Purple Line, for which the Planning Board recommended a 150’ limit. Compressing the building down threatens the open space and also makes it more difficult to design a beautiful, well-articulated building that steps back from Connecticut Avenue. It also makes the project less financially feasible—for every ten feet of height we lose a floor, which equates to at least 25 units. In order to make this project work, we anticipate needing 4 levels of underground parking. This is extremely expensive. Obviously, while it is much less costly to build the approved strip center, this is not what we should be building at this location. We are currently working with Planning Staff on the Design Guidelines so that we can ensure the best possible design for this building and the entire project. I respectfully ask that the Council retain the height that was approved by the Planning Board for this particular building. I would also ask that you support the Board’s recommendation for a completed road connection between Manor Road and Chevy Chase Lake Drive that passes underneath the elevated Purple Line.

We strongly support the Planning Board Draft Plan allowing the entire shopping center to be redeveloped in Phase 1 so that a mixed-use town center can be built sooner rather than later. We also hope and expect that the Purple Line will be funded and that we will able to proceed with Phase 2 so that we can create a node of transit-oriented development at this prime location inside the beltway and between two major urban centers. There is a strong demand for this kind of development, which will attract young professionals and seniors, among others, who want to live in a walkable, vibrant, transit-oriented community close to DC and other job centers.

The Chevy Chase Land Company has a long history in the community and cares about what happens here. We build, own and manage high-quality projects. Miti and I plan to continue our commitment to working with the community as this project moves forward. Let’s take advantage of this opportunity to build something that will be a valued asset to the surrounding neighborhoods, to our future residents, and to the County as a whole for many years to come.

Thank you for your consideration.

Greater Greater Washington: Chevy Chase Lake plan compromises on density

Miti Figueredo — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 21:39:18 +0000

The popular blog “Greater Greater Washington” usually covers land use planning and transportation issues in Washington, D.C. But this past Friday, Just Up the Pike’s Dan Reed posted an article about the Chevy Chase Lake Sector Plan that does a great job describing the plan’s history, and why the Planning Board’s recommendations for the Chevy Chase Land Company’s properties make sense. Preventing mixed-use development at this location–inside the beltway, adjacent to a future transit stop and near major job centers–won’t keep traffic on Connecticut Avenue from deteriorating. The only way we can effectively begin to address congestion is by creating communities that are less auto-dependent, where residents can walk, use transit or take shorter trips to get to where they need to go.

Bikeshare in Montgomery County – Update

Miti Figueredo — Sat, 09 Feb 2013 17:15:28 +0000

Recently, the downcounty bikesharing program came one important step closer to implementation, when the Council approved a $2.4 million supplemental appropriation for the purchase of bike sharing stations near the Friendship Heights, Bethesda, Medical Center, Silver Spring and Takoma Park Metrorail Stations. This funding includes the Chevy Chase Land Company’s contribution for the purchase of the two stations in Friendship Heights and Bethesda. Eventually, we expect that the bikeshare program will expand and include a station in Chevy Chase Lake as well, adding another vital local connection to the County’s transit system, especially once the Purple Line is built.

The County’s bikeshare program will be linked with D.C.’s highly successful Capital Bikeshare program, which a Slate article recently called “the best bike-sharing program in the United States.”

Planning Board Draft of the Chevy Chase Lake Sector Plan Transmitted to Council

Miti Figueredo — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 23:13:43 +0000

On Friday, January 25, the Montgomery County Planning Board submitted its draft of the Chevy Chase Lake Sector Plan to the County Council for review, approval and adoption.

You may review the draft sector plan here, and Planning Board Chair Francoise Carrier’s transmittal letter here.

Over the last several months, the Planning Board held a public hearing and five worksessions before voting unanimously to transmit the plan on January 17. The Planning Board Draft of the Chevy Chase Lake Sector Plan reflects the Board’s hard work and thorough analysis of planning staff recommendations, as well as input from neighborhood residents and property owners. We strongly support the plan’s vision for a transit-oriented, walkable, mixed-use community within the beltway and near important job centers, and we look forward to continued collaboration with the community to ensure that the final project will be a valued resource for residents, office workers, trail users, and visitors.