Greater Lyttonsville Sector Plan Design Guidelines

The Montgomery County Planning Department has been working on plan for Lyttonsville for several years now. In 2017 the county approved the Greater Lyttonsville Sector Plan which amended several other area plans in preparation for the coming Purple Line. Because the Purple Line will upgrade and expand the Capital Crescent Trail - which will pass straight through the area - the plan will have an effect on the trail. The Sector Plan stated that the next steps was to create a Greater Lyttonsville Design Guideline and so the Planning Department recently began work on that. 

One of the key goals of the sector plan is to improve the walkability and bikeability of the area, and strategies for achieving that include making the area a Bicycle-Pedestrian Priority Area, expanding trails and adding cycletracks and other on-road bike facilities. 

The Design Guidelines will set Streetscape Design guidelines that will determine how roads, sidewalks, intersections and crossings function. In addition the design of Parks will guide future work on what trails and linear parks look like. 

They already have some ideas of what they want to do. For example along south side of the the new trail they'd like to include a linear park. That linear park would open to larger green spaces like a larger civic green connecting to Lyttonsville Place and the
Purple Line Station beyond.

The linear open space will be a green area along the Capital Crescent Trail with landscape and activity areas. The configuration of the open space if the [land south of the trail] redevelops will be guided by the design guidelines for parks and open space.

Just east of there, they'd like a connection across the underdeveloped property on the south and another connection to Garfield Ave on the north side, though that won't be easy.

The area on Fort Detrick property will need to be capped per Maryland Department of the Environment requirements, and there are steep slopes. These landfill, slopes and ownership issues are a barrier, so we cannot say for certain that the trail connection will be implemented. The preferred access point would be the one at the end of Garfield Avenue because it does not have property ownership constraints, but it does have topographic constraints

In December they plan to brief the Planning Board on their work and early next year, they plan to put out a working draft. Even building design guidelines impact cyclists when it comes to parking and shower/changing facilities. 

The picture above is of what a new 16th Street just west of the railroad tracks and a future Purple Line station could look like. 

Comments

[Crickey]

That's a beautiful rendering. Lyttonsville looks nothing like that.

[huskerdont]

It's cute how they have the pedestrians on the sidewalk and the cyclists on the cycletrack.

[washcycle]

Not now, but this is the plan. This shows 16th Street. On the left of the image is a narrow oval of land between that street and a Purple Line station. The idea is that that land will become valuable once the station is open and this is how they want it developed.

[Dana Bres]

They might want to go down to the Wharf for a couple of days and soak in the ambiance of the cycletrack. The rendering resembles the "as constructed" track and will probably work as poorly. Bonus points if you cross the cycletrack frequently with driveways.

[Purple Eagle]

I agree with Dana RE the Wharf cycle track. Looks nice in a drawing, does not work so well in practice. One thing I have noticed is that the pedestrian "sidewalk/path" can easily be obstructed by doors from the shops. Thus anyone moving fast (eg runners) are encouraged to use the bike lane/cycle track instead, where they won't be hit with a door that suddenly opens.

[washycle]

I think the Wharf cycletrack works well for the less confident cyclist. No, you can't go 18mph in it, but it is grade separated and safe and I think when it's completed it will be a nice option for the curious but cautious crowd.