The Montgomery County Planning Board is considering the redevelopment of the Westwood Shopping Center strip mall, its parking lots, and the area across the street. The shopping center is more immediate with the sites across the streets submitting only preliminary plans. Staff has recommended they approve the plans, which are being presented today.
The project, located just west of the Capital Crescent Trail, will include separated bike lanes along Westbard Avenue and conveyance of land along Willett Branch for the future Willett Branch Greenway. The project will also realign Westbard and Ridgefiled Roads near River Road, contribute land towards the Springfield Neighborhood Green Urban Park at the Westwood Shopping Center, include easements to allow for access to the Greenway from Westbard Avenue and contribute $500,000 towards construction of the Greenway.
For the Greenway
The areas to be conveyed now are undeveloped, while those under covenant are currently improved with buildings and parking and will be conveyed at a future date. The Sector Plan envisions the Willett Branch Greenway as an accessible, walkable, ecologically improved and naturalized stream corridor. The creation of this Greenway will naturalize areas of the concrete lined channel, improve the ecological functioning of Willett Branch, and thus Little Falls and the Potomac, Chesapeake Bay, and provide greatly needed pedestrian and bicycle linkages across the plan area and between the two existing linear parks. Once a critical mass of land is acquired for the Greenway, the Parks Department can begin detailed design and implementation, including planning for the historical and cultural resources stewardship of all parcels conveyed.
The Greenway will eventually connect to the Capital Crescent Trail.
The project is also required to provide over 100 bicycle parking spaces, some in a bicycle room and others outside, and shared use facilities on the new internal streets.
Separated bike lanes are in blue in the image below.
And the profile where the road has two PBLs is below.
And then where it only has the one.
The neighborhood has been fighting this development for the last three years or so. They are worried about "parking". Looks like a real improvement over the 1950s style plaza and endless parking lot there now. "Density" is a dirty word, but that greenway does sound nice. Kudos to the MC Planning on this one.
Posted by: sbg1 | March 13, 2019 at 08:56 PM
That looks really nice.
My favorite part of the project is removing the concrete channel that is currently Willett Branch.
You can see it as its right behind the Whole Foods on the CCT.
These streams that feed into the Potomac River are quite beautiful in this area.
One of them flows under the Glen Echo Trolley Bridge at Glen Echo Park
Posted by: Brett Young | March 14, 2019 at 07:15 AM
Yes, the project will end up dramatically improving the stream and restoring it to a more natural functioning, with a buffer area providing green space alongside. It angers me that the worst kind of NIMBYism results in keeping a channelized stream and tens of acres of surface parking when we could have something so much better.
Posted by: Crickey | March 14, 2019 at 10:19 AM
@Crickey-
In following the debate online....daylighting Willett Branch is the one aspect that everyone agrees upon
Posted by: Brett Young | March 14, 2019 at 05:28 PM
They may agree on that one thing, but in fighting everything ever proposed for Westbard (which they have), they keep it in its channelized state. They want low density, suburban residential development on a prime infill development site near the City line. That's insane.
Posted by: Crickey | March 15, 2019 at 09:23 AM
(This is probably not a selling point for opponents of the upzoning) In addition to the things that make Westbard a prime location as Crickey noted, it is also, IMHO, the most likely location for any future Purple Line expansion.
Posted by: washcycle | March 15, 2019 at 10:23 AM