SILVER
SPRING – Coming soon: a new building combining a
state-of-the-art grocery with residential units, retail space, public use space
and a parking garage on the site of an old store in downtown Wheaton.
Thanks to Montgomery County Planning Board approval yesterday of the first set
of plans for the Wheaton Safeway, planners are realizing a major goal: sustainable, pedestrian-oriented redevelopment
near transit.
On Thursday, the Board approved a project plan and preliminary plan for Wheaton
Safeway, an 18-story building with 500 units and 59,500 square feet of
commercial space. The new, mixed-used building will be built at Georgia Avenue
and Reedie Drive in Wheaton’s Central Business District. The developer,
Safeway, Inc. and Patriot Realty, must still submit a more detailed site plan
application for Planning Board consideration.
A stone’s throw from Metro’s Red Line, the project represents a great example
of forward-thinking redevelopment in an auto-focused area characterized by
hundreds of yards of surface parking. The Wheaton Central Business District is
the focus of a current sector planning effort that seeks to encourage great
urban design, pedestrian links to the Wheaton Metro station and environmentally
friendly development.
The plan calls for the consolidation of 13 lots into a single lot of 83,849
square feet. The building will consist of three towers of residential units rising
above the base level and green roof courtyards adapted as common areas for
residents. A street-level plaza landscaped with trees will offer public seating
and be activated by the main entrance to the grocery store, a small retail
space and the residential building entrance. At about 7,600 square feet, that public
use space will comprise 10 percent of the development and a contribution of
almost $1 million to another public amenity in the Wheaton Central Business District.
The project is notable for the speed at which the
application went through the development review process. Plan reviewers completed
the application in five months and worked swiftly with the applicant,
representatives of other reviewing agencies and members of the Wheaton downtown
community to resolve issues and bring a complete package before the Board.
Planners hope the same expedited review strategies can be used on other
applications, such as the Live Nation Music Hall proposed for downtown Silver
Spring.
Learn more at https://www.montgomeryplanningboard.org/agenda/2010/agenda20100415e.html,
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