For immediate release:
July 19, 2011
For more information, contact:
Valerie Berton
Communications Manager
Montgomery County Planning Department
301/495-4600
SILVER SPRING, MD – This month, the Planning Board and County Council approved the required planning tools to begin accepting new development applications in White Flint. Located along Rockville Pike north of Bethesda, White Flint is poised for a series of new development projects that will dramatically change the look, feel and function of the community.
With today’s Council approval of the final tool – a transportation analysis program – the planning area is open for new development. To recognize this economic milestone, the Planning Board is hosting a ceremonial ribbon-cutting at 11 a.m. Friday at the White Flint Mall. County Council members, representatives from the County Executive’s Office, Planning Board members, planners, residents and others will be on hand to declare the planning area open for business.
The White Flint Sector Plan, approved last year, establishes prerequisites that must be satisfied at each phase of development to ensure that public services, like roads, are adequate. They include establishing a transportation approval mechanism, a financing mechanism to fund infrastructure improvements, and a transportation analysis and monitoring program.
Opening phase one of development in White Flint allows property owners to submit development applications. The Board approved three sketch plan applications – North Bethesda Market II, North Bethesda Gateway and Mid-Pike Plaza – last winter, but have not accepted more detailed site plans because the staging plan had not been developed. Now that the staging plan has been approved, planners expect applications for those plans as well as others, such as at the White Flint Metro site.
Planners and County Councilmembers have looked to White Flint as an economic engine for the county, given its strategic location along Metro’s Red Line and the availability of re-developable land.
Who:
Montgomery County Planning Board
What:
White Flint Phase 1 Ribbon-Cutting
Where:
White Flint Mall Center Court
11301 Rockville Pike
(enter off Lot 1 next to Cheesecake Factory)
When:
11 a.m. Friday, July 22
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