Long time, No NIMBY.
Whenever there’s a big lag time in postings here, you can usually attribute it to a varitey of factors: too busy, too lazy, lack of motivation, and/or lack of material. In the end, it takes something specific to annoy me enough to get back in the groove. And sometimes, there’s nothing more annoying than a NIMBY.
I used to live on Dennis Avenue, and shortly before I moved to DTSS, I began receiving legal notices from KAZ Development about their efforts to change zoning laws and build something (retail? residences? I wasn’t sure at the time) on the current site of the Montgomery College School of Art & Design.
My old house is just a couple hundred yards from said site, but I really didn’t have any problem with it. First of all, we were planning on moving. Second, even if I wasn’t moving, what beef did I have? The walk to Forest Glen station was a little long, as was the trek to Wheaton Mall Westfield Shoppingtown Wheaton, and it might be nice to have something closer to walk to.
Now I find out there’s some big movement to stop the development. The people at Green Space on Georgia think it would be great to have a big park there. Right by the road. Two blocks up from one of the worst-rated intersections in the region (Georgia & Forest Glen). And that doesn’t even include the fact that there are several parks within the neighborhood that are more secluded, less noisy and easy to get to. But that’s just me.
A friend of mine proposed that next time, just go for the gusto and propose a nuclear reactor for the area. Plenty of room for twin cooling towers and such. Then the townhome/condo development might not seem so out of line.
Now the East Silver Spring listserv is abuzz with the way GSOG was treated, that they weren’t heard, they were patronized during and the proceedings, etc. I’m no fan of Councilmember Praisner, but maybe they made the right decision.
On a different note…
Silver Spring , Singular writes that the Hook & Ladder brewpub, scheduled to go into the historic Silver Spring firehouse, may actually be a Matchbox. While I prefer the former, I’d love to have me some rockin’ mini burgers within walking distance. I’ve been known to make the trek to Matchbox in Chinatown just for that sole purpose. And no offense to Jackie, but while the mini Elvis burgers are tasty, they just don’t cut it like these babies.
13 Comments so far
Dude, it’s Wheaton PLAZA. I still vaguely remember when Wheaton Plaza was an outdoor mall. Which I guess is why it was called a “plaza” in the first place. I never made that connection before.
You know Christmas trees are a profitable business when they can keep that lot on the other side of Georgia empty 11 months out of the year just to sell $32 trees in December.
Can you imagine the Christmas Tree Sellers Union being up in arms at the thought of turning that parcel across the street into a park? Now *that’s* a fight I might pay to see.
Maybe Hook and Ladder is teaming up with Matchbox. The Brewing Company would own the space and sell their microbrews and Matchbox would run the restaurant. This is pure speculation on my part, but man, that would be great! Downtown Silver Spring lacks a good place for Pizza (Z Pizza does not cut in, in my opinion) and Matchbox would be a big draw.
Green space on georgia.. hahahaha…. they can join save our trail in the “hang some environmentalist fascade in front our of NIMBY cause club”… that’d be the coarse gravel trail that you need a mountain bike to ride, that was agreed to be paved by MTA over a decade ago when the purple line was originally planned… that’s the one that’s being “saved” for those of you who didn’t realize it WAS a trail – it’s hard to tell in it’s currently “saved” condition…..but I digress… green space on a 6 lane pedestrian nightmare… hahaha i love it. That being said SS is desperately in need of green space – just not on the side of a pedestrian death trap. maybe.. i dunno.. that big green space in downtown that they’re turning into a big cement block in the near future.. but i digress again.
Also… what’s the news on hook&ladder? I only saw a one line item on SSSingular. That would be a total bummer to loose that… that would have been a really cool use for that building.
Hard to beat a good wood-fired oven pizza. 2 Amys is still, by far, the best in the area, but Matchbox is pretty tasty, too. And maybe they’re letting the H&L guys focus on the beer in the establishment. Might not be a bad idea if the beer guys aren’t restaurant/food people.
Isn’t that Alberto’s Pizza on Georgia Avenue supposed to open sometime soon? I tried it at the location in DC and it was pretty good. 2 Amy’s is definitely the best, though.
The location is already listed on UrbanSpoon.com, but not on the main Alberto’s site. Can I assume they’ll deliver to DTSS?
The area is a flood plain and a wetland, and feeds into the SC watershed, and is one of the last remaining little green spaces on Georgia, as you know. Kaz is very clever here, and all the trees that you see next (west)to your outline will be gone, to build the extension of Douglas Ave to accommodate 3 SFH, and an 8 foot path to the north. All that green space, except for a little sliver to the west, gone. They could separate their parcels like that because it is zoned R-60 for SFH.
Guess what? It’s owned by Mont. College foundation, and you have already paid for it with your tax dollars, which the County gives to subsidize MCCC every year! The rezoning will allow them to sell it to Kaz, who will sell it for even bigger bucks.
All parks are more than .8 mi from here, except Evans park, good luck crossing Georgia! I’m sure it could be made safe, with fence etc…
NIMBY is a LCD pejorative to slap on people with whom you disagree. The M-CAD issue transcends the narrow classification of NIMBY-ism. Just look at the facts surrounding the case. It’s about who has the right to determine what’s best for their community; the county planners/zoners (and in our case the courts, given that every homeowner in the community was served with a lawsuit courtesy of KAZ development in an attempt to over turn OUR restrictive covenants on OUR neighborhood)OR the people who actually live in the community.
Label us NIMBY if it makes you feel better, it doesn’t change the facts.
I believe the idea of making the MCAD site a park was one of the ways of trying to prevent townhouses from going in there. For a number of reasons, (primarily traffic from my point of view), the residents of the area don’t want that. I believe that single-family homes, which fit in better with the existing neighborhood (and hold less people) are ok with most of the residents.
Single-family homes don’t make as much money for the developer, however.
I understand that townhomes might not be the ideal thing to put there. And that one of the big complaints was how people at the meeting (and beyond) were treated. And yes, NIMBY is, for the most part, a pejorative term (though not quite as inflammatory as CAVE or BANANA). Sometimes pandering to the lowest common denominator is, unfortunately, just easier (and more maybe fun for the guy writing).
But if I were still a resident of the neighborhood (on Dennis west of Georgia), I just wouldn’t have had a problem with it. Not that I really wanted townhomes – I just didn’t care. That’s why I didn’t respond to the legal notices in the first place. I, personally, wanted a bar that I could walk to and from. That would have been enough to placate me. Now I have the Quarry House.
I still call it Wheaton Plaza too.
I hope the people in Mckenny Hills and Carroll Knolls will prevail, after all, it is THEIR Neighbohood, their property, their county and their taxes.
I can’t imagine who would want to buy a townhouse along that part of Georgia Avenue anyway. Townhouses are going to CAUSE a lot more traffic and congestion on Georgia Avenue. Builders do definitely make way more money on townhouses than they do on single family homes.
Bullis Park (in East Silver Spring) would have been a townhouse developement if the people in the neighborhood hadn’t stopped it. Wouldn’t that have been a shame??!!