Defense Agency Considers Moving From Bethesda

Residents of Bethesda's Sumner neighborhood have never been quite sure what happens at 4600 Sangamore Rd., where a campus of large brick buildings sits behind a chain-link fence patrolled by rifle-toting guards and bomb-sniffing dogs.

They know it has something to do with national security, satellites and maps. They've gleaned that much from the James Bond-like name on the sign out front, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), and the organization's more prosaic former designation, the Defense Mapping Agency.

They watch Sangamore Road swell with the coming and going of agency employees -- just how many there are is a secret -- and see them at lunch in the nearby shopping center, sporting their security IDs. They also know that whatever happens behind those fences probably makes their peaceful slice of suburbia -- with well-manicured lawns and homes selling in the $1 million range -- a potential terrorist target.

Now, after 60 years, Sumner residents are hearing rumblings that the mysterious neighbor is planning to move. Some stores and restaurants fear a large chunk of business will move with it, though some residents say they would rest easier without a national security installation in their midst.

The NGA has hired a Washington real estate advisory firm to scope out a new home for its Bethesda headquarters and its other facilities, now in Reston, Fort Belvoir and near the Washington Navy Yard.

The Department of Defense wants to consolidate the agency's outposts into one campus of 100 to 150 acres within 50 miles of the Pentagon, away from roads and railroad tracks that could pose a security risk. Dave Burpee, an NGA spokesman, said the current headquarters is too close to Sangamore Road. The agency doesn't know when the Bethesda facility would close, he said, but it probably would take "years" to find a new location and build a campus.

"Until we have more information about where we'd go and the types of buildings we can construct," Burpee said, "we can't make firm timing decisions about individual locations [moving]. We can just say, 'Heads up. We'd like to do this' so there's not a surprise later if we do it."

He declined to say how many people work on Sangamore Road, citing security concerns for an agency that uses satellites to map the world for the military. He said only that the Bethesda facility has parking spaces for "several hundred" vehicles. The agency has a workforce of about 14,000 employees and contract workers worldwide, he said, with most working in the Washington area.

Joe Shapiro, spokesman for the Montgomery County Department of Economic Development, said county officials have met twice with the agency because of concerns about the impact its relocation would have on local businesses.

"We're actively interested in trying to keep them here," Shapiro said.

Jean Tsai said 70 percent of her clientele at the Jerry's Subs and Pizza franchise in the Shops at Sumner Place are agency employees.

"The whole shopping center relies on them across the street," Tsai said. "It would have a big impact. We hope they stay."

Not everyone feels that way.

"That would be wonderful" if the NGA moved, said resident Jody Grossman, a kindergarten teacher. "I think it's a matter of concern having something like that in a residential neighborhood."

Grossman said she is particularly concerned that the agency's campus abuts the Washington Waldorf School, with 300 students.

Several nearby residents said the agency has been a good neighbor. Officials notified them of recent changes to the location of the front gate and have been responsive to concerns that employee traffic not cut through their side streets, residents said. Some also like so much obvious security.

"We feel safe and maybe even safer in their presence because they're so secure," said Beverly Amico, administrator of Washington Waldorf School. "I think over time, they've built up a good relationship with the neighborhood."