Just as Montgomery County leaders envisioned when they drew up the plans nearly three decades ago, the 200-acre area surrounding the Shady Grove Metro station is a hub for transportation and industry.
The site, at the northwestern end of Metro's Red Line, includes a sprawling transportation complex with more than 5,000 parking spaces and stops for two dozen bus lines. It also features a cluster of warehouses and nondescript government offices and is home to enough vacant lots to attract builders who find few opportunities like it elsewhere in the county. Nearby is old Derwood, where both aging and remodeled houses sit next to a vehicle emissions station.
Now, the County Council wants to change that vision dramatically. The council is scheduled to vote next month on a master plan to turn the area into an urban village, with housing, office buildings and shops amid tree-lined streets and parks. "It's like total change," said Pat Labuda, who lives a mile from the Metro station. "It's hard to envision it all."
If approved, the Shady Grove plan would convert the mostly industrial area -- part of a broader 2,000-acre community -- into a housing center that could draw as many as 12,000 new residents.
Officials predict that many would use Metrorail instead of cars, but the sheer size of the proposed development worries some neighbors. The council's deliberations come as the county's planning department is under fire for its lax oversight of Clarksburg Town Center, a planned community in northwestern Montgomery.
"What's happened in Clarksburg clearly illustrates the safeguards that need to be put in place," Labuda said. "Whatever it is that they decide on these issues, they need to have some follow-through and make sure what's supposed to happen happens."
Council President Tom Perez (D-Silver Spring) acknowledged that building as many as 6,340 residences near the Shady Grove Metro is "a lot of housing."
"The challenge is: Can we give assurances that we have the systems in place to carry out that plan?" Perez said. "Can we ensure the infrastructure is in place? Can we ensure the oversight will be there?"
Other questions, including concerns about traffic, surround what would be the most significant reshaping of a Metro station community in Montgomery in more than a decade. For example, it's unclear which industrial facilities would remain and which would be moved.
Council members and planners say it is the perfect chance to apply the principles of "smart growth," a land-use strategy that encourages dense building around Metro and bus stations. The county wants to require developers to set aside 25 percent of the residences for families that can't afford the county's median price of $666,540 for a new single-family detached home.
Ten percent of that housing would be designated for middle-class families, aimed at helping Montgomery teachers, police officers and firefighters afford to live in the county.
"This is the most transformational plan that has been considered in the last 15 years," Perez said.
