Planning Board Approves Plan For Condominium Despite Concerns

Residents Fear Added Congestion for Silver Spring Neighborhood

The Montgomery County Planning Board last week unanimously approved a site plan for a Silver Spring condominium project that some neighbors say will put further constraints on traffic circulation in the Fenton Village area.

Board members said before the vote that more sweeping changes were needed to make the Fenton Village community safe for both pedestrians and drivers, and that any problems with the condo proposal had less to do with the project itself than with existing conditionsin the neighborhood.

"We have to attack that holistically," Commissioner Allison Bryant said of traffic problems in Fenton Village, just south of the downtown redevelopment area.

The six-story project at Thayer Avenue and Fenton Street will include 52 condos and a parking garage with 36 spaces. It will replace low-rise offices.

A preliminary plan was approved in July by the Planning Board, whose members at the time praised the public space in the project. That space, about 40 percent of the site, will feature art as well as a display of a teletype machine that created Braille text, reflecting the previous use of the property by the American Association of the Deaf-Blind.

Jane Gorbaty, whose home sits near the alleyway that will serve as the primary entrance and exit for the new Thayer Avenue residents, testified at last Thursday's board meeting that the builder's plans to remove a driveway currently used by trucks servicing that site would force those vehicles to make difficult, dangerous turns from the alley.

Bob Colvin, president of the East Silver Spring Citizens Association, which has expressed concerns about the project since last summer, said that the alley, which runs parallel to Thayer Avenue between Fenton and Grove streets, was too narrow for the trucks.

"I think it's going to be detrimental to the flow of traffic," said Colvin, who did not attend last week's meeting.

Planning Board staff members said that signs would be put up, allowing left turns only at the intersection of the alley and Grove Street, after the project is completed.

According to the staff report, even if vehicles did not follow the signs, the number of trips by moving vans and trucks would be minimal and would not make the current situation worse. Right-turn-only signs also would be put up for new residents driving out of the parking garage and into the alley.

"We worked out every solution we could," said Joshua Sloan, a senior planner with the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission.

Harold Collins, a principal with Banneker Ventures, the owner and co-developer of the project along with Four Points LLC, said he hopes to break ground on the project by the end of the year.