Readying Rockville Pike for Renewal
Idea of Overhaul Is Popular but Faces Hurdles

By Miranda S. Spivack
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, October 19, 2008

As you drive Rockville Pike and its asphalt jumble of car dealerships, strip shopping centers and fast-food restaurants, it's hard to imagine the six-lane thoroughfare as a grand boulevard. But that's the vision Montgomery County's planners have in mind.

They see the pike, Montgomery's commercial spine, redesigned as a tree-lined, walkable, bikeable, lovable and magnificent road connecting a network of urban villages strung along each side. There would be neighborhood stores, restaurants, housing and offices -- allowing residents to work, dine and shop within blocks of their high-rise apartments in an urban setting.

The villages would be built along four Metro stops -- Shady Grove, Rockville, Twinbrook and White Flint -- and to move between them, commuters would ditch their cars whenever possible and use buses, bikes or their own two feet.

The concept of re-creating the pike, a congested and unattractive thoroughfare, enjoys wide support from political leaders, residents, developers and the business community. But to become reality, the idea must surmount obstacles that include hesitation from commercial property owners who are making a profit along the cluttered road, concerns of neighbors about increased traffic and the cost of all that development amid an economic downturn.

The slowdown, which began showing up in sluggish real estate sales long before the Wall Street meltdown, could buy more time to do the pike's overhaul right, planners and developers say. Rather than piecemeal projects that have been launched in recent years, planners hope to present a cohesive vision for redeveloping a commercial zone that is 20 times larger than Tysons Corner with the capacity for 2 1/2 times as many jobs.

The project, which could span 10 to 15 years, would be among the largest redevelopments of post-World War II suburbia in the Washington region.

Montgomery Planning Board Chairman Royce Hanson, nationally known among planners who favor long-range, sustainable redevelopment, has made the redesign a priority. This fall, he hopes to present a final proposal for the 420-acre White Flint area, encouraging the replacement of strip malls and acres of parking lots with high-rises and retail villages. He intends to hold hearings and send the proposal to the County Council by spring, hoping for approval by the end of next year.

"This is a huge opportunity for Montgomery County," said Don Briggs of Federal Realty Investment Trust, a major landowner on the pike. "This could be a win-win-win for everybody involved."

Montgomery's plans are part of a movement of communities across the United States that are trying to re-engineer older neighborhoods built around America's love affair with the car.

In nearby Tysons Corner, Fairfax County officials recently approved a blueprint to transform the car-clogged suburban commercial center into a more urban web of apartments, retail spaces and office buildings. That vision depends heavily on a Metrorail line that has yet to be built. Rockville Pike, by contrast, has the Red Line through its commercial core, but the stations could handle more riders.

Re-engineering the road would be expensive, perhaps as much as $300 million in today's dollars for the White Flint area, according to an informal estimate by Hanson. It's not clear whether government and developers would share the costs.

And while some of the strip centers that line the pike are aging and ripe for renewal, others have long-term leases and are profitable, giving landowners little incentive to endure years of redevelopment. Residents in the many single-family homes near the pike also have concerns, worrying that their well-established neighborhoods will be overshadowed by tall buildings and overwhelmed by traffic.

"This is huge visioning. The economy is terrible. Nothing that anyone is talking about is likely to come to fruition for several years," said County Council member Nancy Floreen (D-At large), chairman of the transportation committee.

And transportation dollars have dried up amid state and county budget shortfalls, said Jean Cryor, a planning board member and former state legislator. "None of this works unless you have good transit linking it all," Cryor said.

Still, change is occurring on the pike, although not in the highly organized fashion planners say is needed. In the White Flint area, high-rise apartments and businesses are springing up in developments approved by the county several years ago. Residential sales have been slow, but planners and developers think the market remains strong over the long term, in part because of the continued growth of the county's population.

The pike proposal gives planners an opportunity to knit the pieces together.

Much has begun. Shady Grove and Twinbrook have new master plans to add residences, life science laboratories, restaurants and shops near Metro. To the north, Rockville's new Town Center provides an example of what planners say can happen. Although housing sales have been slow, local officials remain pleased with the vibrancy of their new downtown. The city is working on plans to redevelop its own section of pike just south of its new downtown.

Montgomery has no uniform height restrictions like those in the District, so developers can aim to build in the pike's substantial unused air space. There has been talk of buildings as tall as 500 feet, which would tower over buildings that now top out at shorter than 300 feet. Building up, planners say, will help the county absorb expected population growth.

Pike business owner Roy Rodman is among those who see great possibilities.

In 1955, Rodman's father began a pharmacy that has grown to become a specialty food market. The family-owned company has two stores in Montgomery, one at White Flint Plaza, in the heart of an area planners want to transform.

"Adding density at Metro makes so much sense. It hits me over the head that going up higher, adjacent to a Metro stop, is wonderful," Rodman said at his corporate headquarters, about a mile from his White Flint store.

To transform the pike, several things would need to happen at the same time, chief among them an agreement among political leaders, planners, residents and businesses that redevelopment is critical to the county's fiscal health. That consensus appears to be emerging.

"Our number one priority is the existing conditions and the need to make Rockville Pike into a boulevard," said Suzanne Hudson, a resident of Garrett Park and a member of a county planning agency advisory committee for White Flint. The sidewalks are too narrow, she said, making walking highly risky. "They certainly are not safe," she said.

The road redevelopment would work like this: The through lanes would be narrowed, with one-lane parallel service roads built on either side for local traffic and buses. Drivers passing through would no longer be disrupted by cars slowing to turn. Along the side lanes, speeds would be about 15 mph.

"You increase mobility by separating the through traffic from the local traffic. It's much safer for drivers and pedestrians," said Rockville consultant Gianni Longo, a nationally known planner.

The increased safety would help spur construction of apartments, stores, restaurants and offices, he said. Additional parallel side streets, behind the first wave of new buildings along the pike, would create other walkable areas with stores, residences and offices.

In neighborhoods a few blocks off the pike, residents are watching the process closely. Paula Bienenfeld, president of the community association in mid-price Luxmanor, said residents welcome a new town center. But they are worried about traffic, building heights and congestion.

Bienenfeld said the planning agency isn't heeding community concerns about density and height. "Almost no attention is being paid to the existing, surrounding community," she said.

Planners say they will have tall, skinny buildings whose shadows won't last long in any particular spot.

In Bethesda, buildings are no taller than 200 feet, or about 18 stories, similar to parts of downtown Rockville. Planners have developed models for White Flint that could result in some 28-story buildings, or about 300 feet. Bienenfeld said there also are discussions about buildings as tall at 500 feet. An approved building in JBG's North Bethesda Market would be about 280 feet, or about 25 stories.

In the Rockville segment of the pike, consultant Longo is proposing smaller-scale buildings of about eight stories or fewer. "That's what the market demand is," Longo said.

Hanson, Montgomery's planning chairman, said the agency should be flexible about height. After the overarching vision has been agreed upon, he said, the agency should have the ability to evaluate specific plans in light of their surroundings.

The politics are complex, too. Redoing the pike arguably benefits the entire county because the tax base would expand, but residents on the county's east side, where redevelopment is also needed, might hesitate to support investment of public money.

County Council member Valerie Ervin (D-Silver Spring), whose constituents live on the eastern side, said she hears regularly from residents who are angry about the amount of taxes they pay and feel financially pressed by the faltering economy.

"Pay-as-you-go commercial development may be the only way to go," she said.

Several developers commissioned a study to come up with a proposal for a tax district on the pike or some other funding plan to help pay for infrastructure.

Hanson said he would rather finance roads and other improvements through county bond sales than have developers pay for them upfront and then recover their investment by charging residents.

There are other financial concerns. Many developers say they are worried about a proposal spearheaded by Hanson to compel them to pay more for development rights in exchange for greater density. Hanson said the long-term benefits to the land owner are substantial, but developers are skeptical.

"Our economic models will quickly break down," said Briggs, of Federal Realty Investment Trust, which helped spur redevelopment in Bethesda and played a key role in Rockville Town Center. The company wants to redevelop its Mid Pike Plaza, which has a Toys R Us and several other stores and is awaiting the White Flint plan.

Floreen, who formerly served on the Planning Board, said there might be a way to reduce the amount of parking developers are required to provide if they are willing to pay more for greater density.

Rita Bamberger of the Holladay Corp., which has approval for an office, residential and retail development near Old Georgetown Road and the pike across from the aging Mid Pike Plaza shopping center, is keeping an eye on the county's efforts. "It's probably a good time to plan," Bamberger said. "It may not be a good time to put a shovel in the ground."

Like many other developers, Bamberger says the pike could end up looking like it does now if there is no financial incentive to redevelop. But she also cited a maxim among developers: Think big thoughts, and make no little plans.

Tomorrow: A look at how the White Flint area could be transformed.