Shaping a downtown for Olney

Newly appointed group will guide redevelopment of Town Center

Wednesday, March 15, 2006

by Terri Hogan

Staff Writer

The newly formed Olney Town Center Advisory Committee met for the first time last week to begin shaping the redevelopment of downtown Olney.

The group consists of 12 members of the community selected by Park and Planning Commission community planner Khalid Afzal. The members include representatives from umbrella organizations, local homeowner’s associations, the business community and county organizations. Afzal will serve as the group’s moderator.

The Olney Master Plan, adopted last March, recommended the creation of an advisory committee to refine the vision of Olney Town Center and to work on the development of a new civic center in the downtown area.

The Olney Town Center is the commercial area surrounding the intersection of Georgia Avenue and Route 108. It covers approximately 90 acres, and contains some 150 stores and other commercial establishments in more than 820,000 square feet of commercial space. Approximately 550,000 square feet of that is devoted to retail.

The Town Center area falls under the new Mixed Use Town Center zone, which allows for up to 20 residential units per acre and building heights of up to 70 feet or five stories.

Although the Olney Town Center Advisory Committee is not officially established until the Planning Board offers its blessing, the group gathered March 7 to allow participants to meet each another, discuss the group’s purpose and role, and determine how the group will operate.

The committee is expected to work on an illustrative plan that can be used as a guide to assess future proposals for redevelopment of various parcels in Town Center and to create a civic center and a major public open space within that area.

Once the committee has created an illustrative plan and a set of design guidelines, it would present them to the Planning Board for deliberation and adoption as a guide for the staff, the community and the applicants for all future projects in Olney Town Center.

‘‘Olney is a great place, but there’s no sense of place,” Afzal said.

He added that the advisory committee is his ‘‘baby,” and there is no model for it.

‘‘I think this committee is the best possible outcome,” he said. ‘‘The master plan provides a broad framework, but we can create a picture that can be flexible. We don’t need approvals from the [County] Council or the Planning Board, and we have no deadlines. This is the best compromise, and I am very excited about it.”

The group will initially meet the first Monday of each month in the Community Room of the Buffington Building on Olney-Sandy Spring Road (Route 108). The group is expected to play an active and ongoing role during the entire life of the master plan.

The lineup

Members of the Olney Town Center Advisory Committee include:

*John Lyons, representing The Greater Olney Civic Organization

*Sunita Bhatia, representing The Olney Coalition

*Dorothy Kane, representing Project Change

*Dan Dionisio, representing the Olney Boys and Girls Club

*Walter Lee, representing the Environ Homeowner’s Association

*Nancy DeLalio, representing the Hallowell Homeowner’s Association

*Jim Smith, representing Oatland Farms Homeowner’s Association

*Mark Feinroth, representing the Williamsburg Village Civic Association

*Paula Kahla, representing the Olney Chamber of Commerce

*Tom Gallagher, representing Carl M. Freeman