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The owner of the Falkland Chase apartments in Silver Spring can proceed with redevelopment plans after the Montgomery County Council unanimously voted Tuesday to only designate two-thirds of the property as historic.

Vienna, Va.-based developer Home Properties will demolish 182 rental units on the north parcel of Falkland Chase and build about 1,000 high-rise apartments at the corner of 16th Street and East West Highway. The south and west parcels, which contain about 270 garden-style apartments, will be added to the Master Plan for Historic Preservation, which requires owners of listed properties to obtain additional work permits for new construction.

Home Properties also plans to construct about 200 underground parking spaces and 60,000 square feet of retail, including a Harris Teeter grocery store, pending the county Planning Board's approval of a site plan.

Proponents of the redevelopment said Home Properties' proposal will fill a void of affordable housing near public transportation. The nine-acre north parcel of Falkland Chase is about 800 feet from the Silver Spring Metro station.

Of the roughly 1,000 new units, Home Properties would build about 125 moderately priced dwelling units, several of which would be three-bedroom units. About 47 additional units on the north parcel and 47 more on the other parcels would be workforce housing. Workforce housing and MPDUs are priced based on a household's annual income with MPDUs geared toward lower-income families.

Currently, there are 90 rent-restricted units at Falkland Chase that will return to market-rate units in 2014.

"Zero units on this site are preserved long-term for affordability," said Councilwoman Nancy Floreen (D-At large) of Garrett Park. "The balance is zero versus something."

Councilman Marc Elrich disagreed, calling the proposal a "lousy deal" for the county and claiming that the 94 workforce housing units would actually cost more than most of the units currently at Falkland Chase.

"At the end of the day in Silver Spring there will be 125 MPDUs where there are currently close to 400 affordable units," said Elrich (D-At large) of Takoma Park. "How this translates to affordable housing in the long term totally escapes me."

Elrich still voted in favor of not designating the north parcel historic.

In September 2008, the Planning Board recommended two of the three Falkland parcels for historic preservation, after deeming the entire complex eligible for historical designation in December 2007. The September ruling resulted from the affordable housing included in the project. The council's Planning, Housing and Economic Development committee voted the same way in March.

Home Properties has developed a relocation plan for the residents of the 182 units that will be demolished, giving them "first shot" at moving into a unit on the west or south parcel of Falkland Chase, just across East West Highway.

Falkland Chase was originally built in 1936 and 1937 and dedicated by first lady Eleanor Roosevelt during the New Deal. It was the second housing complex in the country built under the New Deal Federal Housing Authority.