White Flint inspires new perspective in planning

County says redevelopment requires a different approach than new development

‘‘It’s not going to be what you’re used to seeing [in a master plan] where it has so much information that it looks like a zoning ordinance,” said Rollin Stanley, director of the Montgomery County Planning Department. ‘‘What we’re talking about is creating a vision.”

Stanley, who came to the planning department in February, presented to the Planning Board on Thursday an update on the White Flint Sector Plan, a 20-year growth guide to redevelop the area around the White Flint Metro station into a downtown similar to Bethesda or Ballston in Arlington, Va.

With its strategic downcounty location near the Metro, the White Flint area has the possibility of a ‘‘very high quality of urban development,” said Royce Hanson, chairman of the Montgomery County Planning Board.

‘‘It’s certainly one of the most important plans we’ll be doing,” he said.

‘‘It’s important to get the planning done before the market heats up again and things begin to happen in ways that we are less well able to control.”

Planners want to define a vision for White Flint because they say the redevelopment opportunities are greater there than in other areas, where planners can essentially start from scratch, said Nkosi Yearwood, a county planner involved with the sector plan update.

‘‘With White Flint, we’re not starting from an empty canvas, it’s already ... starting to be filled in,” he said.

‘‘Because where it is on the Red Line, this is probably the last sort of major redevelopment opportunity from Shady Grove down to Medical Center.”

Hanson said last week’s presentation by county planners delved into the vision of White Flint because other presentations and updates to the Planning Board dealt with specific locations of redevelopments.

‘‘We’re evolving toward a slightly different approach to planning than has been the case,” Hanson explained. ‘‘I don’t think it’s going to be a quantum shift, but we’re hoping that the plan will be a better guide for development than has been done in the past.”

Planning staff will make a final recommendation to the Planning Board in June. The board will draft a proposed sector plan based on those recommendations in September, and submit a final plan to the County Council by December after a public hearing.

The revision of the White Flint sector plan is meant to address transportation, zoning, pedestrian and bicycle networks, open space, the environment, community facilities and preservation of historic sites in a way that will guide the development and look of the community for the next 10 to 20 years. It is the first step to revising the 1992 North Bethesda⁄Garrett Park Master Plan.

The area is bounded by Montrose Parkway to the north, the CSX railroad tracks to the east, White Flint Mall and the adjacent medical buildings to the south and Woodglen Drive to Executive Boulevard around the Montgomery Aquatic Center to the west.

Planners and county traffic engineers will estimate the costs of extending dozens of roads across and parallel to Rockville Pike to create smaller, pedestrian-friendly blocks. The plan will emphasize phasing the redevelopment so as the new roads are built, new stores will also open.

But residents want to make sure congestion on Rockville Pike is addressed before any redevelopment takes place.

‘‘It’s bad enough now,” said Natalie Goldberg, resident of Garrett Park Estates–White Flint Park. ‘‘I think there are a lot of exciting ideas but how they’re going to be implemented, I’m not sure. ... But it’s all high-level, good sounding stuff.”

Stanley said planners will focus on mapping out how much retail and residential space should go on each block in the sector plan, but they will remain flexible with the final plans.

‘‘You’re not going to get commercial up and down the street,” he said. ‘‘It will allow the flexibility in the totals to ensure that some blocks get more residential than commercial.”

Planners will also focus on the relationships between buildings to prevent a wall effect of tall, flat buildings.

County planners, residents and developers cite the tall, mixed-use buildings around the Ballston Metro Station in Arlington, Va., as a basic model for what White Flint can become.

The tallest buildings in future White Flint, up to 28 stories, will be centered around the Metro station and taper down to two-story buildings farther away.

Hanson said it was important to discuss the plan with residents to gauge their opinions before the board receives the final recommendations. Public meetings will be scheduled in June.

‘‘There seems to be a broad acceptance of the vision,” he said. ‘‘We haven’t gotten to the specifics, but it’s my experience that when you get to the specifics that’s where the issues reveal themselves.”