BRAC committee is expected to discuss transportation

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

BRAC committee is expected to discuss transportation

by Audrey Dutton |

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The 31-person Base Realignment and Closure committee assembled by County Executive Isiah Leggett was expected to meet Tuesday night. The committee planned to review transit options for the pending merger of Walter Reed Army Medical Center and National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, scheduled for completion by 2011.

Phil Alperson, legislative director for U.S. Rep. Christopher Van Hollen Jr. (D-Dist. 8) of Kensington, was scheduled for introduction as the county’s new BRAC coordinator. Alperson’s responsibilities in the federally funded position will be to develop a local ‘‘BRAC work plan,” advise the County Executive on community impacts of the Bethesda base expansion, and liaison with Navy officials. The appointment is for a one-year term.

Committee members were slated to hear from Maryland Transit Administration and Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority staff about plans for the Purple Line and the Medical Center Metro station. Speakers from the Action Committee on Transit and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission planned to talk about how the county could handle traffic and transit demand.

Early draft of building analysis released

A preliminary report analyzing possible changes to Chevy Chase Village municipal building laws was released June 11.

The report was written by a Colorado company hired by the village board to help digest new municipal regulatory powers granted by the state last year. The full documents can be found on the village Web site, www.ccvillage.org.

The report summarized some Chevy Chase Village building regulations that defer to the county and included an illustration showing how Chevy Chase Village would look if homes were torn down and replaced at current regulatory limits. The village has three possible options — apart from doing nothing — according to the report.

The village could add prescriptive standards like floor-area ratio regulations, or refine existing standards like the way building height is measured.

Residents of Chevy Chase Village are banned from most home construction projects until Oct. 31, under a temporary building moratorium passed by the Village board of managers in March. Board members said the ordinance was meant to halt home construction while the village decided whether to change its building regulations.