Traffic concerns jam Crown Farm Village discussion

Residents living near the Kentlands-sized project fear trespassing, vandalism

Wednesday, Dec. 20, 2006

Increased foot traffic, a keystone of the new urbanism movement, has piqued concern among some residents living near the Crown Farm Village site in Gaithersburg who fear their community will be impinged by it.

The planned 182-acre community, comparable in style to the Kentlands, is slated to host a bevy of new homes and retail outlets, plus a transit stop for the Corridor Cities Transitway. It’s set for development off Fields Road near interstates 270 and 370.

Though city officials laud its close proximity to the waterfront entertainment and business district at Washingtonian Center, many residents of nearby Courtyards at Rio fear their private townhouse community will become a buffer zone between the two areas susceptible to trespassers and vandals.

Rosalind MacLennan, a representative of the Courtyards at Rio, told Gaithersburg leaders about the community’s concerns at a meeting last week.

She said the community was even hit with vandalism last weekend, where criminals cracked several flower pots and overturned a fountain. Neighbors handled the cleanup effort, she said, and reiterated that ‘‘good fences make good neighbors.”

There is concern that the incident could be related to development at Crown Farm, she said.

During a joint work session Dec. 11 with the City Council and Planning Commission, Courtyards at Rio homeowners called for erecting a fence around their community and shifting the entrance to the proposed CCT station from Fields Road to Rio Boulevard.

Susan Gross, president of the board of directors for nearby Washingtonian Tower Condominiums, also submitted a petition signed by Washingtonian residents to Gaithersburg and county officials this week listing traffic concerns and requesting realignment of the proposed CCT alignment.

City officials are examining traffic flow on Fields Road and the possibility of installing a fence at the Courtyards at Rio, but moving the CCT at this point is out of the question, said Gaithersburg Planning and Code Director Greg Ossont.

The 14-mile CCT project has been in the works for years and will run between the Shady Grove Metro station and Clarksburg via either a light-rail system or an express bus route.

The master plan right-of-way for the CCT was established decades ago, and there have already been a series of public hearings leading to approval by both Gaithersburg City Council and the Maryland Transit Administration, Ossont said.

MacLennan said she was disappointed the option is no longer open.

‘‘There’s a lot of money and a lot of political push behind it, therefore it’s a done deal,” she said. ‘‘That’s not the America I grew up in.”

Estimates on anticipated foot traffic from Crown Farm Village were unavailable, but Ossont said the plan to enhance existing sidewalks is fairly straightforward and would not impact existing structures.

‘‘A basic planning principle is you want to connect neighborhoods. This is something the city does and has done for many, many years,” he said. ‘‘It’s a two-way street, so to speak.”

City officials are negotiating with representatives of nearby Avalon Bay for an easement to use Winners Drive for pedestrian traffic, Ossont said.

Winners Drive is outside of Gaithersburg city limits. The Courtyards at Rio, the Washingtonian Tower and the Avalon Bay apartments also are outside the city.

Mayor Sidney A. Katz said during the work session that if the private property owners do not want the pedestrian walkway, ‘‘then we will not have it there.”

Planning officials also are examining potentially increased vehicle traffic on Fields Road, parking conditions at a Crown Farm Village clubhouse and stormwater management issues.

An additional public work session is expected before the Planning Commission considers the project, but a meeting date was not scheduled. Ossont anticipates the next meeting will be in late January at the earliest.

The Crown Farm Village site was a rural landmark owned by the Crown family since the early 1900s. Gaithersburg annexed the property in late August.

Crown Farm Village is set to feature mixed-use development with a total of 2,250 homes, up to 320,000 square feet of retail and commercial space and a new high school. Homes vary stylistically throughout the community’s five distinct neighborhoods, from single-family homes to townhouses and condominiums.

Construction is pending City Council and Planning Commission approval of a final site plan.