Posts about Development
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Is MoCo DOT stacking the BRAC deck for an underpass?
The Montgomery DOT is kicking off a NEPA study of the Medical Center Metro area, and at a meeting last week, officials insisted that all options are on the table, including underpasses, overpasses, elevators, pedestrian-only crossings, pedestrian and vehicle crossings, and more. The end goal is to modify the Rockville Pike/MD 355 area between NIH and Navy Med (soon to be Walter… Keep reading…
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Breakfast links: Fight for your rights in the states
Vienna sides with pedestrians; 3 feet today in VA; Maryland’s bills; What Metro needs; How to fight the state DOT; Design the next Golden Triangle bike rack; Not so sure on Wheaton Costco; Who’d win in a fight, Montgomery or Fairfax?. Keep reading…
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Breakfast links: More questions than answers
Should our Metro advertise?; “Human error,” but whose?; What would Jefferson say?; More walkability or the end of the world?; Is Fairfax really chicken or just a little bit?; Should MLK Ave get a Circulator?; The biggest subway ever. Keep reading…
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Perceptions of density often miss the mark
Density is one of the most important elements of any city, but also one of the most misunderstood. The density of a site is often not what it initially seems. People will key on things like height, design, maintenance, and context rather than actually looking at what density means to them. It’s a natural, emotional reaction, but often misses the underpinning… Keep reading…
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Slow and steady creates Virginia’s Urban Development Areas
Over the last couple of years the state government of Virginia has been rolling out a land use planning category for localities known as Urban Development Areas (UDAs), where higher density development can be concentrated. The concept started off slowly in 2007 with HB 3202 as an advisory element to be placed in the Comprehensive Plans of “high growth” localities,… Keep reading…
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Breakfast links: Keeping people from getting hit
Marlene is making Conn. Ave safer; Live in Ward 6? Walk?; Seattleites, panhandler rescue woman on tracks; That’s some delay; Spelunking below Dupont; Also in the DC Council; Poverty becoming a suburban problem. Keep reading…
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Breakfast links: Cutting, stopping and slowing
Board members talk Catoe, budget; Where to cut instead of Ride On; Stop in Burke, stop on the highway; Smart rhetoric, dumb behavior; Barnesville no longer speedsville; Sulu on the subway; Factors that drive not driving. Keep reading…
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Wheaton Costco would exacerbate poor walkability
Montgomery County economic development officials want to spend $4 million to add a Costco to the Wheaton mall. There are plenty of problems with this. For one, the County Executive is continuing their habit of making plans in secret and trying to lock them in before anyone can object. They briefed the Council in secret and are trying to get approval without a hearing. The Executive… Keep reading…
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There’s “no secret plan,” but we can’t reveal the plan
Montgomery BRAC Coordinator Phil Alperson posted an impassioned denial about the secret Beltway widening plans Cavan discussed earlier. However, his denial actually seems to admit that there is such a plan. Alperson writes, First, let me be clear that there is no plan, secret or otherwise, to widen the Beltway or construct a ramp into the Bethesda Naval Hospital campus. However,… Keep reading…
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Beltway widening plans should not be a secret
Back in October 2009, residents found out about a secret plan to switch federal funds granted for pedestrian and transit improvements around the Medical Center Metro into funding the construction of a 4-lane automobile underpass under Rockville Pike. After receiving documents from a Freedom of Information Act request, the Action Committee for Transit has found that… Keep reading…