Part of South Silver Spring looking along Eastern Avenue and the border with DC. Image by the author.

Recently, the Montgomery County Council held a public hearing on the Silver Spring Downtown and Adjacent Communities Plan, which will set the course of zoning for decades.

What happens next with the plan, which isn’t without controversy, isn’t entirely clear (note: I testified in support of the plan before both the planning board and county council). It has already passed the planning board, and following the hearing could receive council listening sessions, undergo changes, and ultimately a vote at the council’s discretion.

But as we wait to learn more, we can already look at what the plan, and plans like it, would mean on the ground level in actual communities — in this case, South Silver Spring, the community I live in.

For those unfamiliar with South Silver Spring, it is relatively small, consisting of the space between the border with DC on Eastern Avenue up to the elevated Metro tracks, and has relatively few crossings under or over the tracks. This makes South Silver Spring relatively isolated from the rest of downtown Silver Spring. Still, like the rest of the area, South Silver Spring desperately needs more housing, as well as, to the extent practicable, preservation of homes that are already affordable.

Before we get into what should be built, let’s focus on what should be preserved.

The plan laudably highlights the need to preserve existing naturally occurring affordable housing, and two adjoining garden apartment complexes, Rock Creek Spring and Spring Garden, are prime examples. The plan proposes to protect them, and other similar developments with a historical designation. While I believe broad historic designations, such as the Takoma Park Historic District, are overused and generally harmful, as they are often used to preserve exclusionary zoning and the expensive single family home status quo, a more targeted designation to preserve denser housing that is actually affordable is more palatable, despite some downsides.

Part of Rock Creek Springs, with the larger Blairs complex in the background. Image by the author.

These apartments are not perfect. They aren’t wheelchair accessible, they rely on window or wall air conditioning, and they have some legacy maintenance issues as any old building does. That’s why new construction is so important to replenish the housing stock and provide additional housing that will also become relatively cheaper with time and competition. While there are no immediate proposals for income restricted affordable housing in the neighborhood, those developments are also key.

But these older homes are not bad places to live. The units in these two adjacent garden apartment complexes are relatively large, fairly well maintained, pleasant to be in and, for a place across the street from a full grocery store and half a mile from the Metro, are relatively cheap, compared to most other options in the area. While it’s not always achievable, as development decisions involve private decisions on private land, wherever possible I think dense, cheaper homes like these should be preserved, particularly when there are so many opportunities to build in the immediate area that don’t risk displacement.

Not everything needs to be preserved, however. The plan outlines numerous sites for more housing throughout Downtown Silver Spring, including in South Silver Spring, from parking garages and storage centers to car-centric motels like the Days Inn on my block.

Days Inn by the author.

I personally think that there is a bit too much fearmongering about crime and other concerns at the motels in question on Nextdoor, local listservs, and public meetings. But there are certainly better uses for the land — and I think that a 13-story building providing 400+ units, over 20% of which are planned as Moderately Priced Dwelling Units, is one of them (the project has not received final approval, and is therefore subject to change or rejection). Due to the local negative regard for the motels, there hasn’t been much opposition to this proposed project, but not every site has been so uncontroversial.

This local reaction map shows comments about proposed redevelopment sites around Silver Spring. But the one that has the most… colorful history is undoubtedly the storage center on the corner of Eastern Avenue and Newell Street on the DC border. Thecondo building next door successfully sued to stop an earlier effort to tear it down for housing, and some residents have resisted current and past development efforts by decrying shadows, loss of view and home value, and, stunningly, blocked air. One neighborhood opponent, cringingly, warned that a past development opportunity could have brought “undesirables.”

The Extra Space Storage Center, along with the adjacent condo building. Image by the author.

I’ve talked with several opponents personally, and to some degree I understand their fear; change is scary, and people love their communities as they are, just like I love mine. But we don’t get to preserve our neighborhood in amber — let alone at a site a half mile from the Metro, the largest bus hub in the region, and a future Purple Line station. Pulling up the drawbridge behind you is problematic anywhere, let alone one of the most transit accessible, densely zoned areas in the entire region.

With all the focus on general plans, local sector plans, zoning rules, Floor Area Ratios and other contentious legal and regulatory matters, it is often easy to forget what this is all about. It’s about communities where people live now, and where more can live if we are willing to be more welcoming. People always think housing would be better built “somewhere else”, even when their building is relatively new and in a downtown center. In South Silver Spring, as in other neighborhoods around the region and country, to keep our community just for us — no matter how much we love it — is inherently selfish.

Michael English is a resident of Downtown Silver Spring. He holds a  B.A. in Political Science from Southern Connecticut State University and a Masters of Public Administration from George Mason University. He is passionate about matters of county governance and housing affordability. Mr. English is a member of the steering committee of Montgomery for All. All views expressed in this piece are his alone.