April 16, 2008 Town Meeting Summary
continued (page 3)
Questions and Answers
Question: Do you know what types of little
trees were planted?
Answer: No, this information will be part
of the landscaping plan.
Question: Is the developer saying that he
didn’t know about the Master Plan
requirements? What is the penalty for doing
this? A home in Potomac did this and had to
pay a major fine.
Answer: There is no penalty. Churches are
under different rules than commercial
developers and houses. Also, the trees were
removed from the state right of way and the
state gave the church permission to do it.
The best that can be done at this point is
to plant so that the area will be recreated
as closely as possible in the future and to
get a landscaping plan that specifies a
rural look. The name of the
contact for the church will be put on
the web site in the
"Let Your Voice Be Heard!" area
[done]. It was noted that this is County
Executive Leggett’s church, so another idea
is to write to him.
Statement from the Audience: There will be
two vacancies on the Planning Board coming
up. These appointees will have influence on
this type of issue (see here to apply). It
was noted that the intersection problem is
no longer being addressed by the Planning
Board; it has been completely turned over to
the Park and Planning Staff.
Comment from the Audience: Since it appears
the Planning Board has no authority to
enforce the replanting of the area, letters
should be directed to the owner/developer of
the site. When writing letters to the
developer, it is advisable to copy the
Planning Staff so that they are aware of
community concerns. Contact information is
available
here.
Ashton Meeting Place
(Brooke Farquhar)
Someone asked how long SSARPC has been
working together and it was stated that it
has been over 2 1/2 years since the group
was organized to learn more about the
development being planned for the southeast
corner (Ashton
Meeting Place).
There is good news: the SSARPC Steering
Committee, the developer and the Park and
Planning Staff are in agreement on the
design of
Ashton Meeting Place.
In June 2007 the Planning Board denied the
Ashton Meeting Place plan. Some of the
reasons for the denial included: lack of
active store fronts, pedestrian traffic,
scale of the stores not fitting into a rural
area, and off-street parking in front of
buildings.
At the public hearing on June 28, Miche Booz
of SSARPC presented a
conceptual plan for Ashton Meeting Place
that met the Master Plan requirements. That
evening, Miche received a phone call from
Fred Nichols, the developer, asking if they
could work together on a new plan. The
result was a Charrette (brainstorming
meeting) in July, with citizens and a
developer team. All ideas were put on the
table and all issues were discussed. A
conceptual plan was developed which was
later further refined into the plan
submitted to the county for approval.
There were a number of innovative ideas
developed at the Charrette. The design
includes an underground parking garage which
allows the upper area to be level with the
streets instead of sloping. Also,
residences provided by condos within the
shopping area in the old plan were changed
to six houses of various sizes around the
edges of the shopping area.
More...
Back to Home Page |
