June
18th
Town Meeting Summary
June 28, 2007
The Sandy
Spring/Ashton Master
Plan, originally
written in 1980 and updated in 1989, defines Ashton as a rural
area containing a
number of historic
homes. The Master
Plan specifies how
development is to
occur in order to
maintain and
preserve the rural
atmosphere. The
Master Plan is
designed to help
preserve the rural
character of the 280 year-old area as new
development occurs.
On April
12th
the Planning Board
had a public hearing
about the January 15th AMP plan. At that time,
because of the
amount of public
testimony, the
Planning Board
decided that
deliberations would
be deferred to a
later date. The
Board asked the
Staff to address
several issues,
including the
definition of a
rural village and
more information
about encroachment
on the wetlands and
wetlands buffer.
On May
29th,
the AMP developers
formally submitted a
new plan to Park and
Planning. This is
now the only plan
under consideration;
it supersedes all
other plans
previously
submitted. Since
changes in the plan
were substantial, it
was decided that
there will be one
hour of testimony
allowed at the
public hearing on
June
28th.
There are two SSARPC
resources available
online: the
presentation
used at the Town
Meeting and a
handout that was
prepared to help
educate the
community by
answering a number
of questions. The
following is a
summary of the
presentation.
AMP’s current design
(see the
presentation)
The current plan
moves buildings and
parking off the
wetlands and
wetlands buffers.
There are still two
other major problems
with the plan: it
does not support a
number of elements
of the Master Plan,
and there are legal
problems with the
parking
configuration.
Master Plan
Concerns
-
The active
fronts have been
removed from
Route 108 and replaced with a long wall with
fake windows.
At each end of
the wall is a
single store or
office. “Active
store front”
means you can
enter a building
from the front,
right off the
street.
-
Pedestrian
access is
limited. To get
to the stores,
pedestrians will
have to walk
along Route 108 or New Hampshire Avenue to an
entrance that
either crosses
one or more
drive aisles or
a loading dock
area. The green
space at the
corner of Route 108 and New Hampshire Avenue
is now very
small and will
no longer serve
as a welcoming
area for
pedestrians.
-
The stores are
not compatible
in size to
stores in the
neighboring
area. The
proposed anchor
store is several
times larger
than the Alloway
Building on the
other side of
New Hampshire
Avenue. The
presentation
shows the size
of neighboring
stores along
with the current
design, and the
compatibility
issue is very
obvious.
-
The size of the
development is
too much for the
space
available. The
AMP developers
have asked for a
waiver for
26
out of
335
parking places,
which would
otherwise occupy
approximately
10,000
square feet.
The Planning
Board can
approve the
waiver, but, in
order to do so,
it must rule
that it would
improve safety
or reduce
congestion.
More...
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