Ashton Meeting Place Background
Ashton Meeting Place is a major
commercial development planned
for the southeast corner of the
New Hampshire Avenue and Route
108 intersection in Ashton,
where the Sandy Spring Bank is
now located. It will
feature the bank, a 15,000
square foot grocery store,
restaurants, retail stores, offices,
and a few residences. SSARPC's concern is that the
design maintain the rural
character of the area, as
outlined in the
Sandy Spring-Ashton Master Plan
and that it not infringe on the wetlands.
Ashton Meeting Place Approved: Overview
and Summary of Planning Board Hearing
May 15, 2008
On May 15, the Planning Board unanimously
approved the preliminary and site plans
submitted by the Ashton Meeting Place
developers. There is a lot of material
available here on this web site:
-
Audio recording of the hearing, available
here
and
here
(two very large MP3 files).
-
Presentation by the Planning Staff (16 pages), is
viewable online
and also
downloadable
.
The Planning Staff
report
is also available.
-
Several
drawings
of what Ashton Meeting Place will look like, including a rendered version of the
landscape plan
are available.
-
SSARPC Steering Committee's
letter
to the Planning Board recommending that the plan be approved with just a few conditions.
-
The Gazette
article
about the Public Hearing.
The Commissioners unanimously approved the Preliminary and Site Plans.
More about the Ashton Meeting Place Hearing...
Ashton Meeting Place Status
February 21, 2008
In October the SSARPC Steering Committee relayed two concerns
concerning the Ashton Meeting Place design to the
Planning Staff and the developer:
-
The design showed no entrance from the street
into Building 1, the first
building encountered when
coming from the east along
Route 108. Thus the
building had no active store
front on the street, as
called for in the Sandy
Spring-Ashton Master Plan.
An entrance from the street
has now been added to the design.
-
The SSARPC Steering Committee believes that
people will walk diagonally
across the corner green,
creating an unslightly dirt
path. The SSARPC
Steering Committee has
submitted a proposal to make
a diagonal path part of the
design. Prior to
designing the path, members
of the Steering Committee
and the Planning Staff met
with an arborist from
Montgomery County’s
Environmental Planning group
to evaluate the health of
the existing trees and to
discuss methods of creating
a path that would not harm
the trees.
The Planning Staff has requested
that the wall adjoining the
steps at the edge of the corner
green be removed so that the
steps can be used as a place to
sit, with a small open patio at
the end of the steps.
The new Ashton Meeting Place
design now features a greatly
improved configuration with a
friendly rustic design, based on
the Sandy Spring-Ashton Master
Plan, that we believe will be
inviting to pedestrians and a
credit to our neighborhood.
The design, in a large part,
addresses the concerns expressed
by the SSARPC and other citizens.
More about Ashton Meeting Place
Status...
More about Ashton Meeting Place...
Ashton Meeting Place Documents...
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