Thomas Building Development Plan Amendment Hearings
Report on the November 13 Planning Board Hearing
Reminder: County Hearing on November 21
November 17, 2008
Background and Process
Nichols Development, LLC, has proposed
to build a large school and office
building, called the Thomas Building, on
the west (Olney) side of the Sandy
Spring Bank in downtown Sandy Spring, on
Route 108, adjacent to the “insurance
complex” of buildings, and across from
the Sandy Spring Post Office (see
map
and
annotated site plan
).
The proposal includes a franchise of the
Goddard School
,
a day care for young
children, from 6 weeks through 6 years,
as well as before and after school
services for school-age children.
The day care, along with a small retail
store, would be housed on the ground
floor and there would be commercial
offices on one or two floors above the
school.
The total floor space would be 40,837
square feet.
The proposal also includes a two level
parking garage (302 spaces) behind the
building.
More information
about the proposal can be found on the SSARPC web site.
The first part of the planning process
is a Development Plan Amendment,
proposing that the new use be allowed on
the site.
The process includes a hearing
before the Planning Board, which
forwards its recommendation to a County
Hearing Examiner, who also holds a
public hearing.
The Hearing Examiner in turn
forwards his recommendation to the
County Council for its consideration.
Planning Board Hearing Summary
The first part of the Development Plan
Amendment process, the hearing before
the Planning Board, took place on
November 13.
The Planning Board, concerned
about the massiveness of the proposed
building, voted 4-1 to recommend to the
County Hearing Examiner that the
building not exceed 35,000 square feet
of floor space, be not more than 30 feet
high, and be two and one-half stories,
by design.
Commissioner John Robinson said
that, during site plan review,
the floor space would probably be
limited to between 30,000 and 35,000
square feet.
This represents a 15 to 25
percent decrease compared to the
applicant’s proposal.
The Planning Board will forward its
recommendation to the County Hearing
Examiner, who will hold another public
hearing on November 21 (see below for
more information) and make a further
recommendation to the County Council.
If you would like to listen to the
Planning Board hearing, the
sound recording
is available online (two very large files).
More about the Development Plan Amendment Hearings
More Thomas Building News
Thomas Building Documents
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