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Sandy Spring-Ashton Rural Preservation Consortium
The SSARPC (PreserveAshton.net)
supports development in Ashton that conforms to the Master Plan.
We are pro-Master Plan, not anti-development.
New
AMP Plan Ignores Both
Community
and Park and Planning Input
The Wall is Back!
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Summary
Ashton Meeting Place
(AMP) developers have submitted a new plan to Montgomery County
Park and Planning. The new plan does not support the concept of a
rural village center because:
- A long, high wall with fake windows again lines
Route 108
- Active store fronts on Route 108 have been removed
- Pedestrian access is poor
- Green space at the corner, inviting
pedestrians to enter the site, has been virtually eliminated
- Buildings are too large for the available
space, so there are not enough parking spaces
There is no encroachment
on the wetlands or the wetland buffers, but that comes at the expense of
other valuable features that define a village center.
The SSARPC Steering
Committee will be holding an informational meeting soon so you can see the
changes and discuss them. Watch for the details!
If you would like to
express your opinion, you can write to the Chairman of the Park and
Planning Board or the Gazette (see addresses below).
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Late last week we learned that the AMP developers
had submitted a new plan to Montgomery County Park and Planning,
replacing the plan that was discussed at the April 12th public hearing. The new plan ignores many of the points raised by those testifying at the
Public Hearing, including size, scale, access, parking and traffic flow, as
well as recommendations made by Montgomery County’s Park and Planning
staff.
The SSARPC was not given an opportunity to comment on
the latest design. The new design eliminates most of the desirable elements
that the AMP developers and representatives of the SSARPC Steering Committee
had agreed to and that made AMP’s original design more compliant with
the Sandy Spring-Ashton Master Plan’s vision for the Village
Center.
The new design eliminates the encroachment by pavement
and buildings on the wetlands and the wetland buffers, at the expense of a
number of features that support a village center concept:
- The Wall is Back:
A 170 foot long, rear wall of the grocery store on Route 108, with fake windows, has been reinstated from an earlier plan.
- The Center Turns its Back to
the Street: There are no longer active store
fronts on Route 108 or on the Village Green. The only active
fronts on Route 108 are a store on each end of the rear wall of the
grocery store. These stores appear to be inaccessible from the
parking lot.
- The Village Green is Gone:
The green space at the corner of New Hampshire Avenue and Route 108 has been virtually eliminated. There is no longer an inviting entry for
pedestrians through the village green, and, in fact there doesn’t
appear to be any access to the site from this corner. The grading
has been changed and it is unclear if any of the trees will be retained.
- The full service grocery store has changed in
shape and is a bit smaller (around 30,000 square feet). It has moved towards New Hampshire Avenue, and is connected to the
bank building.
- The bank and its drive through lanes are closer
to the intersection, in a hole, with no connection to the street level.
- The developers have not reduced the building sizes
from the previous plan. Since they have moved everything out of
the wetlands and wetlands buffer as recommended by the Montgomery
County Park and Planning Staff report, there is now not enough area for
parking. The developers are requesting a waiver for 26 to 35 parking spaces fewer than minimum requirements, raising the issue of whether the
parking will be adequate.
The Steering Committee is organizing an open meeting where attendees can learn
more about the new AMP plan. We will enumerate our concerns about the
new plan, and discuss issues with the new plan’s compliance with the Sandy
Spring-Ashton Master Plan. Details about
the meeting will be announced when they are available.
We are preparing a package to send to the Planning
Board. The package will address issues that the Planning Board raised
at the public hearing on April 12th as well as the impact of
the new plan.
If you would like to voice your concerns, you can
send a letter to the Planning Board by addressing it to:
Royce Hanson, Chairman
MNCPPC
Planning Board
ATTN:
AMP Development
8787
Georgia Ave.
Silver
Spring, MD 20910
Email:
mcp-chairman@mncppc-mc.org
The SSARPC Steering Committee would like to receive
copies of letters. Please send them by email to ssarpc@preserveashton.net or by
paper mail to SSARPC; Box 518; Ashton, MD 20861.
You can let your views be known to the community by
sending a letter to The Gazette; Editorial Department; 1200 Quince Orchard Road; Gaithersburg, MD 20878; email: letters@gazette.org
or to gmacdonald@gazette.net
. The letter should be limited to 200 words, and include your name and
address. Letters received by Friday at noon will be considered for the publication
following week.
We will keep you informed as more information
becomes available.
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