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.

Planning Board Denies AMP Plan (Summary)

At the June 28th public hearing, the Montgomery County Planning Board denied Ashton Meeting Place’s (AMP’s) most recent submission by a vote of 4 to 0.  One major problem was that the plan included parking in residentially zoned land, which is prohibited by zoning law.  Also, there were too many elements that did not conform to the Sandy Spring-Ashton Master Plan. 

You can listen to the public hearing at the MNCPPC web site.  The hearing lasted approximately three hours, and started a few minutes after 9 AM.  Slides from the SSARPC presentation (very large, 15 MB) are available for viewing.  Some of the testimony is available for reading online as well.  The Gazette has published two articles and a letter to the editor about Ashton Meeting Place. 

The Planning Staff submitted to the Board seven findings that would have had to be made in order to approve the plan:

1. Parking for commercial uses is allowed on the R-60 [residential] zoned portion of the subject site.
2. The parking garage is a permitted use on the subject site.
3. The proposed development is consistent with the approved and adopted Sandy Spring/Ashton Master Plan.
4. The proposed development substantially conforms with the design guidelines in the approved and adopted Master Plan.
5. The proposed building, pedestrian and vehicular circulation patterns are adequate, safe, and efficient.
6. The proposed development sufficiently minimizes all environmental impacts.
7. The on-street parking can partially fulfill the requirement for on-site parking and the parking waiver of 8% is appropriate.

The Board was clear that there were only two of these seven items that might warrant approval:  (2) the parking garage perhaps could be allowed with a special exception; (6) the plan included getting out of the wetlands and wetlands buffer so the Board felt that there were few environmental impacts left to consider.  However, the Board indicated that the other items were not met and felt strongly about the need to meet them.  They said that a plan must have the right scale and rural character, not suburban sprawl.

The decision strongly supports the SSARPC vision for a rural village, a major part of the Master Plan.  Each Board member spoke about the need to comply with the Master Plan’s guidelines for rural village character in Ashton.  This means the developers now have a clear mandate to maintain a rural village atmosphere by placing buildings fronting the street at a small scale and size, keeping parking lots small and behind the buildings, and providing spaces that invite people to get out of their cars and walk. 

The fact that the plan was denied rather than deferred means that the developer must now start the approval process from the beginning, with a new plan.  The Gazette reports that the developer, Fred Nichols, has stated “…we’re going to get a new plan with input from the community…”.  We look forward to working with Mr. Nichols to ensure that the development on the Southeast corner supports the Master Plan, does not violate zoning requirements, is of the scale and size appropriate for the space, and is a mixed-use site that Ashton residents will be attracted to.

Educating the community so that it can provide informed input to the Planning Board has been done by volunteers, many of them your neighbors.  Many citizens wrote letters to the Planning Board and testified at the public hearing.  SSARPC thanks you for participating. 

SSARPC plans to continue its work to ensure that new development in the Sandy Spring and Ashton area conforms to the Master Plan, not just the AMP development, but other development as well.  We encourage you to let us know (send email to ssarpc@preseveashton.net) of projects that you hear of that SSARPC should consider tracking.

We will keep you informed as we learn more about what the future plans are for the village center in Ashton.