Bethesda Real Estate by Josette Skilling
Solving Your Real Estate Puzzle
This is very exciting work by the County task force to implement overall traffic solutions. By deploying sleek buses in dedicated lanes, we should be able to move a lot of folks around without the current headache of snarled traffic! I’m excited to see this taking shape.
Click on the image and focus in on the different areas to see how these routes will make a big impact on moving traffic across the county.
Read the full report here…
Pinocchio is recommended for grades K-6
and runs 45 minutes long. Open seating.
This annual, fun-filled event celebrates the opening of the Dentzel carousel and offers a full day of activities for families.
The Carousel operates from 11 am – 6 pm, $1.25 per ride.
Enjoy many free activities, including storytelling, magic shows, dance performances, sing-along, arts & crafts, and more. Meet our Resident Artists, visit open studios, and view demonstrations. Also enjoy performances by the Puppet Co. and Adventure Theatre (ticket required).
The White Flint Sector Plan aims to:
This report comes via my favorite commercial newsletter. Generally there is some Bethesda real estate news tucked in there as well….
The sector plans for the County are taking shape quickly, with White Flint moving with sketch plans for a gazillion square feet of space with these projects: the Mid-Pike Plaza redevelopment, North Bethesda Gateway, and North Bethesda Market II.
The image to the above is a screen shot of a very interesting blog, The Friends of White Flint Blog, that is covering the emergence of this fascinating project we'll be following for years to come. As development continues and jobs come we need to ensure there is adequate housing. Citizens that live and work in the same county spend their money in the same county!
Fuller: Housing Goals Need Review
The jobs are coming, says Dr. Stephen Fuller, and Montgomery County needs to make a concerted effort to house the people who fill them.
The George Mason University professor said in an interview with the Newsletter that counties like Montgomery have to work harder to tie the availability of housing to economic development. “Often we want the jobs, but we don’t want the people,” said Dr. Fuller, reiterating remarks he gave late last year in a Gaithersburg forum. “But we have to think harder about putting housing near jobs.”
Counties that provide for jobs but not the housing to accommodate the people, said Dr. Fuller, push those people – and their spending dollars – out to other communities. “Connecting housing to economic development makes sense,” he said, “because the counties that have enough housing will have a strong economy and enjoy the benefits of their own workers.”
The D.C. region is expected to add hundreds of thousands of net new jobs over the next 10 to 20 years in professional and scientific employment alone. Many will be filled by people moving to the area, which is already growing faster than other metropolitan areas in the nation. Dr. Fuller said that the just-completed White Flint and Shady Grove plans are a step in the right direction, but added that long-term plans here may not accommodate enough housing. Overall, Montgomery is not competing as closely with Fairfax as it used to. “There’s been a quantifiable change in Fairfax’s favor,” he said. “Housing might be a way to address it.”
Source for the Fuller report is:
www.marylandnewsletters.com. PO Box 1358, Olney, Md. 20830. (301) 924-1994.
Jim Troy, Editor. Email: jimtroy2@verizon.net. Subscriptions: $240/year, 24 issues.
The information provided herein is deemed reliable but is not guaranteed.
Bethesda real estate is nothing if not fun 
Construction of a new county garage with about 1,200 public parking spots at the corner of Woodmont and Bethesda avenues won't come without its growing pains, even though the need for more parking is evident on any given day! The challenges of parking at lunchtime are painful, to say the least, and on any given evening trying to loop out of the garage can be very time consuming. The loss of this lot is especially challenging because it has a number of 15 hour meters that are are easy to use if you get there in the early hours. Forget it at lunchtime!
Groundbreaking estimates for the new garage (Lot 31) with residential and retail space above, have been tentatively moved up from late 2011 to June or July, though it's dependent on the re-route of a major Verizon communications line that serves downtown Bethesda. If you've been anywhere near the construction area over the last months you know the pain of that reroute.
According to published reports, "the construction will require a portion of Woodmont Avenue, from Bethesda Avenue down to Wisconsin Avenue, to be closed temporarily. Drivers heading south on Woodmont will either need to turn left or right at Bethesda. The construction will also mean the loss of the two surface parking lots on the site now, with about 270 public parking spots." Those two surface lots are going to be the biggest pain in the parking conundrum for sure. To make a quick stop into Barnes and Noble or pop over to get lunch is easy from the lots but difficult if you happen to get stuck in the slow parade of cars traveling nowhere fast in the garages and that is where the debate comes in. I realize they are going to build up on that prime space so the garage will be a part of the plan but the loss of surface lots really hurts through there.
Though officials say "There's no reason to panic at this point, given the schedule" I'm not sure it will be so much fun to try and park during the project. Even if they expand the Circulator route to accommodate the traffic as they are suggesting that section of Bethesda is going to be unbearable for a while.
Time to figure out how to use your iPhone and Android app to pay for parking spaces in Bethesda! Or get a key preloaded with money through the handy office over behind Chevy Chase Cars because the lots are going to be a requirement for a while.
Yes, we need more parking in Bethesda but dang, getting to the final result is going to be painful. And I still hate that we are losing the best parking spots around for that entire Bethesda Avenue area.
Grumble, grumble, grumble. I sound like an old curmudgeon.
Source: The Montgomery County Paperless Airplane
A plan from the County Executive that would help pay for major infrastructure improvements required by the White Flint Sector Plan has been approved by the County Council. This action will spur a revitalization effort transforming the North Bethesda area around Rockville Pike into a more urban and denser community strongly supported by public transit and designed to make residents and workers less dependent on automobiles.
The bill establishes a White Flint Special Taxing District and authorizes the levy of an added property tax on commercial properties that would go toward specific transportation infrastructure improvements in the area. The improvements would include creating street grids, streetscaping and bike lanes. Existing residential properties would be excluded from the tax district.
As the plan unfolds over the next couple decades, it is expected that an estimated 9,800 new residences will be added to thee approximately 2,300 residences currently in the plan area. Approximately 2,600 affordable housing units will be included. A key element of the plan will be the way it incorporates the Bethesda North Conference Center and Hotel into the transformed neighborhood. The plan provides for public gathering space and local parks. The long-term vision suggests civic or entertainment uses, such as a community playhouse or theater.
Under the financing plan formulated by the County Executive, the County would provide advance funding to ensure that the improvements are made early in the project rather than relying on piecemeal development to drive the delivery of the needed improvements. The County’s investment would be repaid through funds collected from the taxing district. According to the plan, the tax district will expire when sufficient revenues have been raised to pay for all of the infrastructure items on the list.
My Thoughts on the 16th Montgomery County Council
It has been an honor to serve as Council President in the last year of the 16th Council, and I thank you for entrusting me with another term. In the past four years, we made decisions that will shape the County for generations to come, and I'm proud of that. Here is the complete text of the remarks I gave on my last day with the gavel:
This is the time to reflect on the 16th Montgomery County Council. When you stop and think about it, I am hard pressed to think of any other Council that has worked through the experiences we have had and at the same time were so successful on their substantive initiatives. Since we took office in 2006, two of our members passed away, we lived through two special elections, experienced an earthshattering water main break, snowmageddon, an earthquake, unprecedented power outages and breathtaking budget challenges. What a time it has been!
Councilmember Marilyn Praisner set the gold standard during her 17 years in office with her strength of character and work ethic. Her contributions to this County will never be forgotten.
Councilmember Don Praisner took on the challenges of public office because he thought it was the right thing to do, and he took his responsibility to his constituents very seriously. Let's pause for a moment of silence in remembrance of Councilmember Marilyn Praisner and Councilmember Don Praisner.
It was Charlie Brown who said, "in the book of life, the answers aren't in the back." The 16th Council knows that better than most. While we faced quite an onslaught of incredible challenges, we have truly shaped the future of Montgomery County with a tremendous list of accomplishments, and I'm going to go through some of those today.
Particularly in the area of transportation, we made decisions that will last for generations. We opened the Montrose Parkway, and we'll soon celebrate the opening of the Intercounty Connector. We broke ground on Silver Spring's Paul S. Sarbanes Transit Center, and we resolved the alignment of the Purple Line and the Corridor Cities Transitway. We advocated widening I-270 for reversible HOT lanes to ease congestion. We even completed revisions to the Road Code which will make roadways safer and friendlier to all users, including pedestrians and bicyclists.
The 16th Council continued to make education a top priority, funding between 93 and 99.8 percent of the Board of Education's request in each of the past four years, and opening one new school plus 151 new classrooms even as County revenues dropped sharply. Thanks to Valerie Ervin's leadership, more children have access to preschool, and we're making progress on closing the achievement gap.
This Council also continued to make public safety a priority. Our goal of instituting four-person staffing on fire and rescue response units is well underway. We opened new fire stations–the first in more than 25 years–at Kingsview and Milestone. And we made our roadways safer by prohibiting large trucks and recreational vehicles from parking on residential streets.
And to the curses of some, we instituted the Safe Speed (speed camera) program. One man told me that the County has more pictures of him than his wife does. Even though the cameras are the butt of a lot of jokes, they have significantly reduced both speed and accidents. I am extremely pleased to report that while our population increases every year, we have experienced three years of decreasing crime rates. Crime, including homicide, robbery, home invasions, and auto thefts, are all down. In fact, last year overall crime was down seven percent. [Read more...]
Josette Skilling
Pressure- free advice and help
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