Walter Johnson: New Development Planning at Rock Spring

The Rock Spring property across the street (north) from Walter Johnson is now the subject of the master plan planning process and intensive development is likely.  There will be an open-house-style meeting for the public on September 1st, at 7pm at Walter Johnson.

According to the Montgomery County Planning Department,

Rock Spring Park is part of the North Bethesda/Potomac office submarket. It accounts for 48 percent of office inventory in North Bethesda and 7 percent of office space Countywide. The current office vacancy rate in Rock Spring is 19.3 percent, much higher than in the wider North Bethesda submarket (14.7 percent) or the County (13.5 percent). The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) has vacated approximately 159,731 square feet of leased office space in Rock Spring for a new location in Twinbrook. Rock Spring has 63 percent of North Bethesda’s vacant office space and 10 percent of all vacant space in the County.
 
The challenges of developing the proposed Master Plan amendment focus on reevaluating a typical suburban office park with an automotive-oriented street network and large parking garages and surface parking spaces. The proposed amendment will examine opportunities for a new street network; public use spaces and amenities; residential and non-residential uses; sustainable environmental measures; infrastructure needs for the area; and linkages to the proposed transitway. 

The Planning Department has put out a post requesting property owners, i.e., real estate developers, to contact them to set up individual meetings in July and August.  For the rest of us, not so much.

There will be a 'open house'-style meeting on September 1, at WJ, beginning at 7pm.

To find out more contact 
Kristin O’Connor: 301.495.2172, kristin.oconnor@montgomeryplanning.org
Don Zeigler: 301.495.4638, don.zeigler@montgomeryplanning.org