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Cyrus, you are a little light on your facts.
Montgomery County is a big county. There is no earthly reason why the county needs to put 20 million sq ft of commercial and 9 million sq ft of residential space in an already congested suburban residential area that is about 1.5 square miles. 29 million sq ft is equivalent to four and a half Pentagons in a small space that is five miles from the nearest Metro. And the Corridor Cities Transitway, if it is built, is projected to carry only 12% to 15% of the people, leaving 85% in their cars!
Billions of dollars' worth of infrastructure has been proposed to try to make this monster happen and after the roads have been widened to 6- and 8-lanes with 10- and 12-lane, two- and three-level highway interchanges, the average rush hour speed will be 9 mph, on a good day. And that is smart growth? That will help reduce congestion? That will be attractive to...anyone?
The Germantown master plan has been approved and will create 68,000 jobs without the need for staging. The current Gaithersburg master plan still has enough unbuilt space for 17,000 jobs. The vacancy rate in Germantown and Gaithersburg is 26%. If the buildings aren't full and the commercial space isn't being built to accommodate all of the approved jobs, why is it such an emergency to approve space for 40,000 additional jobs?
The Gaithersburg West Master Plan has been poorly contrived for a very greedy developer, Johns Hopkins Real Estate. Yet they are unwilling to make any concrete commitments to explain why they need so much space. Their hired guns are second to none when it comes to smoke and mirrors but there is NO substance. It's a land grab, pure and simple.

by Donna Baron on Apr 4, 2010 9:57 pm • link • report