The Upsizing The signature Wishbone Bridge is one of several major projects bringing TOO and greater density to suburban White Flint. eff Peterson, a U.S. Navy nurse, phoned his wife Kristine to describe the apartment he'd found for them and their four-year-old son, Jack, in a spot just north ofWashington, D.C. They had lived for several years on the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where frills were rare. So when he explained to her that the new apartment had a large, fancy su­ permarket on the ground floor, she nearly cried. Itwas"likeseeingthegatesofheaven," form an unsightly quilt of surface park- cut automobile trips and build a critical says Kristine Peterson, who moved with ing, chaotic highways, and unattractive mass of residents to support a more urban her family to White Flint, Maryland, an strip malls in an area of about 430 acres, center, they say. unincorporated area of about 10 square about half the size of New York's Central For a generation, White Flint has miles in Montgomery County. Park. Zoning changes will promote a six- been mostly known for two things: its Apartment towers with green roofs fold increase in the number of housing station on the Washington Metro, about and groce1y stores with sushi bars are units from 2,300 to 14,400, and double 12 miles &om downtown D.C., and the just a part of the formula to transform a nonresidential building from six million White Flint Mall. 'Rvo of the mall's an- quintessential 1960s suburb into a verti- to 13 million square feet. chors, Bloomingdale:S and Lord & Tay­ cal, vibrant, urban village. The White Planners want to flip the property mix lor, hint at the shopping center's tony ap­ Flint Sector Plan, adopted by the county in the area &om 70 percent nonresiden- peal when it opened in 1977, but it's been council in March 2010, seeks to trans- tial to 60 percent residential, which wiU a while since anyone associated "lavish" American Planning Association I 39 with the mall or its setting on Maryland Route 355. That road begins as Wisconsin Avenue Rockville Pike will be in the District of Columbia and ends 40 transformed from an eight-lane miles north in e>..'Urban Frederick, Mary­ highway into a boulevard with land. But through White Flint it is known dedicated rapid bus lanes and as Rockville Pike, an unappealing eight­ wide, tree-lined sidewalks. The lane artery that carries 60,000 vehicles a 24-story residential tower at North Bethesda Market (below), day. Rollin Stanley, AICP, theMontgomery a mixed use development County planning director, says the road anchored by Whole Foods often reminds him of the scene in the cult Market, is the tallest building in movie Office Space, where a pedestrian Montgomery County. with a walker gets where he's going faster than the motorists stuck in traffic. Now and next White Flint's future was a planning topic back when the capital's Metro rail system was being hnilt in the mid-1970s, but the subject took on greater urgency over the past decade as congestion worsened along Rockville Pike. County officials, property owners, and community activ­ ists have spent the past five years debat­ ing a dramatic overhaul. The full vision is a decade or two away, but parts of it are now taking shape. Driving south on Rockville Pike, the White Flint area rises up, Emerald City­ like, from a land of strip shopping centers and parking lots. Soaring cranes pl·ep:u·e a major addition to the existing offices of the U.S. Nudear Regulat01y Commis­ sion beside the glass-roofed modern pa­ goda of the White Flint Metro stop. Half of the NRC employees already use mass transit, making it one of the most transit­ lowed to trim its costs by providing about Foods Market linked to an apanment oriented of federal agencies. According one-third less parking than it normally rower that at 24 stories is the tallest build­ to the Washington Metropolitan Area would. The county reduced parking ing in the county. Penthouse vistas sweep Transit Authority, the White Flint stop minimums in the area to entice develop­ from a view of the Washington Monu­ could attract 8,000 daily users when all ment proposals designed to capitalize on ment- 12 miles south- to distant, purple the redevelopment is complete-up fwm White Flint's proximity to the Washing­ Sugarloaf Mountain in the Appalachian 4,200 now. ton Metro. foothills a couple of dozen miles north. Nearby, the project with the Harris "This was a nowheresville. There was As for the nearby White Flint Mall, the Teeter grocery on the ground floor- and no sense of place," says Michael Smith, plan prescribes additional buildings on hundreds of sedum plants arrayed in a a vice president of LCOR, which leased the property nearest the pike with greater pinwheel on its green roof- is slated to 97 percent of the first apartment tower density and scale than the shopping mall. include four towers encircling a commu­ not long after opening it in 2008. "vVe "This is big anywhere, but to plan this nity green. The build out calls for nearly don't want to be known as White Flint. in the middle of an established suburban 1,300 apartments, 1.4 million square feet It references a mall. It doesn't reference a environment, it's one of the most trans­ of commercial space, and outdoor dining neighborhood environment. We have led formative developments in a suburb in around a "preserve" of old-growth trees a revolution out here in North Bethes­ America," says Stanley, who arrived from that were saved from a golf driving range da." Some of those involved have tried St. Louis three years ago to head Mont­ previously on the site-quite unlike the to make the nickname "NoBe" stick- for gomety's planning department. Rockville current "outdoors" experience along the North Bethesda-hoping to cultivate a Pike is to be rebuilt as a grand boulevard congested pike. SoHovibe. with dedicated bus rapid transit lanes The developer LCOR Inc., like other Just across Rockville Pike, construc­ down the middle and landscaped bike builders in the sector plan area, was al- tion crews are busily completing a Whole paths, although that vision could take de- 40 Planning October 2011 Critics railed against greater traffic on Rockville Pike and contended d1at the plan was a ruse to pack in more develop­ ment. But support grew among residents who saw the concept as a means toward a more modern, S\lSt;tinable, and green sub­ urb. A blog ca!Jed Friends of White Flint attt·acted many followers w:ith news such as a traffic study that estimated an aver­ age trip along the Pike might increase by all of 32 seconds by tbe time the build out is complete. ''I don't think anyone is looking at this cades to complete. All existing commer­ changing areas in all commercial build­ as a get-rich-quick scheme," says Dan cial property owners are starting to con­ ings. Hoffman, a White Flint home owner tribute nearly 80 percent of the cost of The verticaJization of White Flint­ who occasionally bikes to !his job at the the infrastructure improvements through "strategic infill," Stanley calls it- will NRC. "The term 'smart growth' is a bit a special tax. Existing multifamily, town help Montgomery County to maintain overused, but if they want to grow in a houses, and a religious institution are its low-density land use in other spots. It smart manner they're going to have to excluded, says Nkosi Yearwood of the will also provide m01·e affordable housing put the density around Metro stations county's planning department. in one of the top 10 richest counties in and around transit hubs. White Flint is The commercial real estate owners America, where the median household a perfect example of where we can grow and county officials obviously see a large income exceeds $93,000. In the Harris but not increase congestion and infra­ economic benefit, too: The sector plan is Teeter tower, about 35 of the 312 units strucntre to the point where it's unsus­ expected to generate an additional $7 bil­ are leased below market, in line witb the tainable." lion in revenue for the county over the county's affordable housing law-renting A mix of interest groups not normally 40-year life of the plan. It is the largest for between $1,000 and $1,400 a month keen on major development-senior redevelopment plan in the county, Stan­ compared to regular priced rents from citizens, environmentalists, social equity ley says, adding that the financing and $1,400 to $2,600. advocates-saw the benefits of a more staging plans for White Flint's intended "For every doctor working at Sub­ walkable, cyclable, affordable White transformation are much more exhaustive urban Hospital," says Stanley, referring Flint. "The Sierra Club, Chesapeake Bay than for the more massive redevelopment to a medical center in nearby Bethesda, Foundation, 1,000 Friends of Maryland being planned for larger Tysons Corner, "tbere are three people making less tban got behind this project," says Smith, the Virginia, some 15 miles to the southwest. $50,000 a year who come from 140 coun­ LCOR executive. "We changed the para­ tries and speak 100 languages. Where are dig:tn. We flipped the switch." Goldman Strategic lnfill they going to live? How are they going to of Federal Realty says he was astounded The remaking ofvVhite Flint, as Stanley get to work? This is what we need to be to 'vimess competitors in commercial and others tell it, was only in part about discussing." real estate openly discuss market trends retrofitting a suburb.