Susan Buffone likes driving to the Westwood Shopping Center in Bethesda and she especially likes that she needs to park only once to perform a variety of errands.
“We can pick up chemicals, drop off dry cleaning, get a bag of dog food, pick up a case of beer, get the groceries all without moving the car,” Buffone said Thursday during a Montgomery County Planning Board public hearing on a plan that could allow redevelopment of the shopping center.
“There’s not enough parking envisioned in the new plan to allow this type of access without carting heavy items down multiple floors of a parking garage,” Buffone said. “You will be cutting the lifeblood of our beloved local merchants.”
Many others who spoke at the hearing on the county Planning Department’s Westbard Sector Plan echoed the sentiment that the largely suburban area and its suburban-style shopping center should be left alone.
The sector plan could bring new zoning that would allow Equity One, the owner of the Westwood Center and other key properties nearby, to redevelop it into large new retail buildings, townhouses and parking garages.
As proposed, it would allow more than 2,000 new rental apartment units in an area of Bethesda around River Road and Westbard Avenue that now is home to just 469 rental units.
Gone would be the large asphalt surface parking lot at the Westwood Shopping Center. In its place would go the new buildings, tree-lined streets, park areas and, according to Planning Department recommendations, new bicycle paths.
“No matter how many bicyclists you provide for, we will still be driving,” said Patricia Johnson, a resident of the nearby Kenwood neighborhood.
“You have a responsibility to protect our community,” Johnson told the Planning Board. “New Urbanism is so 1990s. New Suburbanism is the idea of the future.”
Many speakers also protested proposed building heights of 75 feet along portions of River Road and Westbard Avenue. Those heights would effectively allow for six-story buildings that county planners say would “create a low-scale building fabric” that would look much different from downtown Bethesda or White Flint.
But Lynne Battle, a resident at the Westbard Mews condominiums, said allowing 75-foot-tall buildings on both sides of Westbard Avenue would “create a canyon impact and do away with the notion that we have a neighborhood.”
Others bemoaned new zoning that could encourage redevelopment of some of the area’s light industrial businesses, such as the landscape companies, auto repair shops and gas stations clustered around Butler Road.
“It’s hardscrabble, I agree. But it’s our hardscrabble,” said resident Bob Cope. “Keep as much of it as you can. That’s all I ask.”
“Senior citizens are counting on that full-service gas station,” said nearby resident Robert Dyer. “The message to them is ‘Drop dead.’”
Dyer said new building heights should be capped at 45 feet and pointed to the Spring Valley and Palisades neighborhoods in Northwest Washington, D.C., as examples of what Westbard should look like for the decades to come.
“Spring Valley and the Palisades haven’t changed in 50 years and why should they?” Dyer said. “Why aren’t we enjoying the same protections.”
Some of the almost 100 people who testified, including a few area residents, spoke in favor of new development because they said it could bring more affordable housing and senior housing for Bethesda’s large population of retirees.
The session wasn’t nearly as tense as previous ones on Westbard. A particularly contentious community meeting last November included residents lambasting county planners and labeling the plan as a giveaway to developers.
Aakash Thakkar, senior vice president of development for EYA, told the Planning Board that he agrees Westbard isn’t downtown Bethesda.
EYA is partnering with Equity One to develop the residential portions of Equity One’s properties. Thakkar said he envisioned the new Westbard as looking more like Park Potomac along I-270 and that the housing would be targeted toward millennials and seniors who are less likely to have children that will take up seats in local schools.
He also said the developers have requested density that is 20 to 30 percent of what’s allowed in downtown Bethesda.
“While we understand there are still concerns about other elements of the sector plan, we are confident that the redevelopment proposed for our sites addresses the concerns of the majority of the surrounding communities, and we look forward to being neighbors for a very long time,” said Equity One Executive Vice President for Development Michael Berfield in a prepared press release.
Most who spoke at the hearing remained unconvinced.
“This is a residential area,” Battle said. “We want it to stay that way.”