The Baltimore Sun reported last week on County Executive Ike Leggett’s letter to Gov. Martin O’Malley, in which he stressed that the state’s draft action plan — due to be released this month — doesn’t sufficiently address the anticipated traffic congestion around the future Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.
…the Draft BRAC Action Plan does not identify specific and concrete mitigations for anticipated major traffic congestion that will have significant ramifications for accessibility to NNMC/WRNMMC, the National Institutes of Health, Suburban Hospital…and on the quality of life of surrounding well-established neighborhoods.
The Governor’s BRAC subcabinet meeting released a draft of its plan for the Base Realignment and Closure process. The state’s draft budget for BRAC currently includes only $5.4 million in fiscal 2008, in connection to the Navy Med transfer of Walter Reed Army Medical Center functions to the National Naval Medical Center campus in Bethesda.
State funding for local transportation projects is still on hold as the wait continues for the release of the Navy Environmental Impact Statement, now planned for early December. BRAC is projected to add an estimated 2,500 new workers to the Bethesda base and double the hospital’s patient and visitor load to about 900,000 people per year by 2011.
MCA has learned that The McLean School, which is currently housed in a closed Montgomery County school in Potomac, has been in negotiations with the American College of Cardiology to purchase the College’s property to use as a high school for 300 students. Under the school’s proposal, the existing building would be retained, but most of the trees on the property would be removed for the construction of soccer fields, and reforestation would be done closer to Old Georgetown Road.
At the present time, no traffic plan exists for the school’s desired use of the property, and the school has not committed to attending the November MCA meeting to present its plans more formally. The ACC still intends to proceed to present its residential development plans to the Maryland National Capital Park and Planning Commission but has not rejected the school’s offer. MCA will discuss both of these proposed uses at the November meeting to see if there is a preference for one over the other.
Yesterday Montgomery County Planning Board failed to approve the preliminary plan for the Woodmont East project. Apparently the developer, JBG Associates, has withdrawn the application for development on this site, at least for the time being.
After a day when both the Washington Post and Bethesda Gazette published articles that featured Councilmember Berliner’s proposal in favor of keeping the green space at Woodmont East, his office released this statement:
Congratulations to everyone who worked so hard to preserve open space in the heart of Bethesda. After 3 ½ hours of effective testimony from the community and increasingly skeptical questions from the Board, the developers withdrew the application. As Chairman Hanson was reported to have said, this project needs to be totally reoriented – it should first focus on the public space and then build in a manner that enhances that space. It is my hope that the developers will choose to work with the community in a formal, collaborative process to produce a result that we can all be proud of.
The Washington Post article stated that “angry residents of several Bethesda neighborhoods are mounting a letter-writing campaign” and featured this conceptual drawing that Berliner’s office commissioned to show what the site might look like if green space was preserved.
As of this writing, the draft EIS relating to the move of Walter Reed Army Medical Center (WRAMC) to National Naval Medical Center (NNMC) by 2011, and possibly as early as 2010, is now anticipated to be released by the Navy in early December 2007. There will be a limited time period (45 days) from the actual date of release to allow public comment on this merger.
MCA is a member of the BRAC Implementation Committee (BIC), which includes other neighborhoods adjacent to NNMC, Bethesda-Chevy Chase Chamber of Commerce, Suburban Hospital, NIH, Navy, and county, state and federal government representatives among others.
At the October 16 BIC meeting, a newly formed Coalition of Navy Med Neighbors presented a letter to the BIC outlining the coalition’s concern that the BIC was not adequately incorporating the neighborhoods’ perspective in its process. The coalition is following this issue very closely to ensure the necessary actions be taken to insure a successful WRAMC/NNMC merger without traffic gridlock. High on the list of priorities from the coalition perspective is studying the feasibility of a MD-495 ramp directly into the NNMC base.
The next BIC meeting, which is always open to the public, will be held on Tuesday, November 20 at the B-CC Regional Service Center (near Bethesda Metro) at 4805 Edgemoor Lane at 7:30 p.m.
For everything you wanted to know about BRAC and were afraid to ask, please go to the Mongomery County BRAC web site.
Interested in BRAC? Maplewood’s committee of residents to provide community input and advice in the BRAC process welcomes additional members. This committee will play a significant role in organizing Maplewood’s response to the draft EIS and helping to identify actions that ensure the impact of neighborhood perspective in this issue. If interested, please email Janet Maaloof.
Many of Maplewood’s streets have cracks and potholes in them that the coming winter weather will only make worse. In an effort to prevent this and to have the streets restored, MCA sent the following letter on October 26, 2007, to the Montgomery County Department of Public Works and Transportation. At this time, no response to the letter has been received.
Mr. Keith Crompton, Chief,
Montgomery County Highway Maintenance
Dear Mr. Compton:
I am writing to you on behalf of the Maplewood Citizens’ Association, a community of 900 dwelling units.
A few years ago, our residential streets were given a “slurry-mix” surface treatment. This treatment was an unacceptable maintenance procedure as it did not seal the pavement cracks, nor fill in any larger pavement defects. However, it did slightly improve skid resistance during wet weather.
At this time our residential streets are cracked and contain many potholes and other surface defects. As you are aware, these potholes should be filed and the cracks sealed before the winter freezing/thawing in order to preclude progressive pavement failure.
Additionally, we would like to request that your inspection team examine our residential streets and put them on an early schedule for resurfacing.
An ongoing battle has ensued over the little slice of open space at the intersection of Woodmont and Bethesda Avenues. (You know, where you sat and ate Giffords ice cream after the movie last summer?) The Mongomery County Planning Board has issued a report (PDF) recommending approval of a preliminary development plan for the north side of the intersection, a two and one half acre development that would include retail space, offices, 250 residential units and a 12-story hotel.
The project, officially known as Woodmont East II, has been opposed by a number of Bethesda civic associations and other residents, who have come together under the moniker Take Back Bethesda. A proposal to nominate Woodmont East for the Legacy Open Space program was turned down by the Planning Board, which is meeting November 8th to consider the matter.
Note that Woodmont East II is not the same as the Lot 31 development which is on the south side of the intersection and has already been approved, to break ground in 2008.
Recently, Councilmembers Roger Berliner and Marc Erlich have added their support for a new park at the Woodmont East location. David Lublin, who teaches government at AU, has posted a more in-depth summary and opinion of the issue on his blog Maryland Politics Watch. For more information on how to get involved, see this forwarded email thread on the Maplewood Listserv.
Just in case you didn’t see it, here’s a Bethesda Gazette article which outlines neighborhood challenges connected with the BRAC (Base Realignment and Closure) involving Walter Reed Army Medical Center’s move to Bethesda Naval Medical Center. The move is slated for completion by 2011.
Maplewood Citizens Association is a member of the Coalition of Navy Med Neighbors (formed by the neighborhood groups mentioned in the article) and is actively working to insure that this BRAC is accomplished successfully with as minimal a traffic impact as possible.
Please contact Janet Maalouf if you’re interested in this issue and participating in the MCA BRAC Committee.
If you thought there was more helicopter noise than usual around Maplewood last Thursday, you weren’t imagining things. Suburban Hostpital, the NIH Medical Center, and Navy Med sponsored an emergency drill to “simulate how community hospitals and emergency staffs would operate in the event of a catastrophe.” More than sixty “victims” participated in the exercise, which lasted over five hours.
Both the Washington Post and Bethesda Gazette filed reports on the recent Maryland Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) subcabinet meeting in Rockville, which was chaired by Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown.
Just in case you didn’t see it, here’s a 
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