Neighbors Question Sector Plan at Meeting

Members of the communities around Kensington gathered to question the town's proposed sector plan on Thursday, worrying that it would overburden traffic and schools in the area.

About 75 people crowded into  to hear a presentation from county planner Fred Boyd. County Councilmembers George Leventhal and Marc Elrich were also in attendence.

Boyd said he and Planning Department staff have spent the last four years working on the plan, and that it's designed to maintain Kensington's self-sufficiency while enlivening its town center.

"We tried to focus on the relationship between buildings and the streets they sit on," he said. "We don't want monolithic, single-height buildings in the town center."

But many in attendence worried that the plan's densities and residential capacity would bring too many people to the area and make traffic worse.

Steve Cohen, who lives outside Kensington, said Connecticut Avenue is nightmarish as it is, let alone after redevelopment.

"Traffic is intolerable," he said. "Any of the plan's decisionmakers should have to spend a day in traffic on Connecticut before voting either way."

Glenn Orlin, the County Council's deputy staff director, said the plan contains two measures to alleviate traffic congestion: extending Summit Avenue to take pressure off the intersection of Connecticut Avenue and Plyers Mill Road; and instituting dynamic lane assignment on Connecticut Avenue, which would shift during rush hours for maximum efficiency.

Completing these projects would still leave the area over its traffic capacity, Orlin said, but it would be better than it is today.

Town Councilmember Lydia Sullivan said the plan is too far-reaching in its allowed heights and densities, and that building more apartments in Kensington could be disasterous for schools and traffic.

"The county is making a huge mistake putting this kind of density downcounty," she said.

Leventhal pointed out that not one of the county's sector plans has ever been built out to its maximum capacity. He used as an example: The 70-foot building, under current zoning, could have been as tall as 90 feet, but the property owner didn't see a benefit to building it that tall and decided not to, Leventhal said.

"Don't assume (the maximum) will happen," he said. "This is something that could occur."

Town Councilmember Mackie Barch was also at the meeting, handing out photographs of the parts of town zoned for redevelopment. Barch said the town needs the plan's proposed densities in order to attract any development whatsoever, because investors are unlikely to develop a parcel that is zoned only to be a one-story shop.

A few in the audience spoke in favor of the plan, including Kensington resident Darin Bartram, who said that with developments in Wheaton and Aspen Hill, the region's traffic is going to increase no matter what.

"If I'm going to be stuck in Kensington because of gridlock, I'd like to have some nice stores and restaurants to go to," he said.

The County Council's Planning, Housing and Economic Development Committee will again discuss the plan on Monday at 9:30 a.m. in its . The meeting can be streamed online at the council's website.

If the PHED approves the plan this month, it could go before the full County Council in January.