Vacancies, Environmental Concerns Top Final Junction Task Force Outreach Meeting

Vacant storefronts and environmental remediation of chemicals at a store topped the Takoma Junction Task Force’s final outreach meeting held Thursday night at the Community Center.

Ethan Allen Avenue resident Cliff Schwartz said he was aware of the lack of businesses at the junction and offered a solution.

“Stores that are vacant should not allowed to be vacant,” he said. “The town should consider giving the owners a time period—maybe six months—to do some thing with it or sell it rather than leave it vacant,” Schwartz said. Such empty storefronts are an “eyesore and not helping the community,” he said.

However, task force member Ellen Zavian—who is an attorney—said a property owner has the right to keep a building vacant so long as it meets regulations and building codes.

Task force member Roger Schlegel said currently there are only three vacancies out of 22 businesses at the junction. “So it’s not an extreme blight, but the ones that are vacant are quite visible,” he said.

There are now more operating businesses there than in the recent past, task force member Kay Daniels Cohen said.

“There is still thriving businesses at the junction, I just don’t think that everyone knows what the services are,” she said.

As part of the outreach effort, the task force posed the question to people “why they go to the junction,” and nearly four times as many respondents over the number two response said to use the Takoma Park Silver Spring Co-op. 

“The co-op, it’s an anchor store (at the junction), but across the street there are many services offered, it just might not feel that way,” she said.

It seems to be clear that the junction is doing as well as it is because the co-op is right there,” Schlegel said. “The potential expansion of the co-op onto the city lot is a good conversation for the city to have,” he said.

After the co-op the next four responses, in order, are: to use the Takoma Business and Postal Center; General Pedestrian/Consumer; to use the Takoma Park Animal Clinic; and to use Liberty Gas.

The task force also posed the question of what the responders would like to see more or less of at the junction. The top five responses of what they would like to see more of are: Crosswalks/Pedestrian friendliness; restaurants; improved aesthetics; woods/tree/greenery; and parking.

The top five responses of what respondents would like to see less of are: traffic congestion; big chain stores; high volume business traffic; cut through traffic; and noise, sirens, loud music.

However, attendees at the meeting expressed concern over environment remediation at “Glad Rags” because of dry cleaning fluid in that space. The owners of that building are not allowed to rent out the spaces until the environment remediation has been dealt with, according to task force members.

In addition, task force co-chair Seth Grimes said the panel was concerned “about the slow pace of progress” of the remediation, so they requested City Manager Barbara Burns Matthews to contact the state and ask about the progress.

The state’s response is “the process on the remediation is satisfactory,” he said.