The Buckingham Herald Tribblog

It’s still too tall. And too close to Glebe Road. And Pershing Drive. And the police might not like their substation. And the project is 110 parking spaces short. And no one wants you to pave over grass on AHC property. And is there enough landscaping on the sidewalks?

Buckingham’s own Bernie Berne set that last question in motion at the Historical Affairs and Landmarks Review Board meeting Wednesday night, Dec. 17. The HALRB discussed the possible development of the Buckingham Shopping Center at the intersection of N. Glebe Road at N. Pershing Drive in which the commercial buildings on the CVS and Glebe Market corners would be razed and replaced.

Mr. Berne stood before the group and said that the zoning variance the developer, Georgetown Strategic Capital, is asking for regarding the placement of landscaping should be denied. The developer has asked to move some of the street-level landscaping onto a second floor terrace as part of a “green roof” for that level of the project.

Last month, Mr. Berne cajoled the Buckingham Community Civic Association into drafting a letter to the county board asking that they deny the change in zoning.

“It’s just not neighborhood friendly,” Mr. Berne said at Wednesday’s meeting. “I hope staff recognizes this.”

But the comments around the table indicated that people either didn’t know of, or did not notice the request.

“I don’t think we’ve heard that,” HALRB Chair Isabel Kaldenbach-Montemayor said. “I’m pretty sure that we’ve never heard that a portion of the open space would be on the second floor.”

“To be fair to you all, they [details of the landscaping] weren’t in any drawing but this,” said the architect, Scott Matties at another point. He indicated a plan from months ago, “But they were in this.”

In the other major hurdle to come up Wednesday evening, Jennifer Fioretti from the county’s transportation department said the project is 110 parking spaces short and she discussed some changes that could be made on the east side of Glebe, such as using the space behind the post office more efficiently, to make up some of the difference.

The plan had called for some extra street-level parking to come from Gates of Ballston property adjacent to the Glebe Market. However, that was shot down Wednesday, too.

“Planning staff cannot support this off-site parking,” said a county staffer at the meeting, especially given that some space has been freed up with the removal of the CVS and their requested drive-thru window.

County staff and the citizen board members also brought up issues with the height of the buildings which will have ground floor retail and apartments above. The buildings are still four-storey, flat roofed buildings, but the fourth floors have been pulled back, taking up space only at the centers of the buildings to avoid being quite so visible from the street. Some board members called for pulling the buildings even further back from the street.

Bob Moore, of Georgetown Strategic wondered aloud how they could pull back the buildings from the streets farther and make more parking.

“There’s only so much space,” he said.

In a story two weeks ago, Mr. Moore said his company was close to the breaking point on this project, that the changes were paring back the project so much it becomes economically unfeasible.

“We’d rather know now and pursue other things,” Mr. Moore said Wednesday. “If it’s [the project is] too problematic…we’d rather have a quick bullet than swing in the wind.”

Moments later he added, “We’ll try. We’ll come back and we’ll see what we can do about the green space.”

However, in a quick interview after the meeting, he did not wish to comment on whether they would return.

For a whole mess of related stories, click here, and scroll down through them.

Labels: buckingham center, CVS, Glebe, pershing

// posted by Steve Thurston @ 9:35 AM 0 comments

Labels: CVS, Glebe, intersection, pershing, redevelopment

// posted by Steve Thurston @ 7:33 AM 1 comments

We heard that you are interested in opening a new market at Glebe and Pershing Streets. As your potential new neighbors, we wish you success in your endeavor and we look forward to shopping in the new store.

Ken and Yoko Moskowitz
Ashton Heights

Labels: CVS, Glebe, pershing, redevelopment

// posted by Steve Thurston @ 7:26 AM 0 comments

“I don’t expect to see any plans yet,” said Rebeccah Ballo, a preservation planner in the county’s Department of Community Planning, Housing and Development. She expects it to be more of a “discussion” about land use, transportation and other topics, as well as a preliminary discussion of a submissions deadline for the upcoming year.

“I don’t think anything is on paper yet as to actual proposed buildings,” she said.

The HALRB discussed the development briefly in July. (Click here to see the original story and the clarification.)

Although the general plan for the space is to leave the buildings on the east side of Glebe Road (the side with the Post Office) untouched, Georgetown Strategic has not figured out what will happen with the west side, said Bob Moore, a principal partner with the firm. The plans depend greatly on what the county allows.

Everything is still on the table including razing the CVS and Glebe Market buildings and replacing them with four-storey buildings of mixed retail and living space, Mr. Moore said.

“That’s all part of the discussion,” he said. Everything is still so up-in-the-air that Wednesday’s DRC meeting might just be the first and last time his company brings the plans to the county, he said, joking.

Mr. Moore said for a major change on the west side to work, underground parking will be a necessity. However, he said they will start on Wednesday by looking at the ground floors of the buildings, especially looking at surface-level parking and transportation, “the access and egress” as he called it.

He said companies like CVS require surface parking as people will not park in a basement to run in quickly to shop. One idea moves the CVS into the space of the Glebe Market while the CVS corner gets renovated.

“[We’re] trying to work out all the logistics of the ground floor,” he said.

(County staff has said that the Glebe Market will be shutting its doors by the end of next year, or earlier.)

The Design Review Committee is a part of the Historical Affairs and Landmark Review Board, which oversees the historic sections of the Buckingham neighborhood, including the retail buildings on all four corners.

According to the county’s web site, The DRC is made up of professional architects who review the appropriateness of changes. The property is owned by Jenco group and its partners and investors.

“I don’t know what kinds of discussions they’ve [Georgetown Capital has] been having with the planners” and other boards in the county, said Ms. Ballo.

She called the county review board process a “big sieve.” A developer pushes an idea through all the different holes—the Site Plan Review Committee, the Board of Zoning Appeals, the Historical Affairs and Landmark Review Board—at the same time to see what comes through the other side.

Mr. Moore said he does not see interference between his ideas and the renovation that the county has underway for the streetscape of that corner.

Labels: Buckingham, CVS, housing, redevelopment

// posted by Steve Thurston @ 8:15 AM 0 comments