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Gaithersburg + progressive = true?


Part of the Kentlands redevelopment plan. Click for pdf.

Believe it or not, in the 1980s and 90s Gaithersburg was one of the most progressive urban planning cities in the country. Under then mayor Ed Bohrer, Gaithersburg pioneered the idea of improving soulless postwar suburbs through new urbanism and smart growth. The Kentlands neighborhood and the Washingtonian Center were the very first of their kinds in the country, and along with the city’s mixed-use zoning district, have served as models for dozens if not hundreds of copycats. Kentlands is still one of the most compelling and authentic new urbanist developments in America, and without Washingtonian’s example of urban format big boxes (including the first such Target), Columbia Heights would almost certainly not be the District’s new retail mecca.

Bohrer’s 1998 death was a major blow to Gaithersburg. Although some sizable urban projects have been planned, most notably Watkins Mill Town Center and Aventiene, more typically suburban politics have taken hold in the city this decade.

The next decade, however, could be another renaissance. One way or another the Corridor Cities Transitway will redefine transportation in Gaithersburg. Watkins Mill and Aventiene will (hopefully) finally be built, and residents of Kentlands, now more than 20 years old and undergoing its first round of redevelopment, are pushing for better transit access, drastically higher density, and buildings up to 20 stories in Midtown, Kentlands’ mixed-use center (renderings). But for all that, Gaithersburg’s true center has and will remain the edge city district surrounding the intersection of Frederick and Montgomery Village Avenues, near Lakeforest Mall. It’s that part of town that has long been considered hopeless, but it’s that part of town that may soon receive a major boost.

The 62-acre Montgomery County Fairgrounds are smack in the middle of the worst-but-most-important part of Gaithersburg. They are directly between I-270 and the MARC Brunswick line to the west, and Old Town Gaithersburg and Lakeforest Mall to the east. They are, in short, right where downtown Gaithersburg should be, if only it existed. The fair may be cool, but those 62 acres sit virtually empty most of the year, not even useful as parkland. Except during fair season, the grounds are at best used as a huge parking field for the one block of warehouses situated at the far east side of the site. Frankly, the Fairgrounds’ continued existence is an absolute sin for a location as central as it is, especially considering its potential for direct rail access.

Lo and behold, it turns out the cost of maintaining the 60-year-old facility, located where it is when Gaithersburg was still a sleepy railroad town, is getting to be unbearable. The fair, organization leaders believe, might do better elsewhere, with new buildings, more land, and more compatible neighbors. Just where exactly that elsewhere would be is still up in the air, but an idea that would have seemed unthinkable just a few years ago has now officially been floated – to relocate the fair then sell and develop the existing grounds.

If it happens, the city will follow its time-honored charrette process, first popularized in Gaithersburg by Mayor Bohrer, and produce a development plan that could do for Gaithersburg what the Silver line is supposed to do for Tysons Corner – stitch together an incoherent conglomeration of strip malls and fast food shacks, and begin the process of turning it into real, genuine urbanism.

And if *that* happens, Gaithersburg could well start to bear an amazing resemblance to Arlington, with its string-of-pearls urban villages.

March 20th, 2008 | Permalink
Tags: development



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