Future Crown BRT station.

The long debated Crown Farm development in Gaithersburg officially begins construction today. The massive project will include 3, 750 residential units and 320, 000 square feet of retail, and is planned around a future station on the Corridor Cities Transitway. Impressively, it is Gaithersburg’s 5th large new urbanist neighborhood, with a 6th nearby in Rockville.

Unfortunately, construction of the transitway is still years away. But even without the transitway Crown Farm (now dubbed simply “Crown”) will be far superior to typical sprawl. And the transitway will eventually get there.

In the mean time, the first phases of the project will begin. The developers are holding off on the high rises that will be right next to the transit station until the transitway is at least closer to reality, but they’re starting phase 1 now. The plan below shows the various phases.

The pink (mixed use) and orange (residential) phases are what is beginning now. The transit station area, which will ultimately be the densest, will be in the purple phase.

For more images of the pink mixed use section, see JBG’s retail web page. Hat tip to Gaithersburg Patch for breaking the news.

Crown development phasing plan.

Update 1:13 pm 10.11.2012: Reader thisisbossi says construction started months ago. Gaithersburg Patch clarifies that today was the ceremonial groundbreaking.