Planning Board Denies AMP Plan (Summary)

 July 5, 2007

At the June 28th public hearing, the Montgomery County Planning Board denied Ashton Meeting Place’s (AMP’s) most recent submission by a vote of 4 to 0.  One major problem was that the plan included parking in residentially zoned land, which is prohibited by zoning law.  Also, there were too many elements that did not conform to the Sandy Spring-Ashton Master Plan. 

You can listen to the public hearing at the MNCPPC web site.  The hearing lasted approximately three hours, and started a few minutes after 9 AM.  Slides from the SSARPC presentation (very large, 15 MB) are available for viewing.  Some of the testimony is available for reading online as well.  The Gazette has published two articles and a letter to the editor about Ashton Meeting Place. 

The Planning Staff submitted to the Board seven findings that would have had to be made in order to approve the plan:

1. Parking for commercial uses is allowed on the R-60 [residential] zoned portion of the subject site.
2. The parking garage is a permitted use on the subject site.
3. The proposed development is consistent with the approved and adopted Sandy Spring/Ashton Master Plan.
4. The proposed development substantially conforms with the design guidelines in the approved and adopted Master Plan.
5. The proposed building, pedestrian and vehicular circulation patterns are adequate, safe, and efficient.
6. The proposed development sufficiently minimizes all environmental impacts.

7. The on-street parking can partially fulfill the requirement for on-site parking and the parking waiver of 8% is appropriate.

The Board was clear that there were only two of these seven items that might warrant approval:  (2) the parking garage perhaps could be allowed with a special exception; (6) the plan included getting out of the wetlands and wetlands buffer so the Board felt that there were few environmental impacts left to consider.  However, the Board indicated that the other items were not met and felt strongly about the need to meet them.  They said that a plan must have the right scale and rural character, not suburban sprawl.

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