Posted by Ed Murtagh


I went to the Wheaton Redevelopment Advisory Committee Meeting last month and 
there was a lot of interesting information presented.ÿ I thought I would pass 
some of what was discussed on to the community.ÿThe next one is this 
Wednesdayÿevening at the MId County Service Building.ÿ

December 15, 2010 WRAC meeting notes

The first item of business was the Wheaton Sector Plan led by Ms. Tallant.ÿ The 
Planning Board wants flexibility in the Wheaton Sector Plan, not a detailed 
plan.ÿ The Planning Board wants flexibility so that it is not an impediment to 
re-development.ÿ Ms. Tallant noted that the board listens and considers all 
testimony.ÿ They try to look at the big picture.ÿ The Safeway project was given 
as an example of this process.ÿ The WRAC wanted to vote via Survey Monkey on the 
focus of the January meeting which will be about the Sector Plan. 

Mr. Wulff from B.F. Saul spoke about the Visioning Meeting last month and the 
next steps in the re-development plan.ÿ Mr. Wulff noted that a lot of ideas came 
out at the Visioning Meeting and that it was overall positive meeting.ÿ The lack 
of diversity of the attendees was a concern, but their interest were expressed 
by the attendees (importance of valuing diversity and saving the small  mom and 
pop  shops.ÿ The Wheaton Redevelopment Office has also been going out to the 
shops and businesses learning what the issues are in the business community.ÿ 
They noted that Casa de Maryland did a good job in organizing minority 
participation at the recent Long Branch Sector Plan meeting.ÿ B.F. Saul also 
will make specialized outreach efforts to reach out to the minority community.ÿ 

The next step will be the development of Concept Plans. Mr. Wulff noted that the 
Metro Stop was a prime reason B.F. Saul was willing to take on the Wheaton 
Redevelopment project and the key to changing Wheaton.ÿ Mr. Wulff warned that 
once Concept Plans are developed, some people will not be happy. He also noted 
that for office development to come to Wheaton, B.F. Saul needs to change the 
equation which kept office space out of Wheaton in the past. He noted that 
everyone is looking for tenants. We are competing with Silver Spring, Rockville 
and the surrounding region. What will be the key to change Wheaton?ÿ Its 
location and a developer that can make the changes that need to occur like work 
on State Roads.ÿ What is new to the equation is that Wheaton has never had 8 
acres and B.F. Saul s capabilities available for its redevelopment effort.ÿ Mr. 
Wulff noted that the problem with Wheaton is not with housing. The problem is 
that there is no office space or hotel rooms (no hotel generators). Office space 
comes first, than this draws in hotel space.

Next Steps:ÿ after outreach to all the groups, the B.F. Saul team will pull 
together concept plans, do market research, architects and engineers will 
determine size and fit on available land, do economic feasibility studies, and 
make presentations to the community. B.F. Saul will be attending WRAC meetings 
and presenting pre-concept plans to the WRAC. The final concept plans are 
expected in March/April. 

Mr. Wulff noted that the big issue for them will be the WMATA bus bays. The bays 
need to hold 15 buses (an expansion from the existing bays). The redevelopment 
concept needs to incorporate the bus bays without adversely impacting the 
economics of the project. ÿÿ

One concept is to build a pad over the bays like what was done at Bethesda and 
will be done in Silver Spring. This has the  advantage of keeping the buses at the 
current location.ÿ The problem is that this limits redevelopment options. 
Due to security concerns, many Federal agencies will not move to a leased office 
that is over an unsecured location like a bus bay. 
B.F. Saul noted that getting a Federal tenant is important to 
making Wheaton redevelopment work. Federal offices are pioneers in the 
redevelopment of areas like Wheaton. Other tenants will follow once Federal 
tenants moves in.

A second option would be to put the bus bays under Parking Lot 
13. The space would be tight and access would be hard (out to Reedie Dr.) ÿ
Rob Klein spoke about the Westfield Shopping Center team coming to the Planning 
Board and making a 20 minute presentation. The Mall is planning on turning its 
self inside out; they want to develop the outside along Veirs Mill Rod, not a 
mall surrounded by vast parking lots.ÿ There will be a February presentation. 
Rob also noted the impact of the Costco Project. Once Costco goes in, other 
businesses will follow. Plans call for a large space under Costco to be built 
(80,000 sq ft.). ÿCostco makes Wheaton a strong market (though not smart 
growth). ÿThe Westfield PowerPoint presentation is on the Planning Board 
website.

The Economic Development sub-committee (Eleanor Duckett) is leading an effort to 
contact Civic Associations with 1 mile of the metro station