A plan to add 4,700 housing units to Friendship Heights gets its final public hearing Monday, Sept. 14, at 4 p.m.

The Montgomery County Planning Board session at the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Regional Services Center, 4805 Edgemoor Lane, is in-person testimony only. No virtual option is available. The Planning Board is livestreaming the session on its website.

The first hearing took place Thursday, Sept. 10, at the board's Wheaton headquarters and included both in-person and virtual testimony.

The draft Friendship Heights Sector Plan is the first major update to the area's master plan since 1998. It covers roughly 113 acres south of downtown Bethesda, stretching along Wisconsin Avenue to River Road and including parts of the Village of Friendship Heights and Chevy Chase Village, according to Bethesda Magazine.

About 6,000 people live in the area, which planners say has a high proportion of seniors. Only 28 moderately priced dwelling units (MPDUs) exist in the plan area. The area's newest apartment building, Wisconsin Place Apartments, was built in 2009.

County executive questions plan

County Executive Marc Elrich sent a formal letter to Planning Board Chair Artie Harris on Sept. 10 urging the board to reconsider the draft. The letter included memos from the Department of Transportation, the Department of Environmental Protection and the Montgomery County Police Department.

Elrich called the board's July 30 approval of the Friendship Commons project on the former GEICO campus "inexplicable," given that the sector plan process was still underway. In his letter, Elrich wrote: "There are no 'opportunity sites' for more parks, nor for the preservation of mature tree canopy, or even for improved transportation to support the proposed addition of 4,700 new housing units."

His letter also flagged that the plan area lost about four acres of tree canopy between 2009 and 2023, citing the Department of Environmental Protection. Elrich said the draft recommends abandoning Wisconsin Circle and relocating the bus terminal atop the Friendship Heights Metro Station without requiring the same level of transit service that exists now.

Lead planner Atara Margolies said in the board's July hearing notice that the plan builds on the neighborhood's existing strengths and uses key sites to bring new housing, retail and amenities to the area.

GEICO site and development pressure

The Planning Board voted unanimously on July 30 to approve plans for Friendship Commons, a redevelopment of the former GEICO campus at 5260 Western Ave. by Bethesda-based developer EYA. The project calls for 356 apartment units in three buildings and 180 townhouses, with at least 17.5% designated as MPDUs. The site has 203 large specimen trees, and the project requires removing 34 of them, according to Bethesda Magazine.

A lawsuit filed by the Village of Friendship Heights and the Brookdale Citizens Association against the county council and Planning Board over the Friendship Commons approval was unresolved as of the July 30 hearing. No update on the case appears in public records.

Bobby Pestronk, an 18-year Friendship Heights resident and former chairman of the Friendship Heights Village Council, said during the board's Aug. 21 walking tour that Willard Avenue Park is "the last remaining natural green space in this urbanizing area."

What comes next

After the hearings, the Planning Board is expected to hold work sessions this fall to refine the plan. The board will then send its draft to the Montgomery County Council for public review and approval, and to the county executive for comment. Specific work session dates have not been announced.

Residents who cannot attend the Sept. 14 hearing can submit written testimony by email to [email protected] or by mail to Chair Artie Harris, Montgomery County Planning Board, 2425 Reedie Drive, 14th Floor, Wheaton, MD 20902.