Bethesda Mews Development Gets Green Light

The Montgomery County Planning Board on Thursday gave the green light to a new residential development planned for the site of the former American College of Cardiology on Old Georgetown Road.

Plans for the “Bethesda Mews” community call for 29 detached single-family homes, three townhouses and two duplex units on the nearly 10-acre site, featuring a recreational open space known as a “Mews” and a “non-traditional play area.”

The three-story institutional building and parking lot currently on the site are set to be demolished. The American College of Cardiology moved its headquarters from the site to Washington, DC, in 2006, leaving the Bethesda property vacant, The Gazette reported.

The .36-acre “non-traditional play area” will include a boardwalk and walkway, log stepping stones, a netting area  for climbing, a circular seating area, a bio-retention facility, climbing logs with tunnels, and “mushroom” benches, said Tina Schneider, a Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission senior planner, at the Thursday hearing.

“It will be very creative, innovative in its design,” Schneider said.

Another recreation area, known as the “Mews” and planned as a “grand entrance” to the community off of Old Georgetown Road, will feature stone garden walls, benches, pathways, a flagstone circular seating area and two archways.

Along with the two recreational open spaces, the development will also include two forest conservation easements, three internal private drives, and a 5-foot-wide sidewalk along Camberley Avenue and Alta Vista road.

Developers Michael Harris Homes and Streetscape Partners  propose to make improvements to a 10-foot-wide bike and pedestrian path  and a bus stop on Old Georgetown Road and to extend Camberley Avenue through the development, connecting it to Alta Vista Road.

Allen Myers, president of the Maplewood Citizens Association, said neighbors have been meeting with developers and are pleased with the design.

“I think it’s going to be a good enhancement to the neighborhood and the residents are by and large very happy with it,” Myers said.