Reconfigured Bethesda 'Streetery' Part Of Compromise To Allow Cars

BETHESDA, MD — Montgomery County is reopening a reconfigured “streetery” in Bethesda Friday evening after completing construction of a bikeway along a portion of Woodmont Avenue.

The streetery will provide street dining and a short-term curbside pick-up zone for businesses, while reopening two of the four roadway lanes on Woodmont Avenue to traffic.

The county closed off the block soon after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic to allow restaurants to have expanded outdoor dining.

The Montgomery County Department of Transportation has been building a link of the Bethesda bicycle network along Woodmont Avenue for the last few weeks, between Bethesda Avenue and Elm Street.

Whether the streetery should remain closed to traffic as businesses returned closer to pre-pandemic status was the focus of a recent survey conducted by the county’s Bethesda Chevy-Chase Regional Services Office and the Bethesda Urban Partnership.

The survey showed that the majority of local residents expressed a desire to keep the streetery closed to vehicle traffic, but local businesses differed in opinion. Business owners were concerned that a closed roadway would not allow vehicles from passing their businesses and would prevent them from being exposed to potential new customers.

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“Roughly half of the businesses in Bethesda asked for Woodmont to reopen to vehicles,” BCCRS Director Pete Fosselman said in a statement Thursday. “The surveyed businesses are located in the Urban District, as well as just outside of the district. While we want to keep our streetery in place because we know how important it is to the community, we also recognize the current setup is not working as well as it could for the business community. This solution is a way to best meet the needs of all those impacted by the use of Woodmont Avenue.”

Over the last two years, orange construction blockades lined both ends of the defined Woodmont Avenue block. The space in between, once a four-lane street with heavily used street parking on both sides, was altered to include dining tables. The space allowed the restaurant-lined street to offer diners a refuge from the pandemic and helped keep some hospitality businesses afloat when indoor dining was restricted.

“We are taking the lessons learned from the pandemic to create a better downtown Bethesda for everyone,” Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich said in a statement. “Instead of simply going back to the pre-pandemic era, this new design is people-focused and creates an environment that supports both businesses and residents alike.”

Federal Realty Investment Trust, which owns the buildings along Woodmont, said in a letter to Elrich that being able to drive by a highly visible destination is the most important element of successful street retail, which is the expectation for retail stores and restaurants on Woodmont Avenue.