Take a walking tour of the Chevy Chase Lake planning area with lead planner Elza Hisel-McCoy in this excerpt from our Montgomery Plans cable show.
Recommendations for Chevy Chase Lake, a community of mixed housing types and commercial strip centers along Connecticut Avenue just north of Washington, D.C., are part of a community vision that revises the 1990 Bethesda-Chevy Chase Master Plan.
Chevy Chase Lake is one in a series of land use plans that set design and development patterns in Purple Line station areas. Planners focused on land use and zoning recommendations as redevelopment occurs around the proposed Purple Line station at Chevy Chase Lake Drive and Connecticut Avenue.
In 1890, Senator Francis G. Newlands established the Chevy Chase Land Company, which led development as Connecticut Avenue was extended north of the Washington, D.C., line. Chevy Chase Lake was formed when a small dam was constructed across Coquelin Run stream to supply water for an electric power plant.
The community grew around the lake about two miles north of the District line at the junction of a trolley line and the Baltimore and Ohio Georgetown Branch. The area included several businesses, an amusement park, and from 1925 to 1972, a swimming pool. For Chevy Chase residents, “the lake” enjoyed a particular community significance.
Project schedule
Upcoming
The County Council's Planning, Housing, and Economic Development (PHED) Committee's tentative schedule of worksessions on the sector plan:
January 31, 2013: Planning Board worksession to review the Chevy Chase Lake draft design guidelines.
January 17, 2013: Planning Board worksession to review the final Sector Plan draft and vote to transmit to the County Executive and County Council.
January 10, 2013: Planning Board worksession 4. The Board reviewed the public hearing draft
December 6, 2012: Planning Board worksession 3. The Board reviewed the design guidelines structure, concepts and criteria for compatibility for Town Center East and Newdale Mews. View the PowerPoint presentation.
November 15, 2012: Planning Board worksession 2. The Board addressed open space, building height and density recommendations for Shopping Center East and Newdale Mews
November 1, 2012: Planning Board worksession 1. The board addressed the plan vision, phasing, traffic and the Newdale Mews property
Planners presented the staff draft(pdf, 4MB) of the Chevy Chase Lake Sector Plan to the Planning Board on July 16 and September 6, 2012. Download the information provided to the Board:
September 6, 2012: Planners presented revised concepts from the staff draft to the Planning Board
July 16, 2012: Planners presented the staff draft of the Chevy Chase Lake Sector Plan to the Planning Board
June 19, 2012: planners were invited to a community meeting in Chevy Chase Village to discuss the Staff Draft recommendations. View the presentation(5MB). Questions about the staff's draft recommendations? Contact us.
June 18, 2011: Public meeting to present preliminary staff recommendations
Chevy Chase Village Hall View staff's narrated presentation below. View comments.
March 12, 2011: Chevy Chase Lake Sector Plan Community Design Workshop
More than 130 people participated in this day-long event, during which we asked participants to complete a questionnaire with their thoughts and preferences regarding future development of Chevy Chase Lake.
We showed participants photo boards depicting various aspects of five commercial areas (labeled A-E) from around the D.C. area and asked them to rate on a questionnaire their top three preferences about particular urban design elements shown (or not) in the pictures. Generally, the scale of development shown on each of the boards increased from A (low) to E (high).
The questionnaire also asked for more detailed thoughts about what potential redevelopment of Chevy Chase Lake should be. Staff read each survey and summarized the general themes that emerged, as well as what community features the Sector Plan ought to preserve, enhance, and create. See the summary of what we heard.
January 10, 2011: Community Meeting. Presentations by the Chevy Chase Land Company, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the Montgomery County Housing Opportunities Commission View the meeting