Concerned about buying in WJ cluster because of re-zoning

[Anonymous]

No one has said that Wheaton is on its way. up at all. Development is NOT booming and gang activity is a real problem. Its a VERY bad sign that all the development is going into Bethesda, close in Rockville and close-in Potomac. The areas in the east are basically being abandoned.

IMO the County Council did things in the wrong order. Back before the 2009 boom, Silver Spring could have taken off BUT the County Council put in place a moratorium in building until it could add more transit which made Howard County so attractive for industry and new homes. So now we have more buses which no one with families really use anyway and the ICC which is the most useless empty highway ever built. There is nothing in the east for people in the west and nothing in the west for people in the east. Dumb. Now after years of "prioritizing the east" but doing things that in the end held it back, all the developers are green lighted into the already expensive area with great schools.

Others in the DCC need to get some smarts fast. Getting a few kids out of Einstein will not make as big a difference as you hope. What needs to happen is attracting development and industry into the east. The county needs to get tough on the gang problem in Silver Spring and Wheaton not pretend it isn't here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Officials have said in multiple meetings that WJ kids are not going to be zoned to Einstein because of this change. And even if they did rezone two elementary schools to Einstein, those would be Kensington Parkwood and Garrett Park and that would, of course, increase Einstein's test scores tremendously. And like PPs have said, the area around the Wheaton area is on its way up, not down. Development around there is booming and housing prices are following suite.

Exactly - both Einstein and WJ will both be around 800 over capacity in 2022. When Woodward opens, it will provide space for kids from both of these nearby schools and still have room for 1000 more!

It makes sense that Woodward would be populated by the nearby schools high-schools that are overcorwded themselves or adjacent to others that are such as WJ, Einstein and B-CC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

You'er delusional if you think houses in the WJ area are going to decrease by $100,000. If schools were so central to housing prices homes in Takoma Park wouldn't be selling for $1M. That's because it's about location first and foremost, and traffic is going to be much worse 3-4 years from now when Woodward opens, which is going to make location even more important.

OK just stop. I like Takoma Park but homes are not going for 1M. There are sometimes rare, large historical houses that will occasionally get up there but the overwhelming majority of houses that are sold, sell for much, much less. In Bethesda, tear downs sell for 1M and the high unicorn sales are up in the multi millions. In WJ there are some homes at the bottom of that area's scale in the 700s.

A 10% drop for an area being rezoned from a top W school to Einstein is actually being very conservative. A family that buys a 750K house in WJ that later becomes Einstein will be lucky to get 675K for the the house.

100% agree with this.

Officials have said in multiple meetings that WJ kids are not going to be zoned to Einstein because of this change. And even if they did rezone two elementary schools to Einstein, those would be Kensington Parkwood and Garrett Park and that would, of course, increase Einstein's test scores tremendously. And like PPs have said, the area around the Wheaton area is on its way up, not down. Development around there is booming and housing prices are following suite.

Hopefully it doesn't happen. It's coming from a future seller in GP area. Eisenstein will have a better test scores in scenario you are putting here, but it will be far inferior than current WJ. Everything will remain same so house prices will take hit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No one has said that Wheaton is on its way. up at all. Development is NOT booming and gang activity is a real problem. Its a VERY bad sign that all the development is going into Bethesda, close in Rockville and close-in Potomac. The areas in the east are basically being abandoned.

The elevator ready townhomes being built on McComas right next to Wheaton Mall beg to differ:

https://www.opaldc.com/themanors

The townhomes near the Metro pending in days beg to differ as well:

https://www.redfin.com/MD/Wheaton-Glenmont/11112-Amherst-Ave-20902/home/11202004

As do the large office buildings and concert space being built outside Wheaton Metro as we speak:
https://www.wheatonmd.org/discover/redevelopment

If you don't think development is booming you obviously haven't been around there in a couple years. Even its detractors can see the cranes in the sky and new apartment and office buildings coming up. An area with a mall, that kind of eclectic mix of ethnic restaurants and a Metro so close to each other is hard to come by in the area and is very desirable to a lot of people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Woodward has room for 2700 seats, but I seriously doubt they'd fill it to capacity on day 1.

I'd imagine WJ will contribute 800-1000 students to Woodward. Around 700 to address it's overcrowding directly and shift a few hundred from Whitman to WJ to address overcrowding there too.

That still leaves 1700-1900 seats to fill at Woodward. The simplest solution is to fill them from the adjacent schools.

Since Einstein is around 700 over capacity it would likely contribute the lions share. I'd wager B-CC ends up giving 400-500 too, but 200 minimum to offset future overcrowding at B-CC.

Now Northwood is right next to Blair and it's expansion creates 1200 additional seats there. Roughly 700 are needed to address Northwood's overcrowding by 2022. That means 400-500 will likely go to address Blair's overcrowding. Now Blair will need around 700 total seats so they'll a couple hundred short. Those seats will likely come from the two schools directly adjacent to its West. Those schools are also adjacent to Woodward so it's easy to make the room. Sure the County could put the burden entirely on Einstein but why would B-CC get a pass?

It's all total speculation so I wouldn't get worked up over it. Do you remember those puzzle games you played as a kid that you solve by shifting the blocks? If your goal is to optimally fill these schools, make minimal changes to the overall map without busing people across the county that's how it could play out.

Hard to guess what things will look like in four or more years, but this a practical way to address the overcrowding with current and planned resources.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No one has said that Wheaton is on its way. up at all. Development is NOT booming and gang activity is a real problem. Its a VERY bad sign that all the development is going into Bethesda, close in Rockville and close-in Potomac. The areas in the east are basically being abandoned.

The elevator ready townhomes being built on McComas right next to Wheaton Mall beg to differ:

https://www.opaldc.com/themanors

The townhomes near the Metro pending in days beg to differ as well:

https://www.redfin.com/MD/Wheaton-Glenmont/11112-Amherst-Ave-20902/home/11202004

As do the large office buildings and concert space being built outside Wheaton Metro as we speak:
https://www.wheatonmd.org/discover/redevelopment

If you don't think development is booming you obviously haven't been around there in a couple years. Even its detractors can see the cranes in the sky and new apartment and office buildings coming up. An area with a mall, that kind of eclectic mix of ethnic restaurants and a Metro so close to each other is hard to come by in the area and is very desirable to a lot of people.

Didn't Wheaton HS just beat out all the other W's for some prestigous award?

[Anonymous]

Right next to Einstein:

$585,000, pending in 2 days!
https://www.redfin.com/MD/Silver-Spring/11425-Mapleview-Dr-20902/home/10950689

A $380,000 fixer upper, pending in 10 days, with the tag line "Just around the corner from houses in the $600,000 range and very close to major development of the downtown Wheaton sector."
https://www.redfin.com/MD/Silver-Spring/11506-College-View-Dr-20902/home/11070573

Looks like everyone's leaving in droves...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No one has said that Wheaton is on its way. up at all. Development is NOT booming and gang activity is a real problem. Its a VERY bad sign that all the development is going into Bethesda, close in Rockville and close-in Potomac. The areas in the east are basically being abandoned.

The elevator ready townhomes being built on McComas right next to Wheaton Mall beg to differ:

https://www.opaldc.com/themanors

The townhomes near the Metro pending in days beg to differ as well:

https://www.redfin.com/MD/Wheaton-Glenmont/11112-Amherst-Ave-20902/home/11202004

As do the large office buildings and concert space being built outside Wheaton Metro as we speak:
https://www.wheatonmd.org/discover/redevelopment

If you don't think development is booming you obviously haven't been around there in a couple years. Even its detractors can see the cranes in the sky and new apartment and office buildings coming up. An area with a mall, that kind of eclectic mix of ethnic restaurants and a Metro so close to each other is hard to come by in the area and is very desirable to a lot of people.

Didn't Wheaton HS just beat out all the other W's for some prestigous award?

Don't know, but all of these homes are zoned for Einstein. Most of the area around Wheaton Metro is, strangely enough, not zoned for Wheaton HS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Officials have said in multiple meetings that WJ kids are not going to be zoned to Einstein because of this change. And even if they did rezone two elementary schools to Einstein, those would be Kensington Parkwood and Garrett Park and that would, of course, increase Einstein's test scores tremendously. And like PPs have said, the area around the Wheaton area is on its way up, not down. Development around there is booming and housing prices are following suite.

Exactly - both Einstein and WJ will both be around 800 over capacity in 2022. When Woodward opens, it will provide space for kids from both of these nearby schools and still have room for 1000 more!

Woodward will likely be comprised of equal parts Einstein, BCC and WJ.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No one has said that Wheaton is on its way. up at all. Development is NOT booming and gang activity is a real problem. Its a VERY bad sign that all the development is going into Bethesda, close in Rockville and close-in Potomac. The areas in the east are basically being abandoned.

The elevator ready townhomes being built on McComas right next to Wheaton Mall beg to differ:

https://www.opaldc.com/themanors

The townhomes near the Metro pending in days beg to differ as well:

https://www.redfin.com/MD/Wheaton-Glenmont/11112-Amherst-Ave-20902/home/11202004

As do the large office buildings and concert space being built outside Wheaton Metro as we speak:
https://www.wheatonmd.org/discover/redevelopment

If you don't think development is booming you obviously haven't been around there in a couple years. Even its detractors can see the cranes in the sky and new apartment and office buildings coming up. An area with a mall, that kind of eclectic mix of ethnic restaurants and a Metro so close to each other is hard to come by in the area and is very desirable to a lot of people.

Didn't Wheaton HS just beat out all the other W's for some prestigous award?

Don't know, but all of these homes are zoned for Einstein. Most of the area around Wheaton Metro is, strangely enough, not zoned for Wheaton HS.

That's true for almost every school in the DCC. People who live next to Blair end up at Northwood. People in SS end up at Einstein or B-CC etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Woodward has room for 2700 seats, but I seriously doubt they'd fill it to capacity on day 1.

I'd imagine WJ will contribute 800-1000 students to Woodward. Around 700 to address it's overcrowding directly and shift a few hundred from Whitman to WJ to address overcrowding there too.

That still leaves 1700-1900 seats to fill at Woodward. The simplest solution is to fill them from the adjacent schools.

Since Einstein is around 700 over capacity it would likely contribute the lions share. I'd wager B-CC ends up giving 400-500 too, but 200 minimum to offset future overcrowding at B-CC.

Now Northwood is right next to Blair and it's expansion creates 1200 additional seats there. Roughly 700 are needed to address Northwood's overcrowding by 2022. That means 400-500 will likely go to address Blair's overcrowding. Now Blair will need around 700 total seats so they'll a couple hundred short. Those seats will likely come from the two schools directly adjacent to its West. Those schools are also adjacent to Woodward so it's easy to make the room. Sure the County could put the burden entirely on Einstein but why would B-CC get a pass?

It's all total speculation so I wouldn't get worked up over it. Do you remember those puzzle games you played as a kid that you solve by shifting the blocks? If your goal is to optimally fill these schools, make minimal changes to the overall map without busing people across the county that's how it could play out.

Hard to guess what things will look like in four or more years, but this a practical way to address the overcrowding with current and planned resources.

Except that BCC is getting an addition that will keep it at capacity for at least another decade. Someone here really wants to blow up the BCC zone, I don't know why since it's already the most diverse Bethesda HS and thanks to the addition and a new middle school, the BCC zone won't have overcrowding problems anymore. Woodward will be mainly drawn from WJ and the overcrowded DCC schools. If they want to do some boundary tinkering to shake up the rich, white Bethesda crowd, MCPS is more likely to pull an elementary out of Whitman into Woodward.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Woodward has room for 2700 seats, but I seriously doubt they'd fill it to capacity on day 1.

I'd imagine WJ will contribute 800-1000 students to Woodward. Around 700 to address it's overcrowding directly and shift a few hundred from Whitman to WJ to address overcrowding there too.

That still leaves 1700-1900 seats to fill at Woodward. The simplest solution is to fill them from the adjacent schools.

Since Einstein is around 700 over capacity it would likely contribute the lions share. I'd wager B-CC ends up giving 400-500 too, but 200 minimum to offset future overcrowding at B-CC.

Now Northwood is right next to Blair and it's expansion creates 1200 additional seats there. Roughly 700 are needed to address Northwood's overcrowding by 2022. That means 400-500 will likely go to address Blair's overcrowding. Now Blair will need around 700 total seats so they'll a couple hundred short. Those seats will likely come from the two schools directly adjacent to its West. Those schools are also adjacent to Woodward so it's easy to make the room. Sure the County could put the burden entirely on Einstein but why would B-CC get a pass?

It's all total speculation so I wouldn't get worked up over it. Do you remember those puzzle games you played as a kid that you solve by shifting the blocks? If your goal is to optimally fill these schools, make minimal changes to the overall map without busing people across the county that's how it could play out.

Hard to guess what things will look like in four or more years, but this a practical way to address the overcrowding with current and planned resources.

Except that BCC is getting an addition that will keep it at capacity for at least another decade. Someone here really wants to blow up the BCC zone, I don't know why since it's already the most diverse Bethesda HS and thanks to the addition and a new middle school, the BCC zone won't have overcrowding problems anymore. Woodward will be mainly drawn from WJ and the overcrowded DCC schools. If they want to do some boundary tinkering to shake up the rich, white Bethesda crowd, MCPS is more likely to pull an elementary out of Whitman into Woodward.

The county's projections show B-CC overcapacity even with its addition by 2022 when Woodward opens. It's also easy to shift kids around its boundary to solve overcrowding with neighboring schools given its proximity to Woodward..

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Woodward has room for 2700 seats, but I seriously doubt they'd fill it to capacity on day 1.

I'd imagine WJ will contribute 800-1000 students to Woodward. Around 700 to address it's overcrowding directly and shift a few hundred from Whitman to WJ to address overcrowding there too.

That still leaves 1700-1900 seats to fill at Woodward. The simplest solution is to fill them from the adjacent schools.

Since Einstein is around 700 over capacity it would likely contribute the lions share. I'd wager B-CC ends up giving 400-500 too, but 200 minimum to offset future overcrowding at B-CC.

Now Northwood is right next to Blair and it's expansion creates 1200 additional seats there. Roughly 700 are needed to address Northwood's overcrowding by 2022. That means 400-500 will likely go to address Blair's overcrowding. Now Blair will need around 700 total seats so they'll a couple hundred short. Those seats will likely come from the two schools directly adjacent to its West. Those schools are also adjacent to Woodward so it's easy to make the room. Sure the County could put the burden entirely on Einstein but why would B-CC get a pass?

It's all total speculation so I wouldn't get worked up over it. Do you remember those puzzle games you played as a kid that you solve by shifting the blocks? If your goal is to optimally fill these schools, make minimal changes to the overall map without busing people across the county that's how it could play out.

Hard to guess what things will look like in four or more years, but this a practical way to address the overcrowding with current and planned resources.

Except that BCC is getting an addition that will keep it at capacity for at least another decade. Someone here really wants to blow up the BCC zone, I don't know why since it's already the most diverse Bethesda HS and thanks to the addition and a new middle school, the BCC zone won't have overcrowding problems anymore. Woodward will be mainly drawn from WJ and the overcrowded DCC schools. If they want to do some boundary tinkering to shake up the rich, white Bethesda crowd, MCPS is more likely to pull an elementary out of Whitman into Woodward.

The county's projections show B-CC overcapacity even with its addition by 2022 when Woodward opens. It's also easy to shift kids around its boundary to solve overcrowding with neighboring schools given its proximity to Woodward..

I thought the same thing until I looked at the map. The area zoned for Burning Tree Elementary is right next to the area zoned for Ashburton and just as close to Woodward as all the potential BCC elementaries. This is going to be fun

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Woodward has room for 2700 seats, but I seriously doubt they'd fill it to capacity on day 1.

I'd imagine WJ will contribute 800-1000 students to Woodward. Around 700 to address it's overcrowding directly and shift a few hundred from Whitman to WJ to address overcrowding there too.

That still leaves 1700-1900 seats to fill at Woodward. The simplest solution is to fill them from the adjacent schools.

Since Einstein is around 700 over capacity it would likely contribute the lions share. I'd wager B-CC ends up giving 400-500 too, but 200 minimum to offset future overcrowding at B-CC.

Now Northwood is right next to Blair and it's expansion creates 1200 additional seats there. Roughly 700 are needed to address Northwood's overcrowding by 2022. That means 400-500 will likely go to address Blair's overcrowding. Now Blair will need around 700 total seats so they'll a couple hundred short. Those seats will likely come from the two schools directly adjacent to its West. Those schools are also adjacent to Woodward so it's easy to make the room. Sure the County could put the burden entirely on Einstein but why would B-CC get a pass?

It's all total speculation so I wouldn't get worked up over it. Do you remember those puzzle games you played as a kid that you solve by shifting the blocks? If your goal is to optimally fill these schools, make minimal changes to the overall map without busing people across the county that's how it could play out.

Hard to guess what things will look like in four or more years, but this a practical way to address the overcrowding with current and planned resources.

Except that BCC is getting an addition that will keep it at capacity for at least another decade. Someone here really wants to blow up the BCC zone, I don't know why since it's already the most diverse Bethesda HS and thanks to the addition and a new middle school, the BCC zone won't have overcrowding problems anymore. Woodward will be mainly drawn from WJ and the overcrowded DCC schools. If they want to do some boundary tinkering to shake up the rich, white Bethesda crowd, MCPS is more likely to pull an elementary out of Whitman into Woodward.

The county's projections show B-CC overcapacity even with its addition by 2022 when Woodward opens. It's also easy to shift kids around its boundary to solve overcrowding with neighboring schools given its proximity to Woodward..

I thought the same thing until I looked at the map. The area zoned for Burning Tree Elementary is right next to the area zoned for Ashburton and just as close to Woodward as all the potential BCC elementaries. This is going to be fun

It's all speculation at this point...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No one has said that Wheaton is on its way. up at all. Development is NOT booming and gang activity is a real problem. Its a VERY bad sign that all the development is going into Bethesda, close in Rockville and close-in Potomac. The areas in the east are basically being abandoned.

The elevator ready townhomes being built on McComas right next to Wheaton Mall beg to differ:

https://www.opaldc.com/themanors

The townhomes near the Metro pending in days beg to differ as well:

https://www.redfin.com/MD/Wheaton-Glenmont/11112-Amherst-Ave-20902/home/11202004

As do the large office buildings and concert space being built outside Wheaton Metro as we speak:
https://www.wheatonmd.org/discover/redevelopment

If you don't think development is booming you obviously haven't been around there in a couple years. Even its detractors can see the cranes in the sky and new apartment and office buildings coming up. An area with a mall, that kind of eclectic mix of ethnic restaurants and a Metro so close to each other is hard to come by in the area and is very desirable to a lot of people.

Didn't Wheaton HS just beat out all the other W's for some prestigous award?

The "other Ws"? Spills coffee.

Yes, it was ranked above them on some miscellaneous metric that happens to be aligned more with Wheaton's courses than the course selections at other MCPS schools. It was about as far removed from a "prestigious award" as you could get.