Reply to Removal of development cap in downtown Bethesda

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][color=cyan] [/color][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Slightly back on topic I do feel like this is a bit of a bait and switch because when people complained about the size of the buildings going up on Wisconsin (because maybe we wanted more of a human scale and less of Rosslyn 2) we were told not to worry because the development cap would prevent Wisconsin from becoming a street canyon.

Now they are like “oh we’ve maxed out the development cap already, guess we have to raise it”[/quote]

You think there shouldn't be tall buildings in downtown Bethesda on top of the Metro and Purple Line stations?[/quote]

They hope that politicians and the executives they appoint won't say one thing to achieve an objective and then do another or promise something for the same without coming through.  The populace is easily manipulated.

Devlopers (and businesses, in general) have a much more pragmatic take, buying influence to be on the front end of such promises and positioning themselves to profit, accordingly.[/quote]

I don't remember anyone promising that there wouldn't be any tall buildings in downtown Bethesda, not to mention that it would be an odd promise to make, since there already are tall buildings in downtown Bethesda.[/quote]

Well maybe you don’t live around there but when the zoning/development cap was last up for debate (2016ish??) the scale of buildings in Bethesda was definitely a hot topic.  Lots of “communities not canyons” yard signs.

Of course no one is saying there shouldn’t be tall buildings in downtown Bethesda but there is a difference between 10-15 stories and 15-20 stories and there is a difference if there are a few or blocks and blocks of them.

At the time some people produced illustrations of what Wisconsin ave and downtown Bethesda would look like if those 15+ story buildings were allowed everywhere and the planning board definitely said that was completely unrealistic because of the development cap. [/quote] Mathematically you're correct, but meaningfully? Nah. Not to mention that it's been over 100 years since a twenty-story building was considered a [banned-on-DCUM term for a very tall building], and why shouldn't there be blocks and blocks of them?[/quote]

Because some people don’t want to live in NYC, or even Rosslyn.  A lot of people think there is a meaningful difference between a city like DC or Paris where there is still some human scale vs cities with noticeably taller buildings crowding the streets.  There are also single family homes a block or two away from DT Bethesda and an extra 50 or 60 feet of building throws off the transition between those areas (if not literally blocks the sun).

Maybe you don’t think there’s a meaningful difference or maybe you think the benefits of increased density are worth it  but the point is that instead of having a full discussion of what Bethesda should look like we had this backwards approach where taller buildings were authorized (subject to the overall cap, creating a weird race to build as tall and as soon as possible) while people were assured overall density would stay down but now they are saying actually it doesn’t make sense to keep density down.

That’s why it feels like a bait and switch. If the planning board really thought this was the appropriate level of density they should have owned up to that 10 years ago. [/quote]
It is absolutely a bait and switch. They are just liars.

The want to Manhattanize downtown Bethesda without green space and parks which are the things that make Manhattan so livable despite the density. [/quote]

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