Reply to Removal of development cap in downtown Bethesda

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]It's hilarious to me that PPs are using Paris as an example of what Bethesda should look like.  If that was the case, you'd have to raze nearly all the SFH where many of the UMC and wealthy live and replace them with 5-6 story apartment buildings (with no or very few garages) and rezone residential areas to mixed use.

I mean, get a grip.[/quote]

Actually that could be done if the units in multifamily buildings could sell for enough money.  The trick is that nobody wants infill standalone 6 unit buildings on teardown lots in SFH neighborhoods (like everyone fights about in the Arlington forum).  So you have to build outward from the "taller" parts in the downtown core.

Big mirrored towers with no balconies are ugly and Bethesda's tall buildings have little architectural merit.

If people don't build 5-6 story apartment buildings but approve more density, there will just be more ugly towers.
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I fully support balconies for apartments.

On the other hand, I don't think that I, or you, or anybody, should get to approve or disapprove buildings based on Do I Think This Building Is Pretty Or Ugly.[/quote]

PP.  Someone approves the plans.  Outside of HQs or really big cities, developers usually don't try too hard to make good-looking buildings.  They just want to sell space.  Also to save energy.

Bethesda could have been better looking.  It's trending worse. For the cost of real estate in Bethesda, I'd like to think a higher bar could be set.  That doesn't involve me personally being pleased with a specific plan.  It means a whole bunch of people looking down Rockville Pike and saying "Hey, this is a fun, attractive-looking neighborhood".

I think the job is actually being done by these people:

https://montgomeryplanning.org/planning/communities/downcounty/bethesda-downtown-plan/bethesda-downtown-design-advisory-panel/

Here are a couple of comments from others I found on Reddit that resonated:

https://www.reddit.com/r/bethesda/comments/1cfmbhi/worth_living_in_bethesda_as_a_young_single_person/

"That french place [b]in the only beautiful building in the city ([/b] the one across from the newly opening, “ala”) is pretty good. "

Cozarium 8mo ago
[b]There is almost no action in Bethesda anymore, certainly not like its peak in the 90s. [/b]One cinema, one live theatre unless you count the one for children, a supper club whose target audience is black people in their 70s, very few bars, and 200 restaurants that usually close by 10 PM. Nothing is open 24/7 anymore except the 7-11 and the CVSs, and their pharmacies are only open 9-5, which is ridiculous for an all-night drugstore. Even in the 90s when there was much more stuff to do, we often went downtown to DC because there was so much more going on.
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