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Mixed-use development thriving in Maryland housing types

November 18, 2007 12:36 am

BY KAFIA HOSH

GAITHERSBURG, Md.--A group of mothers gathered with their strollers for coffee at a Starbucks in Gaithersburg, Md., recently. The women avoided a jam-packed strip mall parking lot and the morning rush hour. It's likely many of them walked to the store from their homes or parked on a nearby street.

Kentlands is a bustling, mixed-use community that blends residential and commercial development. It is decorated with tree-lined sidewalks and grassy courtyards. Its vibrant commercial center includes apparel outlets, restaurants and stores, surrounded by a blend of apartments, townhouses and single-family homes.

Kentlands, which sits on 367 acres, has a town-style concept similar to traditional neighborhood developments being planned in Stafford County.

To see a traditional neighborhood development in action, four Stafford Planning Commission members toured Kentlands last month.

"We see all of these plans, and we read all of the theories," said commission member Steve Pitzel. "We really just wanted to go see what these things look like after they've been developed,"

Kentlands was one of the first TND communities in the country and is a case study on how neo-traditional neighborhoods are created. Professors, architects and urban planners routinely visit.

Shelley Mastran, an urban planning professor at Virginia Tech's Alexandria campus, took her growth-management class on a field trip to Kentlands last year.

"We use it as an example," Mastran said. "We walked around and analyzed it and saw what makes it work."

Housing

The neighborhoods in Kentlands and other TND communities ensure there is constant activity.

"The idea is if you mix the uses together, you'll have life all around the clock," Mastran said. "The place won't get dead at night when office workers leave when you have residences there as well."

Kentlands includes virtually all housing types, including senior-living apartments, condominiums, townhouses and single-family homes built on smaller lots.

The eclectic mix of housing offers several degrees of affordability.

"Even wealthier people seem to prefer a different model," said Tony Tomasello, Gaithersburg's assistant city manager for economic and community development. "They're not looking for a big yard. They're looking for a safe place they can lock the house and go do something else."

Each Kentlands neighborhood has its own unique touch.

Some communities have the feel of an old European village. A typical "live and work" unit consists of a deli, a law office and a studio apartment stacked into a three-story brick building.

The developer of another subdivision went bankrupt in the 1990s and sold various lots to different builders. The result is a mishmash of home styles, but still there is aesthetic harmony because of strict architectural guidelines.

A townhouse community houses families as well as real-estate and doctors' offices.

"The commercial and residential had to be compatible," said Greg Ossont, Gaithersburg's director of planning and code administration.

Retail

Kentlands' commercial center is anchored by major retailers such as Whole Foods, Michaels and PETsMART. It includes several clothing stores, a movie theater and dozens of restaurants.

"You didn't feel like you were in some fancy mall where you couldn't buy a plastic laundry basket if you needed to," Pitzel said.

Stafford planners would like to see some of the same stores come to the county's future TND communities, such as Stafford Town Station.

Commission member Barbara Kirby, who also toured Kentlands, said she often shops in Richmond because Stafford lacks enough quality retailers.

"How many nail salons do we really need?" she asked. "You don't have to have those kinds of things on every street corner."

But it took awhile for commercial development to catch up with rooftops in Kentlands.

"The fact is, when it was first built, the real estate market was in a terrible state," Mastran said. "The market wouldn't support the commercial, so the houses went in first."

Growth Management

Unlike Stafford's TND zone, Gaithersburg's code does not limit building heights or have density requirements. And there is little concern about the potential for skyscrapers or packed apartments, according to Ossont.

"You really have to put the trust in the decision makers when you have flexibility like this," he said.

Greater density actually manages high-growth communities, according to TND experts and urban planners.

Stafford, which has seen a population boom in recent years, could benefit from compact development, Mastran said.

"It's smack down in the middle of Richmond and Washington," she said. "There's no way it's not going to grow. You can't keep the people out."

Gaithersburg officials "prefer intelligently managed density to sprawl," Tomasello said.

Increased density also led to more homes on the tax rolls so that "our main source of revenue is real-property tax," Tomasello added. "You're taxing four houses or five houses on an acre instead of two."

Stafford's TND critics fear more density will only promote growth and cause a greater demand on county services, which could lead to higher property taxes.

But in Kentlands, Gaithersburg officials use proffers--services paid for by the developer in exchange for building projects. Kentlands' developer built an elementary school and made road improvements.

"As public improvements come online, you allow them to build more," said Ossont, who added that services such as trash pickup and neighborhood roads are maintained by homeowners associations.

Using proffers could work in Stafford, but the county has to "understand the cost of community services," Mastran said. "They have to find a way to make up the deficit. Proffers are the way we do it in Virginia."

Transportation

While Kentlands is largely deemed a success, it's also criticized for being too spread out. Most of the neighborhoods are tucked in the back of the development, but are connected to the commercial center by trails and bike paths.

"Kentlands was probably the one that had the most degree of separation between the residential and commercial," Pitzel said. "It's just a longer walk."

Kentlands does not have a transit line, and the nearest subway station is several miles away.

"You can't live in Kentlands and not have an automobile," Mastran said.

She said the most successful TND communities are transit-oriented so residents can "use an alternative means of transportation to get to work."

Stafford Town Station will have onsite commuter lots and a free, private shuttle service to and from the commuter lots and the Brooke VRE station. It was recently recommended as a TND by the Planning Commission, but still needs to go before the Board of Supervisors.

The Towne Center of Aquia, a smaller mixed-use development being built off U.S. 1, will have a FREDericksburg Regional Transit bus stop. The Planning Commission is still considering the center's application for a TND zone.

Leeland Station was a community being planned around a nearby VRE station, but the developer withdrew its application for TND approval.