Days numbered for one of Bethesda’s last gas stations

Plans for  a TD Bank location on the current spot of a Shell gas station in downtown  Bethesda, via Planning Department Plans for  a TD Bank location on the current spot of a Shell gas station in downtown  Bethesda, via Planning Department Shell gas  station at Old Georgetown Road, via Google Maps

One of downtown Bethesda’s last remaining gas stations could soon be gone if a bank gets a key development approval next week.

TD Bank wants to build a one-story bank building and drive-through ATM and teller structure at 7628 Old Georgetown Rd., site of a Shell gas station. On Sept. 18, the Planning Board will consider the bank’s site plan for the project, which has been recommended for approval by county planners.

At a public meeting on the project last year, an attorney representing TD Bank said once all approvals are acquired, Shell will have 90 days to tear down the station and remove the underground gas tanks.

If approved, it will mean yet another gas station to vanish from pricey downtown Bethesda. There are projects either in the pipeline or under construction on four former gas station sites, leaving the Shell, an Exxon at 7975 Old Georgetown Rd., station at 8280 Wisconsin Ave. and two Liberty gas stations at Bradley Boulevard and Arlington Road.

There are also plans to redevelop the 8280 Wisconsin Ave. station into an office building.

The TD Bank project got an “enthusiastic” nod of approval from members of the board at the neighboring Christopher Condominium, who wrote that they support the proposal because the gas station is an eye sore and the low density project “allays concerns of residents of a high rise building going up.”

Despite the property’s location — wedged between a number of multi-story buildings just 850 feet from the Bethesda Metro — planners said the one-story bank project “is in general conformance” with downtown Bethesda’s last master plan, completed in 1994.

The Standard Method of development associated with this project is not technically subject to Master Plan compliance; however the project is in general conformance with the 1994 Bethesda Central Business District Plan which recommended the promotion of a healthy economy including a broad range of business, service and employment opportunities at appropriate location. The Plan also recommended continuing the development pattern of small-scale standard method infill. It further conforms to the Plan goals by preserving the predominantly low-density, low scale commercial character of the corridor (page 87) and through the planting of street trees and the extension of the streetscape improvements and by retaining the existing zoning along the south side of Old Georgetown Road.

Images via Google Maps, Montgomery County Planning Department

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