The Montgomery County Planning Board today will assess plans for a five-story, 140-apartment mixed-use development at the old Arlington Road Post Office site.
In its recommendations for the project’s Preliminary and Site Plans to be reviewed this morning, planning staff discusses a required new traffic signal and walkway to the Capital Crescent Trail that borders the property to the east side.
Both those elements were required by the County Council when it approved zoning changes for Philadelphia-based Keating Development in January.
An attorney for the developer expressed some resistance to the idea of a pedestrian or bike access point to the Trail because of maintenance and liability issues.
But in the Preliminary and Site Plans, Keating has provided for a walkway from the building to the Trail and a 60-inch high metal picket fence that will allow residents to see the Trail and Trail-goers to see the apartment.
Also part of the staff recommendations is more information on a new traffic signal that would go at the intersection of Arlington Road, the south entrance to the development and the north entrance to the Bradley Boulevard shopping center.
The Montgomery County Department of Transportation has approved the signalization concept for the intersection, which will now include 7,000 square feet of retail on the ground floor of the Keating development.
The signal must be up and operational before the new apartments or retail stores can open.
Planning staff says the development will actually represent a stark decrease in traffic compared to the Post Office that occupied the site until it closed for consolidation purposes in May.
Developers want to provide a parking garage with 211 spaces, which will accommodate 44 fewer peak-hour trips during weekday mornings and 19 fewer peak-hour trips during the evening rush hour than the Post Office generated.
Image via Montgomery County Planning Department
