Montgomery County tentatively OKs Gaithersburg West plan

The Montgomery County Council approved an initial version of the Gaithersburg West Master Plan in a straw vote Tuesday with a new name, The Great Seneca Science Corridor Plan, and an eight-member majority that included Councilmember Phil Andrews, who has long opposed the density proposed in the plan. The council will take a final vote on the Great Seneca Science plan in the next two weeks. Still, the tentative approval is significant, as it addressed the hotly debated issues of density and traffic congestion. The planning board initially recommended up to 20 million square feet of development, a number the county executive and Andrews said was too much. They instead recommended up to 18 million square feet. The plan now calls for up to 17.5 million square feet. The council also discussed “critical lane volume,” which deals with road congestion. The original master plan proposal set the limit at 1,600 vehicles per lane per hour, a limit the revised plan reduces to 1,450 vehicles per lane per hour. SOURCE: Washington Business Journal