Monday, November 16, 2009

Bethesda parking lot 31A temporarily closed (finally)


Parking lot 31A in Bethesda, MD on the corner of Bethesda Ave and Woodmont Ave is closed for the next 60 days or so for utility relocation. This is the really small parking lot, not the big one across the street. The closure is part of a larger project to build a large mixed-use building on the site of the current lot 31 (the large lot across from Barnes and Noble). That project will include a garage with public parking.

From reading the sign, it looks like there may be temporary lane closures on Woodmont Avenue related to this construction.

This lot closure has been scheduled many times before. First they were going to do it at the beginning of May, then in mid-June, then at the start of September, then on (or about) November 1st, then on November 16th. Other blogs might have jumped the gun and reported the 11/1 date, but not me, quadrice bitten twice shy.

UPDATE November 24th: "Closed" is a relative word, and in this case it means that several of the parking spaces are fenced off for storage of equipment. The rest of the small lot is still open however.

UPDATE December 7th: Apparently they re-scheduled the closure of the full lot to today but the re-scheduled it again for sometime in January 2010. So that is at least the seventh scheduled closing date. Never have I seen so much effort go into closing so few parking spaces. I wouldn't hold my breath for the January date being the real date.

1 comment:

  1. the last thing they need to do is build more there. lot 31 should be treasured for it's open space since most of bethesda row has turned into a cluster. i like some of the shops that have gone up, but if they build what they inted to build on lot 31 then, in my mind, they're taking away one of the most open areas left there. i think it's short-sighted. you have homes right there and capital crescent trail which starts there where bikers, joggers, walkers congregate. i say turn that into a green space, and place a big parking garage where less will be affected.

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