Concept Plan for the WMAL field development

Toll Brothers has submitted their concept plan for the WMAL property showing the roads and other amenities.

Plan Variant 1, without 5 acre public use set-aside

The plan calls for 328 dwelling units, a mix of 40% townhouses, duplexes, and 60% single family detached houses.  There will be 4.39 houses per acre and each house will have parking for 2 cars.  The plan follows a "loosely curvilinear grid" pattern of interconnected streets and pedestrian green spaces.

The property will connect to Greentree road in two places and also to Greyswood road.  It will be possible to drive from Greentree to Greyswood, but it won't be a straight shot, you have to take a turn and loop a bit.  The plan is for the roads to remain private roads and not turned over to the county.  One thing this allows for is for houses to be as close as 10 feet from the road instead of the 25 feet required for county roads.  Preliminary traffic studies indicate that three intersections will require improvements.

Walking trails proposed for the property

The majority of the trees on both the north and south side of the property will be preserved.  There will also be a network of trails that go through the trees as well as through the other greenspaces in the property.  The trails will connect with both Renita Lane and Derbyshire Lane.  Overall, a little less than 30% of the site will be available for recreation and open space.

Other amenity include a dog park that will be open to the public and a new noise barrier along I-495, they note that one may be required along the I-270 spur as well.  The part of the field by Derbyshire Court that gets muddy in the spring is marked as a "Stream Valley Buffer".

Plan variant 2 showing a 5 acre public use set-aside

 They actually submitted two variations on the plan, Plan 1, which has the full 328 units, and plan 2 which includes a 5 acre Public Use Reservation that covers the area around the WMAL transmitter building.  That plan only has 308 units and a single road connecting to Greentree.  This 5 acre reservation would be held for three years to allow for the county to purchase it at market value.  If the county doesn't, the area will be built with 20 houses (so it will match plan 1.)