Democracy Center residential development

Democracy center is a cluster of three office buildings at the corner of Rockledge Drive and Westlake Terrace/Fernwood Road. It backs up to the I-270 Spur.  You probably didn't know this, but part of this property had a publicly accessible but privately owned park with basketball courts and walking trails.

In the above photo, one of the existing Democracy Center commercial buildings is on the left and beyond it the under-construction residential building. Rockledge Drive is in the foreground. 

That park-like part of the property is being developed into a seven-story residential complex with up to 386 housing units. There will also be a 1.3 acre privately-owned public open space between it and Rockledge Dr, as well a narrowed Rockledge Dr with tree pits installed in the existing right-of-way to provide for bike lanes on each side of the road. You can find out more at Montgomery Planning.

This is the current view from Rockledge Drive. The 1.3 acre open space will be where all the construction equipment and supplies currently are.

 

Side View

Here's how it looks from the side. This is from between the existing Democracy Center buildings.  The main entrance to the building will be in this area.

View from the I-270 Spur

This is what you see if you are driving north on the I-270 Spur just after Democracy Blvd.

 I took the bottom photo on Thursday, the rest of them I took on Friday.

 

 

Last night's Lunar Eclipse

 

Last night there was a Lunar Eclipse.  It wasn't total, but it here in the DMV it was pretty close.  Maximum in Bethesda was at 12:12 and I took these pictures about 10 minutes later, because, as Neil Sedaka's song says Waking Up is Hard to Do. 

It was quite rainy yesterday evening so I figured it would be overcast all night.  When maximum eclipse occurred there were thin high clouds so you could easily see the moon. However, there was also some light scattering by the clouds so the whole picture glows a little.  These two pictures were taking about a second apart, so the differences are mostly due to a slightly different exposure, but, about a minute after I took them, heavier clouds started covering the moon.
 

Long-term roadwork on Eastbound Democracy at Fernwood

 

The work area west of Fernwood Rd

 Pepco is doing some emergency utility work on Westbound Democracy Boulevard at Fernwood Drive. This closes the right two lanes of Democracy Blvd, so only a single lane gets by.  This work could take as many as four months to complete, though the variable signs along the road say they will be done by mid-May.

  Pepco will work 7 days a week from 9:00 am to 7:00 pm but 24 hour work may be needed some of the time.  As you can see from the photos, they have put up jersey barriers in the construction area, so the lane closures are 24 hours a day, even if they aren't working.

Westbound on Democracy before Fernwood Rd

 The lane closure starts on the east side of the Fernwood Road, There is a length of road closed of by cones, before coming to a crash barrier and jersey wall protecting the workers.  They are doing work on both sides of the intersection.

 Pepco is working on restoring a fluid-filled underground transmission feeder that is part of their transmission network supporting distribution facilities throughout Montgomery County.

 

The solution to the housing crisis?

 Pepco has built a shed in the middle of the road to make it easier to complete the work.  Or, perhaps, the county is considering converting the two right lanes of all major streets into affordable housing.

Working on the east side

 A bit closer view of the work being done at Democracy Blvd and Fernwood Rd. And, yeah, still snow after all these weeks.

 

Update March 16: It looks like they got done much earlier than expected.  I drove by today and everything is cleaned up and all lanes are open. 

 

 

 

 

 

Bike lanes on Fernwood in the Rockspring/Rockledge area

Fernwood north of Democracy

Fernwood Road, near where the new "Grandview" senior living community is going in has been under construction for a while.  There was even a time where one direction was entirely closed.  This is between Democracy Blvd and Montgomery Mall. (Not sure what they call it now, maybe WestLakeField Montgomery ShoppingMallTown?)

 For a while it wasn't clear exactly what they were doing, but now you can clearly see that separated bike lanes are going in.  They were starting to pave them when I went by. (The red dump truck on the left was delivering blacktop.)  

Fernwood and Rock Spring Dr

 Here at the Rock Spring Drive intersection you can get a good look at the new bike lanes. To the left, behind the trees is where the Marriott headquarters was.  One of the new residential buildings can be seen peeking over the trees.

Fernwood and Rockledge

 They are working on what I think will be the main entrance to the Grandview on the left.  Going up the hill (which is the bridge over I-270) the bike lanes are fully in and paved.

The start

 This is facing the other direction on the bridge.  The separated bike lanes start here right behind the arrow sign.  It's a bit unclear how this spot will look when they are done.

Fernwood near Democracy / The other end

They aren't nearly as far along at the Democracy end of Fernwood.  They haven't even gotten the sidewalk replaced.  Since there are 3 lanes of traffic here (two left-only onto Democracy and one right-only onto Democracy. There is no straight to continue on Fernwood, even though just the other day I saw someone go straight here).

Out with the new

They clearly made a mistake at some point, because they were tearing up a newly laid section of curb.
 

 

Beaver in Cabin John Creek

Swimming beaver, Cabin John Creek

Last week I saw unmistakable evidence of a beaver in Cabin John Creek.  I decided to try and take a picture of the actual beaver.  It took me a couple of days to do it since beavers are nocturnal and go to bed right around sunrise, but as you can see, I managed. 

When this beaver noticed me it swam upstream for a bit then, with a splash went under water and didn't come back up.  I believe it swam to it's lodge and decided it was bed time.

Beaver stripped branch

Beavers eat the bark off tree branches, so there were branches without bark floating in the water. This is one of the telltale signs of active beavers. 

Beaver Branch closeup

Here's a closer shot of a branch that a beaver has eaten the bark off of. You can see the gnaw marks on it. 

Beaver eaten tree

A beaver stripped some of the bark off this sapling but left it standing.  You can see a few gnaw marks on it.

 

 

 

 

Electric car charging at Cabin John Park

There are now chargers for electric cars at Cabin John Park near Cabin John Ice Rink and Shirley Povich Field.

The chargers are run by Pepco and branded "EVsmart Life, Fully Charged". They don't have the power level on them, and Pepco's website doesn't list it either. I think they are 50 kw DC fast chargers. That may seem like it isn't very powerful, but, I think they are geared for people who are going to be around for a while enjoying the park facilities.  Not only is the ice rink and baseball field (where Bethesda Big Train plays) just across the parking lot, there are also tennis courts and the Cabin John Trail right there.
 

There are two charging pedestals, each one has a CCS plug and a CHAdeMo plug.  You need to use the SWTCH mobile app or RFID card, or call a phone number to start the charger. 

For those of you who want to charge more slowly, or who can't charge with CCS or CHAdeMO, there are also two Level 2 J-1772 chargers available.  The Pepco website lists the cost of the Level 2 chargers at $0.18 per kWh which is a reasonable price. It doesn't give the power of the chargers, but based on the information they do provide, they appear to be 7.25kW chargers. 

There are four parking spots reserved for charging, 2 for the DC fast chargers and 2 for the Level 2 chargers.  The DC fast chargers cost $0.34 per kWh which is cheaper than most fast chargers (but they are also slower than most fast chargers).  Based on information on their website, these fast chargers have a power level of 45kW, but the nameplate capacity is probably 50 kW.

 

 

 

 

Stratton Place luxury homes: cleared land

Construction at Stratton Place

Stratton Place (also called the Andrus Property) will be a relatively small development of luxury homes build between Greentree Road and I-270.  According to the planning board resolution (pdf link), it "proposes eight (8) new lots by subdividing the rear of seven (7) existing lots, for a total of 15 lots, on a total of 5.38 acres of land zoned R-90. Eight (8) houses will be new, six (6) will remain, and one (1) will be demolished and replaced." However, that changed this time last year and all six of the existing houses on Barnett Road have been demolished.  Confusingly, the planning documents are split between multiple folders, one for 2023 and later and at least one for documents before then. Worse, the interactive development finder map only links to the earlier ones.

 Here is the view from Greentree Road looking towards Interstate 270.  On the right some trees remain in the back yards of existing houses.  In the far distance you can see one of two remaining houses on Barnett Rd.  this entire cleared area was heavily wooded with the exception of the far left where there were houses nestled among the trees.

Frontage on Greentree Road

Greentree Road at the Stratton Place development a new road will enter the development here. To the right, not visible, is the Amalyn development.

 I last posted about Stratton Place in October. at that time they were just clearing the (magnifcant) trees from the property.  Since then they have finished that part of the project, torn down some old houses, and re-graded the land. I also posted before work had begun.

From the back of the property

The current grading is still pretty steep, this is looking from the middle/back of the property towards Greentree Road.  In the distance you can see the Amalyn housing development.

Barnett Road

There used to be 8 houses along this road, six were included in the Andrus property and were demolished, only the first house and the last house remain.  New curbs have also been installed.

Another Amalyn housing development update

 

Green houses

Here's another update on the Amalyn housing development in Bethesda, Maryland. When completed there will be over 300 single family houses and townhouses on this 75 acre lot.  Well over half have been completed or are under construction, but there are still a few areas to go. 

Most of the construction is on the south, east, and west edges, the northern and central sections are mostly (but not completely) finished. This is on the site of the old WMAL transmitter towers and abuts I-270 and I-495.

This first photo is on the southern edge along Renita Lane, I-495 is on the other side of the trees. This set of houses is well underway with the walls and roofs up for most of them.

Almost complete houses

 

These houses are also on Renita Lane, directly across the street from the prior photo.  The siding is up and some of the houses are painted.

New houses on Silver Linden St

This area in the south east corner of the development at Silver Linden St and Renita Ln has a mix of completed (with people moved in) and still under construction houses.

Townhouse construction

 

Three sets of townhouses in various stages of construction.  In the foreground you can see the foundations are in, to the right they are finishing up a row of gray townhouses, and in the background another row is under construction, walls and windows are in but siding is not on. This is towards the south west side of the development.

A row of townhouses under construction

 

A row of six townhouses under construction as seen from the rear.  The garage doors are not on but the windows are in.

A few more houses

 

The sales center used to be here, but it has been removed and three hosues are going in. This is on the north west side of the development.

New sound barrier on the outer loop

The new Amalyn housing development in Bethesda is between Interstate 495 and the Interstate 270 spur. This means it gets road noise.  A partial solution is to install a sound wall, and that is what is happening right now on the outer loop of I-495.  Construction on the wall started in June of 2024 and is getting close to being completed.
 

 If you drive along I-495 between Fernwood Road and Greentree Road, you have probably been noticing the construction as it progresses. In places the wall is very close to the road.

This is the current end of the sound wall, next to Greentree Road.

Here at the end of the barrier, it is set a couple of feet below ground level.  Most other parts of it are near the surface.

Here's the wall as seen from the other side of the interstate.  There is an access door in the wall.

They weren't actively working when I was there but the equipment is waiting for them to return.  Greentree Rd is on the right.

 

Harden and Weaver Alleys

Those of you who grew up in the DMV might well remember the Harden & Weaver show on WMAL radio.  It was my go-to method of finding out if school was canceled when it snowed.

WMAL used to broadcast from a set of radio towers off of Greentree Road in Bethesda, Maryland.  The site is currently being turned into a housing development by Toll Brothers.  A resident of a nearby resident requested that Harden and Weaver be recognized by naming streets after them.  Toll Brothers agreed and in the Amalyn development there exists both a Harden Alley and a Weaver Alley, directly across the street from each other.

The Grandview Bethesda construction

 

The Grandview is a senior living community under construction on Fernwood Road in the Rock Spring area of Bethesda, MD. It is on the site of the former Marriott headquarters.  I have written a few times about the demolition of the Marriott HQ and the new construction.  The initial name for the project was ELP Bethesda.

This will be the entrance to the first Grandview building.  The first phase of the project, which will consist of this building and a second, similar one will have 512 independent living units, and associated amenities. 

Here it is as seen from the entrance to Democracy Plaza on the far side of the site. The 13 story building is 150 feet tall and has 247 units.

This area was the main entrance to the Marriott headquarters building.  The new construction is behind where it was.

This will be the second building of the Grandview. It is about ground level now. The first building, still under construction, is to the left. This building will have about 265 units in it.

The construction fence along Fernwood Road is plastered with various signs about the new development.

This is Thomas Branch stream, near it's headwaters.  It was an overgrown mees but it has been re-graded and re-engineered so it is a series of connected pools.  Oddly, it is a "Tree Protection Area" but they cut down most of the existing trees and planted new ones.

There used to be a row of large hardwood trees along Fernwood Road. These have all been cut down, only the stumps remain. I'm sad to see them go because they were quite majestic.