Amalyn Housing Development update

 

I have been tracking the Amalyn housing development in Bethesda since the very beginning. This development is in the 75 acre field that used to be the home of the WMAL radio transmitter towers.  Since my last update in May they have been preparing the site on the east side of the project, between Derbyshire Ln and Renita Ln.  Now they have started building houses in that area. The first two are in progress.

Here is another view of those two houses, notice how there isn't much around them.  You can see they have also started laying out the roads in this area. It may not look like much, but before they get to this point they have already put in all the water and sewer pipes. You can see a red fire hydrant in the middle of the picture.  The road going left to right is Silver Linden Street. (Derbyshire is directly behind the camera and Renita is way in the distance in the middle).

Here's another section of newly laid out road. They recently seeded the area directly in front of the camera.  Renita Lane is top right, the houses in the distance are on Corkran. I believe the road in this picture will be named Isabella Street.

Back in the main section there is a lot to see. On the right, with the light and dark gray side is the first row of townhouses they built. To the left of that is the second row.  Far left is a house still under construction and far right is another row of townhouses being built.

I think this is Glasswing Alley. Some of the roads have a layer of blacktop on them. They are in the process of building a house on the left.

There are still bits and pieces left from the WMAL radio transmitter site. The three concrete piers that held one of the radio towers remain on their side. They have sat here unmoved all summer.

The various bits of concrete that have been dug up are piled in a pit. It is mostly concrete that fence posts were set in, but there are also some that the smaller transmitters were mounted on.

The last remaining radio transmitter building had open doors.  There used to be one of these at the base of each radio tower.

There isn't much to see here, a  few bags of trash and an old rack for rack-mount computers. It is a bit disappointing.

Prior coverage of Amalyn:

Construction scheduled to start on the WMAL field (Toll Brothers Amalyn project) (April 9, 2021)

The fence harvest came early this year (April 27, 2021)

Initial site work at Amalyn Bethesda (former WMAL radio tower location) (May 6, 2021)

Erosion Control at Amalyn Bethesda site (May 16, 2021)

Clearing trees for the road at Amalyn Bethesda (May 28, 2021)

Building the road at Amalyn Bethesda (former WMAL site) (July 31, 2021)

Paving Greyswood Rd in the Amalyn development (February 13, 2022)

Amalyn Update (April 3, 2022)

A new area gets silt fencing at Amalyn Bethesda (May 2, 2022)

More houses at the Amalyn development (May 24, 2022)

Paving Greyswood Rd in the Amalyn development

 Work on the new houses of the Amalyn development continues.  Just this past week they have paved the base layer of asphalt on the extension of Greyswood Road to Greentree Road.  The new portion of road is still blocked off.

This is where Greentree road used to end, with an entrance to some townhouses to the left.  Now it is paved all the way to Greyswood Rd, but the road is closed to traffic.  Toll Brothers intends to keep the road closed here until after new traffic calming structures on the existing Greyswood Rd are complete, which will probably be this summer.

 

The new portion of Greyswood Road in the Amalyn development. It has had a first layer of pavement put down. It is narrower than I expected.

Greyswood Road used to end right where the orange barrier is. Now it has been paved all the way to Greentree Road through the Amalyn development.

More new roads at the Amalyn development

 

Renita Lane

I last posted about the Amalyn housing development back in June, when they were preparing a new section of the field for houses.  They've been busy since then and as of the end of November, that part now has paved roads.

The existing Renita Lane now continues well into the Amalyn development in Bethesda, MD. It will eventually connect to Greentree Road but it doesn't yet.

Bluestar Ave

Amalyn will have over 300 new residences and will have a mixture of townhouses and single family houses.  Here you can see a newly-paved section of Bluestar Avenue where it connects to the existing paved portion.  A few rows of townhouses are under construction.

Bluestar Avenue at Azure Alley

This is a large section of the field that is now paved and ready to build on, maybe a third of the total area and over half of what was remaing. The only part left is the south-western end where the 5 acre MCPS donation is. 

Azure Alley looking towards Lantana Way

 

 

 

 

 

 

More paving in Amalyn

It has been a while since my last update on the Amalyn housing development. For the most part things have been slowly moving along. There have been a few more houses started, and it looks like at least a couple houses are now occupied by their new owners.  This past week there has been a more noticeable change however.

 They now have put a layer of pavement on another set of streets.  It took several days to complete it and the noisome smell of blacktop permeated the surrounding neighborhood for days.  They also worked well past dark at least one night, eliciting complaints from residents of the existing houses.

Where the pavement ends

They haven't paved everything yet, eventually, the road will continue, but for now, this is the end of the line.

Silver Linden St looping around the east side of the Amalyn housing development

 

Catching up with the Amalyn Development

 

Little Green houses, for everyone

 Here is a row of single family houses under construction. They are quite large and close together.  They won't stay green forever, you can see one on the far left is getting a light brick facade on the front.

A quick recap may be a good thing.  Amaylyn is a new housing development in Bethesda located between Interstate 495 and the Interstate 270 Spur.  This 75 acre site used to house the WMAL radio transmitters. Those towers were brought down in 2020 and the area has been under development ever since.

Amalyn will contain just over 300 dwellings in a mix of town houses and single-family houses.  It is a joint development between Toll Brothers and Tri Pointe Homes. It looks like the townhouses and some of the single family houses are Tri Pointe and the rest are Toll Brothers.  The development will connect to the rest of Bethesda via Greentree Road, Greyswood Road, and Renita Lane.

Newly paved portion of Renita Ln

Just last week they finished paving some new roads.  Here is the new portion of Renita Lane looking towards Greentree Road.

Renita Ln at Greentree Rd

This is where Renita Lane ends at Greentree Road.  I was worried that Renita would be a straight line from one end of the development to the other, but it has light curves at either end which should slow traffic down a little bit.

The backs of some townhouses

A newly paved Sanvitalia Street and the backs of some townhouses under construction.

Townhouses under construction

Here is the fronts of those same townhouses.  They will face Silver Linden Street. This was taken from the corner of Sanvitalia and Silver Linden streets.

More townhouse construction

This row of townhouses is much further along than the last one.  It is also facing Silver Linden Street and is on the corner of that road and Bluestar Avenue.

 You can read my full coverage of the Amalyn development.

 

 

 

 

Erosion Control at Amalyn Bethesda site

 

Just over a week ago they started doing work on the silt fence that will go around the Amalyn Bethesda construction site.  Now, they have installed the fence.  Interesting to me is that even though they used a giant saw to cut a narrow slit trench (that was plenty wide for the fence), they went over it again with a small excavator and widened it to about a foot an a half.  Then, they put in the erosion controling sediment/silt fence, put the dirt back, and have now put straw on the ground outside the fence.  This fence is supposed to keep any dirt that the rain washes away contained within the construction site.

When the WMAL radio towers were here they were grounded with copper radiating out from each tower.  I believe these copper straps were what was used. They are buried several inches under the soil and go nearly to the edge of the property.  Many of them have been pulled out and in a couple of places parts of the straps are lying on the ground.

Building the road at Amalyn Bethesda (former WMAL site)

 

Construction continues on at the Amalyn Bethesda housing project (at the site of the former WMAL broadcast towers).  You can now clearly see the path of the road  that will connect Greyswood Road and Greentree Road. The road itself will be in the portion of dirt that is about 6 inches lower than the rest (on the left).  Greyswood Rd is just behind the construction equipment in the center of the photo.

One standing and one fallen concrete monoliths with construction equipment in the background.  As far as I can tell, they are not full of stars.  They are the footings for one of the radio transmitter towers that used to be located at this site, most of each of them was buried under the ground with only the top couple of feet exposed. 

 A number of pieces of construction equipment parked in the field near Greyswood Road. In the foreground is a large concrete monolith that was one of the footings for the now-removed radio transmitter towers.

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.

Construction scheduled to start on the WMAL field (Toll Brothers Amalyn project)

 

Toll Brothers is getting ready to start construction on their Amalyn project which will be over 300 single family houses and townhouses on the former WMAL radio tower field at 7115 Greentree Road in Bethesda, Maryland. This week they stakes sporting flags have been sprouting on the field as they prepare for the work.

They recently sent a letter to residents about the construction outlining the initial work. In it they state they will first be installing tree protection and sediment control features.

The current end of Greyswood Road

Workers will be accessing the property from the Greyswood Road entrance and the first thing they do will be to connect Greyswood and Greentree roads.  Greyswood Road currently dead-ends at a stand of trees, so those trees will have to be horrifically mangled and tragically destroyed cut down and removed. All work vehicles and equipment will be parked on the property and not on any of the streets surrounding it.  Construction should be limited to the hours of 7am to 5pm.

The current end of Greentree Road

As part of the project, some improvements will be made to existing streets, primarily Greyswood Rd.  Greyswood will get some traffic claming devices and some more street trees. New sidewalks will be added along Greentree Road and Derbishire Lane along the proporties frontage. This work is expected to be completed by Fall of this year.
 

proposed site plan from Toll Brothers

Initial site work at Amalyn Bethesda (former WMAL radio tower location)

 Toll Brothers has started doing some site prep work for the Amalyn Bethesda housing development.  This development is located at the former WMAL radio broadcast tower location in Bethesda near the I-270 spur.  They are digging narrow  trenches around the perimeter of where it looks like work will be done.

At recent construction projects (such as the demolition of Woodward High School) I have noticed that the fence around the project is set in a trench and has fabric at the base, this keeps any storm water runoff from filling streams with silt.  It looks to me like that is what is happening here.  Often times the fence is only about 18 inches tall, I hope that is the height they use here (and not a 6 foot tall fence which could totally block access)

A new area gets silt fencing at Amalyn Bethesda

I walked around the Amalyn housing development today and notice that they are putting up more silt fences to control erosion.  These fences usually go up shortly before they start work in an area, so there is likely going to be construction in this part of the former WMAL transmitter site. An area of underbrush has been cleared at the end of Derbyshire Lane, and a silt fence has been installed the entire frontage with Derbyshire.  Fortunately, the fence is only two feet tall and you can step over it.

The fence continues to the dip in the field. There is still some fencing and equipment beyond it so it is possible they will continue the fence on the other side of the muddy area.

If you every walk around the field, you will probably recognize this part, it stays wet for longer than anywhere else and is a proto-stream.  The silt fence stops just before it.

Amalyn Single Family house updates

 

Just the first floor

Here's an update on new single family homes at the Amalyn development in Bethesda, Maryland.  A lot of the houses have been built and people have moved in to them, but there are still a bunch under construction and a lot of open land that they will put houses on in the future.  There's a lot to cover, so this post will just be about the single family houses, I'll post about the townhouses separately.

Some of the houses along the eastern edge of the development will be quite a bit bigger than the rest.  This is one of those larger houses that is just the first floor right now.

The full house, but in wood

This is another, the house walls and roof are up but are just plywood.

Yet a third

Here's a third one, even further along.  This was the first of the really big houses and they were making fast progress but for some reason that progress has slowed down.

A house in green

This house is in a different part of the development and has a ways to go. It's walls are covered in green ZIPsystem.

Rows of tightly spaced houses

Here are a couple of rows of tightly-spaced houses. The green ones are along one road, and the white/tan ones are on another road.  They really are fully detached houses even though they don't look that way.

That's a tall ladder

They have been painting this house and have some really tall laddders that stretch from the ground to the top of the roof.

Almost ready

These houses are almost ready to be moved in to. Most of them are in some variation of depressing gray.