Board protects New Deal-era apartments

Montgomery affordable-housing advocates are opposing a planning board decision to stop developers from altering a Silver Spring apartment complex hailed as a icon of the New Deal era, saying the complex would better serve as a legacy to that time if it provided more places to live for working-class families.

The Montgomery County Planning Board ruled late Thursday that the 450-unit Falkland Chase Apartments on Silver Spring’s 16th Street should be considered eligible for historic designation, meaning developers who sought to rebuild one of the property’s three parcels would not be able to do so.