So murky are the rules around a controversial 16-story office building proposed for downtown Bethesda that the arguments in favor of the plan rely in part on the long-lost trails of American Indians.
The Meridian Group hopes to tear down a three-story food court building located above the entrance to the Bethesda Metro station at Wisconsin Avenue and Old Georgetown Road and build a 246,000 square-foot office building in its place.
County development policy limits the size of the new building according to the size of its lot. Planning Board staff and the Meridian Group maintain that the Bethesda proposal fits within approved guidelines when the Meridian Group is allowed to consider part of the street as its property.
Planning staffers say that deed records show no purchased ownership of Old Georgetown Road and Wisconsin Avenue and point out that the British monarchy once had a claim to the thoroughfares and American Indians used them as trails. As a result, the roads can be considered part of the public domain, they said.
The project boasts support from groups as disparate as the Sierra Club and the Maryland Department of Transportation, and comes with amenities like increased greenspace, adding wi-fi to an existing plaza area outside the property and improving the Metro bus station facilities.
“The project is all about transit oriented development, sustainable design and environmental responsibility,” Bob Harris, Meridian Group attorney, told reporters at a Montgomery Planning Board meeting Thursday. “It places people and jobs were they can use transit.”
Several commercial neighbors of the proposed building, including Chevy Chase Bank and Clark Enterprises, however, say the structure would block sunlight, diminish their property values and flat-out violate area planning rules.
They add that it’s common practice for developers to claim portions of roads in property calculations, but opponents say that’s not so when deeds can’t be found for roads.
Jerry Pasternak, an attorney representing project opponent Clark Enterprises, said he believes this has happened only four or five times before, but this is the first time the idea has been challenged.
“This is not a widespread, long-standing common practice,” Pasternak said.
