Montgomery seniors living in retirement communities in Germantown and Olney say parking-space waivers the county granted a developer has left them afraid to leave their home, because they often can’t find anywhere to park upon returning.
The county Planning Board allowed Jeff Kirby, the owner of Germantown’s Willow Manor at Clopper’s Mill and Olney’s Willow Manor Fair Hill Farm developments, to allocate significantly fewer parking spaces for the senior communities than is typically required. County officials say Kirby received the waivers after he gave them national data showing that elderly residents do not own as many cars as other multifamily building residents.
“The developer did not do anything wrong,” said Nancy C. Lineman, spokeswoman for Montgomery County planning department. “The project had an adequate number of parking spaces in line with the national statistics about seniors and car trips.”
Planning Board spokeswoman Valerie Berton said the county is re-examining its policy on granting parking waivers for senior communities.
“You never know what you are going to find for parking,” said Willow Manor Fair Hill Farm resident Sandra Ricketts. “People say, ‘I’m not going out because if I come back then I won’t have a place to park.’ ”
The board required 66 parking spaces instead of the base requirement of 133 spaces at the Germantown facility. Similarly, the board permitted Kirby to develop the Olney project with 53 spaces, instead of the base requirement of 125 spaces.
“What we have found is when you park this type of facility per code, you end up with a sea of parking,” Kirby said. “Much of the lot goes largely unused, it’s bad for the environment, it doesn’t look good and it runs our operating costs up higher.”
Still, residents have lobbied county council members and the county executive’s office to inform them of the problem.
Developer Kirby told The Examiner that fixing the situation is “easier said than done.”
“It is not as simple as going out and adding more parking,” he said.
Kirby said he is encouraging more people to take shuttle buses, working with the county to see if he can add more parking spaces within the property’s existing area and asking state highway officials to allow public parking on Georgia Avenue near the Fair Hill Farm property.
