Thursday, December 6, 2018

Ambassador Apartments closed down in Wheaton (Photos)

Ability to lose 162
units, low demand at
Halpine View raise new 
questions about MoCo's 
supposed affordable 
housing "crisis"

We've been hearing off-and-on about the Montgomery County Housing Opportunities Commission's development plans for the Ambassador Apartments in Wheaton since 2012. At one point, it was said that a new building would be constructed on another part of the property, allowing current residents of the Ambassador to remain in their homes. But now, the building - a former Best Western hotel at the corner of Veirs Mill Road and University Boulevard - has been shut down and fenced off. Businesses in the ground floor have also been vacated.

Residents have supposedly been relocated by the HOC to other properties around the county. However, the HOC declined to respond to media inquiries made earlier this week by press time. From what I can find in County documents, it appears the building will be demolished at a cost of up to $1.5 million, a cost that will be picked up by County taxpayers. HOC has previously requested the funds from the County Council for that purpose.

Demolition was to have begun this year, and construction of the new development was to break ground in 2019. It appears that would still be possible if demolition occurs soon.

The loss of 162 low-income housing units near Metro - and the apparent ability of the HOC to find that many vacant units for the departing tenants - raises questions about just how serious the affordable housing "crisis" is in Montgomery County. Last year, the owners of Halpine View in Rockville off Veirs Mill Road stated that demand for their affordable apartments was declining, and that they had a substantial number of vacancies.

Beggars cannot be choosers, as they say. A modest, older apartment at Halpine View or the Ambassador would beat being homeless any day of the week. There should not be vacancies at Halpine View, and it should not have been possible to find vacant homes for 162 families before closing the Ambassador. Dogged apartment hunters would surely have found these affordable gems in their desperate housing searches. What is going on here?

County residents are being told we must now throw traditional, common-sense zoning rules out the window to address a housing "crisis," a move that will destroy existing single-family home neighborhoods. It appears further study of just what is going on here is clearly needed before making such irresponsible planning and fiscal decisions, especially with the County facing a structural budget deficit every year as far out at the forecasts go. More transparency is also needed. How many vacant affordable apartments are there countywide as of today? Taxpayers and homeowners deserve to know before accepting the new onerous costs, and reduced quality of life, that would come with adding multifamily urban housing within residential SFH neighborhoods.

9 comments:

  1. Thanks for the update!!

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  2. I can't tell if you're being purposefully obtuse or not, but obviously the 162 households weren't relocated all at once. We're talking about a multi-year process of transitioning people to new housing in order to empty out the building ahead of redevelopment.

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    1. 12:39: Yes, and my point is, where did they find 162 vacant units.

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    2. It's called turnover. Hence why it took so long to empty the building.

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  3. why is the HOC being so coy about what the plans are for this site. I mean its been an eyesore in Wheaton for years...and the HOC could care less about informing the community of the plans. It's ridiculous.

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  4. I lived here years ago. I was young and broke, but excited for my first "apartment". That excitement died pretty quickly. Besides the incredible amount of roaches ( they had careers) that made me feel as if this was the movie Joe's Apartment 2) I will now move on to the large and robust rats in the ceilings of the lobby. You could hear them squeaking and fighting over the poison placed in the ceiling. Of course they died. However, they died and stayed. Let's just say, during the Summer, nothing is quite like the smell of robust rotting rat carcasses to brighten your morning🤢. Let's see what else....the registered rapist/pedophile only two, very close, doors down from my cubicle with a window. Or the 3am wake ups to screaming and fighting, while said person tries every door knob to get in. Or when you leave out in the morning and notice blood on the door handle, and splattered across the walls. And the piece de resistance....the bed bugs. I do believe the origins of all bed bugs began here. I lived in this cesspool for 7 or 8 years. I called it "the China closet of Crazies". The bed bugs, at one point was so bad (apparently I am allergic) that I had them relocate me to a different unit...I was hopeful🙄 same and worse. By this point I eneded up staying with a friend if mine in her unit of the same building. Luckily, she was not yet touched by the bug that eats you alive while you sleep. I had nowhere else to go at the time....but this place should have been burned to ground when it was a Howard Johnson's. Glad to it is dead. I am sure they found housing for the remaining residents....hopefully.

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  5. It's being demolished already

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  6. Replies
    1. Another apartment building, to eventually expand to the Lindsay Ford property next door.

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