More details on new Lindsay Ford dealership in Aspen Hill (Photos)

Lindsay Ford's proposed auto dealership at 4115 Aspen Hill Road will include a two-story, 30' tall, 95000 SF main building. The former BAE building on the property will be demolished down to the slab foundation, and then rebuilt as the dealership structure.

Truck traffic circulation plan;
trucks enter from Connecticut Avenue

A vehicle circulation plan submitted by Lindsay Ford shows auto rack trucks delivering cars, and other trucks delivering things like auto parts, using a shared curb cut north of the property off of Connecticut Avenue, rather than the main Aspen Hill Road entrance.

According to a traffic analysis submitted by Lindsay, the dealership will generate 143 incoming vehicles and 47 outgoing trips during the peak hour of the morning rush. During the peak hour of the evening rush, 155 vehicles are estimated to be exiting the dealership, and 104 arriving. Because these numbers are less than for an office use, Lindsay's traffic firm says no traffic study is required.

Lindsay Ford proposes move to Aspen Hill, setting up major redevelopment project in Wheaton

A major redevelopment opportunity at the edge of downtown Wheaton will open up in the near future, as Lindsay Ford is planning a move to Aspen Hill. While the dealership has made no public announcement, and remains in full operation at its current location, the proposed move has been discussed at two community meetings in recent weeks.

The new dealership site would be at the vacant BAE Systems property, located at 4115 Aspen Hill Road. If approved, the dealership would be a win for businesses in the nearby commerical area of Aspen Hill, which the BAE site is right on the border of behind Home Depot and Dunkin' Donuts. Anyone who has bought a car, or had their car serviced at a dealership, knows there can be quite a bit of downtime in either situation. Walking less than a block to buy a donut or hamburger is a likely move for many such customers.

A dealership would also be a satisfying short-term defeat for the Montgomery County political cartel, which imagined multi-family housing for this site. They utilized the interest of Walmart in the property as a poison pill, to convince residents to endorse mixed-use or multi-family housing from a favored developer, who just might have made a political contribution or two. Instead, the property will now revert to a very traditional Aspen Hill commercial use, recalling the vintage dealerships located along Georgia Avenue during the golden age of Aspen Hill and Glenmont.

Current site of Lindsay Ford in
purple on left side of
Veirs Mill Road, with maximum
height of 100' in sector plan

The Lindsay Ford move would leave another shoe to drop - - the future redevelopment of the current dealership site, located at 11250 Veirs Mill Road in Wheaton. That property was given a maximum height of 100' and a Floor Area Ratio of 3.0 in the Wheaton sector plan approved by the Montgomery County Council in 2012.

ASPEN HILL MINOR MASTER PLAN AMENDMENT PUBLIC MEETING APRIL 1

Will it be a Walmart? A trojan horse town center jammed with residential units? Or stay as it is today?

With the lack of demand for office space in Montgomery County, Lee Development Group hopes its property at 4115 Aspen Hill Road can be rezoned to include other uses. The Montgomery County Planning Department has begun a Minor Master Plan Amendment process, to study what uses should be permitted on the site. A planning "scope of work" document also expands the amendment study area to a parcel on the south side of Aspen Hill Road, at its intersection with Connecticut Avenue.

A second community meeting on the matter will be held Tuesday, April 1, 2014, at 6:30 PM, at the Aspen Hill Library (4407 Aspen Hill Road).

Formerly home to facilities for Vitro Corporation, the office space has sat vacant for about a decade. Interest in the site by retail giant Walmart added urgency to the zoning question, and predictably ignited controversy.

A Walmart store sounds like a good fit for the site, as its immediate neighbor would be another Big Box store (Home Depot), the property is located in a major retail mecca in Aspen Hill, and low income and middle class residents alike could benefit from Walmart prices on groceries and other goods. Traffic would be a primary issue, particularly with the county's failure to build the Rockville Freeway originally planned to bisect Connecticut and Georgia Avenues in Aspen Hill. Ramp stubs for the freeway's cloverleaf interchange with Connecticut were constructed decades ago, in advance of its expected construction. They remain in place today.

The Montgomery County Council already led a full-court-press to sink plans for a Walmart store in south Rockville, on MD 355. Preventing Walmart from opening stores countywide naturally increases regional demand for the existing Germantown store, in the Milestone Shopping Center. An Aspen Hill store would be a similar draw for patrons outside of the Aspen Hill area. Conversely, one could argue that Kohls and Kmart are also rare, and regional draws as well.

What's the bottom line? Aspen Hill is indisputably a suburban bedroom community, with high-quality, desirable brick homes on leafy, tree-lined streets. It also boasts a central commercial area that serves residents of surrounding communities, with businesses of all sizes. While there will be some impact on the community no matter what use is chosen for the Lee site, it would seem that the Walmart proposal would be the most consistent with the character of the neighborhood. The structure would be far less imposing than "town center" apartment towers, which would reduce the impact on immediate neighbors.

A finished amendment could be before the Planning Board by summer.