Passive Multifamily, Shady Grove TOD: Montgomery County Housing Production Fund's First Units

• July 13th 2020

by Nena Perry-Brown

Last week, a budget amendment was introduced in the Montgomery County Council to fund the first year of a proposed Housing Production Fund (HPF).

If the budget allotment passes, here are the two projects the Housing Opportunities Commission (HOC) is expected to fund.

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• West Side at Shady Grove

This would be the second multifamily phase of the Montgomery County’s County Service Park redevelopment near Shady Grove Metro station, next to The Daley on the northwest corner of Crabbs Branch Way & Gramercy Boulevard (map). The five-story building will deliver 268 units along with 30,430 square feet of retail that will include a CVS Pharmacy and an HOC Service Center.

A quarter of the units will be affordable to households earning up to 50% of area median income (AMI) and 13 will be for households earning up to 65% of AMI. There will be 322 residential and 79 retail parking spaces in a five-story above-grade garage. HOC is developing the site in partnership with EYA and Bozzuto; KTGY is the architect. West Side could acquire permits this fall and break ground in early 2021.

Note: Rendering has been updated since publication.

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• Hillandale Gateway

The Hillandale Gateway development would deliver a total of 463 residential units and up to 24,500 square feet of retail across the street from Hillandale Shopping Center, on the southwest corner of New Hampshire Avenue and Powder Mill Road (map). The three-building project is billed as the state's "first passive house multifamily" development. HOC and the Duffie Companies are the developers and Torti Gallas + Partners is the architect.

The retail is expected to include a nearly 12,000 square-foot restaurant and a standalone Starbucks with drive-thru and outdoor seating. The development would also include one-for-one replacement of the 96 age-restricted affordable units at Holly Hall Apartments; the total affordable unit count would be 116 units for households earning up to 60% AMI and 23 units for households earning up to 80% AMI. There will also be a below- and above-grade garage with 691 parking spaces, along with 95 interior bicycle spaces. 

The site is part of the White Oak Science Gateway Master Plan. The Montgomery County Planning Board is expected to consider the amended sketch plan application and the site and preliminary plan applications in September; groundbreaking is expected next year.

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The HPF is intended to leverage the process currently used to develop moderately priced dwelling units in order to help speed creation of an estimated 8,375-8,750 units over 20 years. At least 20% of the units in projects financed through the HPF would be affordable to households earning up to 50% of AMI, and an additional 5-10% of units would be affordable to households earning up to 65% of AMI.

A public hearing and final action on the HPF is scheduled for July 28th.

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/the-first-units-expected-to-use-montgomery-countys-housing-production-fund/17022.