Kentlands

The state's Board of Public Works is expected to vote today on a Maryland Retirement and Pension System plan to invest $35.5 million to purchase a Montgomery County shopping center.The pending acquisition of the project in the Kentlands planned community would mark the third retail project that LaSalle Advisors Ltd. has bought on behalf of the state and its 90,000 retirees since 1991, when the Chicago-based consultant purchased the Festival in Bel Air.In all, LaSalle has invested nearly $100 million to purchase shopping centers for the state and its pension system, which has assets in excess of $20 billion.

The body of a Silver Spring man was found yesterday morning on a roadside near a Gaithersburg shopping center. He was the apparent victim of a hit-and-run driver, Montgomery County police said. The family of the man, Anant Jit Singh, 73, had reported him missing Saturday night, about two hours after he left a restaurant to buy a camera at the shopping center and never returned. His body was discovered in a culvert on Great Seneca Highway, across from the Kentlands Square Shopping Center, police said.

GAITHERSBURG -- The newest America has bypassed the "Next America." Kentlands -- a 4-year-old development on 352 acres in this Montgomery County city -- reflects the very latest ideas on suburban planning, ideas that resurrectAmerica's roots with narrow streets, alleys, town squares, front porches and an eclectic mix of housing.These traditional small-town elements are cropping up more and more in new housing developments throughout this region and nationally. They are even being promoted by Maryland state planners.

New urbanist Joseph Alfandre had hoped to slow the national growth of scattered housing developments and strip malls when he helped create the Kentlands in Gaithersburg during the late 1980s. Fourteen years later, Alfandre is disappointed with the results - but it's not for lack of interest. "Planners and politicians, as well as their community allies, saw the advantage of `new urbanism' and not only bought into it, but appreciated the thought and the effort behind it," he said. But Alfandre said developers failed to follow through on the practice of targeted, urban place-making by expanding housing and creating communities in once-rural, now thriving areas.

A lender has taken control of one of Maryland's most talked about planned communities, the Kentlands project in Gaithersburg, away from its developer.In July, Chevy Chase Federal Savings accepted a deed to the 351-acre property in lieu of foreclosure against the developer, Joseph Alfandre & Co.Kentlands has been lauded by architects and urban planners because its design harks back to 19th-century communities in ++ which homes in different price ranges were built close together, and all of them were close to a town center for the convenience of residents.

New urbanist Joseph Alfandre had hoped to slow the national growth of scattered housing developments and strip malls when he helped create the Kentlands in Gaithersburg during the late 1980s. Fourteen years later, Alfandre is disappointed with the results - but it's not for lack of interest. "Planners and politicians, as well as their community allies, saw the advantage of `new urbanism' and not only bought into it, but appreciated the thought and the effort behind it," he said. But Alfandre said developers failed to follow through on the practice of targeted, urban place-making by expanding housing and creating communities in once-rural, now thriving areas.

Disney World often gets the same reaction Jim Hormuth had for Kentlands, a new residential development in Montgomery County that its designers say will help redefine the suburbs.Standing next to his wife, Rosie, in the two-story foyer of a large colonial opened to prospective Kentlands home buyers recently, Hormuth marveled at the winding staircase, the palladium windows and the 10-foot ceiling."This is really something," he muttered, distracted as he ascended the stairs and took in the gilded framed pictures of red-coated fox hunters.

THIS PAST WEEK, my sense of civic pride has been challenged by the drubbing Columbia has gotten at the hands of this venerable newspaper.It's not that I don't think Columbia deserves some of the criticism it received in the paper's two-part special report. In fact, over the years, I've been one of the critics.What really called me to respond was the comparison made between Columbia and Kentlands, the planned community in Gaithersburg that is the latest cause celebre among urban planners.The neo-traditional concept that Kentlands embodies -- its narrow streets, alleyways and town squares -- is being touted as the latest answer to suburban ills, just as Columbia was at its founding a quarter-century ago.Planners and architects who have embraced neo-traditionalism's back-to-the-future design say their ideas are preferable to the the ones that fostered Columbia because they reduce residents' need for the automobile.

Architects have loved neo-traditional suburban developments like Kentlands since before anyone built any. But when an auditorium full of architects, planners and builders got together at the Maryland Institute of Art 10 days ago, they clashed over the bottom-line question: Will anyone buy it?That question is highlighted by the fact that Kentlands was taken over by its lender, Chevy Chase Federal Savings and Loan, in 1991. But Andres Duany, the Miami architect and neo-traditional suburbia guru who served as a consultant to Kentlands developer Joseph Alfrandre, insisted that Kentlands' financial failure was a fluke.

The body of a Silver Spring man was found yesterday morning on a roadside near a Gaithersburg shopping center. He was the apparent victim of a hit-and-run driver, Montgomery County police said. The family of the man, Anant Jit Singh, 73, had reported him missing Saturday night, about two hours after he left a restaurant to buy a camera at the shopping center and never returned. His body was discovered in a culvert on Great Seneca Highway, across from the Kentlands Square Shopping Center, police said.

The state's Board of Public Works is expected to vote today on a Maryland Retirement and Pension System plan to invest $35.5 million to purchase a Montgomery County shopping center.The pending acquisition of the project in the Kentlands planned community would mark the third retail project that LaSalle Advisors Ltd. has bought on behalf of the state and its 90,000 retirees since 1991, when the Chicago-based consultant purchased the Festival in Bel Air.In all, LaSalle has invested nearly $100 million to purchase shopping centers for the state and its pension system, which has assets in excess of $20 billion.

Call it an attack on the cul-de-sac. Call it nostalgia for the grid.The theory behind a new wave of old-style housing developments suddenly in vogue around Maryland is that laying out blocks with sidewalks and houses close together will break the growing isolation of America's cul-de-sacs.Gently curving streets with dead-ends that slow traffic became popular after World War II as symbols of suburban escape from the dehumanizing boxes of the city.Now some suburban planners are holding up the cul-de-sac as a symbol of evil.

Sykesville may be the small town that could.The South Carroll town of 3,000 wants to annex 131 acres and 15 vacant buildings at Springfield Hospital Center. With the help of a nationally known architect, the town could develop a plan for turning the century-old Warfield Complex into homes, shops, offices, maybe even a satellite college campus."You take a historical site and develop around it," said Mayor Jonathan S. Herman. "It fits neatly into the governor's initiative to end sprawl and get back to Main Street."

Just past the suburban homes, shopping strips and fast-food outlets that outnumber the occasional farm, two nondescript brick signposts appear to lead to yet another of the sprawling developments that have come to define late 20th-century American life.But venture off busy Darnestown Road into Kentlands, on 352 acres of hills and valleys 13 miles northwest of Washington.Here, not much feels like suburbia. Driveways are missing. Garages are nowhere in sight. No speed bumps cross streets. Nothing faintly resembles a cul-de-sac.

THIS PAST WEEK, my sense of civic pride has been challenged by the drubbing Columbia has gotten at the hands of this venerable newspaper.It's not that I don't think Columbia deserves some of the criticism it received in the paper's two-part special report. In fact, over the years, I've been one of the critics.What really called me to respond was the comparison made between Columbia and Kentlands, the planned community in Gaithersburg that is the latest cause celebre among urban planners.The neo-traditional concept that Kentlands embodies -- its narrow streets, alleyways and town squares -- is being touted as the latest answer to suburban ills, just as Columbia was at its founding a quarter-century ago.Planners and architects who have embraced neo-traditionalism's back-to-the-future design say their ideas are preferable to the the ones that fostered Columbia because they reduce residents' need for the automobile.

GAITHERSBURG -- The newest America has bypassed the "Next America." Kentlands -- a 4-year-old development on 352 acres in this Montgomery County city -- reflects the very latest ideas on suburban planning, ideas that resurrectAmerica's roots with narrow streets, alleys, town squares, front porches and an eclectic mix of housing.These traditional small-town elements are cropping up more and more in new housing developments throughout this region and nationally. They are even being promoted by Maryland state planners.

Stopping growth has become a watchword in many suburban regions. Growth pressures are clogging roads, crowding schools and changing the landscape. Commuting to work, to school or even the grocery store takes bigger and bigger chunks of the day. Meanwhile, the costs of multiple cars, along with gasoline and auto insurance, eat further into the family budget. Suburban sprawl is taking a heavy toll on modern lives -- no wonder "growth" has become a political hot potato.So hats off to Montgomery County developer Joseph Alfandre, whose Kentlands development in Gaithersburg is a step back toward livable neighborhoods -- places where sidewalks and front porches encourage neighbors to say hello to each other.

Just past the suburban homes, shopping strips and fast-food outlets that outnumber the occasional farm, two nondescript brick signposts appear to lead to yet another of the sprawling developments that have come to define late 20th-century American life.But venture off busy Darnestown Road into Kentlands, on 352 acres of hills and valleys 13 miles northwest of Washington.Here, not much feels like suburbia. Driveways are missing. Garages are nowhere in sight. No speed bumps cross streets. Nothing faintly resembles a cul-de-sac.

Carroll County has no shortage of towns in the National Register of Historic Places. Sites in Westminster, Sykesville, Uniontown and Taneytown have been recognized for their historical significance.Now it's Union Bridge's turn.The town's Main Street area is the latest Carroll district to be included in the register, a division of the National Park Service."Union Bridge had not really even been looked at, and it was time," said Ken Short, the county's historic planner. "There are so many great resources there."

Architects have loved neo-traditional suburban developments like Kentlands since before anyone built any. But when an auditorium full of architects, planners and builders got together at the Maryland Institute of Art 10 days ago, they clashed over the bottom-line question: Will anyone buy it?That question is highlighted by the fact that Kentlands was taken over by its lender, Chevy Chase Federal Savings and Loan, in 1991. But Andres Duany, the Miami architect and neo-traditional suburbia guru who served as a consultant to Kentlands developer Joseph Alfrandre, insisted that Kentlands' financial failure was a fluke.