Before You Talk Westbard, Get To Know Westbard

Westbard area, via Montgomery County Planning Department

The public process for a new Westbard will begin on Tuesday night with a kickoff community meeting at Walt Whitman High School.

Before heading there, it’s probably a good idea to check out the Planning Department’s Westbard Briefing Book, a 48-page treasure trove of stats, background info and projections about the area that, if nothing else, will give you a better idea of where planners are coming from.

Those planners will lead the Westbard Sector Plan rewrite, the master plan initiated by a new property owner seeking mixed-use redevelopment of some of the area’s anchor locations – including the Westwood Shopping Center on Westbard Avenue.

It’s set for 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. in the Whitman High School Cafeteria (7100 Whittier Blvd.). 

Until then, catch up on the Briefing Book facts, including some of the following that stood out to us:

  • Just more than 60 percent of employed residents in the Westbard Employment Study Area commuted to another state or D.C. for work, compared to about 30 percent countywide, according to the U.S. Census American Community Survey.
  • Almost 1,800 people work in the boundary of the 1982 Westbard Sector Plan, according to a 2013 census from the Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation. That’s just 1.7 percent of employment in the Greater Bethesda area, in which Westbard is located.
  • Retail establishments employ nearly one in three Westbard workers, much higher than the share in Greater Bethesda and Montgomery County, where retail accounts for only one in 10 jobs.
  • That’s not a shocking number when you consider the Giant Food and Whole Foods Market in the area employ about 300 people. Restaurants and caterers, including Ridgewells Catering on Dorsey Lane, employ a total of about 405 workers.
  • Almost 60 percent of workers in Westbard earn $3,333 or less per month, compared to 35 percent of workers in Bethesda and 42 percent of workers countywide.
  • Hispanics/Latinos make up 20 percent of Westbard’s workers, double the Hispanic workforce share in Bethesda and Montgomery County. Virtually all workers in Westbard live outside the Westbard area; 47 percent live outside Montgomery County.
  • Light industrial and flex space make up about 17 percent of the commercial space in the area, but that space accounts for 89.6 percent of all the industrial and flex space in Bethesda.
  • Retail space in Westbard is now fully leased and has a five-year average vacancy rate of 0.5 percent. Greater Bethesda’s average vacancy rate is 4 percent.
  • In 2010, about 1,970 people lived in 1,190 households in the area likely to be defined as Westbard for the purposes of the sector plan rewrite.
  • The average household income in 2012 was $199,498, about $69,000 higher than the county average.
  • In the study area, nene of 10 adults 25 and older had a bachelor, graduate or professional degree. The county average is 57 percent.
  • By combining traffic analysis zones with Council of Governments growth forecasts, planners say the Westbard area is projected to see increases of about 550 people, 660 households and 200 jobs by 2040.
  • There are four bus lines that operate in the Westbard “vicinity” and none of the intersections are failing current traffic congestion standards.
  • The Capital Crescent Trail provides “excellent north and south bicycle access in and out of Westbard,” but most streets “are currently unsuited for the majority of bicyclists, due to prevailing vehicular traffic speed and volume.”
  • The 1982 Westbard Sector Plan focused on changing the heavy industrial zoning in the area to light industrial, office and residential uses. The community was at one time thought to need the industrial uses because of the B&O railroad that ran through it.
  • Two area streams — the Willett Branch and Little Falls — have portions that are channelized and piped with open concrete, a technique that solves local flooding problems but results in high-temperature waters not good for aquatic life and limiting runoff downstream.

Photo via Montgomery County Planning Department

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