White Flint area’s name to be discussed at community meeting

What's In  A Name, White Flint branding eventThe age-old question of what to call the place around the White Flint Metro station will be the focus of an event next month set up by the Friends of White Flint, Streetsense and the Montgomery Business Development Corporation.

The open meeting, “What’s In A Name,” comes after years of debate about whether to call the unincorporated, redeveloping area White Flint, North Bethesda, Rockville, something else or some combination of a host of suggestions.

The event is set for Thursday, Sept. 11 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the offices of Streetsense, the brokerage, design and development company based at 3 Bethesda Metro. 

Holly Sears Sullivan, president of the MBDC, will facilitate the conversation, which is sure to draw a variety of opinions.

Last spring, a few furious weeks of back- and-forth between the major developers reshaping the area led to a new suggestion from developer Federal Realty: the Pike District, which would contain individual neighborhoods that could keep their preferred identities — such as White Flint around the White Flint Mall property.

Many of the area’s developers (Federal Realty is building the Pike & Rose project at Old Georgetown Road and Rockville Pike) think the White Flint name is too closely tied to White Flint Mall. In June, a collection of some of the area’s biggest developers known as the White Flint Partnership expressed its support for the Pike District concept.

After some objections to the developer group’s lead role in the process, Federal Realty officials said they were slowing the process down and would be pursuing some type of public meeting to get opinions from a wide array of stakeholders.

Next month’s meeting appears to be one such opportunity.

Developers such as Federal Realty contend the area needs one strong, unified brand name to attract retailers and business. The White Flint Sector Plan area has been called Rockville, despite the fact the actual border to the City of Rockville is farther north on Rockville Pike. It’s also been called North Bethesda based in previous planning efforts and according to the area’s main zip code. There’s also the complicating factor of a different zip code — officially Kensington — that actually covers the land of the landmark White Flint Mall, which will be redeveloped into a massive mixed-use, town center.

The event will not address changing the name of anybody’s postal address or neighborhood.

In an email about the event to members, the nonprofit Friends of White Flint said it’s about time the place gets a name.

“For years, we’ve known that this place needs a name,” read the email. “And, we’ve believed that the community should have input into what that name would be. Our opportunity has arrived.”

RSVPs by Thursday, Sept. 4 to hsullivan[at]montgomerybusiness[dot]org.

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