With the first crocuses of spring come the first bulldozers. Long-presaged, a 55+ senior housing and handicapped-accessible facility has broken ground on Greenbelt Road, a 4.5-acre parcel boxed by the Armory, University Square Apartments and Lakecrest Drive. The lot is now piled with cut-down trees and laid out to admit the phalanx of heavy equipment arriving at the site, exposing the sides of University Square buildings that can now be seen from Greenbelt Road. With giant concrete rings stacked at the ready and tidy piles of brush, the site appears workmanlike and bustling. The assigned builder is NVR, owner of the Ryan Homes construction company, which has built similar properties in the area.
History
The site has been owned by Armory Place, LLC of Rockville since 2005. They purchased the site of a former nursing home facility, the Greenbelt Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, which was permanently shut down by the State of Maryland around 1998. The facility fell further into disrepair, eventually being razed by Armory Place at the city’s request. Since then, the site has been overgrown, buffering University Square from Greenbelt Road, with the original building all but forgotten.
Siting
Four buildings will be constructed. The front of the two buildings planned to face Greenbelt Road is set back to meet county and city requirements for noise abatement – just behind the required “noise contours” of 65 and 70 decibels. The closest buildings now are perpendicular to the road, so the buildings’ short ends face the road to reduce exposure to noise. Recreational areas (including a pickleball court) will be furthest from the road.
The Buildings
Each building has 24 apartments (96 altogether), with one unit set aside at the request of council to facilitate engagement with the wider community (the city has no formal power over zoning but developers are often willing to make concessions). There are four floor plans (and their mirror images) that depend on location in the building – for example, corner or middle – but all have two bedrooms, two bathrooms and a balcony.
The site is being developed not to the provisions of the current site zoning (from April 1, 2022), but under the provisions of the pre-2022 ordinance (which the rules allow). This enables the property to have the slightly higher-than-normal density of apartments per acre that was allowed for housing for the elderly or disabled under the pre-2022 rules. The normal number of such units allowed would be 90.
Parking and Landscaping
The site will have a total of 119 parking spaces, most on the smaller side, at 9’x18’ (often 9.5’ x 19’/20’); eight are handicapped-accessible (larger) spaces, 111 are regular and two are electric-charging spaces. The building description notes that these smaller-than-usual parking spaces provide “more room for the older residents than utilizing compact vehicle spaces,” but perhaps more importantly to the developer, “ensure the minimum green area requirements are satisfied.”
Preliminary landscaping diagrams show plantings that will encapsulate and shield the site from nearby homes and apartments, with significant attention to the border along Greenbelt Road.
Conforming to Zoning
The site is subject to R-18 zoning and the justification document walks through the ordinance’s criteria showing how the development meets each of them. These include requirements for attractive buildings and landscaping, suitable amenities, grading, services, public spaces and parking/circulation. The R-18 zoning promotes neighborhood preservation, the provision of age-restricted housing and owned rather than rented properties. It promotes diversity of available housing types and identifies characteristics associated with the ability of seniors to “age in place.”
Ownership and Marketing
The buildings will be sold unit by unit as condominiums with a governing board of residents and a resident management company to provide day-to-day services to the apartments. Expected completion dates and pricing are not yet available.
Detailed submissions to the city from the owners/builders can be seen online at greenbeltmd.gov/government/planning-community-development/development-proposals/currently-under-review/7010-greenbelt-road.
