Contending more stringent height, set-back and public-use standards should be required, opponents told the County Council during a March 1 public hearing that the proposed build-out around the Shady Grove Metro Station would further frustrate already failing roads and crowded schools.

Terry O'Grady, president of the East Village Homes Corporation, questioned the adequacy of planned parking and affordable housing for the new residents before getting to her main point.

"I would like the council to reconsider the zoning and look further where its impact is going to be," she said. "Montgomery Village and Gaithersburg are going to be tremendously impacted with the roads, with the volume of traffic going in and out, the value of property is going to go down wildly."

The proposed Shady Grove Sector Plan, which the council's Planning Housing and Economic Development (PHED) Committee is considering, would more than double the current housing density in the Shady Grove area.

The mixed-use zone is being proposed because no such zoning exists outside of Central Business Districts. If adopted by the County Council, the zone would replace both Transit Station Residential and Transit Station Mixed-Use zones, and serve as a template for future development around the Shady Grove and Twinbrook Metro stations.

The zone's purpose is to create a mixed-use center in transit areas that establishes "a lively urban mix of housing, community and retail uses," said Karen Kumm, Shady Grove project planner for Montgomery County Park and Planning.

It will remove the need for inefficient parcel-by-parcel zoning decisions, she said, and allow optional method development in which developers are granted double density in exchange for providing twice the public space and amenities.

Gerald Donegan, president of Eastgate Homes Corporation, opposed the possible relocation of school bus and Ride On bus parking to the Web Tract off Snouffer School Road.

"We believe such a move will cause more traffic congestion, more noise and more pollution in and around Eastgate and the entire Montgomery Village community," he said. "And if that does take place, it is almost certain that our residential property value will decline."

The Planning Board passed the mixed-use zone ordinance in February and it will be considered by the County Council.