More News

The County Council could change the zoning on a parcel of land in Burtonsville, making it impossible for an ezStorage facility to be built there.

After an initial denial from the county Planning Board last year to develop the 3-acre property on Route 198 near the Route 29 intersection, and a Circuit Court decision overruling the board, the County Council on July 28 will hold a public hearing on a zoning text amendment for the site initiated by Councilwoman Nancy Navarro (D-Dist. 4) of Silver Spring.

Navarro said she decided the site should not be used for the storage facility after talking with community residents.

"[There was] a desire for more high-end amenities," Navarro said.

An official at ezStorage says the county has targeted self-storage facilities even though the Burtonsville site is zoned to include storage.

"It's a lousy way for the county to treat businesses," said Craig Pittinger, vice president of Siena Corporation, the development wing of ezStorage.

According to its Web site, ezStorage calls itself "the largest self-storage company in Maryland, Washington, D.C. and Virginia."

The Columbia-based company has facilities in Montgomery, Howard and Prince George's counties and other jurisdictions in Maryland. The last county ezStorage facility to be built was in Takoma Park in February 2006, Pittinger said.

The County Council is also considering a zoning text amendment that would prevent ezStorage from moving to a tract of land in Sandy Spring.

Some area residents and officials say the storage site will not bring sufficient jobs to eastern Montgomery County.

"We don't want to see east county become the capital of storage facilities," said Bill Strassberger, chairman of East County Citizens Advisory Board.

Stuart Rochester, chairman of the Fairland Master Plan Committee, said the site should be preserved for future development, which he thinks could include "potential high-end, high-quality offices" as the Route 29 area continues to develop.

Washington Adventist Hospital plans to move from Takoma Park to the Calverton/White Oak community in 2013. The Food and Drug Administration plans to have 8,900 employees at its White Oak campus by the time the next building is scheduled for completion in 2011-2012.

During his May 14 testimony to the Planning Board, Rochester said even having the site brought forward for approval "makes a mockery of not only [the] master plan intent but the [Planning Board's] authority and discretion to rule in such manners.

"The master plan, of course, as the [Planning] Board recognized and decided unanimously, explicitly states that the Burtonsville Overlay Zone was to be an employment center with a diversity of uses, and on neither score did the proposed development remotely qualify," he added.

For Rochester, the storage site would be another example of bad east county planning.

"The last thing the east side of [Route] 29 needs is another visible self-storage facility to underscore the transiency, scattershot development and poor planning implementation that have marred efforts to rehabilitate the area," Rochester said in his May 14 testimony. "We all have an interest in seeing that this key gateway in Montgomery from two neighboring counties becomes a source of pride rather than embarrassment."

The County Council public hearing on the zoning text amendment will be held after 1:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Council Office Building, 100 Maryland Ave. in Rockville.