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Olney Town Center could pair residences with ground-floor retail and office space if a concept plan recently approved by a volunteer advisory committee comes to fruition.

The plan calls for increased densities, pedestrian-friendly streets, open space and building heights as high as 70 feet.

Olney Town Center Advisory Committee members stress, however, that the plan is one possible illustration of how downtown Olney could look with full build-out. It is not a blueprint for development.

"We have agreed on it internally, so the next step is to present it to the Planning Board," advisory committee Chairman Jim Smith said. "We have also talked about presenting it to the Planning, Housing and Economic Development Committee to bring it to the council's attention."

A civic center and town commons could be included in a new "downtown" Olney, the 90-acre commercial area surrounding the intersection of Georgia Avenue and Route 108.

It could also be home to a police satellite station, the Olney Chamber of Commerce, the Olney Library, the Mid-County Services Center and Project Change, the nonprofit organization dedicated to giving area youths more recreational and civic opportunities.

"We want to have all this figured out before any big development occurs," Smith said.  

The Olney Town Center Advisory Committee, made up of members from local civic organizations, homeowners associations, businesses and county agencies, was chartered by the Maryland-National Park and Planning Commission to create a community-based vision of how a new town center would look and how it would function in relation to the surrounding neighborhoods.

The committee was formed as part of the Olney Master Plan, which was approved in April 2005.

A Mixed Use Town Center zone was created to encourage residential uses in the town center.

The committee unveiled the plan in December and presented it at several public meetings to gather suggestions from the community. The document was modified over the next several months based on the comments received.

Community Planner Khalid Afzal said the Planning Board could approve it as early as December and reiterated that the document is advisory.

"It should be used by developers, property owners, potential investors and the community to see the intent and vision of the master plan for the Town Center," he said.

Smith said the committee also plans to come up with a separate document of development guidelines, which would focus on aspects such as architectural styles, signs, street lighting, sidewalks and certain design themes.

"Some guidelines were included in the initial draft, but we didn't focus on those during the public meetings so they are not fully vetted yet," Smith said.  "We weren't chartered to do this, but we think it will be a useful resource."

While it seems that much of the development would be located on the redeveloped Carl M. Freeman Companies property – the shopping centers along the north side of Olney-Sandy Spring Road to the east of Georgia Avenue – Smith said all of it does not have to be included.

"Freeman is the big show in town, but not the only show in town," he said. "Even a smaller parcel could house something like the satellite station, but we are working on that now, to determine which of these places may need to be next to each other."

Smith said that at the committee's Oct. 28 meeting, members hope to hear from local organizations such as the Olney Farmer's and Artists Market and the Olney Community Band to learn their needs for public space.

"We're going to work really hard on this, and like the illustrative concept, we will do public outreach to get community input," he said.

Another committee third task is to review development proposals for parcels within the town center and make recommendations to the county Planning Board.

At a recent meeting, Drs. Raymond and Gabriella Moss presented preliminary plans to build a three-story office building on Morningwood Drive.

"They let us know early on so we could get a glimpse of what they had in mind," Smith said. "Working with Park and Planning and having conversations with us will give them direction in what the master plan is looking for in the town center. We are certainly a resource to them as they develop their site plan, and this shows how we can be useful very early in planning."

Smith said he envisions the majority of the committee's work to be completed in 18 months, but it will continue to meet to review development plans.