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A stretch of restaurants and shops along Old Columbia Pike southwest of Seibel's Restaurant is heading closer to a makeover as officials prepare for surveys on how to revitalize downtown Burtonsville.

The 11 "aging" properties will be front-and-center as the county gears up to look at the area's lighting, safety for pedestrians, parking lots and façades, according to Roylene Roberts, chief of neighborhood revitalization for the county's Department of Housing and Community Affairs. It's a much-discussed project that residents and officials say they hope will jump-start traffic to local businesses struggling after the construction of the Route 29 bypass.

Roberts said it's vital to create a unified look among the stretch's façades and improve lighting and walkway safety. As the budget is approved, she said she hopes some of the properties' cracked pavement, dented signs and worn-away paint can be replaced with facades that complement each other and the new Burtonsville Shopping Center.

The Capital Improvements Program rolled out the first batch of funding, $360,000 for fiscal year 2010, to hire consultants, hold meetings with business owners and agree on a street-face design. After the CIP budget is approved in May of 2010, the department can start implementing the agreed-upon improvements.

In 2008, the department held community meetings to see what residents hoped to see in the area. Most people opted for a gentler approach of renovation: improved signage and spruced-up exteriors rather than a complete overhaul.

By May 2010, the department hopes to meet with local business owners to discuss possible shared parking lots and external improvements, Roberts said. Consultants will look at pedestrian lighting, and county officials are pushing the State Highway Administration to look at the possibility of lowering the speed limit along the route to increase safety and local business traffic, county officials said. Roberts said she plans to have a street-face design and parking-opportunity analysis completed in this fiscal year.

"Budgetary restrictions will sometimes limit how far we can go," she said. "At this point, this is where we're starting. As we move forward in the process, we'll determine what can be our next step."

Though county officials have discouraged the use of words like "dilapidated" and "problem area" to describe the stretch of shopping centers, they say it's imperative to Burtonsville that the project secures funding.

"This roadway does not make it conducive for businesses," said Chuck Crisostomo, assistant director of the Eastern Montgomery Regional Services Center. Residents are concerned about the road's small businesses, he said. "They've seen Burtonsville go backward, slipping sort of. There's a need to spruce it up."

"They are what they are," Roberts said. "They're buildings that are made of cinder block and need some help. Not that they're not structurally sound, they just need some help."