Windermere Residents Fight to Preserve its Suburban Identity

Windermere's residents, especially around the walking mecca of North Bethesda, Windermere Circle, have overwhelmingly rejected the county's proposal to remove close to 70 mature trees along its walker friendly streets as prerequisites for having ribbons of sidewalks installed. The surveyed responses from all of Windermere's residents, however, have not yet been completely tallied by the Montgomery County Government's Department of Transportation and its in house consultant Contact O'Connell & Lawrence, Inc. The decision whether to kill the sidewalk proposal for Windermere or to move to the public hearing stage may come next week, and is reserved for the director of the Department of Transportation.

Amidst the uncertainty, a Coalition of Windermere Neighbors formed and started putting up signs to protest the county's unsolicited proposal to transform their community. Many of the residents still do not fully understand what is at stake due to the very short notice that was provided to process the tree removal and side walk proposal and the ramifications to the community.

Laying about two miles of concrete sidewalks is about two full acres of hard surface, which is the equivalent of a parking lot large enough to hold 484 cars.

According to personnel with O'Connell & Lawrence, Inc., there is a possibility that Marcliff Drive in Tilden Woods may go to the next step, which is the public hearing phase of the Sidewalk Proposal. For those intimate with the communities in the 20852 zip code in North Bethesda, families with children attending schools, do not have the benefit of a bus ride if they are close enough to a school and do not have to cross a major road like Tuckerman Lane or Old Georgetown Road. Such is the case with Marcliff Road in Tilden Woods. School age children walk to and from school along Marclliff Road. As a result, sidewalks on Marcliff appear to be a perfectly appropriate location given the safety concerns for school children. In contrast, school children in Windermere take the bus due to the county's requirements for safety, given that schools are across either Tuckerman Lane or Old Georgetown Road. Every morning a school bus drives into Windermere for pickup, and in the afternoon returns for the drop off. From their, the kids either walk home or are picked up and driven home by a parent.

Windermere's residents, a very strong majority, hope to preserve what was handed to them by the community's developer - a well planned community ideal for a suburban environment, which requires commuting into urban areas. Sometimes residents, who choose not to drive, exit the community along either Arroyo Drive, Ralston Road, or Lux Lane to catch the RideOn to the METRO. On the return home, however, commuters using public transportation are dropped off on the opposite side of Tuckerman Lane, which necessitates crossing the two lane county road to walk back into the community and then to their homes. For years, Windermere's Heritage Walk Homeowner's Association tried to have a pedestrian controlled traffic light installed on Tuckerman, but repeatedly met with resistance from Montgomery County Department of Transportation (MCDOT) and State Highway Administration.

Aaron Kraut, the Legislative Aide for the Office of Councilmember Friedson, stated,"In the last few years, both MCDOT and State Highway Administration have become more open to installing pedestrian-activated signals." Mr. Kraut said that Councilmember Friedson's office would explore another request on behalf of Windermere. "Of course, they still do make judgements based on whether the conditions on the road/intersection meet the warrants established in the Manual on Maryland Uniform Traffic Control Devices (which itself is derived from the Federal version of the Manual)," he cautioned.

In spite of being designed as a commuter community, Windermere has matured nicely to become that perfect balance between featuring estate homes with the large green lawn punctuated with eye catching landscaping and being super close to the RideOn, the Grosvenor METRO, Rockville Pike, and I-270. Because of the recent spurt of growth nearby, the community is in fact a suburban oasis amidst urbanization with Pike & Rose, which is just a two mile walk, and the new White Flint redevelopment project, which is also a walkable two miles.

The lack of sidewalks pose no impediment to walk out of the insular suburban enclave to places like &Pizza during a blizzard, as was the case during the Winter of 2017. They were the only place open, and it was busy. No cars were out and about, and no one walked on the sidewalks, because snow plows had buried them beneath several feet of snow. Instead, pedestrians walked the streets, to escape the cabin fever imposed by the record snow fall.

This is the seventh article in a series on Windermere and community planning in North Bethesda.

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