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Chevy Chase Lake Sector Plan

Planners are laying the groundwork for a Chevy Chase Lake Sector Plan that will focus on improving the form and function of some of the commercial areas, among other goals, to coincide with the coming of the Purple Line light rail line.

Updates

  • On October 4, 2011, the County Council delayed the Chevy Chase Lake Sector Plan to allow the Chevy Chase Land Company additional time to work with the community.
  • The Planning Board will review the Staff Draft Sector Plan in March. The Staff Draft of the Sector Plan will be available online in late February.
  • Questions about the staff's draft recommendations? Contact us.

Background

Take a walking tour of the Chevy Chase Lake planning area with lead planner Elza Hisel-McCoy in this excerpt from our Montgomery Plans cable show.

Recommendations for Chevy Chase Lake, a community of mixed housing types and commercial strip centers along Connecticut Avenue just north of Washington, D.C., will become part of a community vision that revises that part of the 1990 Bethesda-Chevy Chase Master Plan.

Chevy Chase Lake is one in a series of land use plans that set design and development patterns in Purple Line station areas. Planners will focus on land use and zoning recommendations as redevelopment occurs around the proposed Purple Line station at Chevy Chase Lake Drive and Connecticut Avenue.

View the Scope of Work (pdf, 1MB) for the Chevy Chase Lake Sector Plan. The Planning Board approved the scope on July 1, 2010.

In 1890, Senator Francis G. Newlands established the Chevy Chase Land Company, which led development as Connecticut Avenue was extended north of the Washington, D.C., line. Chevy Chase Lake was formed when a small dam was constructed across Coquelin Run stream to supply water for an electric power plant.

The community grew around the lake about two miles north of the District line at the junction of a trolley line and the Baltimore and Ohio Georgetown Branch. The area included several businesses, an amusement park, and from 1925 to 1972, a swimming pool. For Chevy Chase residents, “the lake” enjoyed a particular community significance.

Project schedule

Upcoming

  • Spring 2012: Staff Draft of the Chevy Chase Lake Sector Plan to the Planning Board

Past meetings

  • June 18, 2011: Public meeting to present preliminary staff recommendations
    Chevy Chase Village Hall
    View staff's narrated presentation below. View comments.
  • March 12, 2011: Chevy Chase Lake Sector Plan Community Design Workshop
    More than 130 people participated in this day-long event, during which we asked participants to complete a questionnaire with their thoughts and preferences regarding future development of Chevy Chase Lake. We showed participants photo boards depicting various aspects of five commercial areas (labeled A-E) from around the D.C. area and asked them to rate on a questionnaire their top three preferences about particular urban design elements shown (or not) in the pictures. Generally, the scale of development shown on each of the boards increased from A (low) to E (high).

    See the summary of responses. 

    Chevy Chase Study Area mapThe questionnaire also asked for more detailed thoughts about what potential redevelopment of Chevy Chase Lake should be. Staff read each survey and summarized the general themes that emerged, as well as what community features the Sector Plan ought to preserve, enhance, and create. See the summary of what we heard.

  • January 10, 2011: Community Meeting. Presentations by the  Chevy Chase Land Company, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the Montgomery County Housing Opportunities Commission
    View the meeting
  • Download the meeting presentations from:
  • July 1, 2010: Planning Board approves Scope of Work (pdf, 1MB)
  • April 27, 2010: Community open house, Chevy Chase Library

Contact

Elza Hisel-McCoy
301-495-2115
elza.hisel-mccoy@montgomeryplanning.org

Date of last update: February 15, 2012