Please join us for the North Woodside Citizens Association annual meeting!
When: Wednesday, May 24, 2023 Where:Grace Episcopal Church (1607 Grace Church Rd., Silver Spring)
Pizza will be served starting at 6:30 and the meeting will begin at 7:00pm. Our new County Councilmember Kate Stewart will talk about her work on the council and answer questions. We will hear what the Board and committees have done this past year, review the NWCA budget, and vote on new Board members. Representatives from our committees and interest groups will be available to meet in breakout groups to let you know about their activities and give neighbors a chance to meet and get involved.
Please RSVP for the meeting so we will know how much pizza to order and how many families plan to use the onsite childcare.
NWCA Board has approved a proposal from Kellie Cox of Strawberry Fields, LLC to provide a master plan landscape design for the county right-of-way space at the intersection of Luzerne Ave. and Glen Ross Rd. where the community tree sits. Neighbors, please use this form to provide your input to the Community Design Committee and landscape designer for the project.
NEIGHBORHOOD MEETING – Friday, March 17, 2023 at noon
In addition to using this form, all North Woodside neighbors are invited to a virtual meeting with Kellie Cox to learn more about the project and ask questions. Please email Cheryl for the Zoom link.
The NWCA Community Design Committee formed in early 2021. Our original discussions focused on the location of a memorial bench, but our goal was and remains to take a broader look at the use of neighborhood green spaces. We are interested in placemaking within the shared publicly owned pieces of land that are part of the fabric of North Woodside.
There are areas within our neighborhood that are imbued with memory as places for community interactions. One of these is the triangle at the intersection of Luzerne Ave. and Glen Ross Rd. where the community tree sits. It has served for decades as the place where neighbors come together to celebrate winter holidays. In the summer of 2020 it was where our youth called neighbors to action. And popular food trucks popped up alongside it in 2021. Alas, those moments, when the community injects the space with energy, are brief and few. The minimally maintained triangle is forgettable at best, and not many neighbors are drawn there during other times of the year. This place could be so much more than it is! At the urging of an adjacent neighbor, the Community Design Committee has begun to address this opportunity.
The land that we are referring to as the Community Tree Triangle is owned by Montgomery County and maintained by the Department of Transportation (MCDOT). Community Design Committee members have already been in communication with our assigned project contact (our county arborist) and a MCDOT traffic engineer. These officials appear very willing to approve NWCA’s efforts to improve the site. We’ve learned that permits will not be required, but county review of a design and coordination of its implementation are. We will maintain regular communications with the various county entities to ensure that improvements can move forward.
With the approval of the NWCA Board, members of the Community Design Committee solicited proposals for a master plan from three local women-owned landscape design firms. We met with each firm at the triangle and shared the following guidelines for the design:
Replace the grass with plantings of native species sourced from environmentally conscious growers and suppliers to attract pollinators and provide food and cover for birds. Consider the educational opportunity these types of plantings could offer the community.
Maintain and possibly enhance the use of the area for the annual neighborhood holiday tree and menorah lighting events.
Consider features like stepstone pathways to invite the community to engage in the space.
Consider sight lines for traffic safety throughout the year.
Long-term maintenance should be minimal.
The NWCA Board voted to approve the proposal from Strawberry Fields
After careful review and input from the committee, the NWCA Board voted to approve the proposal from Strawberry Fields Design, LLC, to provide master plan landscape design services. Strawberry Fields was selected for its experience working with Montgomery County and on community projects of similar scope and scale and previous work in our neighborhood. Owner Kellie Cox is communicative, engaging, and knowledgeable. The board agreed to move forward with this investment in the design for a piece of land within our neighborhood because of the potential impacts on the community as a whole: visual, environmental, safety, and use.
Neighbors will be invited to engage in the design at key points in the process:
Prior to the landscape design work beginning, neighbors will be able to provide input via an online form and participate in a neighborhood meeting to chat with the designer, ask questions, and offer their ideas.
Once Strawberry Fields has developed a preliminary design plan, the Community Design Committee would share it with neighbors for further input at a meeting and/or via the neighborhood listserv and website.
It would also be shared with our county contacts for their review and input.
Strawberry Fields would take all the above input into consideration before finalizing a master plan.
The timeline for all of this will be sent out via the listserv in the coming months. We look forward to hearing what our neighbors would like to see happen with our shared space in the heart of our community!
The landscape master plan is a first step in making the Community Tree Triangle a more special place for our North Woodside community. Implementing that plan will require funding to turn drawings into plants and stepstones and flowers. At almost 2,200 square feet, this is a large area. The cost to achieve our goal is not yet known, but we can anticipate that it could be substantial. Rest assured that the Community Design Committee is already exploring ways to meet the challenge, such as grant opportunities, work parties, fundraising initiatives, and phasing the work to implement as funds become available.
Donations are always appreciated as an investment in our shared community design efforts. Interested neighbors may go to visit the NWCA donation page and follow instructions for contribution to the Neighborhood Beautification and Memorial Fund.
If discussions about the potential improvements to our neighborhood green spaces interest you, please join our Community Design Committee email list.
On December 18, 2022, neighbors gathered at the Community Tree Triangle for the 74th Annual Tree Lighting and 5th Annual Menorah Lighting and enjoyed hot cider and latkes. Photo by Phyllida Paterson
Amy Henchey cuts the ribbon at the dedication of the North Woodside Memorial Bench in honor of her late husband, Woody Brosnan. Photo by Ryland Owen
On May 1, 2022, the NWCA Board and Community Design Committee dedicated the first North Woodside Memorial Bench, in honor of longtime community volunteer, Woody Brosnan. The short ceremony, held in the “pocket park” at the intersection of Lanier Drive and 3rd Avenue, included a ribbon cutting by Mr. Brosnan’s wife, current North Woodside resident and NWCA Secretary Amy Henchey, plus memories of Mr. Brosnan’s dedication to local service by neighbor Gus Bauman.
If you would like to contribute to the cost of the bench you may make a donation to the NWCA’s new Neighborhood Beautification and Memorial Fund. To donate by check or PayPal, follow the directions on our NWCA Dues page.
NWCA President Genevieve McDowell Owen and NWCA Secretary and Woody Brosnan’s wife Amy Henchey sit on the first North Woodside Memorial Bench while other board members, Community Design Committee members, and neighbors pose behind. Photo by Anna White
Personally, I’m not a fan of change. Snider’s, under the new ownership, still feels a bit weird to me every time I go in; I miss our neighborhood Staples even though Aldi replaced it some time ago; and I’m still adjusting, almost eight months later, to being an empty nester. Plus I can’t quite believe houses in North Woodside are now selling for a million dollars, some for over a million dollars. Maybe your house is worth that already. Wow. Can I mention that my husband and I bought our house in 2000 for $217,500? I don’t think our modest bungalow is worth $1,000,000 quite yet, but it’s now worth so much more now than I ever imagined it would be.
So change has already come to North Woodside. We are at the center (okay, technically bottom center) of a growing, affluent county bursting with new folks bringing innovation and eagerness to succeed right to our doorstep. But this boon is creating a big problem — lack of housing. It is one of the reasons our houses have increased so rapidly in value. Everyone wants to live in North Woodside. (And why wouldn’t they? It’s lovely, and close to shopping, good schools, and transportation.)
According to a recent Washington Post article, “(t)he supply shortage has grown so severe across the D.C. area that, in 2019, the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments issued a sweeping call for local leaders to aggressively ramp up housing production. The association advised governments to approve a total of 320,000 homes by 2030, with a focus on affordably priced housing near jobs and transit.”
So Montgomery County has decided to embrace this population growth — it’s already proved to be a boon to our area, economically and culturally — and even plan for it. Because without a plan growth can cause problems, of course. It can strain services, increase commute times, worsen environmental conditions, and exacerbate inequality.
The plan, created by our Montgomery County Planning Board, is called Thrive Montgomery 2050 (Thrive). Maybe you’ve heard of it? It’s a 30-year blueprint for population growth in our county that also addresses environmental and climate concerns, transportation, open-land preservation, quality-of-life issues like walkability and public art, and the pressing need for racial equity and social justice. If you’re not familiar with it, check out the Thrive section on the montgomeryplanning.org website.
I was delighted to be part of the team of NWCA Board members that brought together lots of folks with different perspectives to discuss the housing and zoning aspects of Thrive, and what changes it might bring to our corner of the county, at a neighborhood forum back in March. After planners from the Planning Board presented a quick outline of Thrive, North Woodside residents asked excellent questions of the six panel members representing all sides of the issue.
I was even more delighted that the neighborhood survey on Thrive, sponsored by the NWCA Board, garnered a record-breaking response, with 111 neighbors representing 99 households participating (a nearly 40% increase in individual participation — and at least 25% by household — compared to the last survey we conducted in Fall 2019). The results of the survey, which are available on our website, showed that a majority of the neighbors who took the survey support the way the county proposes to plan for the future.
Thrive Montgomery 2050 is still under review, and won’t be voted on by the County Council for a few more months (so there’s still time to make your voice heard!), but even before a plan is put in place, I’m grateful to live in a county that is committed to creating a green, just, and inclusive way to deal with a future of growth and change. It makes thinking about the coming changes easier for me, including the addition of much-needed housing to our area. I hope it does for you, too.
The above letter ran in the Spring 2022 issue of the Beacon.
In a neighborhood survey conducted a few years ago, one of the reasons some neighbors cited for not having attended a NWCA Annual Meeting was lack of childcare. In the interest of making the meeting more family friendly, the board is looking into several possible childcare options for the upcoming Annual Meeting on Wednesday, May 25.
Before we proceed further, it would be helpful to get a sense of how many families would appreciate childcare being offered, the ages of their children, and if there is any preference between the various childcare options we are considering. Towards that end, we invite all parents of younger children (12 and under) to respond to a short pollby this Wednesday, May 11.
Based on the responses we will determine whether or not there is an interest in our providing childcare, and if so, which option/s makes most sense, based on the number and ages of the children, families’ preferences, relative cost, etc
Related, if there are any teens in the neighborhood who babysit and would be interested in assisting with childcare during the annual meeting, please contact the NWCA Communications Coordinator.
Please join the NWCA’s Community Design Committee and the NWCA Board for the dedication of the first North Woodside Memorial Bench on Sunday, May 1st, at 11am. The new bench honors longtime community volunteer, Woody Brosnan, and will be located at the “pocket park” at the intersection of Lanier Drive and 3rd Avenue.
The short ceremony will include a ribbon cutting by Mr. Brosnan’s wife, current North Woodside resident and NWCA Secretary Amy Henchey, plus memories of Mr. Brosnan’s dedication to local service by neighbor Gus Bauman.
Donations of light refreshments for the event, such as cookies and drinks, would be greatly appreciated.
If you would like to contribute to the cost of the bench you may make a donation to the NWCA’s new Neighborhood Beautification and Memorial Fund. To donate by check or PayPal, follow the directions on our NWCA Dues page.
The North Woodside Citizens Association annual meeting will be held on Wednesday, May 25th, 2022, at Grace Episcopal Church from 6:30 to 9:00 pm. The church is located at 1607 Grace Church Road, just across Georgia Avenue from North Woodside. We are excited to hold this year’s meeting in person again and to provide dinner and a chance to get together with neighbors.
Pizza and beverages will be served starting at 6:30 pm, and the meeting will begin at 7:00 pm. If you plan to join us for dinner, please RSVP here by May 23rd, so we know how much pizza to order.
In addition to neighborhood updates and voting, the meeting will include a forum with the candidates running for our new County Council District 4: Al Carr, Amy Ginsburg, Troy Murtha, Kate Stewart, and John Zittrauer. Bring your questions for the candidates!
All North Woodside residents are encouraged to attend, however only NWCA member households will be allowed to vote on neighborhood issues and the slate of officers for the upcoming year. Residents can pay membership dues at the meeting by check or online.
UPDATE: *Free* childcare will be offered in a separate room during the meeting, to enable more families with younger children to attend.
Last month the NWCA board hosted a neighborhood survey on the proposed Thrive Montgomery 2050 framework. The survey was open to all neighborhood residents (18+) from February 4-12, 2022 and promoted via the neighborhood listserv and printed flyers delivered to every neighborhood home. A total of 111 neighbors representing 99 households participated.
Have you ever wondered “so what, exactly, is a ‘zoning text amendment’ and how might it affect me?” Or maybe you saw some posts on the neighborhood listserv about Thrive Montgomery 2050 and would like a better understanding of what it means for our community. These and other questions will be answered at a Zoom forum on February 6at 7 pm. The NWCA Board invites all neighbors to join us for this informative 90-minute virtual neighborhood meeting.
The meeting will start with a brief, factual presentation on current county housing issues and initiatives, tailored to address specific questions submitted by you and your neighbors,* by Montgomery County Planning Board Project Manager Khalid Afzal. Then the meeting will move on to a balanced panel discussion featuring knowledgeable local folks with different perspective on the issue who will answer more neighborhood questions. Scheduled to participate are local real estate expert Liz Brent, founder of Go Brent Realty; President of the Montgomery County Civic Federation Alan Bowser; the Maryland Advocacy Manager for the Coalition for Smarter Growth Jane Lyons; and longtime North Woodside resident Gus Bauman.
The link to the meeting will be posted on the listserv. Any neighborhood residents who wish to attend but don’t have access to the listserv, please contact the board’s President or Programs Coordinator.
Welcome to North Woodside 