Call for volunteers
Join your neighbors to bring our “dead” shopping center back to life! We need help painting the parking lot, assembling furniture, and decorating the area with lights, […]
Background
Burtonsville Crossing has great potential for redevelopment, but also several challenges. Before thinking about the future of the shopping center, we encourage you to learn about history, details, constraints, and market factors affecting this 21-acre site.
Site History
- 2003 - Giant sells Burtonsville Crossing to EDENS for $26 million.
- 2006 - State Highway completes the Route 29/198 overpass.
- 2010 - Giant moves across the street.
- 2012 - County approves the Burtonsville Crossroads Neighborhood Plan, which changes the zoning and types of buildings that can be built in the area.
- 2016 - Giant terminates their lease in Burtonsville Crossing.
About the Site
The 20+ acre site has three owners. The 15.6-acre shopping center parcel is owned by EDENS, while the park-and-ride lot in the back consists of county and state property.
The entire site is zoned CRT-1.5, which allows for up to 1,420,000 square feet of mixed-use development, with building heights up to 75 feet tall.
For comparison, the newer shopping center across the street has a total retail area of 137,000 SF, despite being a slightly larger property (26 acres).
Lease Restrictions
When Giant moved to the new shopping center in 2010, they held on to their lease, preventing any new anchor to occupy their old space.
In 2016, they agreed to terminate the lease, but placed restrictions on what tenants could occupy the Burtonsville Crossing center, including:
- No more than 15,000 sq ft of grocery store space in Burtonsville Crossing or the Park & Ride Lot until 2023.
- No more than 22,000 sq ft of grocery store space on Park & Ride Lot until 2028.
- Walmart, Target, Costco, BJ's Wholesale Club, and Sam’s Club are expressly prohibited until 2028.
Traffic Conditions
Traffic on Routes 198 and 29A ("Old 29") has dropped significantly over the past decade. In fact, traffic on 29A has fallen so much, that it could probably be reduced from six to three lanes with minimal impact.
Traffic on Route 29 north of Burtonsville has increased 35%, most likely due to the growing number of people living in Howard County and commuting to Montgomery County or DC.
Local Schools
Enrollment at Burtonsville Elementary is currently 10% over capacity and projected to remain at that rate over the next six years. Enrollment at Banneker Middle School is 5% over capacity but expected to drop more than 20% over the next decade.
One idea we have for relieving capacity while also accommodating future growth is to construct a new school on the county-owned land in the Bentley Park development. We believe this would be a better solution than MCPS's currently-planned additions at Burtonsville and Greencastle Elementary Schools.
County and State Tax Credits
The county and state have enacted the following tax incentives to promote redevelopment in Burtonsville:
- 2013 - County tax credits for real property (taxes on buildings and land).
- 2013 - County tax credits for personal property (movable assets, such as office furniture or kitchen appliances, or medical equipment).
- 2015 - County exemption from impact taxes.
- 2017 - State tax credits for real property.
- 2017 - WSSC development charge waiver.
- 2017 - Income tax credits for new employees.
EDENS 1st Redevelopment Proposal
EDENS had an ambitious proposal in 2015 to build a mixed-use development containing a movie theater, rec center, small grocery store, new shops and restaurants, and nearly 150 townhomes.
The proposal did not move forward because certain aspects were not feasible. Notably, the concept plan did not have stormwater collection and treatment facilities or a dedicated area for the park-and-ride lot and commuter buses.
EDENS 2nd Redevelopment Proposal
In 2016, EDENS submitted a second proposal for the site. The updated plan re-purposed the existing stores: the old Giant would be converted to a cinema, with two new small stores in front and a small grocer to the side. The stores near the old Starbucks would be re-aligned to provide a pedestrian plaza.
The updated plan called for a parking garage, sports field, pavilion, outdoor market, plaza, and gym to be built on the county and state portions of the site.
How are tenants selected?
Do you have a particular restaurant or store you would like to see? Unfortunately, it's not easy to "pick and choose" which businesses set up shop in a retail space.
Instead of focusing on specific brands you want to see, we will be focusing on what kinds of place we want to create or activities we wish to encourage.
Master Plan
The Burtonsville Crossroads Neighborhood Plan is a master plan amendment that was approved in 2012.
The plan, which amends the 1997 Fairland Master Plan, establishes a vision to transform the existing crossroads into a complete community and provides recommendations for land use, transportation, environment and design that will enable the US29/MD198 commercial crossroads area to thrive. The plan focuses on:
- Improving the street network
- Adding an open space system and recreational opportunities
- Identifying new residential opportunities
- Protecting the sensitive tributary headwaters of the Patuxent River.
The recommendations, taken together, form a cohesive way forward and create a civic vision.
Bus Rapid Transit
Burtonsville could become a major transit hub in 2020 when Montgomery County completes the Route 29 Bus Rapid Transit project.
BRT vehicles will run every 15 minutes from 5 am to midnight between Burtonsville and the Silver Spring Metro and every 7.5 minutes during the morning and evening peak periods. The BRT buses will be faster than regular buses because...
- BRT will have fewer stops
- Part of the BRT route will have dedicated bus lanes to go around traffic jams
- Riders will pay at the station before boarding (off-board fare collection)
- Buses will communicate with traffic signals to reduce stops at red lights (transit signal priority)
- Stations and bus doors will be at same level, to allow bikes and wheelchairs to board easily (level boarding)
