The View From 1983:
Montgomery County officials hoped that the coming of Metro would provide a catalyst for development and revitalization of Silver Spring and vicinity. The area first developed in the 1920s, after the "electric car" had connected it to downtown Washington in 1898. It became for residents of Montgomery County and Northwest D.C. a shopping center that grew with the widening of Georgia Avenue and completion of the Capital Beltway. A boom of high-rise office and apartment development occurred in the 1960s so that today Silver Spring is a major regional employment and retail center ranking first in the County in gross retail square footage. It also leads the County's CBDs in office space, apartment units, and hotel rooms.
Before 1967, Silver Spring was second of the region's retail centers in terms of value of retail sales. Suburban malls have since displaced it. The County's mid-1970s sewer moratorium, and the 1973-'74 downturn in the national economy discouraged growth in the area despite the anticipated opening of the Metrorail station. The retail core stagnated to the degree that County officials considered it an area that required special assistance.
The principal issue of the late 1970s for Silver Spring was whether the coming of a Metrorail station and associated improvements would spur redevelopment of the retail area and those parcels immediately around the transit station site.
The coming of Metrorail caused major modifications to plan for the Silver Spring station area. The station area was replanned from general commercial and industrial to high-density mixed use in order to create a “Metro Center" west of the existing central business district. The revised plan calls for a link between the two centers consisting of a civic and convention center, transportation center, a retail mall and an urban park.
The Montgomery County Planning Board has begun implementation of the revised plan by rezoning much of the area to encourage a greater intensity of uses around the Metrorail station, by construction of significant public works such as street improvements and parking garages, and by working with the business community to facilitate development as called for in the plan.
The planned redevelopment of the area around the Silver Spring Metrorail station has been slow to occur, although an office/ retail building has recently been completed. Proposals for mixed-use developments around Metrorail have been under discussion for some while, but are slowed by regional economic conditions.
Additional Case Studies:
District of Columbia. Anacostia, Farragut North + Farragut West, Gallery Place + Metro Center, Navy Yard, Rhode Island Avenue, Takoma.
Maryland. Addison Road, Friendship Heights, New Carrollton, Rockville, Silver Spring.
Virginia. Ballston + Court House + Rosslyn, King Street, Huntington.
Excerpted From:
These observations were compiled in 1983 by the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, a group of 300 area-politicians that currently self-identifies as “the hub for regional partnership.” Within the context of 1980’s Metro history, transit author Zachary Schrag has described the group as essentially “a forum for intergovernmental discussions,” without direct impact on policy.
Read the full text below. “Metrorail Station Area Planning, A Metrorail Before-and-After Study Report,” by Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments. August, 1983
Metrorail Station Area Plan... by Elliot Carter on Scribd