Lakes part of Town Center plans

Third in a four-part series

By: Mark Moffa
   WASHINGTON – A look at two residential areas within the planned Town Center shows a continued emphasis on nature and greenways.
   Town Center, in the planning stages for more than a decade, will seek to combine residential and commercial uses within an area bordered by Route 33 (which will become Main Street), Route 130, Hutchinson Road and Washington Boulevard.

   The West Avenue section will connect the existing Foxmoor Shopping Center on Washington Boulevard with the Town Center’s Market Street. By including four rows of trees in this area, planners are hoping for an attractive transition between the two commercial areas.
   The West Avenue neighborhood’s ultimate purpose, however, is to serve as home to many Town Center residents. The Open Space Design Standards booklet prepared by Brown & Keener Urban Design details West Avenue as an eight-block area defined by its streets.
   "Shady curving avenues, lovely streets, and narrow lanes pass through the district," the plan reads.
   An "internal auto court," called Cobble Mews, will provide parking for some houses in the district. The booklet calls this an "elegant, cared for place."
   "An attractive planted area at its center provides shade and focus," the plan reads.
   North of the West Avenue district, one will encounter Lakeside Park, which separates the Lakeside residential district from the rest of the Town Center.
   "Lakeside Park is really two parks, each arranged around a small body of water," the plan reads. "The water course that joins both sides splashes over a small stone weir and then passes under a bridge at Park Boulevard."
   Promising to be the main park in Town Center, Lakeside Park already is under construction.
   According to the design standards, "The park will be a morning destination for joggers, newspaper readers, dogwalkers; a midday destination for older neighbors, model boat racing preschoolers, lunch meetings; and after school: a place for Frisbee players, kite flyers, and smoochers.
   "In the evenings and on weekends a circle overlooking the lake can accommodate activities such as volleyball in warm weather and skating in the colder months."
   The residential area of Lakeside also will be unique.
   "The materials used to create boundaries, features and structure of the public spaces throughout the Lakeside district are more naturalistic and rural than others in Town Center," the plan reads.
   In addition to two landscaped parking areas, Miry Court and Three Corner Court, the Lakeside district will have a Children’s Park and an area called North Park.
   The park is modeled after Three Bears Park in the Society Hill section of Philadelphia.
   "Children’s Park is a somewhat secluded inner-block park, meant to be used primarily by nearby neighbors," the plan reads. "The space is organized around the central activities of pick-up games (for those over 12) and tot lot activities (for younger folks)."
   Residents will be able to take a two-block stroll along a Connecting Walk from the Children’s Park to North Park. The bench-lined path will be landscaped with planting beds, shrubs, and flowering trees.
   North Park will feature a pavilion "that can host children’s birthday parties and other small gatherings" and a landscaped maze for youngsters.
   "North Park’s informal arrangement of tree groupings, native shrubs and lawn areas, are the setting for a dramatic annual spring show featuring several species of brilliant blue flowers," the plan reads.
   Residents could then leave North Park to take a walk on Park Boulevard.
   "Park Boulevard is planned to become Town Center’s grandest space, a broad boulevard lined by stately trees," the plan reads.
   The boulevard will separate the East and West Lakes of Lakeside Park via a bridge. A traffic circle/park, called Park Circle, will signify that one is leaving the Lakeside district. A "monument or sculptural element" is planned for Park Circle.
   Continuing along Park Boulevard, now on the southern half, one would soon reach Market Gate and the downtown area. But planners hope Park Boulevard, with parks dividing the northbound and southbound sides, will become more than just a road from Lakeside’s North Park to downtown.
   "Several locations in the median parks between the pair of one-way streets are to be reserved for statuary and seating areas," the plan reads.
   And the length of Park Boulevard, a mere 2,000 feet, should allow residents to walk through the boulevard’s parks to the downtown area in lieu of driving.