The Next Big Thing: Overview

Three designs for the county planning board's new digs were revealed Thursday, with each design calling for the extension of Fenton Street beyond its current northern border.

At the board's weekly meeting in Silver Spring, competing developers agreed that Fenton Street should pierce the "superblock" that sits on the southeast corner of Georgia Avenue and Spring Street. The superblock is the proposed site of Silver Place, a mixed-use development that includes housing, retail and the planning board's new headquarters.

Extending Fenton Street past its intersection with Cameron Street, either as a walkway or an actual road, would improve access to shops and public spaces, the developers contended.

Each design also set the planning board's proposed digs away from the corner of Georgia Avenue and Spring Street. This move, the developers said, would allow the board to keep on keepin' on at its existing office space while the new digs are built.