Planning and regulatory approvals for the new intelligence campus being constructed at 4600 Sangamore Road, Brookmont, MD, the former site of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency headquarters, are falling into place. The Washington Business Journal reports that the executive director of the National Capital Planning Commission has signed off on the open items in the commission’s approval of the phase one construction.
The thirty acre campus is being renovated through the Army Corps of Engineers to create a secure, modern site where the Defense Intelligence Agency and personnel from other agencies can work together. The plans call for additional parking at the site, interconnecting the buildings and significant security and traffic controls. The site is bounded by park lands, a school and a shopping mall. Its western boundary is a steep, wooded slope descending to the Potomac River.
The project is in two phases. Phase one is the north campus. It will restructure most of the 12 acres on the north side of the campus, providing a visitor’s center, secure campus entrance and a parking garage. The new construction will replace existing paved parking.
Phase two will interconnect the five main buildings. The facades will be renovated and modernized since they are some seventy years old. The parking garage will be connected to the new structure by a covered walkway. Two small buildings will be removed. Initial plans are for occupancy in 2014.
Key local concerns include preservation of the west slope and the forest, the appearance of the campus from the highway and traffic problems created by the construction and the security entrance. The number of people working on site will not change, and planning boards have suggested that alternative transportation such as biking and bus travel be encouraged.
Charles Simmins brings thirty years of accounting and management experience to his coverage of the news. An upstate New Yorker, he is a free lance journalist, former volunteer firefighter and EMT, and is owned by a wife and four cats.
