Montgomery County sentinel., 1958-12-11
AS He Departs
BurTage Looks Back
On Explosive Era
AS He Departs

When William c. Burrage,
director of planning for the
Maryland National Capital
Park and Planning Commits
sion, leaving his job tomor-
row he will be able to look
back on II years of the most
intensive growth in the history
OF Montgomery County.
Burrage, "A, will take over as
director of planning tor Fairfax
County, Va, Monday. He
will leave a county OF oUo acres
and $4,000 population for one OF
40( acres and 2I8,0O0 population.
Although Fairfax and Mont
gomery County share the Poto-
mac River as boundary, the
similarity between the two
stops there. Montgomery County
is highly urbaniZed and Fairfax
has numerous small cities and
hamletS.
But Burrage thinks the tables
have been turned. Building in
Montgomery County is about
ready to level off and it's just
starting to boom in Fairfax, Bur
rage believes.
AS a matter of fact, when Bur
rage moves across the Potomac,
he will, in a way, be repeating
the move he made when he came
to the Planning Commission.
He was a 32-year-Old vet
eran fresh out of an Army
First Lieutenant's uniform
when he came to the Com
mission. He was graduate
of Harvard with a Masters
degree i'm city planning from
Massachusetts Institute of
Technology. He also had
some experience as a planner
for the city of Boston.
He found Montgomery Coun-
ty of 87,777 persons centered
largely in the metropolitan Sill
yer Spring and Bethesda areas.
THE war had just ended and
people who were holding land
along the Rock Creek corridor
during the war were lined up
outside our door in queues.
Everybody was yelling for
plans. Things were busting out
all over" Burrage recalled.
I'VE had only couple of plan
ners and a chief engineer. We
didn't have any master plan.
Georgia ave. was an up and down
two-lane macadam road.
"At this point" Burrage said,
"the Commissioners called on us
to produce plans, almost over
night. In the next two years the
staff turned out zoning plans for
Bethesda, Kensington, Wheaton
and Silver Spring, as well as
plans for the Rockville Pike,
Colesville rd. and Georgia ave-"
Success Of the Commissions
planning can be partially gauged
by the fact that Montgomery
County's population has doubled
since 1850.
But that very increase
brought with it some skull
breaking problems under the
heading of transportation.
THAT is the biggest single
handicap Montgomery Coun-
ty has in its future expan-
sion," Burrage declared. ut
is very critical" he added.
Fairfax, on the other hand, has
the advantage now on a new Rt.
sc, the Chantilly access road and
the George Washington Memo
rial Parkway, all of which will
provide rapid transportation for
the relatively scattered popula'
ton.
With Montgomery's rapid resi-.
Dental growth has come a grow
ing list of industrial operations.
Recognizing this trend some time
ago, the Planning Commission
approached the County Council
for authorization to hire a firm
TO write a guide for industrial
development.
Such a guide, known as the
May industrial performance
standards, codified by Richard
May, of New York, has now been
completed. The guide sets up
provisions that would be follow
ed by any new industry IN
Montgomery County.
The May study also proposed
a third Industrial Park Zone,
which, if ratified by the County
Council, would specify coming for
garden.type industry A public
hearing on the performance
standards and the new zone will
be held by the Planning Commits
sion January Is.
Burrape. who has exercised