Development is coming to Friendship Heights. Some residents aren’t happy about it.

Friendship Heights used to bustle. Now Wisconsin Avenue is full of empty storefronts.

Montgomery County planners have big ideas for revitalizing the commercial area that straddles the border of Maryland and Washington, aiming to remake it into a regional retail destination and add to its housing stock.

This summer, the planning board will review a working draft of its Friendship Heights Sector Plan, which outlines recommendations for the village, the downtown area along Wisconsin Avenue and the portion of the Brookdale neighborhood east of River Road.

“The time is right to look at what sort of incentives or recommendations we need to have for the next 25 years to help Friendship Heights get back to where it was,” said Elza Hisel-McCoy, the department’s chief of west county planning.

Some residents welcome the revitalization plan. Others worry its proposed zoning and height limits will drastically change the character of the neighborhood. A separate development plan for the Geico site on Western Avenue is also drawing criticism.

“We don’t want the revised sector plan to allow for the dense and high-rise development of Friendship Heights,” said Jim Curtin, who has lived in the area since 1982. “We don’t want it overbuilt like downtown Bethesda or downtown Silver Spring, and we worry that the planning board has that sort of vision for Friendship Heights.”

Curtin joined dozens of his neighbors this month to protest the planners’ vision. Chanting “Save Friendship” and holding signs that said “Not In Our Backyard,” among other slogans, they headed toward a packed meeting on the plan at the Wisconsin Place Community Recreation Center.

The plan, an update of the last sector plan, which was adopted in 1998, would allow commercial businesses in some areas currently zoned residential. It revises height limits upward — on some blocks by more than 100 feet — but maintains the highest near the Metro and along Wisconsin Avenue.

The plan aims to incentivize housing development, including affordable housing, and would create new parks and public spaces, improve existing ones and upgrade pedestrian paths. It suggests more dog parks, athletic courts and outdoor seating.

Friendship Heights already has multiple high-rise apartment buildings. Many of those protesting the sector plan, including James Thurston, live in them.

“Our whole neighborhood is really interested in what happens here,” Thurston said ahead of the meeting. “I think people are feeling like our community’s voice in these massive plans and potential changes is not really being heard.”

He favors development that’s in line with the 1998 plan.

Cameron Moody, who’s lived in Friendship Heights for 15 years, said change can be scary but a new plan could entice more young people to the area. According to data from 2024, about 35% of Friendship Heights residents are over 65, compared with 16% countywide.

“While I think it’s still a great residential place to live, I think that it would be improved with additional business and retail,” said Moody, who serves on the Friendship Heights advisory committee on development. “I think that houses bring people and people bring businesses.”

The former Geico headquarters

The former Geico headquarters at 5260 Western Ave. is a key site in the new plan for Friendship Heights.

This year, Geico agreed to sell the 26-acre campus to real estate developer EYA, which plans a mixed-use development for the site called Friendship Commons. The first phase of the project would include more than 500 new homes and 5,000 square feet of retail.

The site has long been underutilized, said Moody, who likes the idea of replacing the aging office building with housing.

Some residents said they were excited the site would be developed but were dismayed when they saw the proposals.

“I’m really angry. They had many of us looking forward to a new community here and new people coming in,” Friendship Heights resident Marvin Mostow said. “But, now that it’s going to be a seven- or eight-story building, that’s something else.”

Community members were particularly concerned about EYA cutting down trees. The developer has said that about two-thirds of existing trees are expected to be preserved and at least another 650 will be planted on the site.

Demolition is expected to begin this summer, though a lawsuit could stall development.

The suit, filed in Montgomery County Circuit Court on May 13 by the Village of Friendship Heights and the Brookdale Citizens Association, argues that the plan for Friendship Commons violates elements of the 1998 sector plan and cannot be approved by the planning board.

The lawsuit names the planning board, County Council and Friendship Commons Partners, which is made up of EYA and Bernstein Management Corp., as defendants.

The planning department in a statement said it cannot comment on pending litigation. But the department last week filed a motion to dismiss the suit, arguing it’s “based on speculation piled on speculation.”

EYA, which is based in Bethesda, said in a statement the lawsuit lacks merit.

“Our focus remains on advancing the redevelopment of the site into a vibrant community that will deliver much needed housing, neighborhood amenities and long-term investment to Friendship Heights,” the statement read.

It’s unclear when a decision will be made on the lawsuit, but the deadline for the defendants to respond to it was June 18. All three asked for the lawsuit to be dismissed.

David Brown, the attorney representing Friendship Heights in the lawsuit, told The Banner he hopes the case will be resolved before EYA’s development applications go before the planning board on July 30.

Natalie Avery, executive director of the Friendship Heights Alliance, a nonprofit neighborhood group that includes Maryland and D.C. residents, said she hopes the plan prevails — to connect neighborhoods, create more affordable housing and foster community.

“What we need to be doing is thinking about what kind of neighborhood we are building for the future,” she said. “We’re talking about a plan that’s going to impact people that maybe haven’t even been born yet.”