Wootton Cluster - Trailer City?

The Parents' Coalition of Montgomery County, MD is pleased to welcome Donna Baron of The Gaithersburg - North Potomac - Rockville Coalition as our guest writer today. MCPS had 516 classroom trailers in use for the 2008-09 school year with more on the way. Ms. Baron writes about another part of Montgomery County that will see more housing soon, without advance planning or funding for new schools to accommodate the incoming children. That means that more MCPS children will end up spending their school years outside in classroom trailers instead of in buildings. Classroom trailers mean walking to the main building to change classes or use the restroom (in inclement weather without coats), less security, mold and mildew issues, and safety issues.

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The Gaithersburg West Master Plan: How it will affect us

The Public Hearing with the County Council for the Gaithersburg West Master Plan is September 15th yet many people are still unaware of this master plan and how it will affect the entire county, particularly the residents west of I-270.

The Planning Board has proposed 20-million square feet of commercial space and 5,700 multifamily housing units in buildings up to 150 feet high in the area around Shady Grove Hospital and on Belward Farm which will be called the “Science City”. A website has been set up to disseminate information to the residents and to monitor the master plan. Please see the website, http://www.scale-it-back.com/ for a map of the “Science City”.

The county is using the 45-year old plans for the Corridor Cities Transitway (CCT) which will likely be a rapid-bus as justification for calling the “Science City” a “transit oriented development” which will allow them to rezone the area for much higher density, high-rise buildings and housing. This would add 50,000 people to our area as workers or residents.

However, the CCT will only carry about 15% of the additional 50,000 people so that leaves 85% or 43,000 people in their cars. In order to accommodate 43,000 extra cars, the county has proposed to widen some of the roads to six and eight lanes and to build five multilevel 10- and 12-lane highway interchanges in and around the Science City. For instance, a 12-lane highway interchange might be built at the corner of Muddy Branch Road and Great Seneca even though it will be in the middle of four residential neighborhoods and would result in the loss of homes and the reconfiguration of at least two of the neighborhoods. Also, there has been no accommodation for the people who live in the many subdivisions in the area with limited entrances onto secondary roads which will be jammed with traffic.

Another issue is the children from the 5,700 proposed housing units. Since the housing is not included in the staging requirements for the master plan, if the plan is approved, the housing could be build independently of the commercial development once the Public Service Training Academy (the fire tower area) is moved to Montgomery Village. Therefore, there is no assurance that any of the people in the housing will work in the Science City. At this point most of the children would attend the schools in the Wootton Cluster and many of the families may move to the Science City to enable their children to go the Wootton Cluster schools. However, Wootton is already over-crowded and the students have had classes in trailers for years. There is space for a high school on Crown Farm if that is developed and MCPS has said they would build an elementary school “if needed” but no firm commitments have been given.

If the master plan is approved by the County Council, Johns Hopkins Real Estate hopes to start building their high-rise commercial complex on Belward Farm for 15,000 people within three years. The county is pushing hard to get the Corridor Cities Transitway so they can proceed with the higher population density and high-rise buildings despite the potential problems. The construction in the Science City and on the roads would go on for at least the next twenty years.

The Public Hearing with the County Council is crucial because the Council can approve the master plan or they can revise it or re-write it. It is imperative that we all attend the Hearing in order to convey our opposition to the scale of the development proposed by this master plan. We have said throughout the process, we are supportive of biomedical development in the area but it must be in scale with our suburban community. For additional information on the Hearing and the email addresses for the Council members, please see the website.

You will also find additional information, maps, and photos and a “contact us” page to sign up for updates on the master plan process on the website. http://www.scale-it-back.com/

Thanks and best regards,

Donna Baron

The Gaithersburg - North Potomac - Rockville Coalition

Update: County Council Hearing September 15, 2009 at 7 PM