Gazette: Silver Spring elementary school plan still causing controversy

Forest preservation group considering legal action if school system doesn't decrease environmental impact

By Jeanette Der Bedrosian | Staff Writer

As Montgomery County Public Schools officials prepare to break ground on the site of a new elementary school in Silver Spring, a neighborhood feud over the forest conservation plan for the school keeps heating up...
..."You have people literally scouring and counting trees and asking questions about water pipes," she said. "It blew me away, to tell you the truth.''
Members of the McKenney Hills Forest Preservation Group don't agree. The group got the school system to sign an eight-point environmental compromise that would do things such as reroute a stormwater pipe and use boulders instead of pipes to prevent erosion. But they said the school system went against the agreement's intent by increasing the number of trees set to be removed from eight trees with diameters of more than 30 inches to 15 trees of that size.
They say they hope to engage MCPS in a dialogue to make the school greener and reduce the number of trees that may be removed. But if they aren't successful, they're prepared to seek legal action, according to a statement sent to The Gazette by preservation group member Jack Gleason...