Who said Brickyard Middle School site was not needed for a school?

Not the Board of Education.

County Executive Ike Leggett must have made that decision all by himself.  The legal process in Maryland for determining that a public school property is not needed for a school is that the property is determined to be "surplus" to the needs of the public school system.  But, County Executive Ike Leggett didn't ask for the Board of Education to surplus the land, he asked for the land. Period.

Here's the transcript of a Live Discussion with the County Executive where the question centered on the use of the Brickyard Middle School site.  Is the County going to develop public soccer fields on the site? No.  County Executive Leggett is turning the land over to a private club.  Coincidentally, the same private club that was e-mailing its members to support the Board of Education turning the land over to the County Executive, long before the Request for Qualifications was ever issued, ended up getting the lease of the property.

Wednesday, June 13, 2012:  Live Discussion with Ike Leggett.

Fred from Silver Spring 
I’m from down county but I am very concerned about what is planned for the County’s brickyard property in Potomac. I was a soccer dad, coached soccer for more than 10 years and both my kids were avid soccer players. But the organic farm that has been developed over 30 years on this county land is potentially a huge asset to all of us who live in Montgomery County. It’s proposed use as a learning center would be a great benefit for the entire county. Isn’t there something that can be done to stop the senseless plans to destroy this asset in the name of yet more soccer fields?

Mr. Leggett: Thank you for your question. As you may know, the 20 acres leased by a private commercial farmer for the past 30 years for $1,500 a year are publicly-owned land that under the Potomac Master Plan is specifically designated to be used for ball fields if it is not used for a school. The County leased the land last year from the Board of Education for the purpose of constructing desperately-needed soccer fields for youth to meet growing demand. There are only a little over 100 rectangular regulation fields in the entire County for soccer, football, lacrosse, and other such sports. I agree that organic farming is important. My objective was to increase the amount of organic farming in the County and provide additional fields for soccer. In this regard, I met with the private commercial farmer and walked the land with him. The County offered to relocate him on other properties in the 90,000 acre County agriculture reserve. This not only would have maintained organic farming, but could have substantially increased the number of acres far and above what he currently farms. He declined that offer. 

From the time the County rented the tract from the County Board of Education in the spring of 2011, the County engaged the community on uses for the land and followed its standard open process. The County held two large public meetings to garner feedback and ideas from the community. These meetings resulted in ideas being incorporated into the Request for Qualifications later issued. In the Request for Qualifications issued by our Department of General Services to seek private entities to “partner” with the County in a public-private partnership, the County included a preference for “dual use” proposals that included soccer fields and left open the possibility for other community amenities, including agriculture. The process was wide open to all potential bidders and there were no “deals” of any kind. 

We received one qualified proposal in response to our Request for Qualifications, from Montgomery Soccer Inc., a non-profit youth soccer organization. Their proposal actually included a space for an Organic Agricultural Education Center. The project will go before the County Planning Commission under the Mandatory Referral process. The commercial farmer has a licensing agreement with the County that allows him to use the land until August. I remain open to helping the farmer find alternative locations in the County for organic farming.