Hi Everyone,
Recently
Ike Leggett took part in a groundbreaking for the new Public Safety
Training Academy (PSTA) on Snouffer School Road. According to the press
release, the current PSTA or fire tower area on Darnestown Road at
Great Seneca will be moved to the new Snouffer School Road site in order
to:
- “Create a transit-oriented bioscience enclave at the Shady Grove Life Sciences Center that will increase the County’s competiveness;
- Construct thousands of new housing units;
- Create new, high-paying jobs;
- Relocate and replace old, overcrowded, inadequate public facilities;
- Save $22 million a year on rent payments; and
- Create opportunities to protect the agricultural reserve.”
2,000
apartments are proposed for the existing PSTA site on Darnestown Road
at Great Seneca (56 acres). To put that into perspective, the Crown
Farm site (180 acres) will have 2,250 housing units stretching from Sam
Eig to Omega Drive.
I
have been told that the kids from the Crown development (2,250 housing
units) as well as the apartments on or near Key West Avenue
(approximately 1,570 housing units) will go to the Gaithersburg
schools. The kids from the PSTA (2,000 units) as well as the Rickman
property on Travilah Road (approved for 300 multifamily units) will go
to schools in the Wootton cluster. There is space reserved on Crown
Farm for a high school and space in the PSTA for an elementary school… “if needed”.
“School Clusters
- The Life Sciences Center is served by two school clusters: the
Gaithersburg Cluster and the Thomas S. Wootton Cluster. Based on the
results of the School Test for FY13, the Gaithersburg Cluster is now
over 105 percent of capacity at both the elementary and the middle
school levels. The Wootton Cluster is over 105 percent of capacity at
the high school level. To address capacity needs, certain residential
development proposals will need to make school facility payments to
receive plan approval in these clusters.” Note that this does not say that construction of new schools is imminent or even planned.
A
forum with county agencies to discuss how county infrastructure and
development planning and their timelines will impact school construction
planning, and the disconnects among county agencies in coordinating
that planning has been organized by WJ Cluster Coordinators and CIP
Committee, with coordination with Councilmember Roger Berliner. It will
be held on
Saturday, March 7th, 8am-4pm
Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School, Cafeteria
4301 East-West Highway, Bethesda, 20814
Accessible to Bethesda Metro station
The announcement states:
“While
this conversation was initiated by PTA leaders in the Walter Johnson
cluster with their council representative, we recognize that these
issues are countywide and Councilmember Berliner's office has organized
this forum accordingly.”
“This
is a heads-up for you and your communities, as we would like each
cluster to send as many representatives as possible, especially those of
you in areas where the increase and pace of residential development, in
particular, is impacting your schools.”
Please plan to attend.
Good schools are vitally important to our children and the quality of our schools directly affects property values. Please feel free to forward this email.
Thanks and best regards,
Donna Baron
Coordinator, The Gaithersburg – North Potomac – Rockville Coalition, online at scale-it-back.com
The county is stuffing every empty lot to capacity with condos, apartments, and townhouses. Its becoming very challenging to keep up with it all. There is already a large block of apartments being built across from the JHU campus near the intersection of Key West and Diamondback. There are big blocks going up near the eastbound exit of Shady Grove also.
ReplyDeleteFurther upcounty is also packing them in.
Here's a shot of the Father Hurley area near Wisteria:
https://maps.google.com/maps?biw=1920&bih=1055&psj=1&bav=on.2,or.r_cp.r_qf.&bvm=bv.86475890,d.eXY&um=1&ie=UTF-8&fb=1&gl=us&ftid=0x89b62e69dbe4b65b:0xfc86fa0e074a698e&q=Darnestown+Rd,+Maryland&sa=X&ei=dUXnVPXuNsydgwTQ7oK4BA&ved=0CB0Q8gEwAA&output=classic&dg=brw
Note that doesn't say "affordable" housing units.
ReplyDelete