Rockville just says "No" to Carver bus depot

ROCKVILLE – The mayor and City Council joined opponents of a plan to set up a temporary school bus depot at the Carver Education Services Center, voting unanimously Monday against the proposal.

The City Council voted 5-0 in favor of submitting a letter endorsing an April 8 memorandum authored by Board of Education member Philip Kauffman to the Montgomery County Council and County Executive Ike Leggett.

In the memo, Kauffman requested council members “delay their Declaration of No Further Need on the Shady Grove Transportation Depot” until a number of concerns “are clarified and resolved.”

“This would include the identification of both the interim and final solutions to our transportation depot situation, with a timeline and associated Capital Improvements Program funding identified for the permanent solution,” said Kauffman in the letter.

The Board of Education voted unanimously Tuesday to authorize the Board of Education President Michael Durso (District 5) “to write a letter to the county executive and the County Council to request implementation of a final solution for the relocation of all school buses before the current Shady Grove Transportation Depot is released for its intended use.”

City Council member Mark Pierzchala drafted the letter amended by City Council members Monday night and sent Tuesday morning.

Concerns listed in the letter signed by Mayor Bridget Donnell Newton include:

• The Carver site being in a city-designated Historic District;
• Noise, visual and air quality impacts from buses running within 50-100 feet of several townhouses;
• Traffic impacts on MD 355 and neighborhood roads;
• Hundreds of bus trips across the street from Montgomery College; and
• The plan not aligning with the city’s master plan.

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 http://www.thesentinel.com/mont/newsx/local/item/3410-rockville-just-says-no-to-carver-bus-depot