On Tuesday, August 23, 2022, the Board of Education will vote to remove public input from some Public School Land decisions on their Consent Agenda.
Placement of an item on the Consent Agenda means that the item being voted on won't even be discussed. It is assumed that the item is so trivial that Board of Education members will unanimously approve it without discussion.
The Agenda item will hand over all these Public School Land Use decisions to the Superintendent and she can then hand those decisions over to Seth Adams, Director of Facilities Management, so he can make the decisions without public notice, without public input and without oversight. Seth Adams will be able to make these land use decisions even if they are of a controversial nature.
What decisions might be included in this broad delegation of authority to the superintendent? Moving bus depots, moving bus parking, cell tower compounds, removing trees/forests etc...?
How might local Public School Land be changed by these decisions that will now be made by one MCPS employee alone behind closed doors? If the Board of Education approves this Resolution, those questions will be for the Superintendent and Seth Adams to know and the public to never find out.
6.10 Delegation of Authority to Execute Permanent Easements, Utility Easements, Rights-of-Way, Rights-of-Entry, Memoranda of Understanding for Land-Related Issues, and Land-Related Agreements of a Routine Nature
The Shape of Things to Come. . .
ReplyDeleteSeven Locks Alliance (7LocksAlliance.com) is a coalition of neighborhoods in Potomac and western Rockville which opposes several county proposals for the forty-acre site of the Detention Center, located by Wootton Parkway where Seven Locks Road ends. The land is within Rockville City limits but is owned by the county. One proposal seeks to move the bus depot, currently on Crabbs Branch Road off Shady Grove Road, to the Seven Locks site. More than 4,000 homes are within a one mile radius of the detention center with several more residential and mixed use developments approved for the area. Our organization and its members do not think that an industrial facility -- housing up to 270 school buses plus repair, maintenance and a bus wash also serving county transit vehicles and a bus driver training track -- belongs in a heavily residential area for the following reasons: air, water, soil, noise and light pollution, as well as increased traffic (more than 1,000 daily trips) on narrow roads that already are congested. These factors pose safety issues for pedestrians, bikers, joggers, nearby residents and users of Rockville’s Millennium Trail and area parks. The proposed delegation of authority is disturbing because it would eliminate public comment on issues affecting our daily lives and property values. Government by fiat is not democracy. What can be done to stop this in its tracks?
ReplyDeleteContact the Montgomery County Board of Education ASAP and click the link below for an action alert.
DeleteTell the Board of Education Not to Eliminate Transparency in Land Use Decisions
https://actionnetwork.org/letters/tell-the-board-of-education-not-to-eliminate-transparency-in-land-use-decisions?delivery_id=78438201
Brenda_Wolff@mcpsmd.org, Karla_Silvestre@mcpsmd.org, Shebra_L_Evans@mcpsmd.org, Rebecca_K_Smondrowski@mcpsmd.org, Lynne_Harris@mcpsmd.org, Scott_H_Joftus@mcpsmd.org, Arvin_kim@mcpsmd.org, Judy_Docca@mcpsmd.org, BOE@mcpsmd.org