MCPS Drops Plan to Build Schools on Parkland [Not MCPS' Land to Use!]

The Board of Education wants to Divest Lyttonsville of Their Open Space Land, Again. #AntiaircraftArtilleryBattalion

MCPS already designed a school for the Coffield Rec site.

Once again, the Board of Education has put the parkland next to the Coffield Recreation Center in Lyttonsville on a list of potential school sites.  

Back in April of 2011, the Board of Education was told by the Montgomery County Department of Parks that park land is not up for grabs for the placement of school buildings.  See the April 27, 2011, letter from Montgomery Parks to the Board of Education below. 

In 2011, the Board of Education was specifically told they could not have the land next to the Coffield Recreation Center for a public school, yet here that park is again on a list of potential school sites and the Board of Education has even gone so far as to pay for a possible building design for the proposed school.  See image from MCPS presentation. 

Not only is the Park land next to the Coffield Recreation Center the property of Montgomery Parks, but the land that became part of the fields at Rosemary Hills Local Park was probably the site for an Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion in the first half of the 1950s, as part of a group of such sites that ringed the Washington, DC region before the advent of Nike missile sites after the Korean War.

Because the land was purchased by Parks and Planning before there were federal and state environmental laws that mandated due diligence into toxic materials and other past land uses that could pose a threat to water quality or health and safety, the screening process to assess threats was very superficial, limited, for example, to noting whether a dump or other substandard structures were on site.

This site would need to be investigated thoroughly before any construction could commence and as the long time residents of Lyttonsville know, this past use of this land has prevented other construction projects from taking place on the existing fields. 

BOE Site Selection by Parents' Coalition of Montg... on Scribd

"campaign contributions from developer-related and other special interests -- and that this contributes to excessive density and school overcrowding"

MCPS classroom trailers

GRASSROOTS EFFORT INITIATED TO IMPROVE COUNTY GOVERNMENT

A group of MoCo residents are concerned that candidates for County Council are too dependent on campaign contributions from developer-related and other special interests -- and that this contributes to excessive density and school overcrowding.  This grassroots groups of MoCo residents have formed MoCoVoters.org:

http://www.mocovoters.org/

... and created its related Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/MontgomeryCountyVoters/

Please consider "liking" and, most importantly, widely "sharing" the Facebook page.  Anyone interested in participating with MoCoVoters.org can contact them through their contact page:

http://www.mocovoters.org/contact-us/

ATTENTION LYTTONSVILLE : ROCK CREEK FOREST : ROSEMARY HILLS IMPORTANT COMMUNITY MEETING

ATTENTION LYTTONSVILLE : ROCK CREEK FOREST : ROSEMARY HILLS
IMPORTANT COMMUNITY MEETING
THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 15, 7-8:45 PM AT THE COFFIELD COMMUNITY CENTER, 2450 LYTTONSVILLE RD.

The new Sector Plan draft has been sent to the County Council for consideration. This 20-year vision allows for a potential 4500 additional apartments in the overall sector plan area and 2500 in our local area. This would be equivalent to adding more than 10 Claridge Houses. According to Planning Board figures it would translate into approximately 4800 new residents west of the Barrington Apartments. The effects on traffic, schools, community center, and park could be enormous. Other communities have gotten the County Council to make substantial reductions in proposed density. We can do the same!

Join with us in developing and implementing a community wide action plan and discuss how the proposal by EYA fits into the sector plan. Effective community response can alter this plan.

The County Council will hold public hearings on September 27 and September 29 and has invited public participation. To testify at the Council Hearings call: 240-777-7808 or sign up at:

www.montgomerycountymd.gov/Council/PHSignUp.htm

This meeting is sponsored by the Lyttonsville Community Civic Association.

MoCo Planning Board Chair Casey Anderson and Westbard developer EYA shake hands minutes after plan passes

https://robertdyer.blogspot.com/2016/05/westbard-sector-plan-may-be-pyrrhic.html

Elrich, "Eliminating 1,000 jobs and thinking that is a bright idea."

Westbard, Rosemary Hills, Lyttonsville, Damascus & Luxmanor Unite to Send Message to Council

Here's what the opposition to the Westbard Sector Plan is saying before today's expected approval: pic.twitter.com/MatZrCD1S9

— Bethesda Beat (@BethesdaBeat) May 3, 2016

This morning four County neighborhood groups joined SaveWestbard and submitted a joint letter to the County Council.
May 3, 2016
Montgomery County Council
Council Office Building
100 Maryland Avenue, 5th Floor
Rockville, MD 20850
Dear Councilmembers:
This letter is a joint effort among the following groups:
SaveWestbard
Rosemary Hills
Lyttonsville
Keep Damascus Rural
Luxmanor Citizens Association
We ask the County Council, once again, to reject the proposed Westbard Sector Plan (WSP) or, at a minimum, take a strategic pause before approving this sector plan in order to allow for a thoughtful and measured process in which community trust of county government is restored and community concerns (about school-overcrowding and traffic congestion) are appropriately and meaningfully addressed. Consultation with the community is imperative as the Westbard Community Survey, submitted to your offices yesterday, confirms that Westbard-area residents overwhelmingly oppose the proposed WSP.
Irrespective of the Council’s vote today, the Westbard experience has united and mobilized communities across Montgomery County with the common view that the overall Montgomery County planning process is broken.
For the reasons set forth below, we, the undersigned communities, are united in our opposition to the Montgomery County planning process, and we invite other communities to join us in opposition:
First, communities across Montgomery County are equally dismayed by a County-wide planning process that favors developers over communities, and that consistently results in outcomes that communities do not want. The County Council and Board, in apparent partnership with major developers, are now engaged in a full-fledged effort to urbanize rural, sub-urban, and local communities through overbuilding and commercialization of public space, at great profit to developers, but to the detriment of our public schools, the environment, traffic congestion, community diversity, and social services. This will not stop until we unite.
Second, County officials have dismissed, as unreasonable, public opposition to urbanization that favors developers over the environment and over the local, established community, and instead have sought to thwart the overwhelming opposition through a planning process designed to divide and then mislead the community about real intentions and plans. This will not stop until there is reform.
Finally, the undersigned communities stand together and will use every legal and political means at their disposal to reform the planning process, to put an end to unwanted over-development, and to create a process that involves maximum citizen participation. This is the only tenable strategy for improving our built space, protecting the natural environment, strengthening social infrastructure, and preserving our cherished values of diversity and responsible stewardship of the County.
Respectfully submitted,
SaveWestbard, Jonathan and Dominique Cahn, Patricia Kolesar, Bobby Lipman, Stan Wiggins
Rosemary Hills, Leonor Chaves, Mark Mendez, Valarie Barr
Lyttonsville, Charlotte Coffield
Keep Damascus Rural, Seth Gottesman
Luxmanor Citizens Association, Abbe Milstein

Future residents will "pay a million dollars for a home, and their kids will go to school in a trailer," one resident said.

Toll Bros. unveils plan for WMAL site; residents want data on traffic, schools (Photos)

...A resident of Brixton Lane termed his children's schools "ridiculously-overcrowded already. How many kids" will the Toll Brothers project generate, he asked.

Leatham said Montgomery County Public Schools calculates those projections, and they have concluded 152 students will be generated. That number was met with laughter in the room. "Can we get realistic numbers?" someone asked. "Isn't this the same MCPS that allowed overcrowding" in the past with lowball projections, another asked. "I can't argue with you," Leatham replied. "These are numbers that have been vetted. These are the numbers we have to use." 

Future residents will "pay a million dollars for a home, and their kids will go to school in a trailer," one resident said...

...Several residents asked about the environmental impact of developing such a large green space. Toll Brothers assured them that stormwater management after the completion of the project will be "better than it is now, better for the Cheasapeake Bay." Resident Nancy Neff was skeptical. "I am offended by you patting yourselves on the back" for the bioswale plan to manage stormwater. "The best natural drainage is there
right now," she said. She cited the "appalling" drainage systems in King Farm in Rockville, which cause some homes in that community to flood regularly...

 http://robertdyer.blogspot.com/2016/04/toll-bros-unveils-plan-for-wmal-site.html

Council: "MCPS has fairly consistently underestimated actual emollment"

Today at 2:30 PM, the Montgomery County Council's PHED Committee will discuss their plan to overcrowd Montgomery County Public Schools for developers who want to build more housing.

The Council knows MCPS enrollment forecasts are flawed, but doesn't care.

The Council plans on simply "enlarging" the following schools to accommodate the plans of developers in the Westbard area.  Similar plans are being hatched for other parts of the county.

 So much for the Maryland State study that reported on the "optimal" size for public schools! 

Classroom trailers have been in use in MCPS for over 30 years.  They will be on the ground for another 30 years if the Montgomery County Council and Montgomery County Planning Board have their way. 

http://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/council/Resources/Files/agenda/cm/2016/160229/20160229_PHED1.pdf

"Charette is French for Charade" - Planned Overcrowding of Public Schools

Tom Hearn gave the following public comment at the February 4, 2016, Montgomery County Council public hearing on the Westbard Sector Plan.  
Mr. Hearn's statement applies to a number of communities that have participated in the County planning process in the last few years. 

Westbard Neighborhood Objects to Planned Overcrowding of Community and Schools

PETITION TO MONTGOMERY COUNTY COUNCIL

This petition is sponsored by the Citizens Coordinating Committee on Friendship Heights, consisting of 19 civic organizations, comprising over 7,000 households, in and surrounding the Westbard Sector Plan area.

We, residents living within or nearby to the Westbard Sector Plan area, petition the Council to revise substantially the draft Planning Board Westbard Sector Plan.

1. We endorse the goals of the draft plan, to create "a vibrant village center", with "preservation of local retail", to provide "neighborhood goods and services serving the surrounding residential community". Development is to be on a "neighborhood scale", "preserving compatibility with adjacent residential uses". [pp.6,18]

2. The draft plan is inconsistent with these goals because of the amount, type and height of development.
       A. The large amount of retail is well beyond what is needed or appropriate for a neighborhood serving center and is more like a regional mall. It will promote large stores not serving neighborhood needs; attract visitors from a wide geographic area; local businesses on which residents have depended are unlikely to survive.
       B. The large number of dwelling units will generate students overcrowding our already overcrowded schools for which no realistic plan to accommodate them has been offered, especially on middle and high school levels.
       C. The plan does not address the need for housing, including affordable, for seniors who comprise a substantial population (24%) in this area of the county, a type of housing that will not overburden the schools.
       D. The proposed height of some buildings is not on a neighborhood scale and is not compatible with nearby single family homes, e.g., 110 ft on Westbard Ave. near Westbard Mews townhouses; 90 ft on Westwood 2 site, near Springfield homes; 75 ft uniformly along both sides of River Rd., creating an urban "canyonization" effect....

https://www.change.org/p/nancy-floreen-roger-berliner-marc-elrich-tom-hucker-sidney-katz-george-leventhal-nancy-navarro-craig-rice-hans-riemer-keep-the-westbard-sector-plan-on-a-neighborhood-scale?recruiter=464658506&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=share_email_responsive&utm_content=dt_shortened_links---url_short

Lyttonsville Neighborhood Objects to Planned Overcrowding of Community and Schools

The Lyttonsville neighborhood in Silver Spring has started a Petition to the Montgomery County Planning Board and the Montgomery County Council concerning the planned overcrowding of the neighborhood and schools. 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The community petition asking the Planning Board and the County Council to limit growth in the western section of the planning area, to reduce densities (FARs), and to protect the park and community center is now online and ready to go at

http://bit.ly/lyttonsville

If this link is not clickable, please copy and paste it into your browser. is the link.

Remember, anyone can sign the petition, i.e., all the adults living at a single address and all children over 15. You don’t have to live in the neighborhood to sign.

Please sign the petition, copies will be presented to the Planning Board and later to the County Council and Executive. Please forward this message to others.


-----------------------------

PETITION:

I believe that our neighborhood is uniquely diverse, balanced and affordable; models that Montgomery County should seek to replicate in other areas inside the Beltway. Therefore:

-I object to the large increase in housing proposed for the properties near Lyttonsville Road and Grubb Road in the western part of our sector plan area and ask that the total number of new residences be limited to 400 new units. 

-I oppose the re-zoning of these properties to the densities proposed in the draft plan and ask that they be given an FAR no higher than 1.5, the highest density usually allowed next to residential neighborhoods. 

-I request that the effects of increased population on the Lyttonsville-Rosemary Hills Park and Gwendolyn Coffield Community Center be carefully considered and that resources be made available to enhance these valuable community assets.