Civic Fed Resolution Opposing taking Public Parks for MCPS Use

All,
Peggy Dennis, President of the Civic Fed, asked me to pass this on to readers interested in this topic, the taking of public parks by the BOE for MCPS use. Note the PHED/Ed Committees' joint meeting on July 25th, 2pm in the Council Office Building, 100 Maryland Ave., Rockville, where this will be discussed. Directions are here. Please attend. The session will be televised. Email the council here. Tell them you agree with the Civic Fed resolution. Nancy Floreen is chair of the PHED and Valerie Ervin chairs the Ed committee.

Paula Bienenfeld
Education Committee Chair, Montgomery County Civic Federation

Ms. Dennis:

Thank you for your email of June 22 forwarding a resolution to the Council from the Montgomery County Civic Federation opposing the taking of public land for use by MCPS. I wanted to let you know that the Council’s Planning, Housing, and Economic Development (PHED) Committee and Education Committee will hold a joint meeting on July 25 at 2:00 PM in the Council Office Building (100 Maryland Avenue, 3rd Floor Hearing Room) in Rockville to discuss school site selection issues. Officials and staff from both MCPS and M-NCPPC will participate in the discussion. Please forward this information to Civic Federation members.

Thanks,
Keith Levchenko
Senior Legislative Analyst
Montgomery County Council Staff
100 Maryland Avenue, 5th Floor
Rockville, MD 20850
(work) 240-777-7944
(fax) 240-777-7888
keith.levchenko@montgomerycountymd.gov

From: Peggy Dennis
Sent: Wednesday, June 22,2011 5:01 PM
To: Bradford, Mary; Carrier, Francoise; Floreen's Office, Councilmember; Navarro's Office, Councilmember; Leventhal's Office, Councilmember; Andrews's Office, Councilmember; Berliner's Office, Council member; Eirich's Office, Councilmember; Ervin's Office, Councilmember; Riemer's Office, Councilmember; Rice's Office, Councilmember; BOE; Ike Leggett

Subject: Montgomery County Civic Federation position

Attached is the Resolution adopted by the Montgomery County Civic Federation opposing the taking of public park land for use by MCPS. Please read.

Peggy Dennis President, Montgomery County Civic Federation
Resolution Opposing the Taking of Public Park lands for MCPS Schools
Passed by the membership at the June 13, 2011 meeting of the Montgomery County Civic Federation.

Concerning the recent site selection process for a proposed new middle school in the Bethesda-Chevy Chase cluster, and what was identified by community members, the Montgomery Planning Board Chair and Parks Director as a flawed and exclusive process employed by the Montgomery County Board of Education and Montgomery County Public Schools:

Whereas 6 out of 10 sites on a recent MCPS site selection list were county parks which have been purchased and maintained with appropriated funds and,

Whereas the County Executive acted to recommend use of one park over another based on former occupancy of Rock Creek Hills Park by Kensington Junior High School, and,

Whereas an existing 34,000 acres of county parkland are valuable natural resources as well as treasured public spaces that should not be jeopardized by uses outside ofthe mission and goals of M-NCPPC, the government entity charged with Parks stewardship, and,

Whereas parks and schools are both extremely important county services that should never compete for land use, and

Whereas, parkland should not be treated as surplus or vacant property, and
Whereas other sites should be considered for redevelopment or reclamation by the Board of Education and MCPS, such as the former Montgomery Hills Middle School, and

Whereas, the Montgomery County Planning Department staff and Planning Board should meet immediately with officials from MCPS and the Board of Education to discuss alternatives to attempting to take parkland for use as school sites,

Be it resolved that the Montgomery County Civic Federation urges the State, County Executive, incoming School Superintendent Joshua Starr, Board of Education and staff in charge of school site selection at MCPS:
• to develop a transparent process for engaging and consulting with community stakeholders long before a site selection process is started for a new school building,
• to act in the future with integrity and complete transparency,
• work in consultation with professional land use planners at the Maryland-National Capital Parks and Planning Commission and the Planning Director on all future land use decisions that will affect an entire community,
• refrain from attempting to take and use any parkland in Montgomery County for school sites.

Alert on Rewrite of the Housing Element (Chapter) of the General Plan

All,
I am passing this (below) on from Jim Humphrey, of the Montgomery County Civic Federation
Thanks.
Paula Bienenfeld
Education Committee Chair, Montgomery County Civic Federation

Your action needed to help protect Montgomery County's residential neighborhoods

The County Council's PHED (Planning, Housing, and Economic Development) Committee has scheduled worksessions for March 7 and 14 to consider a draft revision of the Housing Element of the General Plan. The draft revision would remove strategies that currently exist in the Housing Element which are designed to preserve and protect residential neighborhoods in the county, and the draft would recommend allowing accessory apartments in residential zones by-right (rather than by current Special Exception process which lets neighbors and community groups weigh-in).

Please send an email right away to PHED Committee members (no later than Friday, March 11) -- subject: "Draft Revision of the Housing Element of the General Plan" -- and urge them to:

 - retain the neighborhood protection strategies currently in the Housing Element of the General Plan (i.e.; channel through traffic away from residential streets, discourage spill-over parking from non-residential areas, plan uses at the edges of high-density centers that are compatible with existing neighborhoods); and,
- keep accessory apartments by Special Exception.

The email addresses for the 3 PHED Committee members are:
Councilmember.Floreen@montgomerycountymd.gov (she is Chair of the Committee)
Councilmember.Elrich@montgomerycountymd.gov
Councilmember.Leventhal@montgomerycountymd.gov

It would be best if we can influence the PHED Committee to recommend changes to the draft Housing Element revision in order to retain the objective of preserving and protecting residential neighborhoods, since the other six members of Council usually go along with the Committee recommendation. But -- if PHED recommends the full Council adopt the new Housing Element as drafted, we will have to mount an effort to persuade the six other members of Council to keep neighborhood protections in the Housing Element.

Background
The last time the General Plan--the overall master plan for the entire county--was revised was in 1993. In mid-2009 the Planning Board transmitted a draft revision of the Housing Element (chapter) of the General Plan to the Council, the body with authority to approve master plan revisions. The Council held its public hearing on the Housing Element draft revision on December 1, 2009. The issue has not yet come up for a Council vote, but now the PHED Committee has restarted work on it with the intention of making a recommendation.

The General Plan is used as a blueprint for all community master and sector plans. If neighborhood protection strategies remain in the General Plan, then that objective must be addressed in all community master plans, too. So it is critical that the objective of preserving and protecting residential neighborhoods is retained in the General Plan Housing Element!

The existing Housing Element from the 1993 General Plan, and the draft revision being considered by Council, can be found via the "Current Issues--Planning and Land Use Committee" page on the Montgomery County Civic Federation website here: http://www.montgomerycivic.org/currentissuesPLU.html

Thank you for taking the time to email your concerns to the members of the Council's PHED Committee. Please forward this message to your friends, neighbors, and local listserv members.

Jim Humphrey
Chair, Montgomery County Civic Federation (MCCF) Planning and Land Use Committee