Save Rock Creek Hills Park? Well, we sure tried!: You just can't make this stuff up, part II.

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

You just can't make this stuff up, part II.

The official website of the MCPS now has an official page for the "BETHESDA MIDDLE SCHOOL No. 2". It contains a link to the official specifications for the middle school; these official specifications include, under "Site Requirements" (p. 63), the following:

"20 useable acres (more than 20 acres may be needed due to terrain or for environmental protection requirements)"

Now, since the flat terrain of Rock Creek Hills Park is less than half that (the full acreage, including steep wooded creek-side hills, being about a third less than that), no doubt what will happen at the first meeting of the "Facility Advisory Committee" is that everyone will say, simply, oh, this site does not meet the official requirements, so we're done. You need to restart the site selection process, to find a site that actually meets the official requirements!

On the other hand, given that the word "feasibility" means something different to these folks than it does to everyone else, perhaps the word "requirements" also means something different...

1 comment:

Janis Sartucci said...: Don't take the Feasibility Study too seriously. The whole thing can be thrown out as just happened over at the McKenney Hills Elementary School project.

No new Feasibility Study was done and a new architect was brought in without any community notice or input.

And as you have seen over at Cabin John Middle School (do drive by) major features of the construction can be kept from the public. Take a look at Key Middle School, too.; June 2, 2011 at 12:20 AM

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Who Said That?

"When the [Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission] developed [Rock Creek Hills Park] in the early 1990s they accepted funds from the Program Open Space. This is a program managed by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources to distribute funds from the Federal Land and Water Conservation Fund to preserve open space. The use of Program Open Space funds was inconsistent with the reclamation terms of the transfer agreement under which the M-NCPPC took title to the property. This was the case since use of these funds places restrictions on future public use of parks, in contradiction with the terms of the original transfer agreement..."
– Dr. Joshua Starr, Superintendent, Montgomery County Public Schools.

From the MCPS Site Selection Advisory Committee Minority Reports:

The B-CC High School NAACP Parents' Council wrote that they "... cannot support the recommendation to build the new middle school in a potentially racially divisive and socially isolating location. ... We, therefore, ask the Superintendent and the Board of Education to decline to adopt Rock Creek Hills Local Park as the site for the new middle school."

The Lyttonsville Civic Association wrote that "...MCPS staff set inappropriate boundaries for discussion... ...MCPS staff cut off discussion to insist that a vote be taken before the committee had finished considering all their options. Staff ... made procedural rulings that affected the ability of some representatives to speak freely. Some representatives voiced concerns that they were being led to a predetermined conclusion."

Ms. Brooke Farquhar (Parks Department) wrote: "Costs were not thoroughly evaluated in the process and misinformation may have prejudiced the votes of committee members.... The process lacked a robust analysis. The potential sites should have been analyzed more thoroughly, based on detailed information that would allow consistent comparison across the sites."

Mr. Frederick V. Boyd (Planning Board) wrote: "[T]he rating process used for selecting sites did not provide a real opportunity to consider the community character and quality of life consequences of choosing a candidate site. ... [D]escriptions appear to have been written to enable easier consideration of some public sites..."