Save Rock Creek Hills Park? Well, we sure tried!: Planning Board Asks MCPS to Take a Harder Look at Lynnbrook.

Monday, April 9, 2012

Planning Board Asks MCPS to Take a Harder Look at Lynnbrook.

Tonight the Montgomery County Planning Board conducted their "mandatory referral" review of the Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) proposal to construct a middle school for the Bethesda - Chevy Chase cluster on the site of Rock Creek Hills Park.

The meeting lasted almost four hours, comprised of staff reports, public testimony, and deliberation.

The Planning Board commissioners voted to recommend that MCPS take a harder look at the former Lynnbrook Elementary School site (owned by MCPS) and the adjacent Lynnbrook Local Park, and that the Planning Board and the Board of Education should negotiate regarding use of the Lynnbrook Local Park site for this purpose.

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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..."