Crabbs Branch is county pick for day-laborer center

Planning Board hearing set for Feb. 8

Thursday, Jan. 18, 2007

by Sebastian Montes

Staff Writer

The center will be located on a half-acre parcel behind a Department of Liquor Control warehouse at 16640 Crabbs Branch Way.

According to a statement from County Executive Isiah Leggett (D), the location is more than half a mile from the closest residential area. It is also about 700 yards from the nearest bus stop. The Shady Grove Metro station is a little more than a mile away.

The announced plan is the county’s solution to the sometimes-bitter struggle to address the dozens of mostly Latino day laborers who have routinely gathered in Gaithersburg parking lots in hopes of being hired for temporary work, such as construction or landscape jobs.

‘‘If we do nothing, this situation doesn’t just go away. I believe we should address this challenge now,” Leggett wrote in the statement.

His plan is to set up a trailer and possibly portable bathrooms on the site. The service park area lies between the cities of Gaithersburg and Rockville and is roughly 1.5 miles south of the Gaithersburg lot where laborers currently gather.

Gaithersburg officials abandoned their effort to open a center in the city last fall after meeting widespread opposition.

Gaithersburg City Manager David B. Humpton said Thursday afternoon that the city would not comment on the county decision until after Mayor Sidney A. Katz meets with Leggett Friday.

Because the site is outside both Gaithersburg and Rockville, the county has sole control over the site’s approval process.

Leggett has asked the county Planning Board to expedite the required mandatory referral process, but according to the planning rules, Leggett has ultimate decision authority. The board is scheduled to hold a public hearing on the issue Feb. 8.

The county hopes to have the center running by mid-February, Leggett spokesman Patrick Lacefield said in an interview Thursday.

‘‘It is not going to go up before we have a chance to get comments from the public,” he said.

Some residents in the Shady Grove Sector planning area are not happy with the county announcement. They say the area is already burdened with enough.

‘‘You name it, we’ve got it. Don’t just dump this in our area,” said Derwood resident Brad Botwin.”

He listed the county’s trash transfer station, a bus maintenance yard and other industrial facilities in addition to the end-point of the future Intercounty Connector.

‘‘And now to have this plopped in ... it’s exhausting. Enough. I’ve just had it,” Botwin added.

On Monday Botwin, a 22-year Derwood resident, resigned his position as co-president of the Greater Shady Grove Civic Alliance to form a new group — Help Save Maryland.

That group will work to prevent the day-laborer center from opening, he said.