North Potomac residents will soon have a new place to enjoy a stroll, kick around a soccer ball or shoot some hoops after state funds were approved last week for a local park near the intersection of Glen and Travilah roads.

Greenbriar Local Park, a roughly 25-acre tract of undeveloped land that has existed in name since the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission purchased the area in 1992, was approved to receive more than $2.8 million toward the construction of recreation facilities there including a soccer field, a basketball court, a grass volleyball court and playgrounds.

The money comes through the Department of Natural Resources' Program Open Space, which allocates funding to local jurisdictions to go toward recreation land or open space areas, and was approved by the Maryland Board of Public Works Jan. 27. The Montgomery County Planning Board approved the plan for the new park in September of 2005.

An additional $1 million in costs will be fronted through Park and Planning bonds and individual contributions. The park is also slated to include a gazebo, a central seating area, a picnic table area, an asphalt loop pedestrian path, and a 70-space parking area.

North Potomac residents have long bemoaned the lack of access to recreation, a need that has been documented multiple times. The 1998 Park Recreation Open Space Master Plan and the 2005 Land Preservation, Parks and Recreation Plan highlighted the Travilah area as having some of the "highest unmet recreational needs in the county."

"In reality we're low on recreational park lands," said Ginny Barnes, environmental chair of the West Montgomery County Citizens Association, a Potomac civic group. "We have a lot of conservation lands, but not recreational facilities."

At the time of Planning Board approval in 2005, both the WMCCA and the North Potomac Citizens Association came out in favor of the project, saying the project both provided needed recreation facilities and protected the nearby Greenbriar Branch stream. The recreation facilities would border Glen Road, leaving 65 percent of the park in its natural state, acting as environmental buffer for the stream.

"The more natural areas were completely preserved, we stayed out of those," said Heidi Sussmann, a planner with the M-NCPPC who helped design the park.

Concerns do linger, however, about the impact increased traffic could have on Glen Road, a rustic road. A press release from the Department of Natural Resources indicated that "projected annual attendance" to the park would be 50,000 visits per year, raising some eyebrows among community members.

"I think the major concern for me was bringing all that traffic to a rustic road," Barnes said. "…When you have a rustic road, you don't want to make it dangerous — it's never intended to carry a lot of traffic."

However, according to Sussmann, 50,000 yearly visits is most likely an unrealistic estimate. "It would be based on if you had maximum usage every day for nine months," Sussmann said, referring to the soccer season from March-November.

The number was developed based on the maximum number of soccer players and spectators who would use the soccer field for games on weekends and practices during weekdays, Sussmann said. The projections factored in 30-36 players – two teams — would use the field per game for a maximum of 10 games over the weekend, and one team of 15-18 players would use the field per practice during a maximum of five practices on weekdays. The projections were on the high end, Sussmann said, and also took spectators into account.

The number — based on people visiting the park, rather than cars — did not take into account rain days, carpools, or drop-offs, Sussmann said. A more realistic estimate would be 20,000-30,000 visits per year, she said.

Planning and design is slated to begin in fiscal year 2010, and construction is scheduled to begin in fiscal 2012 for completion in fiscal 2013.

"Right now, there's a real shortage of ball fields in that area, and kids and teens have to drive across the county to play games," Sussmann said. "The goal was to provide both some preservation of natural areas and some recreation."