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Berman bid for site hits snag

Planning Board rejects proposal to sell property

Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2005

The Melvin J. Berman Hebrew Academy’s bid to buy the Aspen Hill property on which it operates took a hit Thursday when the Planning Board rejected recommending the sale to the County Council.

The academy, which rents the 19.5-acre property from the county for $60,000 per year, is seeking to exercise a clause in a long-term lease agreement entered into in 1996 and buy the parcel for $1.5 million. Under the proposal, the county would have the option to repurchase the property beginning in 2026.

But selling the public property would complicate any future attempt to repurchase it, Planning Board Chairman Derick P. Berlage said.

‘‘The Berman Academy is an excellent use for the facility,” he said. ‘‘The question put to us was, ‘Does it make sense for the county to give up the property?’”

Planning staff recommended rejecting the deal, arguing that the 1994 Aspen Hill Master Plan calls for the land to remain in public ownership. A staff report questioned the long-term reliability of county school system projections indicating the land is not needed for public education purposes.

Regardless of whether the sale is approved, the academy must continue using the property as a school and allow the public access to its recreational facilities.

The Montgomery County Civic Federation joined the debate last week by unanimously passing a resolution opposing the proposed sale of the land, which formerly housed Robert E. Peary High School.

The Board of Education closed Peary High School in 1984. The school deteriorated and residents began complaining about criminal activity and vandalism.

‘‘[W]e believe the terms of the proposed sale, as we understand them, are highly unfavorable to the taxpayers of Montgomery County, and unnecessarily favorable to the Hebrew Academy,” states the resolution.

Federation member Arnold Gordon called the proposal a giveaway made possible by the academy’s ‘‘substantial political constituency in the community.”

‘‘You do not dispose of a school property at a time when real estate values are booming and you don’t sell a $20 million property for 1.5 million bucks,” he added, estimating the current land value if it were subdivided.

Jerry Pasternak, special assistant to Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan (D), disagreed.

‘‘You can’t value the property as if it was going to be developed residential or office buildings,” Pasternak said. ‘‘It’s use is restricted to school uses. When you limit the use like that, you eliminate the income-producing component of the land.”

Duncan supports a deed restriction limiting the property to its current use and allowing the county future repurchase rights.

Since the Melvin J. Berman Hebrew Academy occupied the property, it has spent more than $10 million renovating the 200,000-square-foot building, academy spokeswoman Ilene France had said in a previous interview in March.

Some agree that the Berman Academy has been a good neighbor.

‘‘Instead of having an eyesore in the community, we have an asset,” said David Polinsky, president of the Aspen Hill Civic Association, a local group that supports the purchase offer.

At the time the school entered into the lease agreement, ‘‘part of the incentive to the academy was that it would have the right to purchase the property and, in return, the academy would invest a sizable amount of money” in repairs, said James Dattaro, an attorney representing the school. ‘‘I think it’s somewhat unfair to look back and say the [$1.5 million purchase] price is low.”

The lease agreement allows the academy to purchase the site, if the County Council approves.

Making the academy pay more for improvements it already paid for is unreasonable, Pasternak said.

‘‘We’re following through on our commitment to the school, just as the school followed through on its commitment to the county and community,” he said.

The County Council’s Management and Fiscal Policy Committee is scheduled to consider the issue on Oct. 17.