County Council delays action on school site

After quick proposal to give up possible location, idea is taken off fast track

Wednesday, Nov. 29, 2006

by Melissa J. Brachfeld

Staff Writer

‘‘Basically, what the council said is, ‘We don’t need to make this decision right now,’” Patrick Lacefield, a spokesman for the County Council, said.

‘‘They decided to not put this on a fast track and take a little more time with it,” he added.

On Nov. 20, the County Council received a letter from Board of Education President Charles Haughey (At large) of Rockville requesting direction from the council regarding a school reservation on the Piedmont Crossing site in the Shady Grove Sector. The county has the option to use the site for a school but is required to decide by Dec. 23.

Piedmont Crossing, which is known as Casey at Mill Creek in the Shady Grove Sector Plan, is located between Washington Grove and Shady Grove Road.

In his letter, Haughey suggested the most prudent course of action was to let the school reservation on the Piedmont Crossing site expire, noting that the need for the school is dependent on the pace of development in the Shady Grove Sector, including whether the County Service Park is moved to another site and that land is redeveloped.

The Piedmont Crossing site is estimated to cost between $8 million and $10 million.

At the request of council President George L. Leventhal (D-At large) of Takoma Park, the council staff drafted a resolution expressing support for allowing the school reservation at Piedmont Crossing to expire and reiterating its support for the Jeremiah Park site, another site that has been proposed as a location for the school. Jeremiah Park is located within the County Service Park in the southeast corner of Shady Grove Road and Crabbs Branch Way. Because action on the resolution was proposed the same day as introduction, a suspension of the council rules would have been required with an affirmative vote of at least six council members.

However, due to the quick pace at which the procedure has taken place, Councilman Philip M. Andrews (D-Dist. 3) of Gaithersburg said the council has decided to delay taking action on the matter to allow for more consideration and public input to take place.

‘‘I opposed a vote today because of how quickly this has all taken place and to give the public a chance to weigh in. I’m glad my colleagues have put off having to vote today,” he said.

Andrews, who represents Rockville, Gaithersburg, North Potomac, Derwood and Washington Grove, also voted against the Shady Grove Sector Plan.

He added that it is now up to the new County Council, which will have its first meeting on Dec. 5, to decide the future of the Piedmont Crossing site. Five of the current members of the council will be returning.

Keith Levchenko, a senior legislative analyst for the County Council, said county Park and Planning officials were present at the Tuesday morning meeting and that they expressed their opposition to the council acting on the resolution.

In a letter transmitted Tuesday morning from the Montgomery County Planning Board to the County Council, Planning Board Chairman Royce Hanson expressed his opposition to the adoption of the resolution.

‘‘The proposed emergency resolution to allow the reservation to expire for the school site at Piedmont Crossing should not be adopted,” he wrote. ‘‘Rather, the Planning Board should extend it for another year...”

Hanson also noted that the Planning Board was not aware of Haughey’s letter.

‘‘Since the reservation process normally occurs as an incident of the subdivision process, it would be advisable for the council to refer a request for removal to the Planning Board,” he said. ‘‘The board has had no communication from Montgomery County Public Schools that they do not wish to use the site, and I understand their letter to the Council only indicated that they did not have funds allocated for its purchase this year.”

Levchenko said members of Park and Planning said they would talk with the developer of the Piedmont Crossing site to determine whether the reservation could be extended to Dec. 23, 2007. If that is the case, he said, the resolution will be thrown out.

However, if that does not occur, he said, County Council members would have to take decisive action before the site’s expiration date and their December recess. The last County Council meeting before 2007 is scheduled for Dec. 12.