Hi all,

It my earnest hope that our leaders in Montgomery County will be able to buy back MCAD from the Montgomery College Foundation and save it as a much needed neighborhood park for the benefit of scores of present and future residents.

MCAD is on the market for $2M for single family home development: http://www.redfin.com/MD/Silver-Spring/10500-Georgia-Ave-20902/home/4025...

Does anyone have $2M for a neighborhood park? If so, please help our communities.

Thanks.

A New Park on Georgia Avenue in the Future?
http://wheaton-md.patch.com/articles/a-new-park-on-georgia-avenue-in-the...

School of Art and Design at Montgomery College building to be considered for Legacy Open Space.

By Taylor Kate Brown | Email the author | 6:00am

A long-abandoned building on Georgia Avenue that held the School of Art and Design for Montgomery College (MCAD) will be reconsidered for the Parks system Legacy Open Space program this summer.

Montgomery College Foundation, which owns the building and the land at 10500 Georgia Avenue, is looking to sell. MCAD has been empty since 2007 and an earlier attempt to develop the property into a townhouses lost in a court challenge from neighborhood residents.

Green Space on Georgia, a civic group representing neighborhoods around the property has been working to keep the site an open, green space.

Legacy Open Space (LOS) is an alternate process through which land becomes part of the Parks system.

"The program is designed to keep the "best of" Montgomery County," said Brenda Sandberg, project manager for Legacy Open Space, whether the "best of" are streams, urban open spaces, or parks. "Think really long term - 50 to 100 years."

The planning board rejected the site's inclusion in LOS in 2007, against the recommendation of the Parks' staff, citing the potential recreational component of the site didn't fit the legacy program.

Now a similar proposal will be coming in front of almost completely new planning board, and right in the middle of the Parks 2030 visioning process.

An conditional April 21st date for the hearing has been moved back to summer because of staff time spent on budget issues.

If the planning board approves the proposal, the Parks department and Montgomery College Foundation would have to settle a price - especially tricky in its urban downcounty location.

http://www.gazette.net/stories/05122010/wheanew191826_32549.php

Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Wheaton residents face roadblock in plan for new park
County budget deals another blow to potential recreational area
by Amber Parcher | Staff Writer

The residents of three Wheaton neighborhoods who are fervently trying to find money to turn a vacant public art school into a park seem to have run into a dead end.

That's the dire news Councilwoman Valerie Ervin (D-Dist. 4) of Silver Spring passed onto residents of Carroll Knolls, Plyers Mill and McKenney Hills in a meeting about the property last week.

"We've been down every road we can take, and we have been stopped at every single corner," she said. "We have about run out of options here."

The Maryland College of Art and Design building, which is owned by the nonprofit Montgomery College Foundation, has sat vacant for almost three years while a proposal for a townhouse development idled in the courts. The school has become an eyesore and encourages illicit late-night activity, say neighbors, who fought the townhouse project and who want the county to purchase the land for a soccer field or park.

Ervin said last week it's a race against time to find a solution that leads to a park before the foundation, which supports taxpayer-funded Montgomery College, strikes a more lucrative deal that involves much more concrete.

After being shot down several times by the county's parks department for funds, Ervin said that their best hope is to organize a united front with Wheaton's state delegation to request funds from a similar parks fund run by the state. But that, too, is a long shot — if the area didn't meet the county's requirements for an open space fund, it's likely it won't meet the state's either. And that's assuming there's even money left in that pot, she said.

But Ervin also said: "I think it's the strongest option we might have."

Montgomery County Council
Rockville, Maryland
Valerie Ervin
Councilmember
District 5

March 12, 2010
The Honorable Senator Richard S. Madaleno, Jr.

James Senate Office Building

Annapolis, MD 21401

Dear Rich,

I am writing to support the bond bill funding for design, construction, repair, and renovation of the Montgomery College Art and Design site (House Bill 651).

I have been working with representatives from the McKenney Hills, Carroll Knolls, and Plyers Mill communities regarding the future use of the Maryland College of Art and Design (MCAD) property. Representatives from these communities have stated that they would like this site turned into a park for recreational use. As you may know, the MCAD site is one of the few remaining green spaces in the Sligo Creek watershed. In addition, the concept plan for the Georgia Avenue corridor promotes increased recreational and local park opportunities as well as the development of a green boulevard along Georgia Avenue.

I wrote a letter to the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission’s Director of Parks supporting a plan to turn the MCAD property into a park using Legacy Open Space (LOS) funding in August 2008. The Montgomery County Planning Board did not designate the site as part of the County’s LOS program, citing limited funding for the program and the site’s failure to meet LOS criteria. In October 2009, I asked the Planning Board to reconsider its decision on the LOS designation, but it has declined to do so.

I know that developing the MCAD property into a park could provide valuable recreation and open space for the community. While I support this proposal, without an additional funding source, the current budget crisis has depleted the necessary resources to make any changes to the site a reality in the near-term.

http://www.gazette.net/stories/07012009/wheanew192206_32521.shtml
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Money is next hurdle for park supporters
Appeals court blocks townhouses at former art college, but property cost could put plans for open space out of reach
by Amber Parcher | Staff Writer

With a lawsuit preventing the construction of townhouses in their neighborhood and the support of two County Council members, the residents of three Silver Spring neighborhoods hope they can turn the vacant Maryland College of Art and Design property on Georgia Avenue into a park.

There's just one problem — the foundation that owns the land is asking for about $4.5 million for the property and the county doesn't have the money, said County Councilman Marc Elrich (D-At Large) of Takoma Park in a community meeting last week.

The MCAD building, under the ownership of the nonprofit Montgomery College Foundation, has been vacant for almost two years while a proposed townhouse development idled in the courts. The school has become an eyesore and encourages illicit late-night activity, say residents of Carroll Knolls, Plyers Mill and McKenney Hills, who want the county to purchase the land to create a park and resist development.

In an interview Friday, Elrich echoed many residents' frustration about the cost of the land, especially because the county handed over the land to the foundation for free several years ago.

"Why should we pay for something we gave them?" he said.

But it was county officials who in 2005 asked Montgomery College to take over the failing MCAD, which was losing hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, said Donna Pina, the director of finance for the Montgomery College Foundation, in an e-mail.

The college merged into what is now the School of Art and Design at Montgomery College, and the county agreed to give the foundation ownership of the MCAD property to recuperate operating and merger costs, Pina said.

Hello all,

Thank you to all of you who were able to attend Tuesday's night MCAD meeting with our Councilmember, Councilmember Valerie Ervin. Valerie is committed to saving MCAD as green space and is actively looking for a financial solution on our behalf. Here are two possible solutions:

1) Reconsideration of Legacy Open Space Designation. This August, Valerie plans to send a letter to the Planning Board requesting reconsideration of MCAD as part of the LOS program. MCAD follows primarily under Criterion 8, urban open space (http://www.mc-mncppc.org/parks/ppsd/legacy_open_space/summary.shtm).

"The Resource provides a significant opportunity to:

a. increase access to public open space in communities with high population densities,
b. to protect scarce open space in an urbanized community, or
c. to improve the character of an existing urban boulevard of countywide or regional significance."

Valerie would like her letter to be signed by a total of 5 Councilmembers. Please write other Councilmembers and ask for their support on LOS designation of MCAD.

2) County-sponsored Land Swap. Valerie stated that her office is presently discussing with Montgomery College a possible land swap. In this way, MCAD will be given back to the County and preserved as parkland.

The meeting was highly informative and encouraging. We learned that Valerie is deeply concerned about this property as well as the College's behavior. She stated a number of times her great disappointment that the College representatives were a no show.

Prior to her arrival, a police officer in charge of K-9 training informed us that MCAD has only been used once by his staff and dogs and will not be used again. This officer told us that the MCAD building itself is in such a sad state with broken glass inside that using it as a K-9 training facility is not worth the risk to the dogs.

http://www.gazette.net/stories/062508/montnew190241_32366.shtml

The County Council elected two new members for the county's Planning
Board on Tuesday — a prominent developer and an activist who played a
key role in uncovering hundreds of building violations in Clarksburg.

Their appointments fill out the five-member board which has been
without a full complement since the death in January of one of its
newest members.

Joseph L. Alfandre, a Democrat from Potomac, developed the Kentlands,
a nationally renowned ''New Urbanist" community in Gaithersburg.

Councilman Roger Berliner (D-Dist. 1) of Potomac, praised him as
sensitive to the needs of communities and said he will provide
knowledge of the industry to the panel.

Alfandre replaces the late Eugene ''Gene" Lynch, founder of the
development firm, Smart Growth Investments, which focuses on building
projects that take advantage of existing infrastructure such as nearby
transit. Lynch was a former state and county official; he died just
seven months after being appointed to the seat.

''I think [Alfandre] is the rightful heir to the Gene Lynch seat,"
said Berliner.

Amy Presley, a Republican from Clarksburg, is a strategic planning and
marketing consultant and a founder of the Clarksburg Town Center
Advisory Committee, whose research uncovered hundreds of overlooked
building violations in that community and led to reforms at the
planning agency. She replaces Allison Bryant, a consultant, who served
on the board since September 1997 when he was appointed to finish the
term of Ruthann Aron, who was removed after being charged with trying
to hire someone to kill her husband. Bryant then was appointed to two
terms of his own.

Bryant's departure leaves just one board member, John Robinson (whose
term expires in June 2009), from the panel that presided when Presley
and other activists pushed the board to overhaul procedures and give

March 20, 2008
Council Member Valerie Ervin
Montgomery County Council
100 Maryland Avenue
Rockville, Maryland 20850

Dear Council Member Ervin,

I moved to Montgomery County Maryland in July 1973 to the address listed above. One of the attributes that I admired about the county in general was the sight of open spaces. In 1973 a Jewish synagogue was located on the corner of Evans Drive and Georgia Avenue and was surrounded by a natural wooded area. The trees provided nesting sites for cardinals, blue jays, finches and all manner of other animals and insects. The birds in the area decreased substantially as this wooded area became the site of townhouses by the late 1970's; eventually, the synagogue became a private art school; the private art school became the property of Montgomery College where was housed the School of Art and Design (MCAD); and now the site is once again in need of a ‘task.’

As much as I realize that people must have housing, I also realize that people desperately need open spaces. Open spaces provide an invitation for people to “play” and gather in groups; for children to run; for adults to simply stand and admire a small piece of land that has no other purpose than that of the enjoyment of nature. We will never get back the wooded acres of yesteryear, but, today, can’t we have just one very small piece of the earth and give it the ‘ task’of providing open space?

Sincerely,
A Carroll Knolls resident

Hello all,

Just to follow up, here is the link to the audio file for the 1/17/08 LOS Planning Board's decision on MCAD: http://www.mc-mncppc.org/board/agenda/2008/agenda20080117e.html

Part 5: First 18 minutes (They are talking about MCAD and their issue with a citizen nominating a site for LOS. Commissioner Bryant thought it was an anti-development driven nomination instead of understanding that I nominated it because a park is the better use of the land and that the surrounding communities support that option. I nominated MCAD in April before any rezoning decisions were made. MCAD was fully examined by the LOS Advisory Group and LOS Technical Staff and approved for LOS by them....that's how MCAD's LOS nomination got to the Planning Board!).

Part 5: Starts again at 52:18 (8 minutes) They were not suppose to talk about rezoning and cost, just merits of the LOS recommendation.

Part 6: Start at beginning continues with MCAD.

Please listen and let me know your thoughts.

Thanks,
Beverly

Hello all,

Please check out this Gazette article on MCAD: http://www.gazette.net/stories/012308/germnew52201_32364.shtml

*Please note that according to LOS technical staff, rezoning and cost were not suppose to be factors in the Planning Board's decision.

**Please also note that it was this same Planning Board that increased the value of MCAD through rezoning and now when asked to save it, they cite its high value/cost as a reason for denial. However, MCAD's value can be kept low by winning the covenant lawsuit. Of course, that reality was not discussed by the Planning Board when it made its decision.

I hope to find out what these "other funding sources" that can be used to save MCAD are soon.

Thank you kindly for your help and support,
Beverly Sobel

From the Gazette Article:

Impending development was the issue for the Montgomery College of Art and Design property.

''We really see an opportunity for some very nice passive open space on areas that are currently being used as passive open space," Brenda Sandberg, Legacy Open Space director, told the board at Thursday's meeting.

Sandberg said Legacy Open Space staff wanted to protect the wooded and wetland areas on the campus along Georgia Avenue. A junior-sized soccer field and a playground could be added to the site, she said.

If the site is developed into a 27-townhouse, $5.4 million development as planned, a ''significant area" of the site's canopy would be destroyed, she said.
''There's a need for fields in the area," Hanson said. But ''we are presenting ourselves with extraordinary costs imposed on Legacy Open Space, which it seems to me is not the appropriate way to go ... and I don't think this site is the appropriate way to cure this."

Hanson suggested the county could build a pedestrian bridge across Georgia Avenue to give neighbors more access to nearby open space for ''cheaper than we can buy the land" at Maryland College of Art and Design.