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.

http://www.montgomerycivic.org/documents/sentinel/20080325.asp

Montgomery College and the Battle For Block 69

by Wayne Goldstein, MCCF President

Last week, readers learned of some notorious actions taken by Montgomery College in its early years. A new state law in 1969 resulted in an independent Board of Trustees taking over College governance. Unfortunately, they hit the ground running… in the wrong direction. However, what then came out of a decade of increasingly bad behavior by the College - that all but transformed it into a renegade institution - was an unprecedented, new planning and cultural public policy, historic preservation. If not for that bad behavior, Montgomery County's historic preservation law probably would have come much later, been much weaker, and the county would now have fewer historic resources to use, to appreciate and to learn from.

In March 1970, the College began working in earnest to buy all 22 houses that made up land adjacent to the Takoma Park campus, a block bounded by Philadelphia, Takoma, New York, and Chicago Avenues known as Block 69. At first, the College said it would only buy from willing sellers. Soon it was talking about a "friendly condemnation suit." By July 1971, it was prepared to start condemning houses. Half of the owners insisted they would never sell willingly. In November 1971, the Planning Board voted against the College's plan to expand into Block 69. The College Trustees, asserting their higher authority as a state agency, then voted to overrule the Planning Board's decision. The County Council and the State Board of Public Works responded to the residents' opposition and delayed their decisions related to funding the expansion.

http://www.montgomerycivic.org/documents/sentinel/20080318.asp

Getting to Know the Real Montgomery College
by Wayne Goldstein, MCCF President

Montgomery College is in the news these days in some very unflattering ways. The first is because the communities who live near the former Maryland College of Art and Design (MCAD) on Georgia Avenue, now owned by the Montgomery College Foundation, want this land to become a park. Although the College and its Foundation were given the MCAD site for free, they want to sell the land to developers for as much money as possible. The second is what is being called "Montgomery College’s Union Busting Campaign" documented this week in a four part series that can be read at http://maryland-politics.blogspot.com/ where the College is being accused of interfering with the right of adjunct professors to consider joining a union.

I think it's time that a new generation of county leaders and residents be introduced to what I call "The Real Montgomery College." From 2000-2002, I was part of a group who fought to stop the College from building its Cultural Arts Center in South Silver Spring's historic Jesup Blair Park because of the irreversible damage that would be done to the park's remaining old growth oak trees and to the setting of the last of the historic Blair family mansions. Against all odds, our group, with the timely help of others, successfully pressured the College to relocate this building to the corner of Georgia and Burlington Avenues, where it is being constructed today.

Have you ever attempted to cross Georgia Avenue on foot? That's what the developer proposes the residents of our neighborhood do in order to gain access to parkland. Check out the video posted on CrossingGeorgia.org for several examples of the dangers of crossing Georgia Avenue on any given day. This video was taken only 3 intersections away from the School of Art & Design property.

On 7/11/2007, the Hearing Examiner approved the rezoning proposal for townhouses. Please read the report: http://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/content/council/zah/pdf/reports/g-858-...

The next step is for the County Council to vote on this rezoning case.