Steve Burns
WMAL.com
ROCKVILLE, MD. – (WMAL) After hearing from hundreds of upset residents, the Montgomery County Council will be going back to the drawing board on its ten-year effort to find a new place to park 410 school buses.
They had planned to use the Jeremiah Park lot near the Shady Grove Metro Station for new development, but the failure to find an interim spot for the buses means the development is being put on hold.
“It is clear to me that we do continue to need Jeremiah Park for the time being, and that we’ll just have to leave the buses there until such time that we work this out, and that will take a while,” Councilmember George Leventhal said to applause from the packed hearing room.
“We don’t have a plan yet today. We don’t know precisely where to relocate the buses, and as a result we need to leave them at Jeremiah Park.”
The move comes after a contentious few months of back-and-forth between the Council and residents around two proposed sites in Rockville, one near a high school and another just behind a residential neighborhood.
The Council did not take those sites off the table entirely, but instead Council President Nancy Floreen said they will re-evaluate their options over the next few months.
“The question is, what’s the plan? And do we even want a plan?” Floreen said, reflecting the next decision on the Council’s horizon: whether or not to abandon the search for a new site entirely.
“If this isn’t seriously net-positive for the County, frankly, the Shady Grove location is probably the best location we’ll ever have,” Councilmember Marc Elrich said.
Other Councilmembers advocated for a continued effort to find new sites in order for the redevelopment near the Shady Grove Metro station to continue.
Regardless, advocates hoped the decision today was a turning point for the quickly-growing county, both on transparency and prioritization in the Council.
“Why are we thinking that we should adversely impact existing neighborhoods for the benefits of new neighborhoods?” Rockville Mayor Bridget Newton asked. “I think that’s something the County has to wrestle with.”
“It does at least give us a hope that a small community organization can make a difference and be heard and at least get (the Council) thinking about some things they hadn’t thought about before,” Kevin Karton with the Carver Coalition told WMAL.
“Nothing was actually taken off of the table today. They’re going to wait and see what recommendations they come back with in September.”
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