Friday, June 17, 2016

After 6-figure salaried County officials fail to find bus depot site; Planning Board chair tells residents to "step up to the plate"

"They're trying to
strangle us"

The MoCo political cartel in action again: Montgomery County's developer-driven "Smart Growth Initiative" required its proponents - County Executive Ike Leggett and the County Council - to find a new school bus depot site before they could turn the existing Shady Grove depot over to a developer. A decade later, they've failed to do so. Last night, 4 out of 5 commissioners correctly blasted the County's bungled approach, which has led to uprisings in neighborhoods targeted to receive a bus depot. In contrast, board chair Casey Anderson chastised residents to not blame the County, but to "step up to the plate" and do these well-paid officials site search work for them!

Montgomery County Planning Board commissioners lambasted the County's Department of General Services' plan to acquire the WINX property at 1000 Westmore Avenue in Rockville, before voting to disapprove the acquisition. Their comments followed testimony by Rockville's mayor, residents, and civic leaders, which outlined a questionable process and a lack of transparency by the County. Commissioners were also shocked to learn that the DGS had secretly signed a sales contract with the landowner of 1000 Westmore on April 28, just days before requesting a mandatory referral review by the Board.

"It looks like the horse is already out of the barn," Commissioner Norman Dreyfuss said, after reviewing a copy of the executed contract submitted moments earlier by Rockville Mayor Bridget Donnell Newton. DGS, it became apparent, had not even shared the existence of the contract with the Planning Department. "The County is going to acquire this property, or default on the contract," Dreyfuss said.

Under the mandatory referral process, even the disapproval of the Board last night will not prevent the County from moving forward with its acquisition, and expected use as school bus parking for Montgomery County Public Schools. The County is desperately searching for several bus parking sites, so it can sell the existing MCPS bus depot in Shady Grove to a developer in a deal known as the "Smart Growth Initiative."

But powerful testimony by Lincoln Park residents showed the politically-treacherous road ahead for County politicians if they decide to press on with the Westmore plan.

"As far back as I can remember, we have been struggling to live in peace in Lincoln Park, and every few years we are fighting some monster that is threatening our security," said Fran Hawkins, a 69 year resident. "When they closed historic Lincoln Park High School (Lincoln High School opened in 1935 to serve black students shut out of County high schools by segregation), they parked buses there for decades," she noted of the MCPS Stonestreet Avenue property now home to decaying trailers. Those trailers replaced the buses when the County moved the depot to 16651 Crabbs Branch Way in Shady Grove, she recalled.

Of the County's abuse of her neighborhood, Hawkins said, “they’ve strangled us. They’re trying to strangle us. That’s the only way i can put it.”

A resident of Douglas Avenue noted that Lincoln Park is a 125-year-old community, and its streets were not well-planned or wide enough to handle hundreds of large buses passing in and out of the neighborhood. She said the quiet existence of the $12 million DGS contract and the way it has handled the process were "disturbing." She questioned how much DGS Deputy Director Greg Ossont actually knew about the community, after he was quoted in the newspaper as saying the buses would not be using neighborhood streets to reach main roads.

In fact, many criticized Ossont for refusing to meet with residents or visit the neighborhood in person, including commissioners. Suzan Pitman, President of the East Rockville Civic Association, said Ossont never even responded to her personal invitation, only sending a mass form email that went to multiple residents yesterday. She questioned how the County could afford to pay $12 million dollars for 10 acres of unimproved property, while having told teachers they wouldn't receive their full raise in FY-2017.

Most residents of the area near 1000 Westmore are "working class," and unable to hire attorneys to fight the County, Pitman said. And those residents are now disillusioned with County officials, she added. "Whatever trust we had that they were looking out for the best interests of residents is gone.”

Another nearby resident who is a teacher in MCPS, said she is tired of her neighborhood being "the disposal for everything the County doesn't want. It's not fair."

"No, we do not want the buses right across from our homes," declared Gladys Lyons of Ashley Avenue, who said she didn't want to "stand on my front porch and look directly over at the buses," and hear horns honking a 4:00 AM when buses start up in the winter.

Such an outcome is "a deplorable idea," said her neighbor, Virginia Cooper, whose husband has lived there more than 50 years. The thought of hundreds of school buses turning at the corner there "gives me shivers," Cooper said.

A Frederick Avenue resident didn't want to think of that, either. "I can't imagine what it will be like to have buses zipping up and down," she said. She opposes the land acquisition “because of the way it’s been done," with no transparency. She professed to be “skeptical of the County for very good reason,” citing the failure of MCPS to clear its own Stonestreet Avenue sidewalk of snow for 10 days this past winter.

Alexandra Destinito, VP of the Lincoln Park Civic Association, said her development is "the best kept secret in town" despite being near the railroad, a Washington Gas facility, "132 ugly rusting trailers" at the MCPS site on Stonestreet, and cut-through traffic from Gude Drive. "Now MCPS would like to add the bus depot," she said. The land swap at Shady Grove is called "smart growth," she said. "Smart for whom?"

Theresa Defino, a Rockville Housing Enterprises (RHE developed Legacy at Lincoln Park) commissioner, said, "this is some sort of otherworldly crazy puppet show going on." She asked the Board to "please do us all a favor and admit the emperor’s got no clothes here.”

The solidarity with Lincoln Park and East Rockville was joined by Christina Ginsberg of the Twinbrook Civic Association, who noted her community's "strong opposition" to the Westmore plan. "We have watched in dismay as MCPS has brought forward 3 sites in Rockville," Ginsberg said, also expressing Twinbrook's opposition to depots at Carver or at the Blair Ewing Center on Avery Road. All three sites are also opposed by the Aspen Hill Civic Association, she said, which submitted a letter to the Board indicating Aspen Hill's opposition.

Ginsberg criticized County Executive Ike Leggett's suggestion to communities opposing bus depots in their neighborhood to come up with another site themselves. "“I find this tactic extremely offensive,” she said. County officials "spectacularly failed in their jobs. It is not up to the citizens to do their jobs for them," she added.

Also supporting Lincoln Park was former Rockville Mayor Larry Giammo, now the President of the West End Citizens Association, and an active opponent of the Carver depot plan. He calculated that if MCPS stuck to its plan to park 100 buses at Carver, it would leave the other 310 to park at Westmore. Giammo invited commissioners to imagine they were residents of Ashley Avenue if that came to pass.

"What is the typical morning going to be like for you," Giammo asked. It would begin at 6:00 AM, he said, when all 310 buses would be started up and left to idle. 310 horns would honk, and 310 back-up beepers would sound, as those are two of the required tests run on every bus each morning. Those sounds would start at 4:00 on frigid winter mornings, he said.

310 bus drivers would all arrive by car into the neighborhood, Giammo said. Then 310 buses would begin to roll off the site, and not always via the routes MCPS is telling the public it will use now. "I can pretty much guarantee you most of these buses are going to go to the west and the south," Giammo predicted, "and they’re going to use residential streets to get there."

Giammo also criticized the process, calling the manner in which Leggett and his staff have approached the issue "profoundly disappointing," as well as the contract "that just shows up out of nowhere."

The timing of that contract in relation to the mandatory referral process "raises serious questions," Newton said. She noted the documents refer to a "land swap. What land is being swapped?" Newton questioned the placement of bus parking 50' away from homes, as well as the challenge of getting WSSC water and sewer service to the site. How can the County justify all of the impacts of moving the depot “simply to free up space to build more homes," she asked.

Newton has sought to avoid neighborhoods within the City from being pitted against each other in this contentious process, with multiple sites targeted by the County. The City provided bus transportation last night to assist residents who otherwise would have been unable to travel to speak in Silver Spring.

The citywide response, and emotional testimony, clearly swayed commissioners. "It’s really hard not to be extremely troubled by what the residents have brought forth,” said commissioner Amy Presley. She said she was not aware of the history of County abuse of the Lincoln Park neighborhood. Commissioners Marye Wells-Hartley and Natali Fani-Gonzalez strongly rebuked the County for both its proposal, and its lack of transparency, community outreach and respect for the residents.
Chair Casey Anderson
admonished County residents
and community leaders to
"step up to the plate."
Huh?
What about the six-figure
salaried County officials and
deep-pocketed developers
who were tasked with finding a
depot site?
Board chair Casey Anderson took an oddly-different approach, partially defending the widely-thought-to-be indefensible County actions - while saying he was not defending them. “As opposed to everybody walking out of here saying ‘shame on the County,' " he said, residents should be asking themselves what they are going to do to help find a new depot. This was doubly strange, given that Ginsberg had earlier called similar admonishments by Leggett "extremely offensive."

Rockville "has a responsibility like the rest of us do," Anderson continued. "How are you going to help the county figure out where to put some of [the buses]? Step up to the plate.” Anderson challenged the leaders of Rockville and Gaithersburg to "exercise some political leadership," in having their jurisdictions be part of the solution. Residents across the County shouldn't say, “not here, not there, no not there either," Anderson scolded. "The buses need a place to park!”

For her part, Newton said the City is indeed ready to work with all parties to help find a permanent solution to the bus depot crisis. She mentioned the former Gude Drive landfill, and the soon-to-be-vacated County Public Safety Training Center, as two potential sites. Both sites would almost certainly face opposition from residents in Derwood and North Potomac, respectively.
Will the residents of Grinnell Dr.
and Dubuque Ct.
"step up to the plate" for hundreds
of horns honking at 6 AM?
Not likely
 
Will the folks
in these North Potomac
houses across from the
Public Safety Academy warm
to horn blasts at 4 AM on
frigid mornings? Don't
bank on it
The ball is now in the County Council's court for its discussion of the bus depot debacle next Tuesday. They voted to fund depots at Carver and Westmore, but have tried to sweep those votes under the rug. The reality is, they got us this far and created this mess along with Leggett.

Now the only way out - unless you believe that the County's review of 200 properties countywide somehow missed a "dream bus depot site" - is to either face the wrath of voters by placing these depots over their objections, or to risk the legal consequences of forcing the County to back out of the Shady Grove deal by refusing to approve the Declaration of No Further Need for the existing depot.

This will be entertaining political theater, indeed.

48 comments:

Anonymous said...

1,944 words. LOL

Anonymous said...

I see our resident Dyer stalker is here. Imagining Dyer in restaurants. Counting his words. So obsessed. Love-struck with envy.
You're scary, dude. Get involved in your own life.

Poppy said...

People should not be sending their children to school on buses. End of story.

Anonymous said...

@ 6:03 AM - Why do you feel obligated to respond to everything he/she/they say, within just a few minutes? Maybe you need to "get a life" and stop "feeding the troll" as they say?

Elm said...

Rob - thanks for more great coverage surrounding our elected leaders and their inability to find the all-important bus depot. Just as an FYI, most county officials are incompetent scoundrels and hence there affiliation with the public sector. Educated, well-to-do individuals like myself and Poppy only believe in the private sector.

Good luck to you though, Mr. Dyer! May all your dreams come true, NOT!

Elm said...

6:11 AM Why do you have to respond to anything pushing back against your dumb comments?

Anonymous said...

6:03AM...agreed...the stalker wants to be Robert Dyer

Anonymous said...

6:21 AM is generating buzz by starting to drink at 8AM on a Friday

Anonymous said...

@ 6:03 AM is imagining someone imagining Dyer in a restaurant.

What a weirdo.

Anonymous said...

Get rid of buses. Why should I be paying for getting your smelly kids to school. Buy them a bike.

Anonymous said...

Eww... who would want bus drivers in their neighborhood. *shudder*

Anonymous said...

I love Dyer's notion that all 1,000 buses will start their engines simultaneously at 4:00 AM and and then idle and sound their horns and back-up alarms for half an hour.

Anonymous said...

Keep them in Shady Grove. Those losers deserve them haha. Do they even have a Dyer blog?

That Guy said...

One school bus going by on the street in the morning is noisy enough. I can't imagine the roar of 1,000 of them at once.

Anonymous said...

my fingers smell like cheese, warm stinky cheese.

Anonymous said...

They had a site already, right where they've been, at Shady Grove. So dumb, trying to desperately dump the buses somewhere else. Pure greed. Well, we all know some neighborhood will be the unlucky recipient of this bus depot whether they like it or not, no matter how much they fight it. Because THEY said so, their county representatives.

Anonymous said...

It is amazing how so many people constantly defend this incompetence.

Anonymous said...

@ 8:04 AM's fingers smell like cheese.

Anonymous said...

@7:34AM Go hang out at the Westlake bus depot. See what you say then.

Anonymous said...

Casey Anderson is completely delusional. What idiotic democrats put him in the position of planning board chair?
What about Leggett offering up the 5 acres he lives on for the new bus depot? That would be Leggett stepping up to the plate!

Anonymous said...

Agreed

Anonymous said...

Careful he doesn't like Rob or Robby or Bob or Bobby.

Anonymous said...

Do I understand this right? The 2 spots discussed and possibly rejected would have parking for only 100 of the buses?
So where would the rest get parked?
Since the council loves underground parking so much, maybe they need to build an underground garage for the buses. Hahah. Buses on those ramps.

Anonymous said...

@ 9:00 AM - I don't hang out at bus depots, you weirdo.

Anonymous said...

If you were at the Planning Board meeting last night you would know it is



NOT A BUS DEPOT!!!!!!



It is a bus "parking lot". Everyone needs to get the terminology correct. It's making Leggett really annoyed.

Anonymous said...

Well we all know what happened the last time Ike tried to build a bus depot. Bet its a sore spot.

G. Money said...

I would like to step up to the plate and nominate the Westbard Giant parking lot.

Anonymous said...

Send them to PG county with the other unmentionables.

Anonymous said...

WHAT BUS DEPOT? WESTBARD!!
WHAT BUS DEPOT? WESTBARD!!
WHAT BUS DEPOT? WESTBARD!!
WHAT BUS DEPOT? WESTBARD!!

Anonymous said...

Poppy's blog has been overrun by bot comments, hilarious

Anonymous said...

Where does Casey Anderson live? They could put the bus "parking lot" there. Unless he doesn't want to step up to the plate.

Anonymous said...

Poppy, call your IT guy! Also post more articles on your blog. You don't have a job or anything, you got no excuse for this 1 article a month crap

Anonymous said...

Casey Anderson lives directly across from a park!
1st Avenue in Silver Spring
Great place to put a school bus depot. Thank you Casey for stepping up and donating your local park for a bus depot.

Poppy said...

I put in an emergency text message to our IT guy from the treadmill here at Equinox. He has taken care of the issue.

I agree with you that I need to post more often, but you could have come up with a nicer way to ask me. But, I get your point. I will jot down some ideas for new posts at Sweet Green as soon as I am finished here.

Anonymous said...

See, this is why people like Poppy retain an IT guy for their household. I bet your office can't solve problems from a sweaty treadmill at equinox

Anonymous said...

IS casey anderson the guy who gave robert the shit eating grin a few weeks ago after westbard was approved?

if so, lol

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

12:17 the level of the democratic party in montgomery county. This is the mentality. That explains why taxes are going up as the county is going down hill.

Anonymous said...

"Newton questioned the placement of bus parking 50' away from homes, as well as the challenge of getting WSSC water and sewer service to the site."

Very true even bus drivers have to poop.

Anonymous said...

@ 11:53 AM - Yep. Right here:

http://robertdyer.blogspot.com/2016/05/westbard-sector-plan-may-be-pyrrhic.html?m=1

:P

Anonymous said...

"Theresa Defino, whose neighborhood is under threat from a similar bus depot proposal at the Carver Educational Services Center, said 'this is some sort of otherworldly crazy puppet show going on.' She asked the Board to 'please do us all a favor and admit the emperor’s got no clothes here.'"

Another of Robert Dyer's fellow insane drama queens.

Anonymous said...

So the NIMBYs are against putting the bus parking lot at:

1) A former landfill

2) A site where the fire department used to set stuff on fire for training exercises

3) The site of a former bus parking lot.

Bizarre.

Anonymous said...

Democrats hate historic African American communities in Montgomery County.

Bizarre.

Anonymous said...

@ 9:53 PM - Hera cursed the nymph Echo, making her only able to speak the last few words spoken to her.

Anonymous said...

anyone that dares to speak in moco land is deemed crazy, psycho, or insane by the democrat party bullies

how dare the people speak!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Robert Dyer said...

8:21: Yeah, pipe down and "step up to the plate!" "Do not speak unless spoken to!" "Bow down, and serve your government!"

Anonymous said...

"Pipe down!" "Do not speak unless spoken to!" "Bow down, and serve your government!"

This is what Dyer would be saying if he had been elected. Thank God he wasn't.

Anonymous said...

I'd vote for Dyer. I figure he's:
Someone who wouldn't rubber stamp everything
Going to read through things before voting
A change from the tax-happy council we have now

Hey, one guy can't ruin the county. No matter how hard Reimer or Leventhal try.

Any of you posters thinking of running for council in 2018?