One of my greatest pleasures since moving to
Montgomery County more
than twenty years ago has been walking, biking, or hiking the
Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. Something magical happens every time I’m
there – a family of box turtles sunning themselves on a weather beaten log,
a pileated woodpecker jabbing away at a hollow tree trunk, a great blue
heron wading in the shallows. We’ve all witnessed some glory of nature
along the C&O Canal, just as we all likely cherish a fond memory of spending
a quiet, peaceful day along its beautiful towpath.
Potomac people care deeply about the C&O Canal Historic Park. Four years
ago nearly 200 of us turned out for a meeting at
Potomac Elementary School that WMCCA helped organize with Congressman
Van Hollens office to address public outcry over 55,000 square feet of trees
cut by Mr. Snyder at
Swains Lock. The tree planting mitigation for that violation has
still not been completed.
Later in 2005, Kevin Brant, C&O Canal Historic Park Superintendent, spoke at
WMCCA’s December meeting about the park’s staff shortages, lack of adequate
funding, and the problems of incomplete scenic easements and encroachments
and told us about new measures to improve stewardship capability, public
input, and Federal/County cooperation.
Since then, the C&O Canal Trust, a nonprofit organization headed by Matthew
Logan, has been formed to work in partnership with the
National Park Service to protect, restore and promote the C&O Canal
National Historical Park. Also since then, Friends of the
Great Falls Historic
Tavern raised funds and donated the
new canal boat, the
Charles F. Mercer, to the park in 2006. Alas, Mother Nature struck our own
back yard on September 5 and 6, 2008, with stormwater that caused a breach
of the towpath at Widewater between Great Falls and Old Angler’s Inn and
another breach at Great Falls, leaving the new canal boat high and dry.
At WMCCA’s
March 11th meeting, Superintendent Brant and Mr. Logan have promised
to bring us some welcome news about the towpath, the breaches, and the
canal boat. They will also speak to specific Potomac-area concerns –
the status of the Great Falls area plan of a few years ago, including adding
a bike path to the entrance road; parking problems near Old Angler's Inn and
Swains Lock, vacant lock houses, and invasive stilt grass and deer browse
issues. As always, the public is welcome.
Planning and Zoning Report – by George Barnes
Norwood School: Representatives of
Norwood School
presented plans to the WMCCA Board to request a modification of their
existing Special Exception to allow increased enrollment, hours of
operation, and staff as well as approval of their long-range building
program. They plan construction of a
performing arts center, a new classroom building, a natatorium, and a
small building near River Road to house equipment. The proposal will surely
be controversial among neighbors and area citizens, and we will ask the
representatives to bring their plans to a membership meeting.
PNC Bank, Potomac Village: PNC Bank has filed a
site plan modification
proposal with Park and Planning to accommodate a drive-through remote teller
and ATM facility along the Falls Road edge of the Safeway shopping center
parking lot. A number of parking spaces will be lost. Cars using the new
facility would enter from the lane behind the gas station and travel next to
the sidewalk along Falls Road, with the ATM/teller machine on their left.
On the other side of the machine a through traffic lane would be maintained
joining the traffic leaving the ATM and proceeding toward the exit from the
center. We have serious questions about the effect on traffic flow at this
entrance and exit. The PNC Bank and shopping center planners feel that they
can adequately handle the situation with the use of stop signs. This will
come before the Planning Board and we will have an opportunity to comment.
Potomac Swim and Tennis Club: WMCCA will testify at a hearing before the
Montgomery County Hearing Examiner
on March 9, in opposition to the proposal to erect a tennis bubble
over expanded courts along the Oaklyn Drive side of the property. The
bubble would be up for six months of each year and has raised a number of
significant issues. The
Montgomery County Planning Board staff opposed the proposal, and
their report has been forwarded to the Hearing Examiner.
Environmental Report – by Ginny Barnes
Connelly School of the Holy Child (9025 Bradley Boulevard): A
proposal to remove a Forest Conservation Easement preliminary to
construction of a synthetic turf playing field has brought concerns to our
attention from adjoining residential neighbors about the loss of forest
that buffers the institution. Requests to the
Planning Commission to remove
Forest Conservation Easements
have increased recently. With
climate change and stormwater pollution to the
Chesapeake Bay, any further loss of forest and tree cover is serious
and costly to our deteriorating environmental health.
Parks and Recreational Programming: The County Council Planning, Housing
and Economic Development Committee (PHED), composed of Councilmembers Knapp,
Floreen and Elrich, has required both the Director of Parks (one-half of the
Park and Planning Commission) and the Recreation Department (which is part
of the
County Executive Office) to produce reports on merging all
recreational programming into one entity, either under Parks or under
Recreation. However, recreation is more than organized sports, and much of
what the Parks Department offers in terms of programs
includes fostering stewardship toward our
parkland. With 34,000
acres and 400 parks in the
Montgomery County Parks system (compared to less than a third that
much for other jurisdictions in Maryland) it is a bad idea to divorce
programming from the very agency that maintains parks, and move it to a
department with no investment in protecting parkland. Further, over the
years the County Executive Office has proposed numerous questionable uses
for our parklands, including bus depots,
affordable housing,
schools, and roads. WMCCA is working with several environmental and
watershed groups on this issue.
West Montgomery County Citizens Association Newsletter
Check the web site for information on issues we are working on.