preserving the quality of life in Olney, Maryland
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preserving the quality of life in Olney, Maryland |
| Last updated on Thursday March 01, 2007 06:17 PM |
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November 1, 2004 President Steve Silverman Montgomery County Council 100 Maryland Avenue Rockville, MD 20850 RE: Olney Master Plan and the 32-Acre Site on Bowie Mill Road Dear Mr. Silverman, In 1993, while awaiting the arrival of our first child, we went house hunting throughout Montgomery County. Having lived in Montgomery County nearly my entire life (my wife since 1975), and in Gaithersburg for the 10 years previous to 1993, we were looking for a location that symbolized what we had when we were growing up – open spaces in a somewhat rural neighborhood; high-quality, un-crowded schools; and uncongested roads. In effect, we were looking for a place that offered a good quality of life while maintaining a sense of community. These were qualities that over the years began to disappear as Gaithersburg became overdeveloped, and the crowding in the local schools and quality of our lives in general decreased due to the overdevelopment of the area. This is why, in 1993, we began our search for this lifestyle, and why we thought we had found such a community in Olney, Maryland. Over the past 11 years, we have seen much change in the Olney community. While some of these changes have provided a benefit to the community as a whole, we are deeply concerned about the continued movement to create the same overdeveloped environment that has been in existence in many other parts of Montgomery County. The movement to overdevelop, whether it be at the behest of developers or through misguided intentions by policymakers does nothing more than lower the quality of life of Montgomery County residents. While I understand the need for continued growth and, in theory, improvement in the communities as a whole, I fail to understand the need to develop most of the county’s open spaces when the impact on roads, schools, communities, and fire, rescue, and emergency services have not been fully addressed. The schools in my community are at or quickly approaching full capacity. In fact, an example of this happened already this school year when our 4th grade son who attends Olney Elementary was in one of four over-crowded 4th grade classes. As a result, Olney Elementary hired an additional 5th grade teacher, thereby enabling the teacher who was scheduled to teach a 4th/5th class to become a 4th grade teacher. Our 5th grade son is one of 25 students in his class now that they have an additional 5th grade class. Unfortunately, the additional 5th grade class uses the room previously used for the dual-purpose room. This is a room in the school where the instrumental music teacher used to hold classes two full days a week. In addition to the lack of appropriate support services for our local teachers, the two lane roads are often congested, thereby creating significant delays in leaving our own street – sometimes upwards of ten minutes - and in moving around the Olney community as a whole. Darnell Drive, the street we live on, is a long road with a circle off of it, and ending in a cul-de-sac. Therefore, there is but one way on to our street and one way out of our street – Bowie Mill Road. Because Olney as a whole, and Bowie Mill Road and Route 108 specifically, have become throughways to Columbia, Prince Georges County and Baltimore, we have a very heavy volume of traffic moving through the area, especially along Bowie Mill Road as people drive to Route 108. This is not just at the typical “rush hour” times, but throughout each day including weekends. When we bought our property, which backs to the infamous 32-acre property, we were attracted to the home site because of the location of a proposed high school on the vacant 32-acre lot. Over the years, we anticipated the future development of the 32-acres for a school. To our surprise and dismay at the lack of proper process, two years ago we were informed via the Gazette newspaper that discussions were underway to move the current Olney Elementary School to the 32-acre location and convert the existing school location to a town center. We were pleased that our local government and GOCA were looking out for the Olney community’s and our development’s best interests. When that plan fell through and a revised plan was made to develop a town center on the 32-acres, again we embraced the idea. We knew that all of Olney’s residents would benefit from having a town center which would house a police substation, a new public library, and a community center. We were still concerned about the parking lot Bowie Mill Road has become, but also recognized the times of usage would be more limited than if housing existed on the lot. Now, again we are talking about modifying the town center plan for another – that of affordable housing. While we understand the need to provide more affordable housing, we also look at the entire governmental process as give-and-take and hopefully a win-win situation for the community as a whole. It is critical that we (the government and the community) work together to preserve not only the quality of life of Olney residents, while ensuring that any future development in Olney makes sense in terms of size, scale and location. Our road infrastructure is already sorely tested each and every day, especially Bowie Mill Road. If this property is to be developed with affordable housing, we also strongly request the affordable housing be consistent with the R200 zone designation. This will make this property compatible with adjacent R200 neighborhoods and help retain the small town atmosphere of the entire Olney community. As an alternative, we suggest that the affordable housing be workforce housing. This would be in keeping with the views put forth by Elizabeth Davison, Director of DHCA, when she spoke before the March 9, 2004 GOCA meeting. This type of housing is for households with incomes at 80% - 100% of the median income for Montgomery County. This option has gained strong support from us and many of our neighbors who live adjacent to the 32-acre site. I am confident we can count on you to work with the all the citizens of the greater Olney area in finding a satisfactory and mutually acceptable alternative for the 32-acres on Bowie Mill Road. Our desire is to keep the Olney Master Plan in balance, and not develop more than our infrastructure can support. It is also important to the community that density levels be held in check in order to avoid the overdevelopment issues that have plagued similar communities around Montgomery County. Sincerely, Name Address Olney, Maryland 20832 |
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