Northwood News ♦ April 2012

Despite Dissent, Council Approves Soccer Field for Four Corners Park

By Carole Barth and Jim Zepp

On Tuesday afternoon, 20 March 2012, the Montgomery County [Md.] Council held a Capital Improvements Plan (CIP) worksession for the Parks Department budget items, which included PDF 078706 — North Four Corners Park.  As we have done since 2008, our community — along with our other Four Corners neighbors and sympathetic friends from around the County — lobbied strongly to have this project removed from the budget.  We want to thank Peggy Dennis, President, Montgomery County Civic Federation; Caren Madsen, Conservation Montgomery; Ed Levy, our Democratic Precinct Chair; Howard Kohn, Commissioner, Takoma Soccer; and the many Northwood-Four Corners and County residents who helped with this effort.

The project’s $5.6 million amount will pay for the construction of an adult soccer field, a 50-car parking lot, a 26-foot-high berm wall facing the neighborhood, the conversion of the existing ballfield into a “natural” area, and some other minor improvements to the park.  It would also eliminate the mature trees and rolling hillside that constitute the meadow in the portion of the park nearest University Boulevard.

Although Council Members Marc Elrich, Valerie Ervin, and Nancy Navarro spoke strongly in favor of redirecting these funds to other CIP projects given competing needs, the Northwood-Four Corners community’s opposition, and the value of preserving a valued natural green space for our community, the remaining Council Members (Phil Andrews, Roger Berliner, Nancy Floreen, George Leventhal, Craig Rice, and Hans Riemer) voted to retain the project in the CIP.  Council Member Leventhal expressed his position that, since he had previously voted three times in favor of the project, he was not going to change his mind.  Council Member Riemer said that his children play on a bare field, so spending the $5.6 million would solve this (apparently confusing maintenance with new construction by applying the logic of the Madhatter’s Tea Party that more fields must be built in order to get one in good condition).  The other Council Members agreed that, because of the previous Council votes and the “desperate need” to add a soccer field closer to University Boulevard, it was worth spending this money.

The Council and Parks staff were allowed unlimited access and opportunity to present their arguments, while the citizens were told that they could not speak to the issues.  For example, in support of the claim of the need for more ballfields in this portion of the County, the staff cited a survey conducted last year as part of the Parks and Recreation Departments’ Vision 2030 report.  What they neglected to tell the Council Members was that this was a survey of agency staff.  The same report also contains a citizen survey that placed a much higher priority on natural areas and trails than more ballfields.  They failed to mention that a statistical analysis of neighborhood access to ballfields shows the southeastern portion of the County service, in which our community is located, is at 100 percent level of service and other areas are at lower levels of service.

In another stunning example of spin doctoring, staff claimed that a majority of NFCCA residents support the proposed soccer field.  The staff briefing packet included several letters of support, but no mention was made of the petition to save the meadow and oppose the soccer field, which was submitted with over 600 signatures.

In our emails to the Council, we described all the work we are doing to maintain and improve North Four Corners Park, and offered to create a natural playground in the Meadow at no out-of-pocket expense to Parks.  Sadly, this too was completely ignored.  Most jurisdictions would be thrilled to have such community involvement, and grateful to have the kind of expertise offered by our residents.  But then, most jurisdictions would also recognize the meadow for the rare gem it is:  an accessible green oasis in a heavily developed, densely populated region; a “village green” where we come together to celebrate and build community.  To Parks and the Council, however, this is just empty space that can be easily replaced by planting a few trees on the existing youth field, and they think we should be grateful that they have deigned to grant us such “extensive park improvements.”

Earlier in this meeting, they discussed various other capital projects and the need to restore or include various items.  This included the construction of the Silver Spring Library.  Previously, a top floor had been removed as a cost-cutting measure.  The redesign of the building, however, cost $2 million to eliminate this additional floor.  The Council at this meeting observed the lost opportunity of having additional office space that might be needed later.  So the staff were directed to explore adding another floor back to the building, which was estimated to cost about $3.6 million.  So, if the building had been left as it was originally planned, $5.6 million of taxpayer money would have been saved.

It was noted that the approved Capital Improvements are over $100 million above the budget, so there will be a meeting to reconcile the available revenue to the approved projects.  This may be the final opportunity to remove the soccer field from the budget.  If not, other community needs will have to wait longer and millions more dollars will have to be spent for actually increasing the number of ballfields for soccer.  This was truly a disappointing and shameful experience in poor public policy and decisionmaking by a Council that cannot say “No” to staff.   ■