 |
Stories from the NFCCA Newsletter, the “Northwood News” |
|
Stories from the NFCCA Newsletter, the “Northwood News” |
Since May — when I last reported on the YMCA’s efforts to lease the Park Activity Building (rec center) in North Four Corners Park for a day care/community center and a private developer’s special exception zoning request to build a large day care facility on the corner of University Boulevard and Brunett Avenue — there have been a roller coaster series of developments that are well summarized by the Dickens’ quote.
The one-room log cabin building has been sitting unused since the Parks Department closed it — along with 10 similar facilities across the County — in April 2010 as a cost-cutting measure. Since that time, members of the Northwood-Four Corners community had been working to find a way to reopen the building for community use. Finally, in August of 2011, the Silver Spring YMCA expressed an interest in using the Park building for a day care center, which offered great potential for a partnership between the agency and the community in providing a location for classes and other programs serving area residents.
Inquiries to the County Parks Department led to the issuance of an invitation for bids to lease any of eight available park activity buildings in April 2012 and an information meeting for potential bidders on 19 April. At the meeting, the Parks Department staff clearly indicated that their review of any proposals received would probably take 30 to 60 days to complete following the submission deadline of 11 May. The competing bidders could propose leasing one or more of the eight park buildings being offered.
The NFCCA sent a letter of support for the YMCA’s lease proposal. Several YMCA staff spoke at the NFCCA’s June meeting about their plans for programs at the park building in addition to the day care program. Given the YMCA’s overall organizational capabilities and experience in delivering day care and day camp services, it seemed to be a likely successful candidate for winning the bid. Although the YMCA’s management had decided to propose leasing four of the park buildings, but it was the only bidder interested in the North Four Corners Park facility. Finally, Ralph Bennett, a neighborhood resident and architect, donated his services for producing the plans required for the permits and licenses to open the day care center. Circumstances seemed to be moving in a very favorable direction for all parties.
On 3 July, the Parks Department finally announced its acceptance of the YMCA’s bid to lease four of the park buildings; this was great news for the community. Therefore, it was an unexpected shock to the Parks Department and the community members when the YMCA’s response was to withdraw its bid. The reason offered by the YMCA’s management was the sudden realization that the time remaining would be insufficient for obtaining the necessary permits and licenses and to recruit customers for the day care by the beginning of the Fall 2012 school year. This was despite the calendar for the sequence of events having been clearly outlined when the Parks Department’s bidding process was started in April.
Subsequent discussions with the YMCA’s staff, including its regional mangers, have not resulted in any progress in altering their position, even though the Parks staff have indicated their willingness to accommodate lessees’ situations to get through this initial startup period of not being open for the Fall 2012 school semester. This approach has been acceptable to the two other organizations which had successful bids for other park buildings.
The Parks Department will shortly be issuing a new request for bids to lease only the North Four Corners Park activity building. The staff have reported that they have received inquiries about leasing the building from several other organizations. While the possible bidders cannot be identified at this time by the staff due to agency rules, they have stated that community support will be a significant factor in selecting a successful bid for leasing the park building. Furthermore, its continued availability for general community use will be rated above simply leasing the facility for an exclusive activity such as office space or a single program.
So, after a year of pursuing a cooperative relationship with the YMCA, we have to start over. We will be following the new bid process for the North Four Park building and hopefully establishing a productive relationship with the new bidders. The Executive Director of the Silver Spring YMCA has stated his intent to find other opportunities to work with our community.
This property is zoned as R-60/Single Family Residential and formerly had a one-story house that included a small dental practice in the garage space operated by the homeowner. In 2005, it was purchased by a private developer initially for the construction of five $800,000 luxury homes. This plan had been approved by the relevant government agencies and the South Four Corners community.
With the downturn of the housing market, the developer changed his plans from building housing to the construction of day care facility with a capacity of 150 children and 46 parking spaces split between above and below ground areas. Although the County Zoning Code allows such a use in an R-60 lot, it requires approval of a Special Exception request. However, the Four Corners Master Plan contains specific language discouraging Special Exceptions in the residential areas adjacent to the Four Corners commercial area and along the major roadways (the strongest phrasing allowed). The intent was to prevent encroachment of commercial uses into the neighborhoods, undermining their residential qualities, and to maintain the viability of the Four Corners business area. Also, state regulations limit the capacity of day care facilities on this size lot to a maximum of 75 children. Finally, the State Highway Administration did not allow an entrance on University Boulevard because of its impact on traffic congestion.
The Special Exception request process involves reviews by the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission (MNCPPC) and its staff, a hearing conducted by the Office of Zoning and Administrative Hearings (OZAH), and approval by the Board of Appeals (BOA). BOA decisions can be appealed to the Circuit Court.
On 13 August, the BOA issued its opinion to deny the developer’s Special Exception request was because the building’s planned size of 4,400 sq. ft. was out of scale to the average size of 1,296 sq. ft. of the adjacent homes, its impact on traffic congestion in the Four Corners intersection, and cut-through traffic in the surrounding neighborhood because its entrance would be located on an interior street. It should also be noted that the developer ignored the advice of the MNCPPC, which, in its second review, advised that the building should not be more than twice the size of the adjacent houses. The vote by the five BOA members was three to two to deny the Special Exception request. A vote of four to one is required for an approval to pass.
On 28 August, the developer’s attorney filed a request for a reconsideration of the BOA’s decision and that the case be remanded to the OZAH hearing examiner and the MNCPPC for additional reviews. Granting this request would mean the fourth review of the project by the MNCPPC staff and the third by the MCPPC. The hearing before the OZAH hearing examiner was originally expected to be a one-day session. Because of the extensive cross-examination by the developer’s attorney of her own witnesses, the hearing instead involved multiple dates stretched over a year-and-a-half period and resulted in the submission of 162 exhibits and over 30 hours of testimony. One reason cited by the developer’s attorney for the reconsideration is that the MNCPPC did not have an opportunity to review the final version of the project plan. However, this was due to the developer not submitting this version until less than a week before one of the OZAH hearing dates. Consequently, granting the reconsideration would be due to the developer’s own failure to provide this information in a timely manner.
The South Four Corners, Northwood-Four Corners, and Woodmoor-Pinecrest Civic Associations have submitted letters in opposition to granting the BOA reconsideration because the reasons cited by the developer’s attorney do not meet the BOA’s criteria for doing so. Considering that the developer, his attorney, and his team of consultants have had ample opportunities over five years to make their case for this Special Exception, no new evidence or changed circumstances have emerged that would affect this decision. Furthermore, since the developer has repeatedly failed to satisfactorily address the concerns expressed by the public agencies and community in his multiple revisions, it is a question of how much more time can he be allowed to waste in pointless reviews.
At the time of this writing, the BOA may have violated its own procedural rules for the second time in this case by discussing it before the time to submit additional comments by the parties had fully expired. This is being investigated by the citizens to explore any implications.
After all of this, we had hoped to have made more progress on both of these issues. Unfortunately, circumstances are often beyond our abilities to control or even to anticipate. There is still reason to believe that both situations can be resolved to the positive benefit of the community if we can maintain our commitments and persistence in seeing them through to the end. ■
© 2012 NFCCA [Source: https://nfcca.org/news/nn201210a.html]