Northwood News ♦ December 2012

The Day Care Scoreboard for Brunett, Rec Center

By Jim Zepp

The Special Exception Zoning Request on Brunett and University

This concern has been extensively covered in previous issues of the Northwood News.  This article is to provide an update on the current status of this special exception zoning request that has dragged on for the last five years, mainly due to delays requested by the developer (Gilmourne Brunett, LLC) and project plan revisions that were unresponsive to prior objections and denials.

The Board of Appeals (BOA), having denied the developer’s special exception request for a second time, set a deadline of Friday, 9 November, for his attorney to file an appeal with the Circuit Court.  Instead, another petition was submitted to the BOA citing the portion of the County’s Zoning Code that states if a special exception request receives an insufficient number of votes for approval, then it is denied and the applicant must wait 36 months before submitting another request for the same project.  This maneuver was sufficiently confusing for everyone that the BOA decided that this request was outside its jurisdiction and denied the request.

At this point, even the developer’s attorneys from the law firm Linowes and Blocher seem unsure of what to do.  Having started with all of the required permits and zoning for the construction of five luxury homes, the developer decided that building a very large (150 child, infant to high school age) day care facility would be a better investment.  It is estimated that nearly $2 million in fees to lawyers and other consultants has been spent to secure this special exception request that, from the beginning, was generally recognized as violating state regulations for day care facilities on a property of this size and being noncompliant with the language in the Four Corners Master Plan.  This is the result of these expenditures.

Review Level	Approvals	Denials
MNCPPC Planning Staff	1	2
MNCPPC Planning Board	0	2
Board of Appeals	2*	3
Total	3	7

The two approvals by the BOA (asterisk) were subsequently shown to violate their own procedures; following both instances, the BOA voted to deny the developer’s special exception request.

The communities are waiting for the developer to decide his next move, but the dedication and hard work of residents from the South Four Corners, Woodmoor-Pinecrest, and Northwood-Four Corners Civic Associations have shown that money doesn’t buy everything.

Leasing of North Four Corners PAB

The County Parks Department has been attempting to secure a tenant to lease the one-room, log cabin, park activity building (PAB) in the North Four Corners Park along with seven similar structures around the County.  The Silver Spring YMCA had submitted a bid to lease the building as a 30 child day care facility, but subsequently withdrew its offer (see story in the October 2012 Northwood News).

On 15 October, the Parks staff issued a new request for proposals (RFP) to lease only the North Four Corners PAB.  As an opportunity to view the structure and asked questions of the Parks staff, a bidders conference was held on Friday, 9 November, at the PAB.  Representatives from a Montessori school and a day care operator attended and the Parks staff reported that two other organizations had expressed interest in the building but did not come to this meeting.  When asked about their priorities for selecting a bid, the Parks staff responded that they want the lease to be revenue neutral (in other words, to not lose or make money for the agency), but that the main objective in assessing any bids would be to have a compatible use for a public park.  I indicated that the community would want to be able to have meetings and other events at the facility during evenings and weekends.

The deadline for submitting bids to the Parks Department was 27 November.  More information is available at www.montgomeryparks.org/permits/park_activity_ building_comments.shtm.

The Parks staff will take a few weeks to review any proposals that they receive and will then announce the successful bidder.  A meeting to introduce the tenant selected by the Parks Department is being scheduled for mid-January 2013.  (Once it is scheduled, the meeting date and time will be posted on the NFCCA website and listserv.)  That meeting will be open to the public to ask questions of the tenant and to offer suggestions for activities or services that they would like to have at the park building.   ■