One day, Nick Maravel found out that his lease would be extended for just one more year, to March of 2005.
Maravel, who has farmed a 20-acre piece of property on Brickyard Road for nearly 25 years, may be the only property owner who has been notified by the Board of Education that they are considering changes to the property, a parcel originally intended as a site for an additional middle school.
“After it broke in the newspapers, there was a notification mailed,” Maravel said.
Maravel’s 20-acre farm, an organic farm where he grows small grains and soybeans, is one of two school-owned parcels in Potomac which are up for discussion; the other is a 10-acre plot on Kendale Road.
Both properties are currently owned by the Montgomery County Board of Education, and the county is exploring using the land for workforce housing. Before the land can be used, it must be declared “surplus” by the Board of Education – a prospect which the Board is currently debating.
The proposal and consideration have proceeded with little if any notice to property owners from a county which prides itself on the openness of its government.
Maravel thinks that the relatively opaque process was foreshadowed during the Potomac Master Plan. When language was placed in the Master Plan which said that the land could be used for public purposes, neighbors wanted to know how that process would unfold.
“Several community members raised the issue as to how the community would ever know,” Maravel said. “My recollection is that we never got a straightforward answer.”
Maravel is not the only person who was not told about the potential change in land use.
“It’s extremely frustrating,” said Pierre Welch, president of the Civic Association of River Falls, a neighborhood off Brickyard Road. “The frustrating thing for us is that they’re not informing us of the process in any way.”
For example, the School Board scheduled a public hearing about the issue for March 3. On the board’s website, it specifically states that it solicits comments through “letters to community organizations and leaders.” The Board, however, did not inform Welch about the meeting. Posted on the Board’s calendar for March 3 at 7 p.m. is a “Facilities and Boundary Hearing – Auditorium.”
The hearing will encompass two contentious issues, not just the question of the Potomac sites. In addition, the hearing will include testimony from parents concerned about a boundary change involving Briggs Cheney and Banneker middle schools in Silver Spring.
Combining the two hearings is a disservice to both communities, since only so many speakers will be allowed to testify, Welch said. “That’s fully intentional,” Welch said, “and it’s just another thing that’s frustrating.”
Registration speakers on the two subjects was closed before March 1, when the list was full. About 80 percent of the speakers on the list were set to speak about the land issue.
The Kendale Road property’s fate took an unusual twist last week. Instead of declaring the land surplus, the Board of Education is now considering building a new school on it, instead of modernizing Seven Locks Elementary. Then most likely the Seven Locks site would be declared surplus.
The students from Seven Locks Elementary, along with some who currently go to Potomac Elementary, would then be shifted into the new school.
Chris Rigaux, president of the Seven Locks Elementary PTA, says that the PTA had been contacted about the possible change, but as a homeowner, he was not notified about any potential changes to the land where Seven Locks Elementary sits
“Informally, many people have been overwhelming in their support [for building a new school],” said Chris Rigaux, president of the Seven Locks Elementary PTA. The parents are excited about the prospect of getting a new school, but they were surprised about the idea of declaring the Seven Locks site surplus.
“We think those are separate issues,” Rigaux said.