Fact Sheet: Site Selection Criterion Questioned

Location
● Rosemary Hills Park is on the far eastern edge of the cluster. Other potential sites were more centrally located;
● One of the criteria was the ability to walk to school. Montgomery County has made great strides over the past 40
years to integrate this historically minority community within the BCC cluster for greater socio-economic, ethnic,
and racial diversity in all the schools. Depending on the boundaries, a new school meant to serve this community
as a “walking school” could result in re-segregating the cluster and create a deep socio-economic disparity
between the eastern and western middle schools. If that’s not the goal, this park should not have scored so high
for “walkability” and others eliminated as options.
Acreage
● The report cited the Rosemary Hills Park as 17.1 acres, which is below the 20-acre MCPS recommendation for
new middle schools. Subtract 6.7 acres purchased with State Open Spaces program funding, several acres which
house the Coffield Community Center, portions of the property with excessive elevation and steep slopes, and all
that is left are the ball fields (cited in the report as one benefit of this location, which would be cancelled if the
school were built on the fields).
Typography
● Under the mounds within the park lie subterranean military bunkers, used during World War II to store munitions.
Several long-time residents in the community have seen the bunkers and been in them.
● The area has a high water table and floods easily; the fields are often flooded.
Access
● Traffic congestion on East-West Highway and Lyttonsville Road were given no thought in the report, although
this criterion was used to eliminate other sites under consideration. The park has one entrance off Lyttonsville
Road, a two-lane residential street with a large apartment complex directly across the street. Narrow streets serve
as overflow parking for residents in the apartment complexes bordering the park on all sides.
● This is already a highly congested road, serving as a cut-through between East West Hwy and the Brookeville
industrial complex, with plans for a new purple line station and maintenance depot to be built right across the
street from the park.
● The report states that “three points of entry are preferred,” although few schools (including Westland with one
point of entry) meet this criteria. Although there are several points of street access to the park, these are extremely
narrow residential streets on which many homes have no off-street parking. We feel that this requirement
suspiciously only pertains to this candidate site, while existing schools do not have it.
Cost
● In the current economic climate, it makes more financial sense for MCPS to reclaim ready-to-go buildings
on school-owned land (i.e., the former Montgomery Hills Junior High School on the corner of Seminary and
Brookeville). The fact that this site is slightly outside of the BCC cluster is offset by the $75 million cost savings
to the taxpayer.
Availability/Timing
● Due to the extensive environmental assessment and possible mitigation that would need to occur (possible
underground munitions), and the lengthy process for applying for open space land conversion, this land will take
much more time to acquire and build upon than other sites.

Physical Condition
● This site might not meet LEED environmental criteria, given that the site was a former military storage facility
for munitions, industrial activities on Brookeville Road, highly congested traffic on East West Highway (resulting
in a high volume of diesel particulates in the air), research activities at the Walter Reed Annex, and plans for the
Purple Line across the street from the park.