Focus Group Meeting Summary
Public Agencies Focus Group - September 25, 2002

Attendees:
Peter Karasik, Division of Waste Management
Mary Pat Wilson, Montgomery County Public Schools
Al Astorga, M-NCPPC, Parks Department
Luis Martinez, Upcounty Government Services Center
Bob Harris, Holland and Knight

John Carter, Chief, Community-Based Planning
Sue Edwards, Karen Kumm, Claudia Kousoulas, Community-Based Planning
Mike Zamore, Environmental Planning

The meeting began with a discussion of each agency's operations in the vicinity of the Shady Grove Metro Station. Staff then presented draft redevelopment scenarios for discussion with the group. Representatives from WMATA, and the County's Departments of Transportation and Public Works, the Liquor Control Board, and Economic Development were unable to attend. Notes from the discussion follow.

Solid Waste Transfer Station
16101 Frederick Road

The transfer station collects yard waste, recyclables, and household and commercial solid waste. Yard waste is chipped or composted on site (and sometimes smells if caught in the rain); recyclables and other waste are sorted and shipped, via train or truck, to incineration or landfill.

The County's waste stream is growing. The day after Labor Day, the Station took in 3,000 tons. They are looking to expand the facility at a site to the south on East Gude Drive. Wood and yard waste would be moved there, allowing a safer separation of commercial and household vehicles that use the Frederick Road facility, and less traffic on Shady Grove Road. About 1,000 trucks per day use the facility.

The site contains the dedicated rail line, recycling containers, the yard waste building with tip floor, blue bins, offices, and a scale house. A stream runs through the southeast corner of the property.

They don't see many technological changes to their operations in the future. Recycling is at 37%. Effective recycling programs are in place, and the Division of Waste Management has staff people who work with businesses to increase the recycling.

The Division has other facilities in the County, in Poolesville and Damascus. Relocating this $100 million facility would be a big battle and would take at least five to ten years. Relocation would also impact another community.

Public School Bus Depot and Maintenance Facility
16651 Crabbs Branch Way

The schools use this site as a bus depot and a maintenance and repair shop for both buses and school buildings. Other bus depots are located in eastern Montgomery County, Clarksburg, and Democracy Blvd. The Schools are using this site to capacity, and could use another location.

The site operates from about 6:30 a.m., when drivers arrive in their own cars and begin warming up buses. The buses leave the Service Park at morning rush hour, at roughly the same time as parks vehicles, Ride-On buses, and commuter traffic. The intersections of Shady Grove and Crabbs Branch and Crabbs Branch and Redland Road are particular problems. Buses return between 3:30 and 5pm, again contributing to traffic congestion from neighboring facilities and commuters. The buses from this site serve the Gaithersburg and Rockville areas.

Centralized school food services are also located in the Service Park, on the east side of Crabbs Branch Way, and operate with roughly the same schedule and conflicts.

The buses use I-370 as a "cut-through," and a direct entrance to the Service Park from I-370 would eliminate a lot of intersection conflicts for both school and park vehicles. The sites overall problems are constrained access and limited capacity.

M-NCPPC Parks Training Facility
16641 Crabbs Branch Way

The Parks Department Trade services and their equipment are housed at this site, along with vehicle maintenance facilities. Plumbers, electricians, carpenters, and tree and park maintenance crews begin at 6:30 am. The site dispatches 75-80 vehicles between 7:00 and 8:00 am, many of them large vehicles like backhoes, trailers, and trucks. Crews return between 2:30 and 3:30 and employees leave shortly after that. The site is quiet in the late afternoon and on weekends.

Throughout the day, the site receives large deliveries of wood, stone, and other building materials. The building also has a conference room with a 150-person capacity, which is used by the School Board as well as M-NCPPPC. Two thirds of the site is at capacity and reconfiguration is further limited by green space and setback requirements.

They have explored vertical storage and operations, but it was too expensive and the site's R-200 zoning restrict building height to 35 feet.

General Discussion
The Shady Grove planning area is an underdeveloped area, given its proximity to Metro.

Maybe the high, medium, and low development scenarios should be taken together and considered the plan as the area evolves and land values change.

Current land uses have no relation to Metro and as land moves through highest and best use, value and uses will change in a private sector pattern of reuse. Use WMATA redevelopment of its own stations as a public sector model.

Looking at land as an investment is foreign to the public sector. Use land value as a resource that helps achieve both service and land use goals.

Is there an overlap among Service Park agencies' use and activity that could be used to create shared efficiencies? Do the services communicate with each other?

Vertical stacking is expensive, but it has been done for parking lots. Parking lots take up a lot of land.

Can't redevelop Shady Grove and consider Countywide service needs in a single plan; needs to be a comprehensive view. In looking Countywide, look for "dead" sites that are landlocked or between two highways. Bank it now to meet later service demands.

Look at a wide range of opportunities to relocate, not just next to Metro station.

Other industrial uses may want this land, for example, the Corridor Cities Transitway; what will Shady Grove be?

The area west of the Railroad and Redland could handle most of the initial redevelopment and will establish the area's character.

The intersection of Crabbs Branch and I-370 should be fixed to improve circulation and access to Redland Road.

Need pedestrian connections through the industrial land to Metro. King Farm is walkable up to 355.

Need better connections as well, to regional recreation facilities that are nearby, but inaccessible. (Rock Creek Regional Park)

Talk again to on-site operations people at these facilities.

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