A New Park on Georgia Avenue in the Future?

A long-abandoned building on Georgia Avenue that held the School of Art and Design for Montgomery College (MCAD) will be reconsidered for the Parks system Legacy Open Space program this summer.

Montgomery College Foundation, which owns the building and the land at 10500 Georgia Avenue, is looking to sell. MCAD has been empty since 2007 and an earlier attempt to develop the property into a townhouses  lost in a court challenge from neighborhood residents.

Green Space on Georgia, a civic group representing neighborhoods around the property has been working to keep the site an open, green space. 

Legacy Open Space (LOS) is an alternate process through which land becomes part of the Parks system. 

"The program is designed to keep the "best of" Montgomery County," said Brenda Sandberg, project manager for Legacy Open Space, whether the "best of" are streams, urban open spaces, or parks. "Think really long term  - 50 to 100 years."

The planning board rejected the site's inclusion in LOS in 2007, against the recommendation of the Parks' staff, citing the potential recreational component of the site didn't fit the legacy program.

Now a similar proposal will be coming in front of almost completely new planning board, and right in the middle of the Parks 2030 visioning process.

An conditional April 21st date for the hearing has been moved back to summer because of staff time spent on budget issues.

If the planning board approves the proposal, the Parks department and Montgomery College Foundation would have to settle a price - especially tricky in its urban downcounty location.

"It's all about location, location, location," Sandberg said, "The amount we pay per acre for park land can be from the millions to several thousand. Within Montgomery County there's no one number."

Parks would contract two appraisers to form the basis of their offer to Montgomery College Foundation.

The employee at the Foundation in charge of the MCAD site had not returned a phone call by press time.