Bulldozers Enter Tree Buffer Behind Wheaton Mall

Danila Sheveiko returned to his home on Mt. McComas Avenue Thursday morning to find bulldozers working among the trees that separate the Kensington Heights neighborhood from .

Westfield had resumed a stormwater maintenance project that began last week, but was delayed due to rainy conditions, Westfield spokesperson Katy Dickey said Thursday in an email to Patch. She added that the work is expected to last approximately two weeks. As workers repair the outfall, they will line the side slopes and base with stones to prevent erosion, Dickey said.

Plans for the have been in place for months, with a scheduled construction in late spring or early summer. 

But Sheveiko told Patch that he was frustrated that the Montgomery Planning Department and the Department of Permitting Services did not tell the neighborhood exactly when the repairs were beginning.

The Department of Permitting Services has determined that the outfall repair because it has been classified as a maintenance project--not part of the Costco construction project, as the Kensington Heights Civic Association contends. The Planning Department also granted Costco an exemption in 2010 from submitting a Forest Conservation Plan--a decision that the KHCA and several environmental groups .