SUSPECT ARRESTED IN ALASKA Police: Neighbor murdered Rockville-area couple. A-3
The Gazette
NEWS: Despite heat and rain, Gaithersburg Book Festival reads on. A-12
BETHESDA | CHEVY CHASE | KENSINGTON DA I LY U P DAT E S AT G A Z E T T E . N E T
Wednesday, May 20, 2015
Foes: school plan flawed
Mutts — and full breeds — strut in Bethesda
More parks, an affordable mix of housing, energyefficient buildings and other environmentally friendly measures could be in downtown Bethesda’s future. The Montgomery County Planning Department on Friday released a draft of the Bethesda Downtown Sector Plan, which will serve as a guide for development in the area over the next 20 years. The Montgomery County Planning
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Plan pushes for parks, more environmentally friendly development SPECIAL TO THE GAZETTE
LINDSAY A. POWERS
See SCHOOL, Page A-12
Going greener in Bethesda BY MEREDITH HOOKER WILLIAMS
District acknowledges ‘challenges’ on site of new Kensington school
Under a Montgomery County Public Schools plan, a new Kensington middle school would be squeezed on a site with inadequate space that will make the school inferior, some opponents of the plan say. Adding underground parking to the plan, they say, could help fix some of the bigger problems they see. Some residents said they are concerned that the site plan, as it stands, would limit athletic and academic spaces and pose safety hazards for drivers and pedestrians. The result, they said, is a school that would fall below the district’s project guidelines and would be unequal to other county schools, particularly Westland Middle School in the same cluster. However, a school district official said the middle school will be similar to existing middle schools. He added that the district already considered — and decided against — a parking structure. The new school will be the second in the BethesdaChevy Chase cluster and will help address current overcrowding at Westland and expected enrollment growth. The district hopes to break ground this summer on the project estimated to cost around $48 million. The site includes about 12 acres that could be built on out of about 13.4 acres, according to James Song, the director of the school system’s Department of Facilities Management. The school system recently submitted revised site plans to the Montgomery County Planning Board to address recommended and required changes. Residents Richard Hatzfeld, Laura Dennis, John Sonnier and Susie Cooper are calling for the district to work with community members to help address problems they anticipate on the site where Rock Creek Hills Local Park now sits. If the district were to add
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SPORTS: Four distance runners stick together to lead Walter Johnson in track. B-1
PHOTOS BY ROBERT RAND/THE GAZETTE
Dozens of dogs and hundreds of dog lovers turned out for the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Rotary Club’s annual Strut Your Mutt Dog Parade and Festival in downtown Bethesda on Saturday. The festival included contests, exhibitors, a doghouse auction, dog training performances and rescue groups. Among the winners were Manfred, Best Strut, large dog; Stella, Best Strut, small dog; and Kipling, a nine-breed rescue dog from Tennessee, Best Mutt.
As it does every year, Boy Scout Troop 8 of Chevy Chase helps out at the annual Strut Your Mutt Dog Parade and Festival. Troop members helped lead Saturday’s strut.
Board is scheduled to review the plan Thursday. The plan envisions an environmentally, socially and economically sustainable community that would incentivize affordable housing, plus development that uses green technologies to save energy and protect the environment. Planners have recommended more parks and open space, bikeways, trail connections and tree canopies. A portion of the downtown that roughly encompasses the Wisconsin Avenue Corridor, Woodmont Triangle, Bethesda Row, parts of Arlington South and the Pearl District would be designated as a “high performance
See GREENER, Page A-13
Board to name interim schoool superintendent Top choice for leadership position withdrew
Andrew Houlihan, chief academic officer of the Houston Independent School District, informed school board President Patricia O’Neill on Sunday that he was no longer interested in BY LINDSAY A. POWERS becoming the district’s next suSTAFF WRITER perintendent. The school board The Montgomery County said Thursday that Houlihan, school board will vote to con- 36, was its “preferred candidate” for superintendent. ditionally appoint an The board aninterim superintennounced its plan to dent Wednesday, a vote for an interim few days after its top leader a day after choice for a permait received a letter nent leader withdrew from Alan Goodhis name. win, principal of The appointWalt Whitman High ment, if approved by School in Bethesda, state schools SuperHoulihan on behalf of 29 high intendent Lillian M. Lowery, would run from July 1 school principals. Monday’s through June of next year, ac- letter requested that the board cording to a school board news See SUPERINTENDENT, Page A-13 release.
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Friendship Heights election swings on playground Voters oust three council members, back four newcomers n
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TIFFANY ARNOLD STAFF WRITER
Four newcomers this month won council seats in the village of Friendship Heights’ first contested election in a decade.
The galvanizing issue that drew these newcomers to politics? Plans for a new playground. “Had it been handled in a better fashion, there probably wouldn’t have been an election,” said Michael Dorsey, 64, who won the most votes. Angered by the way the prior council cooked up plans to erect a playground at Page Park — what has been described by village officials and candidates as a grassy, “postage-stamp-”size “pocket park” between two high rises — Dorsey
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‘THE PRICE’ IS RIGHT
Classic show comes to Montgomery County to honor 100th anniversary of playwright’s birth. B-5
and several other village residents decided to take matters into their own hands. Eleven people campaigned for the seven available council seats, making for an unusual election season, residents said. In the end, four newcomers were to be sworn in as council members Tuesday night: Dorsey, who took 258 votes; Paula Durbin, with 215; David Lewis, with 193; and Kathleen Cooper, with 190. The council members did not run as a slate.
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RECYCLE
Another newcomer, Ron Sallerson, entered the race but fell short. Melanie Rose White, who was mayor, was re-elected to the council, as were incumbents John R. Mertens and Clara Lovett. Lovett was appointed about a year ago to serve the remaining term of a member who resigned. The three other incumbents who lost were Elizabeth Demetra Harris, Robert M. Schwarzbart, and Leonard J. Grant.
See ELECTION, Page A-13