Residents upset after Montgomery County Council drops bus depot in Rockville neighborhood

Many Rockville residents are wondering why they weren't informed by Montgomery County or the City of Rockville that Montgomery County Public Schools planned to turn the front parking lot at the Carver Educational Services Center into a makeshift bus depot. Now it's happened, as the Montgomery County Council yesterday provided MCPS with the funds to do so - $1,725,000, to be exact.

Expect 100 school buses to eventually appear on the lot at Mannakee Street and Hungerford Drive, as a result of the County's so-called "Smart Growth Initiative" - also known as "public officials making sweetheart real estate deals with County assets for private developer profit." The result of the Shady Grove bus depot site being sold for private real estate development is that all those buses have to go somewhere. Others will be stored nearby at 1700 Crabbs Branch Way.

MCPS will have to submit its plans to the City for review and to receive the necessary permits.

The West End Citizens Association did not receive notice from either governmental party, and residents there - and in Woodley Gardens and College Gardens - are wondering if these buses will have to traverse parts of their neighborhood. This particular location does not have curb cuts that exit directly onto a major road, meaning residential streets will have to deal with bus traffic. Another concern is that buses will park and idle in neighborhoods.

One would assume that, unless all 100 buses take Mannakee to MD 355, they will of necessity have to use Nelson Street to access I-270, to reach their destinations elsewhere in the County.