New development next to our over capacity ES

[Anonymous]

The county council has approved construction of a huge new apartment complex in our neighborhood, but our local ES is already over capacity with no new updates/improvements on the horizon. Do the council and MCPS talk to each other about this sort of thing? How do they approve these types of projects without having a plan on where the kids can go (besides adding portables which is not a solution). There doesn’t seem to be any thought as to the long term impacts to our schools……

[Anonymous]

Elementary schools that are projected to stay at least 92 seats above capacity six years into the future are typically considered for addition projects.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The county council has approved construction of a huge new apartment complex in our neighborhood, but our local ES is already over capacity with no new updates/improvements on the horizon. Do the council and MCPS talk to each other about this sort of thing? How do they approve these types of projects without having a plan on where the kids can go (besides adding portables which is not a solution). There doesn’t seem to be any thought as to the long term impacts to our schools……

OP, the county council does not approve construction, that's not how it works.

What is your neighborhood? Which is your local ES?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The county council has approved construction of a huge new apartment complex in our neighborhood, but our local ES is already over capacity with no new updates/improvements on the horizon. Do the council and MCPS talk to each other about this sort of thing? How do they approve these types of projects without having a plan on where the kids can go (besides adding portables which is not a solution). There doesn’t seem to be any thought as to the long term impacts to our schools……

OP, the county council does not approve construction, that's not how it works.

What is your neighborhood? Which is your local ES?

OP here- they may not “approve” it but they are all for it and even have a goal of adding 40k new housing units across the county. My question is how are these decisions made and how can we as a community protect our schools from being more crowded than they already are? We already have several portables and this will only add significantly more….

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The county council has approved construction of a huge new apartment complex in our neighborhood, but our local ES is already over capacity with no new updates/improvements on the horizon. Do the council and MCPS talk to each other about this sort of thing? How do they approve these types of projects without having a plan on where the kids can go (besides adding portables which is not a solution). There doesn’t seem to be any thought as to the long term impacts to our schools……

Is this Damascus? I can't believe how close that development will be!!!! It's like right on top of the school. I really was hoping they were going to expand because I think it might be one of the oldest elementary buildings in the county, if not the oldest?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The county council has approved construction of a huge new apartment complex in our neighborhood, but our local ES is already over capacity with no new updates/improvements on the horizon. Do the council and MCPS talk to each other about this sort of thing? How do they approve these types of projects without having a plan on where the kids can go (besides adding portables which is not a solution). There doesn’t seem to be any thought as to the long term impacts to our schools……

OP, the county council does not approve construction, that's not how it works.

What is your neighborhood? Which is your local ES?

OP here- they may not “approve” it but they are all for it and even have a goal of adding 40k new housing units across the county. My question is how are these decisions made and how can we as a community protect our schools from being more crowded than they already are? We already have several portables and this will only add significantly more….

It sounds like you're not asking how these decisions are made, but rather complaining about the decisions that have been made?

Which "huge new apartment complex" are you complaining about? Which school already has "several portables"? If you want to know how the decisions were made, you need to answer these questions.

[Anonymous]

NIMBY

[Anonymous]

Yes. This is an issue. Apartments count less towards school capacity as we still operate under ancient assumptions that families dont live there. Take this up with the council and school board. This is a major problem with condo and apartment construction all over the county. Of course we should build more housing. But then we should update the school capacity estimators based on units build to more closely resemble what actually happens and apply to the developers and use those funds to build more schools!!

[Anonymous]

In most places development is ‘closed’ if a school is at/over capacity, but, there are usually developer friendly loopholes, ie, 1 bedroom apartments will not be expected to house families, etc. also, they can ‘hold’ the development for so many years (I think 10) but eventually the where property rights to develop kick in, then it’s a question of allowable density. We do need taxes from development to help fund schools, ironically. Moco planning department would have more info on the specific rules.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The county council has approved construction of a huge new apartment complex in our neighborhood, but our local ES is already over capacity with no new updates/improvements on the horizon. Do the council and MCPS talk to each other about this sort of thing? How do they approve these types of projects without having a plan on where the kids can go (besides adding portables which is not a solution). There doesn’t seem to be any thought as to the long term impacts to our schools……

Is this Damascus? I can't believe how close that development will be!!!! It's like right on top of the school. I really was hoping they were going to expand because I think it might be one of the oldest elementary buildings in the county, if not the oldest?

The development next to Damascus ES is for 62 townhouses. Damascus ES is on 9.42 acres, so yes, the townhouses will be next to the school. Is that a bad thing?

https://montgomeryplanningboard.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/ADA-Format_StaffReport_King_Souder_Property_820210170_final_with_attachments.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes. This is an issue. Apartments count less towards school capacity as we still operate under ancient assumptions that families dont live there. Take this up with the council and school board. This is a major problem with condo and apartment construction all over the county. Of course we should build more housing. But then we should update the school capacity estimators based on units build to more closely resemble what actually happens and apply to the developers and use those funds to build more schools!!

The student generation estimates are based on the actual addresses of actual MCPS students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: Do the council and MCPS talk to each other about this sort of thing?

The process doesn't start until construction is already approved. So OP it will start now.

[Anonymous]

They can change school boundaries to move some of the kids out of the boundary for the school that will be overcapacity to other schools. If those other schools will come over capacity, they do can have their boundaries changes. Ultimately this will trickle across the county and ideally schools that are under capacity will become closer to capacity, while schools that are over capacity will be brought down to capacity.

[Anonymous]

I think these new developments have to pay into a fund to help offset the costs of things like schools, but typically the county council exempts their developer pals since they help finance their reelection bids. In a few areas, there have been moratoriums on new development since the schools are already overcapacity but they also often waive that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think these new developments have to pay into a fund to help offset the costs of things like schools, but typically the county council exempts their developer pals since they help finance their reelection bids. In a few areas, there have been moratoriums on new development since the schools are already overcapacity but they also often waive that.

Can you tell us more about that? I know many on the county council accept a lot of money from realtors. Kind of a conflict of interest if they are then able to waive these much needed fees that then go towards schools….