WASHINGTON — Some outraged residents fighting to keep a Montgomery County Public Schools bus depot from moving to their neighborhoods can declare victory — two sites have been withdrawn from consideration.
“Two locations that we looked at before, Carver and the Westmore property, are no longer in consideration,” said County Executive Ike Leggett.
Operations at the county school system’s Shady Grove Bus Depot and County Service Park East at Jeremiah Park still will move however because they’ve outgrown the current location, which is also slated for redevelopment.
“Jeremiah Park no longer can facilitate the needs going forth for the future. It’s outdated. It is too small,” Leggett said.
Leggett expects the relocation of the bus depot will occur in a year or two. A decision on a new set of bus depot sites should be ready by the fall. But the new list could drum up a second round of opposition from residents. But Leggett hopes not.
“We’re talking about buses for our school kids. And you really cannot exclude virtually any place in the county (and say) that you cannot have school busses. It is just not an acceptable outcome,” Leggett said.
In the meantime, the schools will continue to store buses at the existing depot until a new site is found, Leggett wrote in a letter to County Council President Nancy Floreen and obtained by WTOP.
The county had considered three sites to store some or all of the county’s bus fleet: Westmore Avenue, Avery Road and a third at the county’s Carver Center, which is home to the Board of Education.
At a council hearing earlier this week, residents told county officials to find an industrial area for the bus depot, not residential neighborhoods.
The county property known as Jeremiah Park is expected to become a housing community offering easy access to the Shady Grove Metro Station across the street once the county vacates the 45-acre parcel.
