My Opinion: In Search of the Elusive Courthouse Parking

This opinion piece is by >Cynthia Cotte Griffiths. It is in response to an article written by Mary Ellen Flynn.

After reading Mary Ellen Flynn’s Contributor’s Opinion yesterday, in which she stated “With public parking already located nearby (some even on the same side of the street as the old Library site)…”, I decided to try to find this existing parking that could be used for the District Courthouse.

So I dropped the kids at school and went to park by the old library site to take some pictures. I couldn’t find a parking spot. Now, I’m not saying this to be sarcastic or even funny, but I couldn’t. So I drove home, parked, and walked over. It’s cold out there today.

The only public parking on the same side of the street is the Council Office Building parking which is Permit Only.

I was thinking that if they have space in this parking garage, perhaps they would share with the District Courthouse, but it was full except for a few spots on the top level:

There is also the Jury Parking lot on Rt. 28, but it is almost always full:

My only conclusion is that there is no existing public parking on the same side of the street as the old library site. People need to understand that there is no parking anywhere for this Courthouse proposal. The use of false statements to sway an argument always disturbs me, probably because I was a Philosophy major. People might be persuaded by the rosy picture painted, so the facts need to be proven. It would be unfortunate if the courthouse supporters turn around in the future and state that they thought there was parking available because someone wrote that there was parking. There is no parking existing or planned for the current District Courthouse proposal.

If this plan goes forward, the City of Rockville should not fund a single penny of the millions of dollars that will be required to not only build parking for the Courthouse but also mitigate the traffic and neighborhood problems created by the Courthouse. The residents of Rockville should not have to bear the cost of the State’s terrible urban planning which is being forced upon us.

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