Contributor Opinion By Elyse Gussow: Open Access To Princeton Place

Presented Before The Montgomery College Board of Trustees Meeting on June 15, 2009:

Good Evening, Ladies and Gentlemen,

I come to you this evening representing the Community Task Force for Open Access to Montgomery College to request that Montgomery College continue on the path to re-establish pedestrian and bicycle access to and from the Montgomery College campus.

We understand that Montgomery College has signed a separate twenty-page Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the City of Rockville to open the fence at the Princeton Place cul-de-sac on July 3, 2009 to permit their neighbors access to view the fireworks. We appreciate very much your doing this.

We wish to remind you of two highly attended meetings sponsored by the City of Rockville this spring at which the overwhelming voices were for the re-opening of the access to Princeton Place . We further assure you that there was no advance orchestration of what the citizens who spoke to at those meetings presented regarding opening the fence and restoring the pedestrian and bicycle entrance to the College from the community. Those opinions reflect the 40 years of open access that has been a hallmark of the relationship of our residential community and our immediate neighbor, Montgomery College . We would most earnestly request that the Board of Trustees exercise its authority to ensure the continuity of that relationship throughout the coming years. The leadership of our community is working with the City of Rockville to assure that necessary procedures will be in place to provide necessary assurances to nearby residents such as establishing permit parking on Princeton Place and advocating implementation of Neighborhood Watch, and appropriate management of Anderson Park .

At the recent mediation overseen by the Conflict Resolution Center of Montgomery County no conclusion was reached in that one side would not consider re-opening the fence. The mediation began on time and ended abruptly without agreement to have further meetings. Opposing views were made known but no follow-up mediation sessions were planned.

In order to move the process forward, other Community Task Force members met earlier tonight with Mayor Susan Hoffman and Council Member Anne Robbins to request the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), prepared in good faith by Montgomery College, be made part of the Mayor and City Council agenda. However, in recent hours we learned that the Mayor and City Council are at this time preparing the City’s presentation as a finalist for the All American City Award and will, we understand, defer their consideration of the MOU until they next meet on Monday, June 22.

With final accord on the MOU between the City of Rockville and Montgomery College regarding the gathering/smoking area, that with conclusion of those necessary actions, we respectfully request that the Board of Trustees direct the Rockville campus administration to proceed forthwith with re-opening the pedestrian and bicycle access to and from Anderson Park in the vicinity of Princeton Place. If possible, we would welcome the opportunity for representatives of the community to meet with college officials regarding the details of the timing and scope of the re-opening of that fence. The citizens of College Gardens and Plymouth Woods, a community of 1100 residences, very much look forward to the re-establishment of this pedestrian and bicycle access to and from the Rockville campus of Montgomery College .

Further we welcome that this kind of pedestrian access is an opportunity for Montgomery College to support the stated goals of Governor Martin O’Malley’s administration as well as that of President Barack Obama to restore the environmental advantage that such access provides the community, the college and the City of Rockville .

Let us agree to join together to knit the wounds and continue working together toward resolution and to further enhance our long-standing relationship of the College Gardens subdivision of Rockville and the Rockville campus of Montgomery College which we cherish.

Thank you for time for the opportunity to speak to you tonight on this important matter.

Elyse Gussow, On Behalf of the Community Task Force for Open Access to Montgomery College

This contributor opinion is by Elyse Gussow, writing on behalf of the Community Task Force for Open Access to Montgomery College.

This is a contributor opinion. Rockville Central encourages readers to submit such opinions for consideration — the more voices the better. We especially welcome people who disagree with us. We ask that all such contributions be civil and we reserve the right to edit (in consultation with the author) or reject. Contributor opinions should not be seen as reflecting opinions held by Rockville Central editors, as they are just as frequently at odds with our own views. That’s the whole point!

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