Residents in Randolph Hills, the neighborhood that has been most on board with the White Flint Sector Plan, are disappointed that significant community input to the plan has been passed over since it moved to the County Council for consideration.

In reviewing the Planning Board draft of the Sector Plan, which community groups have been vetting and debating for more than three years, the County Council has already decided to override a Planning Board recommendation for a school site in the sector, nixing the site preferred by Randolph Hills. And at a Planning, Housing, and Economic Development committee meeting on Nov. 30, the council expressed a preference to also overturn the future MARC train station location recommended by the Planning Board, a site also supported by Randolph Hills. When completed, the White Flint Sector Plan will outline a comprehensive 30-year development plan for the area surrounding the White Flint Metro Station in North Bethesda.

The reversal on the station site came as a shock to residents like Randolph Civic Association Vice President Dan Hoffman.

"We're disappointed at the PHED committee hearing when basically three years of input and effort from all communities — not just ours — in about 15 minutes got changed," Hoffman said. "We're disappointed that they're going down this path."

"This seemed to be kind of a done deal," Hoffman said. "I don't think anybody thought the MARC site was going to pop back up. It kind of caught everyone off guard."

The Planning Board-recommended site, which would have placed a future MARC station on Nicholson Court, was supported by the Randolph Hills neighborhood because it would have been more walkable for many there, connecting the 1,340 homes of the civic association to the transit network.

But the County Council staff recommended instead to revert to a site on a future extension of Old Georgetown Road — which was also preferred by Planning Board staff — because that site is closer the Metro by 3,000 feet and because it is roughly equidistant between the Rockville and Kensington MARC stations.

Hoffman said the decision not to recommend a new elementary school for the sector just across sector boundaries at the old Rocking Horse Elementary School, within his neighborhood, is one Randolph Hills can live with; the School Board has final authority over those matters anyway. But upon seeing the recommendations for the MARC station, Hoffman sent a letter on behalf of the Civic Association to the County Council on Nov. 29 asking it to consider the points made at the Planning Board level, including that the Nicholson Court site would be near an arterial road, that it is close to existing communities, and that most of the property owners are willing to accommodate the station, while at the Old Georgetown site the property owners oppose it.

"It's frustrating that these two particular aspects, which we saw as key to our neighborhood, are not being acknowledged," Hoffman said, referring to the school and the train station. He added that Randolph Hills still supports the Sector Plan as a whole, and that it hasn't expected "special treatment" on pet issues just because it's been supportive of the development being proposed in White Flint.

"We however strongly feel that the Nicholson Court site is much more feasible and better supports the common good," Hoffman said.

The principle opponents of the Nicholson Court site are residents of the Garrett Park Estates/White Flint Park neighborhood, which was concerned about traffic and keeping principle infrastructure in the sector core, and Garrett Park, which was worried about the potential threat to the Garrett Park MARC Station if another opens on Nicholson Lane. MARC has repeatedly said there is no long term plan to build a station in White Flint, but county planners are preparing anyway, replacing in the White Flint Sector Plan a site chosen for a MARC Station in the 1992 North Bethesda/Garrett Park Master Plan.

County Council President Nancy Floreen (D-At Large) of Garrett Park, who is on the PHED Committee, said everything is very preliminary, from the committee recommendations that must go before the full council, to the plan itself, which is for 30 years from now. Master Plans, too, can be updated, Floreen said.

"I do think it's important for the public to know that the committee job is to work through these issues and listen to absolutely everyone," Floreen said. "I'm just very reluctant to make final decisions or even signal the public that most of these recommendations are final set in stone ones. This is just planning, this is not doing. The doing is a whole separate part."

However, during the planning process the Maryland Transit Authority did conduct a feasibility study for the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission that concluded opening a new MARC Station on either White Flint site would likely "disrupt or potentially end" service at the Garrett Park MARC station.

"I'm from Garrett Park, I'm the former mayor, I'm going to fight for that train station, but I'm going to respect the neighbors as well," Floreen said.

Hoffman said the Randolph Civic Association wants to respect the neighbors too, and is going to "reach out" to Garrett Park Estates/White Flint Park residents that have concerns about the station site.

"We're going to reach out to everybody at least to get a dialogue going," Hoffman said.