Let’s Make Downtown Bethesda Green with Parks

Now Is the Time for the Montgomery County Council & Executive to Act

The new Bethesda Downtown Plan for land use will make Bethesda more crowded, dense and traffic filled over the next 20 years. But we don’t want an urban area of just tall buildings and parking garages. WE NEED PARKS AND OPEN SPACE TO SERVE ALL WHO LIVE AND WORK HERE TODAY and for years to come.

It’s time for the Montgomery County Council and County Executive Leggett to create new parkland by converting four county-owned surface parking lots in Bethesda into parks. These lots – two near East Bethesda and two adjacent to the Farm Woman’s market –should continue to serve the public by remaining open spaces instead of being sold for new building development. Bethesda’s growth may push surface parking underground, but the public should benefit from this, not lose from it.

We care because:

• These four parking lots are the ONLY centrally located and readily available areas for park development in downtown Bethesda. This outdoor recreational space is necessary to serve existing residents and the thousands of new residents and office workers coming.
• These parks will boost Bethesda’s vitality and sense of community, offering welcoming spaces for all of us to meet, play, and celebrate events together.
• Parks create economic value and extra County tax revenue. Buildings that look out on attractive open spaces are more desirable to residents and businesses.
• The lots are public property and should be developed in the public interest. Taxpayers paid for these parking lots a long time ago.

It’s now or never. Montgomery County Council and Executive must ensure green open space in downtown Bethesda for generations to come by establishing parks on the land it already owns for all who live, work and shop in Bethesda.

Thank you!

Coalition of Bethesda Area Residents

For more information go to our website at CBAR.info and follow us on Twitter at @cbar_moco