Parks Department spends millions to move a ball field and destroy a beautiful green space, home to a nearly 200 year old tree

For the last several years the Montgomery County Parks and Planning Board have been planning the destruction of the meadow at North Four Corners Local Park (colloquially, “The Rachel Carson Meadow”) and its replacement by an adult-sized soccer field and 50-car parking lot.  While ostensibly working with the community on this plan (the board plans to plant trees on an existing ball field to create a “meadow-like space” with no net gain in the number of ball fields), Parks and Planning have consistently ignored the local resident’s desires to keep the existing meadow.

PETITION

• Do not waste nearly $5,000,000 of county money on this project
• Save “Rachel Carson Meadow” with its complex topography, 10 potential champion trees, and 61 specimen trees so it can continue to function as Urban Woods & as a Community Green for down county neighborhoods.
• Add minor upgrades to the park such as a natural playground, and manage exotic invasive plants per Weed Warriors program standards.
• Keep the existing youth baseball/soccer field and continue to permit youth teams there.
• Renovate Parks' existing soccer fields using natural turf techniques developed at the Soccerplex, and improve maintenance, management, and permitting of existing fields so as to increase the number of playable fields throughout the county.

Thank you for your time, consideration, and support.