The North Bethesda Trail runs alongside the Grosvenor Mansion site. The area is slated to be developed into a school and some are asking that some of the land be set aside.
A group of North Bethesda residents submitted a petition and letter to the county Planning Board Monday, in an effort to convince the county to purchase at least part of the Grosvenor Mansion property.
The letter, which in its shortened, petition form was signed by nearly 250 neighbors, states, ‘‘designating the property [as Legacy Open Space] would protect the last remaining area of forest...[and] buffer and protect Fleming Park and the local bicycle path.”
Have bike paths simply become convenient excuses for neighborhoods to stop some project they don't like? It's dubious that a school there would have any impact whatsoever on the Bethesda Trolley Trail. What about the other end of Fleming Ave. where neighbors are opposing the path? Probably some of the people who signed the petition.
Posted by: Jack | December 11, 2007 at 10:31 AM
I didn't read the desire to protect the land as a means to not have the bike path disrupted in some way. In fact, the 'path' is really a street (Fleming) that connects the I-270 and Beltway overpasses. I've ridden through there several times and never knew that the mansion was there until reading this. It just seemed like a nice quiet wooded oasis with an adjacent ballfield and park with families there in the middle of an extremely busy area. I can see why the local residents would want to keep it that way -- bike route or no.
Posted by: Steve | December 12, 2007 at 09:03 AM