Summary of MCRA Sligo Creek Golf Course Meeting on January 9, 2008
At this community meeting (held January 9 at Margaret Schweinhaut Senior Center-- near the golf course), Keith Miller of the Montgomery County Revenue Authority hosted a presentation about the golf course "concept". Representatives of the consulting firms that took initial looks at environmental impacts, traffic, and driving range lighting gave presentations. The presentations came very closely from the information presented in the report distributed in support of the concept - Conceptual Plan and Technical Evaluation from Montgomery County Revenue Authority

There was a full house of more than 200. Present were representatives of virtually all affected politicians, as well as a reporter from the Gazette. Judging from the comments and questions from the crowd, there was much opposition to the proposed changes to the course, and little or no support for them. Mr. Miller noted that support for the concept exists but is "minimal" compared to the opposition evident at the meeting. During the approximately 90 minutes of comment, all aspects of the presentations were touched on plus numerous questions about the background, mandate, and economics of the proposed changes. FOSC representatives primarily focused communicating our continued concern that the proposed changes will damage Sligo Creek and the park, and that MCRA information provided so far is very inadequate to support an understanding of the impact. Mr. Miller did not announce any specific next steps, but did say that if the concept moves forward, MCRA would do more work on investigation of the impacts, and would like a community team to be involved.

Bruce Sidwell
President Friends of Sligo Creek