To: Montgomery County Council

A school bus depot does not belong on a quarry truck corridor, next to 1,300 homes, in the middle of a protected forest. We urge the County Council to remove the proposed MCPS bus depot at Wootton ES Site #7 / Cavanaugh Drive from the FY2027–2032 Capital Improvements Program before the Council’s final FY2027 budget/CIP action, expected in late May and required by June 1, 2026.

We support safe, reliable school transportation. MCPS needs appropriate transportation facilities. However, this specific location raises serious site-specific concerns.

The proposed depot would place a high-volume school bus operation on a small, forested parcel near established residential neighborhoods, environmentally sensitive land, and an active quarry haul route. This is not simply a neighborhood preference issue. It is a serious site-selection problem involving roadway safety, traffic conflict, public health, environmental protection, neighborhood quality of life, and public process.

Why This Site Is Wrong
1. Serious roadway-safety and traffic-conflict concerns at Shady Grove Road
Shady Grove Road is used as the haul route for truck traffic connected to the nearby Travilah Quarry. Adding a school bus depot at this location would concentrate school bus movements on the same corridor during early morning departure hours, when road conditions, commuter traffic, and neighborhood access are already under pressure.

While students are not on the buses when buses enter or leave the depot, the concern remains serious. This proposal would create a predictable daily conflict between large school buses, dump trucks, cement mixers, quarry-related vehicles, commuters, pedestrians, cyclists, and neighborhood traffic.

Concentrating large-vehicle movements from two separate operations on the same corridor raises serious concerns about roadway safety, traffic management, intersection capacity, turning movements, emergency access, and the reliability of school transportation operations.

2. The parcel appears undersized for a bus depot operation
The Wootton ES #7 site is approximately 12 acres. MCPS has previously considered much larger sites for depot functions, and recent planning discussions have referenced larger acreage needs for modern transportation facilities. A constrained site increases concerns about bus circulation, traffic queues, turning movements, parking, stormwater management, and the ability to safely separate industrial transportation activity from nearby homes and local roads.

A school bus depot is a transportation-intensive use. It should be located on a properly sized site with road access, circulation capacity, and surrounding land uses compatible with large-vehicle operations.

3. A second high-intensity transportation use would add to existing neighborhood impacts
Nearby residents already live with the impacts of quarry operations, including heavy truck traffic, noise, dust, vibration, and roadway wear. Placing a bus depot on the same corridor would add another high-intensity vehicle operation to the same community.

This would increase traffic congestion, diesel emissions, noise, lighting impacts, and roadway stress for families who use these roads every day for school, work, walking, biking, and neighborhood access.

4. The proposal raises serious environmental concerns
The proposed site is a forested parcel near sensitive environmental features, including the Piney Branch Special Protection Area and nearby stormwater, floodplain, and conservation areas. Converting this land into a bus depot would likely require substantial tree removal and large areas of impervious surface.

A transportation depot with bus parking, fueling or charging infrastructure, maintenance activity, runoff, lighting, and noise could significantly alter the environmental character of this site and surrounding protected areas.

5. Better-suited alternatives should be evaluated through a transparent process
This is a site-selection issue, not opposition to school transportation. MCPS and the County should locate bus depot functions in areas already designed for commercial, industrial, warehouse, or transportation-related uses.

The County should not advance a residential-adjacent and environmentally sensitive site without first conducting a transparent search for safer and more appropriate alternatives.

6. The affected communities were not meaningfully consulted before this proposal advanced
Many residents learned about this proposal only through the CIP process, not through direct public outreach. A major land-use change of this kind should not move forward without early notice, community meetings, public hearings, traffic analysis, environmental review, and a transparent explanation of why this site was selected over other options.

Budget approval should not come before meaningful community engagement and site-specific review.

What We Are Asking the Montgomery County Council to Do
We respectfully urge the County Council to:

1. Remove the Wootton ES #7 / Cavanaugh Drive bus depot from the FY2027–2032 CIP before the Council’s final FY2027 budget/CIP action, expected in late May and required by June 1, 2026.
2. Require MCPS to conduct a transparent, criteria-based site-selection process for any future bus depot proposal.
3. Require an independent traffic impact analysis that specifically evaluates quarry truck traffic, school bus departure and return windows, pedestrian and cyclist safety, turning movements, road capacity, intersection operations, emergency access, and neighborhood access.
4. Require a full environmental and public health review, including impacts on the Piney Branch Special Protection Area, forest removal, stormwater runoff, diesel emissions, noise, lighting, and cumulative community burden.
5. Ensure full compliance with Mandatory Referral procedures, public notice requirements, and community engagement before any further action is taken.
6. Hold public hearings for affected residents before advancing any future depot proposal at this site.

Bottom Line
We support MCPS transportation. We support safe and reliable school operations. We support responsible public infrastructure.

The proposed bus depot at Wootton ES Site #7 on Cavanaugh Drive would place a high-volume school bus operation next to residential neighborhoods, on a quarry truck corridor, within an environmentally sensitive area, and without adequate public process.

Montgomery County can and must choose a safer, more appropriate site.

Please sign this petition and urge the Montgomery County Council to remove the Cavanaugh Drive / Wootton ES #7 bus depot from the FY2027–2032 CIP before the final FY2027 budget/CIP action, expected in late May and required by June 1, 2026.

Contact The County Council
Please contact the Montgomery County Council and let all councilmembers know that this issue matters to affected residents and surrounding communities.

1. Marilyn Balcombe — Councilmember.Balcombe@montgomerycountymd.gov | 240-777-7959
2. Andrew Friedson — Councilmember.Friedson@montgomerycountymd.gov | 240-777-7828
3. Natali Fani-González — Councilmember.Fani-Gonzalez@montgomerycountymd.gov | 240-777-7964
4. Evan Glass — Councilmember.Glass@montgomerycountymd.gov | 240-777-7811
5. Sidney Katz — Councilmember.Katz@montgomerycountymd.gov | 240-777-7860
6. Dawn Luedtke — Councilmember.Luedtke@montgomerycountymd.gov | 240-777-7960
7. Kristin Mink — Councilmember.Mink@montgomerycountymd.gov | 240-777-7955
8. Laurie-Anne Sayles — Councilmember.Sayles@montgomerycountymd.gov | 240-777-7968
9. Kate Stewart — Councilmember.Stewart@montgomerycountymd.gov | 240-777-7968
10. Will Jawando — Councilmember.Jawando@montgomerycountymd.gov | 240-777-7906
11. Shebra Evans — Councilmember.Evans@montgomerycountymd.gov | 240-777-7828