ROCKVILLE, MD – Montgomery County officials proudly announced plans to invest $15 million in “robust and meaningful community engagement” before approving construction of a modest $50,000 playground in Chevy Chase.
Despite thousands of mailed postcards, an eight-part Zoom series, and a TikTok campaign featuring Planning Board staffers dancing on a swingset, neighbors opposed to the playground insist the outreach has been “insufficient.”
“I feel blindsided,” remarked one county resident. “The county should have warned us about this playground at least five years before my grandchildren were born.”
Concerns have also surfaced that the playground could displace residents.
“This tragic yet predictable consequence could have been avoided with a deeper and more inclusive engagement strategy,” said George H.W. Witherspoon IV, president of the Chevy Chase Section 3 Citizens Association. “A swing set today, and tomorrow you’ve priced out all the low-income families that want to live in our exclusive neighborhood.”
Others argued the playground could simultaneously attract too many undesirable people. “First it’s homeless people, then it’s noisy children. Both are bad, but in different, contradictory ways,” explained one neighbor. “It’s both a magnet for the wrong kind of people and a bulldozer pushing them out. And don’t get me started on the traffic from families driving in to use OUR playground!”
Amid the uproar, the Planning Board agreed to expand the budget by an additional $10 million to fund more impact studies, including one specifically about whether the sound of children laughing will penetrate triple pane windows.
Unfortunately, the ballooning $25 million engagement tab forced the county to cancel the actual playground, citing cost overruns amid discussions of a property tax increase.
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