Q&A: Leggett Talks Brickyard

Patch sat down with Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett for a one-on-one interview on the Brickyard property controversy. The following is the first in a three-part series with his answers to Patch’s questions.

The , a legal battle between those who want to preserve an organic farm and those who want to convert it into soccer fields.

The case pits Nick Maravell, the farmer who’s worked the land for more than 30 years against the Montgomery County Board of Education which, Maravell says, violated an open meetings act when it transferred the Brickyard Road lease from him to Montgomery County.

As the legal questions remain, in Part One of this series Leggett shared his opinion on the public outcry about losing an agricultural resource. Paraphrasing of the interview shows in italics.

Patch: Regarding the :

“I don’t think that the community is serious about that. Let me tell you why. If you’re interested in organic farming, we’ve made suggestions about organic farming in several other locations,” Leggett said. “If you look at the potential alternatives that people are talking about, evaluate that:"

On the Brickyard property there would be between two to four soccer fields, depending on what company gets the contract after the request for proposal (RFP) process is finished, according to Leggett. There is no lighting, no amplification and no artificial fields. The use, therefore, would be relatively limited and mostly on weekends. It gets dark at 5 o’clock during the winter months, kids are in school throughout the week and with snow and ice the non-artificial fields are not usable, he said. Use would primarily be during the summer months and at a time that does not conflict with normal traffic on the weekend.

If the county were to develop an organic research and learning facility, the traffic coming to and from the property would be much more considerable, according to Leggett.

“Look at the number of buses that you’d run in and out of there with school kids all during the day throughout the entire year – morning, noon and night,” Leggett said. “My point is, I think you’d have far more use of the roads and kids coming in bus loads then you’ll have in this [soccer] facility. So my question is, if you’re concerned about that then why would you go for this alternative?”

Patch: Regarding uniqueness of Nick's facility in location:

The county has made suggestions about moving the farm to several other, larger places, Leggett said.

“I don’t question the need for [this type of farm], the necessity, the usefulness of it, the uniqueness of it. The question is do you need it right there?” Leggett said. “You have enough acreage in other locations that you could replicate that.

“This [property] is on 20 acres. You’ve got some places where there are several hundred acres. You could isolate that far better than you could even do this on Brickyard Road.”

Proponents of the farm say the Brickyard property is unique in that the location, which is not surrounded by other, non-organic productions, allows for a buffer between the farm and contaminants that would threaten its organic nature. , program manager for the Maryland Department of Agriculture Food Quality Assurance program, who said that it is easier to establish an organic farm in an area where no synthetic pesticides or fertilizers are used.

“There is a transitional period,” Leggett said. “You just can’t go there and start farming year one. But had [Maravell] started when we first started this process, of moving to the other land, you could have been well on the way of developing the new site by then. You’d have very little transitional period basically left between the time you left this facility to the time you got to the other facility.”

Patch: Would the farmer be allowed to farm the land until it is ready to be developed by the county?

“I don’t know. They filed a lawsuit and so I’m out of it at this point in time,” Leggett said. “We were negotiating at one point in time, trying to work something out, but they filed a lawsuit so it’s out of my hands and in the attorney’s hands.”

“I’m not saying that this is not a valuable commodity and it’s not valuable to have organic farming. I’ve been a very strong proponent of the [Agricultural Reserve]. Very strong proponent, and fought for it for years,” he said. “What I’m simply saying is that in the heart of this particular community, to suggest that this is the only place you can have this is, I think, a disingenuous argument."