The Silver Spring Penguin

This week, The Penguin looks at the stories that put Silver Spring on the map in 2007.The first big deal: The seizure-inducing, iridescent green rug on Ellsworth Drive and Fenton Street that’s come to be known only as “The Turf”.

It all started about two years ago, when the county thought it cool to cover a gravel-strewn lot with a hit of AstroTurf. It was supposed to be a temporary eye sore until construction on Silver Spring’s civic center and Veterans Plaza could begin.

What The Turf became was the downtown area’s backyard, an artificially green space for kicking around a soccer ball and snarfing down scoops of ice cream. The kids loved it; the county government, not so much.

In January 2007, Silver Spring’s citizens advisory board wrote fresh-out-of-the-box county exec Ike Leggett to ask for more green space in front of the civic center. However, regional director Gary Stith argued that real grass would be too expensive to maintain, and that artificial grass was just that — artificial.

The county’s planning commission only added enviro-friendly ethanol to the fire. In March, commission staffers recommended nixing the proposed Veterans Plaza ice-skating rink and pavilion in exchange for more green space. Later that same month, regional director Stith said a winter rink and summer turf were totally doable. Yippee! A compromise.

Not.

Ongoing discussions among civic leaders and on the blogosphere pitted long-time residents — many of whom favored the ice rink — against new kids on the block, some of whom supported The Turf, others who genuinely didn’t care either way. Even Washington Post columnists wanted in on the debate.

Finally, in late June, the county’s planning board stuck a fork in the project and declared it “done”. After a three-hour public hearing, the board reluctantly approved plans for a paved plaza and seasonal ice rink.

“There’s a very high probability that the plaza area is not going to work as well as you hope,” board chairman Royce Hanson told rink supporters soon after the vote.

Construction should have started on the plaza and civic center this fall. However, that work — and removal of The Turf — have been postponed until March 2008. What will become of The Turf once it’s been pulled is unknown.

What’s also unclear is how the future plaza will be used, and exactly who will be running programs there and inside the civic center. The nonprofit Silver Spring Town Center, Inc, says it’s willing to schedule community-oriented activities there, though what the community wants is up in the air.

Meanwhile, former county council prez Marilyn Praisner has consistently argued against a nonprofit running the show. The county, she said, is picking up the civic center’s tab and therefore should be responsible for its programming.

The civic center and plaza are scheduled to open in Fall 2009.