Montgomery Parks has started preliminary engineering on a project to revitalize a stream running through the Westbard area of Bethesda, estimating the restoration will cost between $4 million and $6 million, according to a County Council report.
The parks department also says construction of a proposed park and recreational facility that would complement the revived stream will cost between $9 million and $12 million. Parks officials will appear before the council’s Planning, Housing and Economic Development (PHED) Committee Monday afternoon to discuss their progress.
Fixing the stream, known as the Willett Branch, is a goal of the Westbard Sector Plan the council passed in May.
New zoning in the plan that will allow for redevelopment in the area aroused fierce opposition. But the effort to restore the Willett Branch, which now runs through the area in a partially covered concrete waterway, was largely supported. The stream contains very little wildlife and has become a dumping ground for trash. Graffiti lines the concrete channel and in many locations, stormwater from adjacent asphalt parking lots flows unabated into the stream. The Willett Branch drains directly into the Potomac River.
On Monday, council members will likely discuss how Montgomery Parks will acquire the land immediately surrounding the Willett Branch, a key factor in the revitalization that could be costly and time-consuming.
Parks staff divided the roughly two-mile stream through Westbard into eight sections. Five of those sections would be part of an “initial phase” of revitalization while the rest would be part of a “long-term phase” that isn’t likely to be addressed “for many years,” according to council legislative analyst Marlene Michaelson.
Parks has hired an outside consultant to complete hydraulic and hydrologic modeling and to develop a conceptual design for the stream, a trail that would run alongside it and other amenities such as connections to the existing Capital Crescent Trail.
Phasing and acquisition strategy for Willett Branch stream restoration project, via Montgomery County Council
According to a parks department memo that’s part of the council report, the department hopes to fund the project through a combination of county funds, grants and private sector contributions. Those efforts could include stream-adjacent property owners handing over the land as part of redevelopment approvals.
A “property acquisition strategy” contained in the Parks memo assumes the department can get most of the land through dedication, with one section of land that will have to be bought. That section is directly west of the stream’s crossing under the Capital Crescent Trail.
Covered section of the Willett Branch stream as it passes under the Capital Crescent Trail in Bethesda. Credit: Aaron Kraut
Stream restoration would include naturalizing the stream with new plantings and the removal of the existing concrete culvert. The parks department estimated the stream restoration will cost as much as $6 million, “assuming most [land] acquisitions will occur through dedication.”
The creation of the proposed Countywide Urban Recreational Park, a park that would be constructed next to the stream just west of its connection to the Capital Crescent Trail, would cost an additional $9 million to $12 million.
