When John Hendricks would take his soccer-playing children to compete in other states, he would return home wondering why Maryland's fields were not as nice.
"We were kind of dismayed when we would come back to Maryland at the state of the fields here and that there weren't enough of them," said Hendricks, chairman and chief executive officer for Discovery Communications in Bethesda.
"Most of the states and counties where there's a big soccer interest have invested in a complex."
Hendricks, a Bethesda resident who has never played soccer, decided to do something about it. He already has put up $500,000 of his own money and enlisted Gov. Parris N. Glendening and Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan to share his vision about building a soccer complex with a tournament field and other recreational fields in Montgomery.
That vision now has become a public-private partnership plan to bring a $14.9 million, 24-field soccer complex to South Germantown Recreational Park.
The county's parks commission last week voted 3-1 to approve a proposal drawn up by county planners to build fields and other facilities in three phases, with the first group of fields opening in 2001. A County Council committee will debate the proposal next week.
The idea has been received enthusiastically by soccer moms, dads and their soccer-playing children in a county where an estimated 25,000 boys and girls take to fields across the county almost every Saturday in fall and spring.
A lobbying effort by county soccer enthusiasts resulted in a deluge of more than 400 pre-printed postcards delivered to the County Council with the slogan "Give Our Kids a Complex."
But in quiet South Germantown -- a small community more like rural Boyds than more-populous Germantown -- which is adjacent to the 658-acre park, there are many fears the soccer players' goal will bring a complex of problems to the area.
"We were disappointed that the board would make a recommendation to the County Council [of] a park that is going to be primarily soccer," said Susan Burdette, a South Germantown resident. "The County Council has to protect the residents and make sure all the unanswered questions get answered before giving approval."
Planners have recommended 16 fields plus a championship field and indoor arena in the first phase of construction at the site at Route 118 and Schaeffer Road. The second and third phases, to be completed in 2002 and 2004, each would include four additional fields.
The proposal to build quality fields for the county's soccer enthusiasts gave birth to a nonprofit foundation named the Maryland SoccerPlex Foundation Inc., a consortium of private individuals and soccer groups that now plans to raise $10 million to open the park.
Montgomery Soccer Inc. (MSI) is one of the county's largest youth soccer leagues and is playing a key role in pushing for the complex.
Its soccer players complain there aren't enough fields or enough high quality fields.
"Twenty-four is really just a drop in the bucket in terms of potential demand," said Cam Schmidt, MSI president. "The problem is the growth of soccer has put a lot of demand [and] a lot of pressure on field usage."
At the same time, MSI is committed to proving to South Germantown that the soccer community will be a good neighbor.
"We're very empathetic toward the local neighbors, and we will work with them to do whatever is necessary to allay their fears," Schmidt said. "All we're really asking for is a part of the park for soccer usage."
Soccer, always popular in Montgomery, is still growing. In 1992, MSI, the largest organization, had about 9,000 players age 6 to 19, and now has about 15,000 who practice and play several times a week in the spring and fall.
While county planners agree more fields are needed, commission member Davis Richardson, a Boyds resident who cast the dissenting vote at last week's meeting, says there are other ways to meet the soccer needs of the county.
"This was an important facility that was identified in the planning for Germantown and the upcounty," Richardson said. "The issue of the number of fields, to me, is a primary issue; I believe that a compromise is needed from this 24 fields that has been proposed."
Officials plan to look at how the proposed fields affect the community and environment before moving forward on the Hendricks plan.
Questions also have been raised whether or not environmental concerns could prevent the construction of several of the fields.
Each phase will be subject to County Council approval. The County Council will get its first look at the three-phase plan Monday when the Planning, Housing and Economic Development (PHED) Committee takes up the board's recommendation.
Thirteen fields plus various recreational amenities already have been approved in a 1996 master plan for the South Germantown park. Those amenities include an indoor tennis, soccer and swim center, plus playground, picnic area, miniature golf and motocross bicycle track.
The parks board wants to ensure Germantown residents will get the other recreational uses outlined in the park's master plan by using the improvements to roads and the area as tools for funding.
"These are just green fields and kids playing on them," Hendricks said. "Five years from now, people are going to say, 'Why was there any objection to this?' "
Originally, Hendricks thought about buying land and hoped the soccer community would get behind the project to build fields by helping to raise money -- a completely private effort.
But he started talking to Glendening and Duncan last October and found interest.
Glendening pledged state funds to build needed infrastructure, said Hendricks. And Duncan recommended using the South Germantown park because it already had been approved for soccer.
The politicians have committed a combined $4.9 million. The state would give the county $3 million from its Program Open Space fund and Duncan will seek the council's support for more money to help the project. The County Council will have to approve funding for the project.
"The key to this was Glendening and Duncan," Hendricks said. "Montgomery County residents and Germantown residents will have a nice park to use in five years instead of 15 years."
Officials say Glendening and Duncan are responding to the money coming from private entities.
"We have a private partner who's willing to help meet a need, and that is what we need more of," said David Weaver, a spokesman for Duncan. "What was attractive about this particular project was we already had an approved plan for a soccerplex in Germantown."
But while players are excited that high-quality fields are on the horizon, residents living near the proposed complex worry about how those fields will affect their rural community.
"We don't have any other ideas or strategies than we had in the past ... just protect our neighborhood," Burdette said. "A winning situation for us would be for them to stick to the concept master plan approved in 1996 because it's equitable and it's fair."
Planners are working to minimize traffic congestion and the effects of field lighting. They also believe the complex will meet the intent of the master plan.
Still many questions need to be answered, including environmental regulations that potentially could limit the number of fields. Officials also need to determine if 24 fields will fit into a park designed for half as many plus other recreational uses.
"There is nothing in the plan that would have soccer be the premier sport and need we are trying to meet in the county," Weaver said. "Other sports will not take a back seat to soccer."
County officials and planners must decide how to best provide for the soccer needs without taking anything away from a growing upcounty community badly in need of more recreation services.
Hendricks has visited soccer complexes on the East Coast and says a 24-soccer field complex that would be similar to the Montgomery proposal exists in Raleigh, N.C. County planners will visit the Raleigh complex as well as others in Virginia Beach, Richmond, Delaware and Minnesota.
"If people would look at the size of the land up there, I just think it would be a shame not to plan for 24 fields over time," Hendricks said. "It's totally unused land, and it's just sitting there. No one is enjoying it now."
But neighbors of the Germantown park continue to question the magnitude of the project.
"Our issue is that we are still very concerned about the equitable part of it as far as making the park for everyone in Germantown," Burdette said. "We're hoping that the County Council will look at this very seriously."
From the Gazette Papers