The frustration quickly mounted in Kensington last week as Montgomery County officials walked about 50 residents through the streets near Parkwood Elementary School, spray-painting the path of a proposed sidewalk across homeowners’ driveways.

“Sorry doesn’t cut it,” one homeowner yelled, pointing at a large tree in his front yard that might be cut to make way for a sidewalk. “This is bullshit.”

“Let’s be nice, please,” responded another neighbor.

The county’s goal is to make the walk to and from the school safer. But as with any plan to improve public safety, some don’t consider it an improvement at all. The Purple Line may be the most obvious local example. But there are many more, including the University Boulevard Corridor Plan now before the County Council.

Designed to allow for more residential development and public transportation along a three-mile stretch of the thoroughfare, it has drawn fervent opposition from residents who argue that it will increase traffic and put pedestrians at risk.

Pedestrian safety has been in the news lately following the deaths of two people in separate incidents last week. Just two miles from Parkwood Elementary, an Albert Einstein High School student sent a petition on Thursday to Montgomery County Public Schools asking for better protections for pedestrians. More than 1,600 people have signed it since.

On Wednesday’s walk through their tight-knit and leafy Kensington neighborhood, where many have lived for decades, residents saw where sidewalks and crosswalks would be added to several streets. The proposed changes come from a 2019 study conducted for the school by the Montgomery County Department of Transportation (MCDOT). Last year the county shared detailed recommendations with residents.

Some neighbors risk losing parts of their large, well-tended lawns. More than two dozen trees might have to come down.

Much of the neighborhood — if Wednesday’s gathering and feedback to MCDOT is any indication — opposes the plan. Several told The Banner they are miffed at one homeowner in particular, a father who said he favors sidewalks to keep his disabled son safe.

MCDOT spokesperson Emily DeTitta said there’s plenty of opposition in the neighborhood, but the department has also heard from a contingent that supports the sidewalk.

‘Perfect as it is’

Wednesday’s walk through the neighborhood was scheduled before the two pedestrian traffic deaths in the county last week — a Kensington teen struck and killed a few miles away on University Boulevard West on Sept. 21, and a New Carrollton woman killed two days later near eastbound Veirs Mill Road at Ennalls Avenue.

One resident on the tour said those tragedies shouldn’t influence county plans for their streets. Several described a lively community — where kids race go-karts and parents push strollers. And they don’t consider it unsafe, despite the dearth of sidewalks.

“The quality of life on this street is perfect as it is,” said Liz Brennan, who added that she enjoys walks through the neighborhood.

“It just seems like a needless conversation,” said Ryan McGowan, who has lived on Clearbrook Lane for seven years.

“You want young children to be safe, but we have no reason to suspect there’s a threat,” said Katie Engen, who has lived on Clearbrook for more than three decades.

Other neighbors, acknowledging that they are in the minority, told The Banner they appreciate county efforts to improve pedestrian safety, especially for the most vulnerable.

Eric Cole, whose 20-year-old son, Ryan, has intellectual disabilities, said adding sidewalks and crosswalks to the neighborhood could alleviate some of his worries when Ryan walks along Clearbrook Lane to catch a bus to high school.

When Ryan gets home from school at the end of the day, Cole said he exhales.

“It only takes one mistake to kill someone,” he said.

The debate between those who favor change and those who oppose has at times made for tense relations between neighbors.

Finger-pointing

In 2020, before he knew MCDOT had already begun studying the neighborhood a year prior, Cole submitted an application to the agency requesting they study the feasibility of installing a sidewalk on Clearbrook Lane, his own street.

MCDOT wrote back, and, referencing the Americans with Disabilities Act, said it has “an obligation to provide people with disabilities equal access to sidewalks and pedestrian rights of way.”

The agency also suggested Cole “rally support” for his request around the neighborhood. That summer, Cole hand-delivered a letter to every house on the street about his interest in a sidewalk.

That’s when the signs — each with bright yellow “no sidewalks!” text and a red strikethrough — started popping up. Cole said neighbors stopped greeting him when he walked by.

A few months later, he withdrew his application.

“The angst the request caused to my neighbors,” he wrote to MCDOT, led him to seek “a less contentious solution that our neighbors will find agreeable and that will keep my son safe.”

The signs slowly disappeared.

Fast-forward four years: MCDOT alerted the neighborhood, including Cole, of the walkability analysis it had conducted since 2019 and their recommendation that a new sidewalk be installed on the street.

The signs came back — and with them Cole’s sense that many of his neighbors had turned on him. He said he still loves them, though.

“I hope they love my family back,” he said.

Several residents last week told The Banner that Cole only advocated for a sidewalk because it would not be built on his side of the street. Cole said that was “completely false” and that he would prefer a sidewalk on his side of Clearbrook if it meant keeping his son safe.

MCDOT said they proposed sidewalks on the street sides that would best connect to existing pathways and result in “fewer impacts to trees, landscaping, or driveways.”

“This was never initiated to irritate my neighbors,” Cole said. “This is out of love and safety for my son with multiple disabilities including epilepsy, who can’t always advocate for himself and his safety.”

A previous version of this story included a photo caption that misnamed the resident who placed caution tape in front of her house. The correct name of the resident is Liz Brennan.

He said he knows he has neighbors who support sidewalks, but believes the vocal opposition has bullied them into silence.

“They see what’s happened to my family, and they don’t want to subject themselves to it,” Cole said.

That’s exactly the case, said one of his neighbors who requested anonymity for privacy’s sake.

“People have very strong feelings about this, and I don’t want them to take it out on me or my family,” the neighbor said.

‘Face of this movement’

Wendy Manning, who has lived on Clearbrook Lane for 14 years, said she likes the idea of sidewalks in general but feels more “neutral” in the current debate.

“I feel like having a sidewalk is not an unreasonable thing to expect in a neighborhood,” said Manning, who often walks her dog up the hill to Cedar Lane, where she finds it hard to see oncoming cars. “I would have loved to have a sidewalk when my daughter was small.”

She said she gets teased by neighbors for her pro-sidewalk views. Cole, she added, gets much more serious criticism for the stance he has taken.

He has become the “face of this movement,” even though it is the county that is moving forward with decisions, she said.

Despite Cole’s withdrawal of his sidewalk request, at least one resident on Wednesday’s tour through the neighborhood told The Banner that he blames Cole for the county’s proposed changes.

MCDOT said the proposal to add sidewalks on Clearbrook and adjacent streets was not driven by a single neighbor but gained momentum after “collective interest from multiple residents.”

Manning said she was surprised by the tension the sidewalk issue has caused, and attributes it to the more general loss of control people might feel from recent federal layoffs, which have hit Maryland especially hard. She herself was laid off from the Department of Education in March.

The sidewalk debate, she said, is “something tangible people can get behind.”

DeTitta, of MCDOT, said the public is encouraged to submit comments until Oct. 24.