The most apparent demonstration of Bethesda’s need for more park space might come on evenings and weekends in the parking lot of Norwood Local Park in nearby Chevy Chase.
The lot is full of vehicles from participants of permitted sports leagues and pick-up tennis and basketball games. Parents bring their toddlers to the park’s playgrounds. In the fall, the park is a bustling center of activity for youth football leagues, ultimate practices and even a cyclist group that practices a growing form of cross-country biking.
For some in neighboring Chevy Chase West, no available parking spaces has led to too many illegally parked vehicles.
“The park has kind of outgrown itself,” said Rick Pelicano, a spokesperson for the Maryland-National Capital Park Police. “Capital improvement can’t happen overnight. It’s not a simple problem and we can’t make everyone happy.”
At the heart of a recent meeting between neighborhood residents and representatives from Park Police and Montgomery Parks were the cars struggling to find spots in and around the park during peak times. It’s common for drivers to park around a grassy oval that’s actually a no parking zone.
Residents say park users also park illegally on their neighborhood streets.
“Our goal is to leave as little a footprint as possible and to be good stewards of the park system and to be conscientious of the surrounding neighborhoods,” said Nick Jovanovic, co-founder of Social Sports of Bethesda.
The adult sports league uses Norwood Park twice a week in the spring for co-ed two-hand touch football, and then in the late spring and summer for softball. Jovanovic said the league goes out of its way to notify players and coaches of where they are and aren’t allowed to park. Organizers have even coned off areas so people can’t park illegally.
“The parks are there to be used and the majority of our participants are from Montgomery County,” Jovanovic said. “It’s a fine balance of putting in more parking, which neighbors don’t really want, or having illegal parking occurring, which neighbors don’t want either.”
Pelicano said Park Police have gone to the park to make sure “No Parking” signs are upright and readable. Officers have also been to the park recently to issue tickets.
Nobody questions the park gets a lot of use. In the meeting, some residents questioned whether the park is overused. A Parks representative promised to review existing permits issued and consider the size of groups that are permitted.
The park has two combination softball and baseball fields that double as combination football, soccer and field sport spaces. There’s also a basketball court, five tennis courts, playgrounds, picnic area and recreation building that’s available for rent.
Pelicano grew up in Bethesda and went to Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School. He said there’s no doubt Norwood Local Park is in high demand, and he’s seen that demand grow.
“We’ve been pretty conservative about renting our fields out, throughout the county. The neighborhood has changed,” Pelicano said. “All of our parks are being used in huge amounts, they’re a very popular feature of Montgomery County.”
Pelicano did recently go to permit holders at Norwood Local Park to ask that they stagger game starting times so that players in the next game aren’t coming in before players in the previous game have left.
He also went to Jovanovic, who let Pelicano know that Social Sports of Bethesda wasn’t even using the fields for a time because of the amount of rain over the past few weeks.
That meant a good portion of resident complaints likely came because of unpermitted park users.
In one conversation with a resident, Pelicano said he was told Park Police should do something about all of the D.C. license plates.
“I can’t do that. It’s a public park. We can’t restrict who comes into the park,” Pelicano said.
Jovanovic said park users often face challenges when it comes to reserving space. That problem — at least in Bethesda — might be addressed in the ongoing Bethesda Downtown Plan. County planners, hearing the many complaints about a lack of park and civic space, included new civic or open spaces in their first set of broad recommendations.
It’s unclear if those spaces can be built or if those spaces would include playing fields or courts. Parks planners are very aware of the lack of field space in and around downtown Bethesda. With sky-high property values, it will be a difficult problem to address.
“From a community standpoint, you’re very limited. There’s without a doubt not a lot of close park space,” Jovanovic said. “The neighbors around the parks that are there don’t necessarily want the parks to be used in the volume that occurs. We understand that, but at the same time, that’s what the parks are there for.”
Photo via Chevy Chase West newsletter
