April 2023 - Parks & Recreation - 12

WE ARE PARKS AND RECREATION
From Trash to Treasure
By Joe Ignatius, PLA, ASLA
A
s the oldest formal landfill managed in Montgomery
County, Maryland, Gude Landfill is prime for a new life.
The site is bound by a unique mix of single-family residential,
industrial and governmental uses to the west and
by the 1,800-acre Rock Creek Regional Park to the east.
The 162-acre landfill site contains
nearly 5 million tons of
waste, dating from 1965 to 1982.
After more than 30 years, the site
has met requirements to decommission
the landfill and transition
to recreational uses. Montgomery
County
Department
of Environmental Protection
(MCDEP) has been managing
the property and is overseeing
the process of converting
the
dump into a future park, a first
for the agency. MCDEP has actively
engaged with a community
advisory committee, called the
Gude Landfill Concerned Citizens
(GLCC), which has been
meeting for more than 15 years
and has held more than 50 meetings
to achieve their goal of creating
a large community park.
Although the site is not open
to the public, the county currently
allows limited use. The
landfill is a favorite location for
bird watchers and low-aircraft
aviators who use a small asphalt
landing strip to fly drones and
small model airplanes.
The Vision
Floura Teeter, a Baltimore-based
landscape architecture
while also balancing the sensitive
nature of the site as a regional
birding habitat. The design
team, community and county
representatives established several
project goals, such as:
* Maintain
integrity
of the
landfill and allow for continued
*
Include safe recreation
compatible with the landfill.
monitoring during the
post-closure period.
uses
* Explore the feasibility for connections
to adjacent parks/
paths.
* Include signage or art to celebrate
the new ecology.
firm,
joined the project team in 2018
with engineering firm EA Engineering,
Science and Technology.
The original scope of work
was to develop a master plan,
beginning with the community's
vision for the site as a passive recreation
and community-use park
* Establish a naturalistic meadow
environment and encourage
the interaction of native
bird species with the new flora.
Using the app iBird, community
members have documented
bird sightings and georeferenced
their location, time of year and
quantity across the site and adjacent
parklands. The design team
reviewed the data within the past
two years to evaluate the species
using the site as a stopover for
food or shelter. The data played
a crucial role in plant species selection
and programming for the
park.
the
Being an artificial mountain,
site
is a strategic
viewing
point, providing excellent vistas
overlooking the expanse of the
existing landfill and future park
with the City of Rockville skyWay
stations around the former Gude
Landfill site explain the history of the
landfill and the surrounding environment.
12 Parks & Recreation | APRIL 2 0 2 3
| PARK S ANDRECRE AT ION . OR G
IMAGES COURTESY OF FLOURA TEETER
April 2023 - Parks & Recreation

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