Leggett Wants Day-Laborer Center Near Shady Grove Metro

Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett (D) announced plans yesterday to open the county's third day-laborer center, near the Shady Grove Metro station just south of the Gaithersburg border.

Plans for a county-funded employment center for day laborers, most of whom are immigrants, have been a source of controversy in Gaithersburg for the past year. Protests from neighbors and business owners scuttled several potential locations within city limits, leaving dozens of workers to gather informally on the edge of a residential neighborhood.

"We are reaching out to solve a practical problem," Leggett said in a prepared statement. "If we do nothing, this situation doesn't go away."

Under Leggett's plan, a double-wide trailer would be placed on a half-acre parcel of county-owned land in an industrial strip of Crabbs Branch Way near Shady Grove Road. His decision does not need approval from the County Council but will be reviewed by the county's Planning Board at a public hearing next month.

The dirt-covered lot -- sandwiched between a county maintenance yard and a warehouse -- has been cleared and was selected because of its industrial setting, accessibility to potential employers and its more than half-mile distance from residences, according to Leggett's aides. The site also is within walking distance of the Metro station and five bus routes.

The Rev. David Rocha of Gaithersburg's Camino de Vida United Methodist Church, who meets with the workers most days, said they are "celebrating the decision and are in support 100 percent."

Gaithersburg Mayor Sidney A. Katz said that he would withhold judgment on the location until he meets with Leggett today in Rockville. "The fact that I'm meeting with him is a very good step," Katz said.

Gaithersburg officials backed out of a location negotiated last year with former executive Douglas M. Duncan (D) because of community opposition. The issue was left unresolved when Duncan left office last month.

Even before the announcement yesterday, word of a possible location prompted criticism from those opposed to the county spending taxpayer dollars on projects that could help illegal immigrants. The center would be modeled after facilities in Silver Spring and Wheaton and would cost an estimated $24,000 a year, in addition to $45,000 in start-up costs.

Gaithersburg council member Henry F. Marraffa Jr. (R), an outspoken opponent of the centers, accused Leggett of trying to avoid a public debate after pledging in his campaign to create a more transparent and inclusive government.

"It sounds like a decision has already been made," Marraffa said. "He's going to find out the same thing from the neighbors on this site that we found up here. The neighbors just do not want it."

Patrick Lacefield, a spokesman for Leggett, defended the decision to choose a site before the public hearing. Leggett, he said, will consider comments from the Planning Board and the public, but, "all things being equal, we're likely to be going where we're going now."

Added Lacefield: "This is leadership. We were given a piece of unfinished business. We said we were going to move to resolve this in a practical way, and that's precisely what we're doing."

One nearby resident, Brad Botwin of Derwood, has created a Web site and circulated a flier urging his neighbors to "tell Ike and his trailers to take a hike." In his flier, Botwin says that the center would threaten long-range plans to attract high-tech jobs and more housing to the area.

Council member Phil Andrews (D-Gaithersburg-Rockville) disagreed. The site, he said, would provide an organized location for the workers, and that "it's not in anybody's back yard except for the county government's."