An Education in Neighborliness

Cathy Muha spent her childhood moving between her Rockville neighborhood of College Gardens and her father's Foreign Service postings in Latin America.

"I always thought of College Gardens as my home. When we'd come back to Rockville, it was always a big reunion," she recalled.

So when she and her husband, Richard, looked for their first house in 1993, they bought one just down the street from her parents. As the years went by, Muha's family grew, while her parents began to think about downsizing.

Seven years ago they swapped houses, with Muha moving into her larger childhood home and her parents into Muha's smaller one.

"All my siblings said, 'You're nuts.' But they're now saying, 'I can't believe you have it so good,' " she said.

From Duke Street, where Muha lives, to Auburn Avenue and Princeton Place, all the street names in the 335-home planned community of colonials and split-levels herald institutions of higher education. And Montgomery College's main campus borders the southern edge of the community.

But for many residents, College Gardens' appeal has less to do with higher learning and more with its old-fashioned sense of community.

"It's a 'Leave It to Beaver' neighborhood. All my neighbors are incredibly friendly," said Sue Harris Phillips, who has lived in College Gardens for 11 years. "I have literally gone to a neighbor's house begging, 'Can I borrow a cup of sugar?' "

The neighborhood, which was developed from 1967 to 1972 on what had been a 250-year-old dairy farm, hosts Halloween bike parades and one of the largest National Night Out crime-prevention events in Rockville.

Phillips has four children, the youngest of whom goes to College Gardens Elementary School, which was completely rebuilt last year. It was also the first elementary school in Maryland to include the International Baccalaureate program, which infuses classes with a world view. In addition to a Chinese immersion program, the school offers foreign language instruction starting in kindergarten.

At a recently rebuilt playground, children can climb a giant spider web and bounce on the surface, made of recycled tire chips.

"It's usually wall-to-wall kids here. Some days it's almost impossible to get a spot on a swing or the seesaw," said Christopher Brett, who was on a slide with his sons Jaden, 3, and Cameron, 10 months.

According to resident and real estate agent Tom Miner, the community is pretty evenly divided between older, original residents and new families. He and his wife, Naomi, moved to College Gardens 14 years ago, finding their house just as a real estate agent was putting up a for-sale sign in the yard.

"We knew instantly this is where we wanted to be," said Naomi Miner, also a real estate agent.

They were drawn by the mature trees arching over the streets and that all streets have sidewalks on both sides, as well as by the nearby elementary school. They had two young children at the time, both of whom are in college now.

Naomi Miner said that once residents move in, most stay for years. In the past year, only five houses have sold, and none is currently on the market.

Mike Phillips, president of the College Gardens Civic Association, said he was also drawn to the sense of community when he moved from Loudoun County.

"There was a world of difference," said Phillips, Sue Harris Phillips's husband. "I've found intriguing neighbors actively engaged and concerned enough to band together and meet community challenges."

One of those challenges has been storm water management. Phillips and other residents have worked to stem rainwater runoff from homes into nearby Watts Branch creek. The association got a small grant from the Environmental Protection Agency and the city of Rockville to provide barrels for homeowners to collect rain, which can then be used to water yards. The College Gardens Park is now being reconfigured to transform the duck pond into a storm water management pond to better handle filtration and overflow from large rainstorms.

Phillips also said the community is grappling with its relationship with the college, which enacted a campus-wide smoking ban last year. Smokers -- students and faculty alike -- spilled out onto a neighborhood cul-de-sac abutting the college.

Residents complained about littering, noise and drug use. In response, the college replaced the gate to the neighborhood with a fence. That has stopped the problems for the most part, but now residents don't have easy access to the college, causing a rift in the community between those who want a gate and those who do not. Many residents use the library, track and other facilities at the college.

"I'm frustrated and disheartened by how much each side doesn't want to give. Compromise is not in their language. I'm kind of shocked," said Sue Harris Phillips, who would like to see the access restored.

The issue is at a standstill, but the civic association is setting up a task force to look further into solutions, Mike Phillips said. Aside from some issues of students parking in the community, the college has been a good neighbor, he said. "We want to find a balance," Phillips said. "We've had fairly good success historically as an association with Montgomery College. This is not an issue that we will let harm the sense of community that makes College Gardens the place we all know."