Hundreds of residents of the Avenel community in Potomac rallied Monday night to fight the decision by Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission, or WSSC Water, to close the area’s equestrian center.
The Avenel Equestrian Center is located on the 1,018-acre Avenel farm, which was developed into a residential community, golf course and equestrian facility, according to its website.
In 1988, a deal was finalized for WSSC Water to purchase over 500 acres of land in Avenel to acquire and hold for use as an advanced wastewater treatment plant, according to the community’s website.
WSSC Water wants to close the equestrian center because it’s on the land they own, and since it is deteriorated, they said it is a safety issue and liability for them.
This meeting comes after a petition was posted online on Oct. 11 to fight the closing of the equestrian center. It received more than 2,000 signatures.
After that petition gained widespread attention, Montgomery County Council President Andrew Friedson (D-Dist. 1), whose district includes Avenel, along with state representatives submitted a letter to WSSC on Nov. 3. The letter stated, “we request that WSSC Water pause the planned termination of the lease and notice to vacate in order to allow time for WSSC Water to hold the agreed upon public meeting.”
Friedson was slated to speak at Tuesday’s event but was unable to due to a COVID-19 diagnosis. In an email statement on Tuesday, Friedson said he regrets not being able to attend and that he is passionate about this community issue.
“Upon learning of WSSC’s plans to terminate the lease of the Avenel Equestrian Center on December 1, 2023, I immediately engaged the community and WSSC to learn about the events that led to the announcement,” Friedson said in the email. “It quickly became clear that the requisite community engagement process before such a decision is made had not occurred, so I met with GM/CEO Kishia Powell and her leadership team and urged her to hold a public meeting to hear from the community at a location conveniently located in the community.”
At the community meeting, Powell shared why the company decided to shut down the center.
“The team came to me and shared the safety concerns that exists with the equestrian center, and so, we’ve made a decision to close those facilities,” Powell said.
Powell, along with WSSC Water Real Estate Development Administrator Tina Benjamin, gave a presentation, showing photos of how much the equestrian center’s barn has degraded and how severe the damage is at this point.
“It is leaning, it’s tilting and it is definitely moving. These pictures show that the walls aren’t straight,” Benjamin said. “There are structural gaps and again, when we went to open up the barn itself recently, we found more and more things that were out of place.”
Powell said that WSSC Water’s next step in the coming months will bring in an outside consulting engineering firm to do a thorough structural and environmental analysis of the barn. She said this would help the community and WSSC Water understand the condition of the facility.
Powell denied accusations from community members that WSSC Water made the decision to close the facility because they wanted to build infrastructure, such as a treatment facility.
“None of these actions are being taken because we’re building something,” Powell said.
Some residents said that WSSC Water could have prevented the deterioration of the barn.
Lisa Wilson, who boarded horses at Avenel for more than 30 years and said that both her mother and daughter have loved the equestrian center, said that WSSC Water had not been maintaining the barn over the years.
“While WSSC came out and did repairs, it was obvious there were other repairs that needed to be done,” Wilson said. “The reason that the barn is in such disrepair is because they let it go.”
Wilson’s remarks were followed by a round of applause from the other attendees.
Neil Gillen, a member of the Potomac Community who was actively involved in the original agreement securing the preservation of the Equestrian Center, discussed that point as well.
“The WSSC staff’s successors were apparently unaware of the history of the facility and lacked the original fervor to sustain it, bringing us to where we are today,” Gillen said.
Friedson also shared this sentiment in his email statement.
“I am concerned about the lack of adequate facility planning at WSSC, which predates the current GM/CEO yet has left WSSC without a clear understanding of its facility needs,” Friedson said. “This further complicates the future of the equestrian center and leaves the community with more questions than answers.”
In the meeting, Powell provided her perspective on this issue.
“I understand the frustration and the sense that WSSC let the barn go,” Powell said.
She went on to say that maintaining the barn has “likely not been a priority” for WSSC in the past because “the funding has not been there” and due to “rising costs.”
Tom Natelli, the CEO of Natelli Communities, which developed the Avenel community, said at the meeting that he understands people’s frustrations about WSSC Water not maintaining the facility, but that it is a conversation for another day. He said for now, the most important priority is keeping the facility from closing.
“I think today, what we need to do as a community is come together with WSSC and figure out the plan for how we move forward, so this facility is put back into a condition where it can serve the community for the purposes that were originally intended,” Natelli said.