But a sudden twist for tomorrow's County Council meeting by Councilwoman Nancy M. Floreen (D-At Large) has many of the town's 550 residents, as well as activists in surrounding neighborhoods, worried for the 130-year-old town's historic and cultural integrity.

"I'm at a complete loss as to her motivation for proceeding in this manner without a discussion at least of why she feels the needs of the county are so great as to endanger the town of Washington Grove," said John Compton, mayor of Washington Grove. "I just don't get it."

Floreen recently asked the County Council to hold off on allowing a proposal to develop the Casey Farm, a 125-acre plot just south of Washington Grove. She has stated that she asked for the delay so the development could be considered alongside work sessions on the Shady Grove Sector Plan next month.

The sector plan has eyed a nine-acre piece of the Casey Farm for one of the four elementary schools needed to help support the up to 6,350 homes and 7,000 jobs that development around the Shady Grove Metro station would bring.

What has Compton and others so worried is that the move could undo a hard-earned negotiation between the town and Oxbridge Developers, whose plans would develop 65 acres of the Casey Farm into a dense residential neighborhood.

After four years and more than a dozen plan revisions, Oxbridge and Washington Grove agreed to dedicate the 12-acre meadow to the Legacy Open Space program, a multi-million dollar county initiative that protects open space land and heritage resources, leaving the county to then purchase the nine acres for the school.

"It has the earmarks ­ in the haste in which it was done ­ of a bait and switch. The agenda that is quite clear is to look at taking the school and putting it on the Legacy Open Space," said Compton. "The idea is to get a free school site."

"There are a lot of ways to pay for school sites, and for anyone to say the county cannot afford this school site is unimaginative, [shows] no vision, ignores the realities of... development" around Shady Grove Metro. "This big development is going to generate a lot of tax revenue and developers are going to make a lot of money."

The fiscal 2005-2010 budget for Montgomery County Public Schools has $7.5 million set aside for future land purchases, most of which, said Joe Lavorgna, director of planning and capital programs for county schools, is slated for the school required by the Shady Grove Sector Plan.

There will be no estimates on the cost of the school site on the Casey Farm, he said, until the value of the nine acres can be appraised, which could happen only after development is given the go-ahead.

Karen Kumm, project coordinator of the Shady Grove Sector Plan, said the sector plan asks for both the Legacy Open Space and the school site, but does not yet detail how the school site would be paid for. The county executive's office is doing the financial analysis, she said, in time for work sessions scheduled in January.

Compton stressed that Washington Grove and surrounding neighborhoods have supported construction of the school, just on the nine acres, not the meadow.

"You have to go out there and see what the town is like," he said. "We're not a town that grew up around a school, and the school will have a big impact. Some people have the idea that school equals parkland, and that's not right. That's not good thinking."

"So when the council members say they want to examine this, the only point can be to compromise the amount of land that's going to be open space. I'd like to hear a real explanation."

Compton will look for that explanation at Thursday's meeting.