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Concern about the impact of construction on water quality in Clarksburg is leading planners to ask the county to look for an alternate site for the county's new bus maintenance depot.

Planners at least want the county to delay the project and all others in the sensitive Ten Mile Creek watershed until they can develop a strategy for protecting the watershed.

At an emergency meeting of the Clarksburg Civic Association Monday night, residents generally supported the recommendations, but were concerned whether reopening the 1994 Clarksburg Master Plan might lead to more development in the community.

The planning staff is also requesting that the County Council rethink a portion of the master plan to look at ways to better protect the fragile ecosystem and incorporate state-of-the art environmental site design in construction.

"When all of Clarksburg was planned, we very seriously argued that all this land [in the Ten Mile Creek watershed] should be kept rural," Mary Dolan, of the county Planning Board's Environmental Planning Division, told the residents.

After planners assured residents that reopening a portion of the master plan would not open the entire plan to revision, they voted to support the idea "to dramatically reduce the amount of impervious surface."

At the time it approved the master, the County Council favored development, so the plan was written to allow development in stages, with the possibility of stopping to take a look before proceeding with development in the last and most environmentally sensitive section written into the document, Dolan said.

"Staff believes that the imperviousness that would likely result from the land use and zoning recommendations of the 1994 Master Plan pose a threat to the health of Ten Mile Creek, even with improvements in stormwater management techniques that will be required," Dolan wrote in a report for the county Planning Board.

The Planning Board has scheduled a hearing Thursday to discuss whether the next phase of development should proceed in Clarksburg.

Mileposts for Stage 4, or the final development area, have been met, except for sewer funding, which will be provided by developers, but County Council action is necessary for development to proceed.

The percentage of the watershed drainage that is covered by pavement or buildings has been shown to be highly correlated with the overall health of a particular stream.

The 1994 Master Plan assumed a voluntary imperviousness cap of 15 percent on most sections of the Stage 4 area and research at that time showed good water quality could still be achieved with up to 15 percent imperviousness.

"We can no longer assume voluntary imperviousness and monitoring shows degradation is already occurring in Ten Mile Creek," according to Dolan's report. "Studies of Montgomery County streams indicate that degradation can occur at even lower level (8 to 10 percent)."

The 1994 Clarksburg Master Plan states that the town should grow from a population of about 2,000 to nearly 40,000 in stages over the next 20 years as water, sewer and environmental targets are met.

The latest annual water quality report, released in February, found that water quality in the environmentally sensitive Clarksburg community is no longer considered excellent due to high levels of construction.

Ten Mile Creek supplies drinking water. Along with other high-quality stream systems, it has been designated a Special Protection Area.

The master plan describes the nearly 3,500 acres in the Ten Mile Creek district as "environmentally sensitive, including extensive woodlands, fragile stream banks and steep slopes."

A large portion of the district lies west of Interstate 270, including the proposed bus depot, land south of the depot and the Montgomery County Correctional Facility, and some lies east of Interstate 270 in the town's historic district, said Ron Cashion, an urban designer with the Planning Board.

Planners will ask the board to defer permitting construction in the Ten Mile Creek area until the master plan can be amended to provide adequate protection for the creek.

"The amendment is so we can look at the whole area comprehensively with the goal to protect the whole area of the Ten Mile Creek," Cashion said.

Residents fully supported looking for a new site for the bus depot, which the community has never wanted at that site. They talked about thinking creatively when looking for a new site, such as using closed automobile dealerships and parking buses at more than one site.

The 200,000-square-foot bus depot is slated for a site on Whelan Lane. Higher-than-expected cost has already delayed the project until 2013.

The new depot will allow the county to expand bus service north of Gaithersburg, County Councilwoman Nancy Floreen (D-At large) of Garrett Park told the Clarksburg Civic Association last winter. No other sites were under consideration, she said.

The depot will feature parking for 250 Ride On buses, a fleet services facility to maintain the buses and a highway maintenance facility to replace depots in Derwood and Poolesville. The fleet services depot will house 90 pieces of heavy highway maintenance equipment.

"We know the maintenance facility is a policy priority but we don't believe it's the best decision," Cashion said.

The bus depot is the only project proposed for the Ten Mile Creek area west of I-270. Other than that parcel that is zoned industrial, the area is slated to have houses on large lots, Cashion said.