The Fenton Street Market may be forced out of business due to the bad economy.  But the economic pressure being applied isn’t due to Maryland’s 6.8% unemployment rate or even the $14 trillion national debt. No, the beloved market may close because of the budget situation in Rockville.

When the Silver Spring Civic Building was conceived, designed and built, Montgomery County was experiencing a boom time. Funds flowed freely and Silver Spring benefited from the creation of a complex that was unique, a first of its kind in the county: a public building that contained government offices, room to house a non-profit organization and multi-use space for the broader community to share. And outside of the building’s walls would be Veterans Plaza, a place for live entertainment and social gathering that was to be activated for the community, by the community.

Then the building opened amid a recession.

Focus immediately shifted to funding the maintenance of the civic building, which had been built wrongly assuming the funds to pay for its daily upkeep would exist. The result came in the form of a fee structure created by Montgomery County’s office of Community Use of Public Facilities (CUPF), which began charging groups for use of the facility. Community residents signaled their displeasure with the fee structure, complaining that many of the area civic and non-profit organizations would be unable to afford the usage fees— a point of contention which has never subsided.

That brings us to today.

Hannah McCann, resident of East Silver Spring and founder of the Fenton Street Market, was recently notified by CUPF that the usage fee for Veterans Plaza will soon increase from $48 to $1,200 for each day she holds her market. McCann says neither she nor the independent entrepreneurs can afford such an exorbitant rent increase and as a result will be forced to fold the community oriented enterprise.

The county needs to remember that the Silver Spring Civic Building is the most unique government structure in the county; it is the only one where so many public and private interests are forced to coexist. The civic building’s fee structure remains a work in progress and is unlike that of any other building in the county, which is why the closing of the Fenton Street Market would be a wildly misguided act. A one-size-fits-all approach cannot work to resolve our unprecedented situation.

The county seems to have forgotten that the purpose of the civic building and its plaza is to serve the public interest.

When a member of the community organizes an ongoing event that positively activates a public space and annually contributes $6.6 million to the local economy, she should be applauded and her efforts encouraged. That is what the greater Silver Spring community has done to support the Fenton Street Market. Now it’s the county government’s turn.