Apartment Showcase Blog

One rung at a time: Montgomery Village offers tennis ladders for men's and women's singles, doubles, and mixed doubles. Players register and set up matches through the website.

The people at the Montgomery Village Foundation would be wise to keep a lid on it.

Really, they offer so many things to do that they’re either going to turn other locations in Montgomery County green with envy or have those neighboring residents demand the same luxuries from their communities, thereby sowing the seeds of discord and discontent across the great county and beyond!

Maybe I’m being a little over the top here (I’m a David Lee Roth fan for heaven’s sake, and Chris Farley, too), but there really are quite a number of things to do in this community of 37,694 (as per the 2006-08 American Community Survey 3-Year Estimate). As I blog in peace, I can only hope that the future apartment renter reading this short list of Montgomery Village features will refuse to gloat and lord it over those less fortunate. Amen.

[ Related: Montgomery Village a Refuge for Renters and Beavers Alike ]

Great lakes: There are three man-made lakes here. The largest and most celebrated of them, Lake Whetstone, even offers boat rentals in season. And why not? At 27 acres, the scenic body of water is plenty big enough.

Each of the lakes – which includes Lake Marion and North Creek Lake – have an accompanying park around them as well. Overall, including its water surface area, Lake Whetstone is 37.04 acres. But while Whetstone may take the lake cake, North Creek Lake Park’s acreage puts it to shame with a relatively gigantic 83.7 acres. Here is a map showing you the general lay of the land. As you can see, this is an impressive layout no matter which way you slice it.

Conquer the tennis ladder: Montgomery Village features four community centers, seven pools, 22 tennis courts, and 18 recreation and park areas. We won’t spend any more time on parks, so we’ll move to tennis.

Now, say you’re a strappin’ young stud who fancies himself a Roger Federer acolyte, or a sexy little diva with Nikes who, if she just started early enough, could’ve competed with the likes of Maria Sharapova or the Williams sisters (and, yes, this is asking for a willful suspension of disbelief). So you’re a bit delusional, but an otherwise well-meaning chap or gal who’s just moved to beautiful Montgomery Village with all these tennis courts. Great, right? Well, kinda.

You see, there’s a bit of a problem. Not only will you never likely turn pro (please), but you just broke up with your significant other, your other friends that live in the area don’t play for a whit and you don’t know soul one in your new digs. Try as you might, you haven’t met anyone in town or at your new job in the city who likes to play, yet you still yearn to get out there and serve up an ace or volley that yellow spongy sphere with perfect form like it’s match point at Wimbledon. Strawberries and cream, and all that. What’s a wannabe tennis great or hobbyist to do?

I give you the Montgomery Village Tennis Ladder. This online tool gives you a way to get back in the game and meet your neighbors, and maybe even make a new friend. There are different rules and such, but the Montgomery Village Tennis Ladder will match you up with a partner to test your skills. So while you’ll never likely get to play Roland Garros or have a tennis shoe named after you – or even become TMZ fodder, which you secretly crave even more in your most megalomaniacal moments – Montgomery Village will at least give you the chance to pretend. Walter Mitty should have it so good.

[ Related: Gaithersburg Gives the Renter a Great Place to Live, Play ]

Walk this way: Let’s say tennis is not your thing and you’re more into nature and hiking and the like.

Well, luckily for you, there are plenty of trails you can walk or run in Montgomery Village, but we’ll focus on just one: the Milton M. Kaufmann Park Walking Tour.

The park itself, named for the conservation efforts of longtime resident Milton M. Kaufmann, has an impressive array of different trees, a pond, gazebo, ball fields and a Chimney Swift roosting tower. (There’s no truth to the Internet rumor I’m starting that the tower was built to attract a certain country star named Taylor S. Not a whit.)

The walking trail around the park shows off many of these aspects. Plus, I’m sure there will be other critters running around the place – maybe even some smiling humans you can say hello to. The Milton M. Kaufmann Park Walking Tour is a good way to get a nature lesson while getting in your exercise.

All together gnaw: Beavers can be found creating wetland habitats, improving water quality and opening up overgrown forested areas in a number of parks throughout Montgomery Village.

Montgomery Village is quite a little place.

A planned community just north of Gaithersburg, Md., Montgomery Village sits about a mile off the I-270 juggernaut. With a population of 37,694 as per the 2006-08 American Community Survey 3-Year Estimate, Montgomery Village has a whole host of things going for it.

[ Related: Montgomery Village Impresses With Location, Leisure Activities ]

As towns go, it’s still a spring chicken, with 1967 being the year its first residents moved in. In fact, Montgomery Village is still younger than many of its residents, some by a lot. One great thing about newer towns is that they’re clean; planned communities by their very nature are tidy. That’s one plus right out of the gate.

Number two is location, location, location. OK, that’s three things, but it’s that important. Living in Montgomery Village, you’re not only close enough for a commute to the capital and its inner suburbs (particularly the ones in Maryland) but also to Frederick, which is less than 30 miles to your northwest. Add the fact that Lakeforest Mall – housing stores like Macy’s, Lord & Taylor and Sears – is practically at your doorstep (though with a Gaithersburg address), and the picture of a new apartment in Montgomery Village gets even clearer.

[ Related: Gaithersburg Book Festival Lives Up to Great Expectations ]

Then you get around to some of the exquisite features of the community itself … four community centers, seven pools, 22 tennis courts, 18 recreation and park areas, a natural amphitheater, nature center and Lake Whetstone, where you can rent boats during boating season.

Now you’re thinking, “OK, OK, I give. Montgomery Village looks like a fabulous place to rent!” But like the man on the tube at 2 a.m. hawking Ginsu knives, there’s more! (How could there not be?)

Instead of a useless plastic food slicer-dicer, when you move to Montgomery Village, you get beavers – so many that there’s an official Montgomery Village Foundation Beaver Conflict Resolution Policy (PDF).

In the animal kingdom, beavers are special. Not only are they cute, great swimmers and the second-largest members of the rodent family (though beavers don’t seem to elicit the negative responses of many of their cousins), but no less an authority than the National Geographic website says “beavers are second only to humans in their ability to manipulate and change their environment.” Just think, if they had hands like us, we might have gone the way of the dodo and our cities would look a lot different today: I see a lot of tepees and wooden structures, plentiful irrigation and lots of fur (still on the animals, even).

While beavers can be a bit of a nuisance to your trees, their benefits far outweigh the inconvenience of their occasionally gnawing teeth. The damns they build, and the ponds they create as a result, help provide habitats for many species of fish, reptiles and amphibians, all while improving water quality. (Despite the fact that Montgomery Village’s three lakes are artificial, there are streams in the area where the beavers can indeed build their damns. Regardless, beavers love the water, whether it’s flowing or not.)

Animal lovers will also be soothed to know that it’s forbidden to kill a beaver in Montgomery Village. And don’t try smacking them around, either. That’s not only disallowed, but you might lose a finger to the critter in the process!

Montgomery Village: Convenience, community and beavers. It’s your move.