Before the County Council now is an insidious proposal that would shift control of the county's transportation spending from the voters' elected representatives to highway-loving bureaucrats.
Under this plan, known as TPAR (for Transportation Policy Area Review), county transportation funds would go automatically to road-building projects chosen by a computer model under the control of Montgomery County Dept. of Transportation (McDOT). The County Council would lose the ability to transfer funding from highways to transit as it did last year, when it moved two projects connected to the Purple Line ahead of upcounty road-widenings in its funding lineup.
Edgar Gonzales, McDOT's number two official, told the council last week that passing TPAR would commit the county to building Mid-County Highway Extended (M-83). Details on how TPAR would work are outlined in this blog post.
The County Council will begin voting on TPAR next week. Write now and tell the Council to defeat TPAR. The County should plan for growth based on transit, not allow a $700 million boondoggle that would promote sprawl while destroying upcounty forests and wetlands. Your email to [email protected] will go to all nine Council members. Simply ask them to reject TPAR and refuse to build M-83. Be sure to include your name and home address in your email.
The Council Committee will vote on TPAR tomorrow, Thursday, October 18th. The full Council will vote on TPAR Tuesday, November 13th.
TAME thanks those who have already written to Council members on this issue. Please check out the response written by County Councilmember George Leventhal, who rejects building M-83. Not all Council members are on board, so your letters are important. Let's keep up the momentum until the Council votes unanimously to replace M-83 with multiple transportation systems which will serve the common good in Montgomery County.
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