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If you are for Smart Growth 1) Take an ethical oath 2) Vote for alternatives to M-83 It’s easy to do both Join Us ROADSWill Montgomery fund a new sprawl highway? Montgomery County residents say the proposed Midcounty Highway between Gaithersburg and Clarksburg costs too much, cuts through sensitive park and agricultural land, and won't solve the area's traffic challenges. But will the county decide to build it anyway? Midcounty Highway Extended, or M83, first showed up in area master plans in the 1960s. If built as planned, it would be a 6-lane controlled-access highway parallel to Route 355 on the east side of I-270. Montgomery County would pay for the project completely, presumably to avoid complying with stringent federal environmental regulations. Former County Executive Doug Duncan revived the project several years ago, and the Montgomery County Department of Transportation (MCDOT) continues to push the highway forward today. MCDOT just completed an Environmental Effects Review earlier this year and will seek support from the County Council and County Executive Ike Leggett later this year to include the project in next year's budget. Last night, the Maryland Department of the Environment and the Army Corps of Engineers held a public hearing at Seneca Valley High School in Germantown regarding whether they should grant a joint permit to impact wetlands and streams in the highway's path. Dozens of highway opponents from the Transit Alternatives to the Midcounty Highway Extended (TAME) Coalition, many of whom have fought the project for years, turned out in force to testify against the project. There were other voices in the crowd as well, in particular a contingent opposing the alternative through their neighborhood, but supporting the highway if it went through someone else's backyard. MCDOT originally evaluated 11 alternatives, and has since narrowed the field down to just 6, including a no-build option. Alternatives 4, 8, and 9 are the most controversial and involve the most new pavement and right-of-way through environmentally sensitive areas and existing neighborhoods. They also happen to be MCDOT's preferred alternatives. MCDOT estimates that Alternative 9 would cost $350 million to build, though local activists say it could be double that. Alternative 2, the cheapest option, would make improvements to Route 355 and usetransportation demand management (TDM) to give travelers other ways to get around, while alternative 5 involves widening it. MCDOT did not look at any transit alternatives. Their report contains a footnote saying that the community requested a transit alternative, but says that the county's Bus Rapid Transit plan is still too nascent to be considered. MCDOT contends that new construction would impact only 0.9 acres of wetlands because they propose building bridges over and through wetland areas. Yet it is clear that the construction process to build those bridges will require filling in parts of the wetland areas and compacting their soils, which are key for filtration and other ecosystem functions. Over the long term, more pavement over wetlands means more polluted stormwater runoff into waterways already under threat from other development, such as Ten Mile Creek. Impacts of each proposed M83 alignment. MCDOT's favored alignments are in dark grey.TAME prefers alignments 2, 5 and the no-build option.Data from MCDOT's executive study and traffic projections. In addition to water quality impacts, opponents pointed out a litany of other impacts from Alternatives 4, 8, and 9, including additional carbon emissions from induced traffic, impacts to the county's prized Agricultural Reserve, the loss of parkland, the division of neighborhoods, the taking of homes and local businesses, and more. Local activists also questioned whether M83, if built, would even provide the traffic relief that transportation officials say it would provide. Indeed, MCDOT's own projections show more traffic-jammed intersections if it builds any of M83's more costly alignments. For the $350 million it costs to build M83, Montgomery County could build Alternative 2 and 20-45 miles of the proposed bus rapid transit plan, if you use the federal average cost per mile to build BRT. This would enable a high quality transit connection and a viable alternative to driving between Clarksburg, Gaithersburg, and points south. But this alternative has never been evaluated. Looking at the chart above, it's easy to do the math. The county's favored alignments destroy the most acreage of parkland, farmland, and wetlands, take the most property from local businesses and residences, cost the most, and still have more failing intersections than the cheapest, lowest impact alternatives. Later this year, the issue will go before the County Council, and then to the County Executive, who will both have a chance to weigh in on whether to include funds to continue the project in next year's budget. It remains to be seen whether the County leaders will continue their progressive planning tradition by investing scarce local dollars in transit and smart growth, or whether they sink hundreds of millions into a 1960's-era sprawl highway. If they check their math, the choice should be simple. The Maryland Department of the Environment and Army Corps of Engineers will accept written comments until August 21. If you'd like to see Montgomery County consider real alternatives to Midcounty Highway, you can contact them using this form. Join Us Letter to Md-Nat'l Capital Park and Planning Commission: Dear Chairwoman and Commissioners, As a member scientist of the Box Turtle Advisory Group (BTAG) for the Maryland State Highway Administration during the development of the ICC (Intercounty Connector), I have expert knowledge of the potential damaging effects of a highway construction project, such as the proposed Mid-county Highway Extended (M-83), on wild box turtle populations. More than 950 box turtles were removed from the footpath of the ICC. That number not only reflects the large area covered by the project and the quality of much of the habitat, but the large number of man hours that went into looking for the turtles, the extensive use of tracking dogs, and the number of field seasons over which the searches went on. The 950 box turtles removed were a small portion of the total number which could have been rescued if more time and financial resources were allocated to the project during mitigation.
Transfer of turtles from the right-of-way prior to clearing for a roadway can be problematic. Box turtles are secretive, well camouflaged, and difficult to find. Also, adults (which are the only age group likely to be found in significant numbers without the use of trained tracking doges) rarely adjust well to new surroundings and often fail to thrive. There also is the possibility of disease transmission between relocated and resident turtles at the new site.
Building M-83 would reduce and fragment box turtle habitat (which currently is plentiful) with potential major negative consequences for the remaining box turtle population:
The Mid-Atlantic Turtle and Tortoise Society (www.matts-turtles.info) is a supporter of the TAME Coalition and opposes building Mid-County Highway Extended (M-83). Sincerely, Sandy Barnett At-Large Director, Mid-Atlantic Turtle & Tortoise Society Join Us ...If We Are To Save Our Homes, Neighborhoods and Forests from the Destruction of M-83 TAME Invites you to "Get Involved in the Movement" to Change MoCo's Transportation Priorities. Our Coalition stands for: Transit Alternatives to Mid-County Highway Extended (TAME)... ...that's the only way M-83 will be eliminated from the Master Plan of Highways. There must be transportation solutions to replace one six-lane (albeit, dinosaur) highway; and there ARE multiple, viable and available transportation alternatives to do just that. Get up, leave your home, and come add your body to the crowd count at these Rapid Transit Public Hearings and Roundtable discussions (below). This is a critical way of showing elected officials we mean business! Remember, every body counts to help change our county's transportation priorities. Join Us by Ethan Goffman, Montgomery County Sierra Club M-83, the Mid-County Highway Extended, has been in the Montgomery County master plan for 49 years and has been rejected several times. Yet, like the anachronistic dinosaurs in Jurassic Park, somehow plans for M-83, a relic from a time of endless road building and minimal public transit, have returned to life. The M-83 extension would be a six-lane highway connecting Clarksburg to Shady Grove, already served by multiple roads but minimal transit. The highway would disrupt Seneca Creek, along with some of the last wetlands and woodlands remaining in that corridor. On August 7, the Maryland Department of the Environment and Army Corp of Engineers held a hearing on the road's environmental impact. Plenty of alternative transit options are proposed. Besides the Corridor Cities Transitway, a Bus Rapid Transit line on MD 355 would serve Clarksburg. Improved MARC Train service and an express bus line on I-270 would also alleviate traffic. Providing the retail Clarksburg has long been promised would also reduce car trips. Yet M-83's draft environmental report spends barely one page (pg. 2-28/29) out of 1,000 discussing these options. The plan also inadequately discusses holistic impacts on wetlands and water quality, potentially contravening the Clean Water Act. While it does mitigate the worst environmental impacts, it doesn't adequately discuss compaction of wetlands, destruction of biodiversity, and other damage. The Montgomery County Sierra Club joined several other groups in stirring testimony against the highway, including the Coalition for Transit Alternatives to Mid-County Highway Extended (TAME), the Coalition for Smarter Growth and the Action Committee for Transit. State Delegate Charles Barkley also spoke on behalf of the District 39 Team, opposing building any of M-83. Join Us When one confronts the scene of a suicide, there is an almost obscene intimacy that results from being forced to contemplate that most personal act of what was once another life. There are parallels in the life of a community, moments when one identifies a trajectory that ultimately leads to prosperity or ruin. Watching the August 7 hearings held by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers regarding the proposed extension of MidCounty Highway (M83) was one of those occasions. Montgomery Village and North Germantown-Greenway Park effectively ended their existence to the benefit of a cadre of unelected bureaucrats. How did that happen? The Montgomery County Department of Transportation selected the old “Master Plan Route” for M-83 (the so-called Alternative 9) that would effectively split Montgomery Village physically and sacrifice it (and its residents) to service the myth that developers pay for infrastructure in the county. To satisfy the technical requirement to produce alternatives, MCDOT whipped up a giant “poison pill” in the form of Alternative 4, which cut through historic neighborhoods, destroyed numbers of homes, and generally could not have been approved by any sane agency. But the pretense of an alternative was enough. Opposition to M83 coming from Germantown, Gaithersburg and Montgomery Village instantly fractured into two competing “not-in-my-backyard” camps. Instead of focusing on what should be done instead (the so-called “demand management option” or SR355 improvements), the community opposition to this concrete constrictor broke in two – with people agreed only on the fact that they didn’t want it in their part of the community, but happy to throw their neighboring subdivision under the non-existent bus of transit we deserve and still don’t have. It was a masterwork of political engineering – MCDOT divided the community and reduced its net message to “NIMBY” all the while knowing that the “Master Plan Route” gained credibility by being the default. By focusing opposition on Alternative 4, the shell game advanced Alternative 9, which is the only “alternative” that has ever been given serious consideration by MCDOT. Montgomery Village, Gaithersburg, and east Germantown will pay the price in noise, pollution, congestion, and aggravation to give no more than a few years’ reprieve to Clarksburg, where the cycle of insufficient transportation alternatives is starting all over again. If the consequences were any less awful, one could almost applaud the gamesmanship. For the citizens of Clarksburg, the consequences may well look like sweet victory – the stars are lining up to give the long-suffering residents some hope that transportation relief will be coming in the form of a big new road. But the benefits will be short lived, since the existence of that road will open the way to even more density and development, until the situation returns to the misery they endure today and worse. They too, are about to offer millions of tax dollars on the altar of road construction which will quickly consume even more of their substance in a loop from which there is no credible exit. Gaithersburg and Rockville will suffer as the southern end of M83 will have to be rebuilt to accommodate the traffic we’re about to pour onto it, not to mention millions more in parking garages if any of the “connectivity to Metro” will work. Remember: even though the Corridor Cities Transitway is also in plan, it will have no impact on the need or use of M83 Extended in any form, at least according to the zampolits running this operation. Within a year or so of its opening, M-83 extended will be as much of a nightmare as anything that preceded it, but development will have moved on, the county will have opened new tax mines in the form of shiny new subdivisions, and the bulldozing and redevelopment of Montgomery Village into a new revenue source and even more supine polity will be well on the way. And the game will continue: the County will continue to pretend that “developers” are responsible for the infrastructure costs of new communities, while bankruptcy and other means assure that the real net cost is where it was all along – with the taxpayers. The show will go on, many “leaders” will posture and the county’s citizens will pay double and triple to clean up the mess. The “Frakking” of political opposition [in both senses of the word] means we are to be burdened with hundreds of millions of ultimately wasted tax dollars and no credible way to stop the tarmac from metastasizing. What will be sacrificed to keep the concrete flowing? More schools, library hours, public safety? The benefits of all this asphalt include more carbon emissions, more pollution, more disturbed land, and more congestion. Such a deal! Mark Firley is a resident of Montgomery Village, former board member of Montgomery Village Foundation, member of the Upcounty Citizens' Advisory Board, TAME Coalition contributor. **portions edited by TAME Join Us NO ON M83: HELP STOP ANOTHER SPRAWL HIGHWAY. Montgomery County Department of Transportation (MCDOT) is pushing forward a costly and destructive highway project called M83 (the Midcounty Highway Extended). In a time of scarce resources and rising environmental challenges like climate change, we canât afford to make the wrong investments for our future. Now is the time to invest in transit, not new highway capacity. There is an important public hearing next week to grant an environmental permit for this major sprawl highway. Please stand with our allies at TAME Coalition (Transit Alternatives to the Midcounty Highway Extended) to stop this destructive project: Please submit the letter linked below with your comments, and it will be sent to the Army Corps of Engineers, Maryland Department of the Environment, MCDOT, the County Executive, Montgomery County Council, Montgomery County Planning Board, and the EPA. or three, or four... We'll be there with hundreds of our friends! TAME Coalition supports creating transit alternatives in Montgomery County so that people's transportation needs can be met in ways less costly to the environment, to neighboring residences, to the taxpayer, and to the commuter than building new highways. Clarksburg's population growth represents the perfect opportunity for Montgomery County to be progressive in implementing viable mass transit systems. Now is the time to create new systems to move people rather than cars.
New highways, like M-83, are not the answer. Montgomery County is behind in 21st-century transportation, but it's not too late to choose mass transit alternatives that will accommodate everyone's transportation needs. Join Us For the past 14 years I have been commuting to work and running errands along Route 355 from Comus Road south thru Clarksburg to Germantown and have seen first-hand the impact development without infrastructure improvements has had on our local roads. And I am concerned.
The Master Plan envisions a Clarksburg of 40,000 residents located squarely between two 2-lane roads—Routes 355 and 27—with no plans for widening either one in the next few years. These roads are already bumper to bumper during a broad rush hour period. And 2/3 of the Clarksburg homes have yet to be built. Add a destination mall with 2,100 parking spaces and I fear absolute traffic gridlock will ensue. We need transit options to get Upcounty residents (and thru commuters from growing Frederick County and beyond) off the roads and to their work centers, social destinations and back home. For that reason, I support the 355 North corridor of the BRT and urge that the line be extended in the Countywide Transit Corridors Functional Master Plan to Clarksburg —and not end at Germantown’s Milestone. In fact, on page 22 of the Clarksburg Master Plan it states: “Transit is an essential feature of this plan; without it, the Plan’s vision cannot be realized.” In order to be embraced by the Upcounty community, the BRT system needs to get residents to Metro, work centers, and other places as quickly (if not faster than) driving in a car. That means the system needs to have: --Dedicated bus ways that don’t add to the congestion on local roads --Express BRT routes to Shady Grove with the hopes of extending routes north to Frederick County to get “thru commuters” off the congested roads --Traffic light control options to keep lights green for oncoming buses --Platforms for safety, ease of use, and our neighbors who are physically challenged I also fully support the idea of a third track of the Brunswick MARC line which serves the Ag Reserve and points north as well as high density areas throughout Montgomery County. Montgomery County’s Upcounty is the fastest growing region in the County and is home to its 2nd largest community—Germantown-- with nearly 90,000 residents. Yet hundreds of thousands of Upcounty residents are not served by a nearby Metro station or any comprehensive transit system. It is time for that to change. The Corridor Cities Transitway and Bus Rapid Transit system—if done right—and a third track on the MARC Brunswick line could ease the traffic congestion and make the region more attractive to businesses. Join Us |