The City of Rockville will be the most critically affected municipality if I-270 is widened as proposed in the Maryland Department of Transportation’s (MDOT) Traffic Relief Plan.
All land that abuts I-270 in Rockville is developed, including nine Rockville neighborhoods, community institutions, churches, the Rockville Senior Center, and homes, businesses, and parks.
Moreover, the MDOT proposal requires that every bridge and overpass on I-270 in Rockville, including the two bridges the City owns, be rebuilt.
Reconstructing the bridges would be expensive and involve years of construction, detours, noise, pollution, and additional traffic on already congested secondary roadways.
For all these reasons, the I-270 proposal was a key agenda item at the Rockville Mayor and Council meeting on June 1, 2020.
Concerns and More Concerns at the June 1 Meeting
The Mayor and Council first heard testimony from multiple advocacy groups opposed to the I-270 toll lane plan, including DontWiden270.org (see testimony summaries and links, below).
Then the Mayor and Council received an update from City Department of Transportation staff on the I-495 and I-270 project. The Council expressed serious concerns that they have not been consulted by MDOT on issues that affect the City. The discussion led to a unanimous vote to send a letter to MDOT and other officials expressing concern about the project’s many impacts on Rockville properties.
You can view a video of the meeting (click on Mayor and Council meetings June 1; the presentation begins at time 1:15:00 and the Council discussion begins at time 1:30:00). You can also read the Mayor and Council’s previous letters of concern to MDOT (see pages 41-45 of the document).
TAKE ACTION
If you’re a Rockville resident, let Mayor Bridget Donnell Newton and the City Council know at mayorcouncil@rockvillemd.gov that you expect them to make opposition to the current I-270 toll lane proposal an ongoing top priority.
The City must also insist that decisions about I-270 be made between Rockville and MDOT through consultation, information sharing, and consensus. Issues to be considered include floodplain analysis, forest conservation, traffic on city streets, maintenance of city bridges, utility relocation, and noise barriers as well as any impact on public or private land.
What the Advocacy Groups Told the Mayor and Council
Representatives of four advocacy groups—Don't Widen 270, Citizens Against Beltway Expansion, Maryland Sierra Club, Maryland Transit Opportunities Coalition—presented testimony at the June 1 Council meeting about the toll lane project and its risk to the environment and the State’s financial well-being. Here are summaries and links to their full testimony:
Dontwiden270.org urged the City of Rockville to call on the Governor and the Secretary of Transportation to pause the toll-lane project during the Covid-19 pandemic. No one knows what post-pandemic commerce, employment, and traffic patterns will look like. All of the current project’s key financials, including the expected tolls, are based on assumptions and projections that no longer apply. The project needs to be reassessed after the pandemic subsides or stabilizes.
The complete DW270 testimony is here.
Citizens Against Beltway Expansion (CABE)
CABE stated its skepticism that the current plan can deliver less congestion at no cost to taxpayers or the general public over the 50 year contract period. Private sector traffic and revenue projections often prove over-optimistic, requiring considerable public support when revenues fall short. CABE urged the City to demand there be revised revenue and traffic projections that would be independently analyzed to identify taxpayer liabilities.
The complete CABE testimony is here.
The Maryland Chapter of the Sierra Club addressed environmental concerns regarding the toll-lane project and asked the City to submit comments on the draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) as soon as it is released for publication. The toll lane project can have serious environmental impact on city lands, facilities, and private properties. The Sierra Club also requested that the City call for an adequate comment period to review the DEIS.
The complete MD Sierra Club testimony is here.
Maryland Transit Opportunities Coalition (MTOC)
It is widely felt that Governor Hogan favors Transurban, an Australian company that holds public-private partnership (P3) toll lane contracts in Virginia, to receive the contract for the Maryland toll lanes. Governor Hogan even traveled to Australia in September 2019 and met with company leaders. Moreover, his Director of Intergovernmental Affairs recently resigned from Maryland state employment to become Transurban’s Maryland Government Affairs Manager.
The complete MTOC testimony is here.
Mayor and Council Letter to MDOT
A letter from the Rockville Mayor and City Council is being sent to MDOT expressing concern about the project, especially in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and the related uncertainties. The City is requesting that MDOT put a pause on the project and process until a new purpose and need is defined.
The letter states that it is not responsible to continue spending taxpayers’ money on preliminary design, environmental studies, and hiring a developer while the country is facing significant economic changes due to the pandemic.
The letter also requests specific action items concerning the current process:
There should be a 90 day time period for the public to review the DEIS
The City of Rockville would like to be involved in the RFP prepared by MDOT to ensure that all concerns voiced by Rockville are included
Transit must be included as a key project element
The Mayor and Council urge MDOT to protect the homes, businesses, and infrastructure of the Rockville neighborhoods that abut I-270
The letter will be posted on the Dontwiden270.org website as soon as it becomes publicly available.