Help Spread the Word

Hopefully you have already written to the Board of Public Works. If not, please do so. Here is a direct link you can use.

ACTION ITEM

We need greater numbers! Please spread the message below to YOUR contacts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Nextdoor, email, and any other way you communicate!

More people need to hear the TRUTH, instead of Governor Hogan’s lies and false promises.

THE MESSAGE TO SHARE WITH YOUR CONTACTS

Thanks for joining in the discussion on the 270-widening, P3 toll lane, massive wreck-in-the-making. A key point in this debate that’s often overlooked is what the tolls will actually be, and how many commuters will be forced to pay or sit in stop-and-go traffic.

According to Maryland Department of Transportation documents, the peak toll rates (i.e., when traffic is most congested and you’re most tempted to use those lanes) will exceed $4 per mile in 2026. That could add up to $50 each way to commute from Gaithersburg to Tyson’s Corner. In order for the private toll road company to profit from this venture, it’s necessary (and this is the plan) to reduce the number of free lanes and actually fuel congestion so enough people will choose to pay the tolls.

You’ll be horrified if you read the letter from the toll company to the Maryland Transportation Authority trying to justify even higher toll rates. Unfortunately what the governor has been saying – that all free lanes remain free – is simply not true.

The decision to move ahead with this inequitable plan, or stop it, rests with Maryland’s Board of Public Works (BPW). The BPW consists of Gov. Hogan, who is playing every trick in the book to move the plan forward, Maryland Treasurer Nancy Kopp, who wisely has opposed it in the past, and Peter Franchot, the swing vote and the state’s Comptroller, who is running for Governor and reading the tea leaves to decide which way to go.

Please use this URL to register your opposition to the plan with the BPW.

Go to Don’t Widen 270.org, where you can learn a lot more details. The BPW may vote on this as soon as their August 11 meeting. Please weigh in immediately. Thank you.

Fwd: Beltway/I-270 toll lane fight — this isn't the end

This email is being forwarded with permission from The Coalition for Smarter Growth.

------- Forwarded Message -------- 

Subject: Beltway/I-270 toll lane fight — this isn't the end 

Date: Wed, 21 Jul 2021 15:18:09 -0400 

We're disappointed, but we can't give up

Today, the regional Transportation Planning Board (TPB) voted to keep Governor Hogan's proposed expansion of I-495 and I-270 with four private toll lanes in the long-range transportation plan. We are very disappointed by this outcome, given the serious flaws in Maryland's study. View our full press release statement here.

This was a re-vote — the TPB previously voted on June 16th to remove the toll lanes from the long-range transportation plan, meaning that the project could not receive federal approval. The changed vote is due in part to a last-minute pivot by Montgomery County Councilmembers Hans Riemer, Andrew Friedson, Nancy Navarro, Gabe Albornoz, and Craig Rice. In the end, Montgomery County Council, Prince George's County Council, and the Prince George's County Executive flipped to support the toll lane expansion, along with the City of Fairfax, City of Alexandria, and Arlington County.

Governor Hogan successfully used strong-arm tactics to threaten local officials with cuts to other projects (even though he wasn't funding many of these as it is!) and by promising Montgomery County to fund the design (not construction) of local transit projects, such as the Corridor Cities Transitway and MD-355 bus rapid transit projects. While these are important transit projects, there is no commitment to fund construction, and it's not worth taking one step forward on transportation while also taking a huge step backward.

To be clear, we agree that we need to address the Beltway and I-270, but the process has been distorted from the beginning because of the power of the toll road companies and Governor Hogan starting with the conclusion first and failing to objectively consider alternatives.

Evaluation of alternatives is particularly important because the highway expansion will harm hundreds of acres of parkland, wetlands, and waterways, as well as lead to more noise, air pollution, stormwater runoff, and greenhouse gas emissions.

But this isn't the end of the fight.

The next decision point is at Maryland's three-person Board of Public Works, where Comptroller Peter Franchot is the key swing vote. The vote on the project's predevelopment contract is likely to take place either at the end of this month or in early August — before the final environmental impact statement has been completed.

Email Maryland's Board of Public Works today!

If the pre-development agreement is approved, the state will be on the hook to reimburse the private project developers up to $50 million taxpayer dollars if the project does not receive federal approval or is canceled for other reasons.

We believe that good government demands that members of the Board of Public Works and the public should know the full fiscal, environmental, and social risks of this project by completing the environmental impact study before the BPW votes — certainly before locking Maryland into a long-term, exclusive contract.

This project isn't worth the high cost to parks, streams, neighborhoods, taxpayers, and drivers. Instead of investing in transit-oriented communities — especially in Prince George’s County — it condemns residents of the east side of our region to forever having more costly, long commutes. Read more in CSG's executive director's op-ed in the Baltimore Sun.

In conclusion, use this form to tell the Maryland Board of Public Works to reject the predevelopment agreement and go back to the drawing board for more sustainable solutions!

Thanks for all you do,

Jane Lyons

Maryland Advocacy Manager

Coalition for Smarter Growth

Day of Reckoning Arrives at the TPB

MDOT’s Threat to Take Away Transportation Project Funding the State Never Promised

The National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board (TPB) is the transportation planning organization for the Washington, D.C. region and is federally mandated to produce a long-range transportation plan.

At its June 16 meeting, the TPB voted to remove the I-495/I-270 P3 project from the plan and the air quality conformity analysis required by the Clean Air Act. This was a significant setback for the public private partnership (P3) toll lane project since a project must be part of a region’s long-range plan and conformity analysis before it can secure federal environmental approval.

If the TPB’s decision to remove the project from the long-range plan is not reversed, the project cannot move forward.

Project backers have scrambled to salvage the P3 project. A motion to reconsider and reverse the TPB’s decision, and restore the project to the region’s long-range plan is on the agenda for the next TPB meeting on July 21. Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT) Deputy Secretary Earl Lewis is trying to persuade TPB members who voted against the I-495/I-270 P3 project, or who abstained, to change their votes and support the P3 project, or see other transportation projects in the long-range plan that they want, defunded (see his letter here).

Delegate Marc Korman, Chair of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Environment and Transportation, reviewed the list of projects that MDOT is threatening to defund.

He determined that almost all of these projects lack State funding commitments, are not in the State’s six-year capital program for transportation, the Consolidated Transportation Program (CTP), and are not planned for funding. Read the analysis on Twitter or as a PDF.

Action Item: Urge Our TPB Members to Stand Firm

Write today to TPBcomment@mwcog.org (Attn: Chairman Allen). Explain in your own words why the TPB should stand by its vote to remove the I-495/I-270 toll lane P3 project from the regional plan. An email to this address will be circulated to all TPB members. Your email needs to be sent out as soon as possible. The meeting and re-vote will be Wednesday, July 21.

The June TPB vote to remove the toll-lane project from the National Capital Region’s Long Range Transportation Plan (LRTP) could have ended the fatally flawed toll lane P3 scheme. But the Governor and MDOT are demanding a re-vote and applying enormous pressure on local and State elected and appointed officials who serve on the TPB to change their votes and keep the project alive.

Your emails and letters have been powerful and have had significant impact. Our elected and appointed officials represent us on the TPB. This will be a very important vote for the TPB. It will either be a vote to preserve the integrity of the transportation planning process, or it will be a surrender to political pressure. Please keep the pressure on your elected and appointed officials to stop this ill-conceived project.

We cannot let coercion and misinformation smother the defects of this misguided scheme. We know that while the cost of driving in the toll lanes will steadily increase over the next 50 years, there will be no relief from congestion in the so-called free lanes. Traffic gridlock and bottlenecks will get worse. We know the project will harm our health, homes, communities, and environment.

Testimonies at the Maryland Transportation Authority Hearings

The Maryland Transportation Authority (MDTA) Board voted to advance the predevelopment design contract (the Phase 1 P3 Agreement) for the toll lane project. MDTA is responsible for setting toll rates and managing toll collections. By law, the public must have the opportunity to comment on proposed toll rate ranges. Hearings were held on July 12 and 14.

Testimonies against the project and the exorbitant toll rates proposed by MDTA can be found at https://dontwiden270.org/mdta-hearing.