preserving the quality of life in Olney, Maryland

If you are concerned about the InterCounty Connector, please read on:

The message below was researched and prepared by the Save Our Communities, the umbrella campaign for every citizen, association, and organization aligned against building an ICC. Also, see this article in the Gazette on the role of the Council of Governments (COG) Transportation Policy Board (TPB).

Please act on the vitally important initiative below, to keep an ICC out of the long-term transportation plan by the Washington Council of Governments. Please do your part as soon as possible by sending an e-mail and/or letters as outlined below. The deadline for public comment is March 9th, this coming Tuesday. See the addresses at the bottom of this page.

Why Oppose the ICC?

This $3 billion OUTER BELTWAY would not cut traffic on the Beltway, I-95, I-270 or anywhere else; but would harm the environment and take jobs and investment from Prince George's County and DC. It would connect to the so-called "techway" outer beltway segment into Virginia.

Maryland is moving very fast to push the Washington Council of Governments' Transportation Policy Board (an important regional decision-making body) into including the ICC in their long-term plan for the region. They put the study back into the regional plan just a few months ago, arguing that all they wanted to do is study it. Now they want to have it tested for air quality performance, so that they can put it onto the plan for construction as soon as June.

When you write a letter or e-mail, please use your own words to fill out your message. The main point you want to make is to tell them they should delay for several months taking any steps to include an ICC in our region's long-term transportation plan because:

1. Studies have barely begun AND too little is known about the effects of the project.
    
2. The ICC has no solid funding plan and Governor Ehrlich is cutting back transit funding and projects to help pay for it, jeopardizing transit and other state and regional transportation policies.
    
3. The current COG Regional Mobility and Accessibility Study should be completed BEFORE considering the ICC.
    
4. The ICC would undermine COG's work and funding spent to fix our region's air quality problems.

If you are in Prince George's you should care that this will steal jobs and investment and undermine efforts to revitalize Prince George's County and its Metro station areas.

If you are in DC, you should care that this outer beltway will steal jobs, investment and more middle class residents. That's what bypasses do. It will also take advantage of DC's contribution to meeting regional air quality goals -- steps taken by DC have reduced regional emissions.

If you live in Virginia, you should know that the ICC will connect to the so-called "techway" bridge crossing into western Fairfax and/or eastern Loudoun. It could also throw the region out of air quality compliance and endanger Virginia transportation projects including transit.

More Talking Points for the Washington Council of Governments' Transportation Policy Board:

1. Studies not complete

The Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) has hardly begun and its impacts and costs have not been reanalyzed. This study must be completed before regional officials consider including this massive project into the regional long range plan. As it is, federal agencies objected to the ICC in the last DEIS, and Governor Glendening cancelled the project because the traffic benefits were minor at best while the financial and environmental cost was huge.

"None of the ICC alternatives will have a substantial impact on the levels of service [congestion] experienced by motorists on the Capital Beltway, I-270 or I-95 within the Study Area.'" (DEIS on the Inter County Connector, Volume 3, VI-23)."

2. Funding not in place

Federal law requires that the regional long range plan be constrained to projects for which financing is reasonably guaranteed. All the Ehrlich administration has is an "ICC Conceptual Funding Plan - Options." Almost all of the financing mechanisms are speculative. This funding plan is too vague to permit inclusion of the ICC into the CLRP.

At the same time, the Ehrlich administration has been cutting transit funding and delaying or cutting transit projects. The huge $3 billion price tag means that the state will be putting at risk other transportation needs to fund this one huge project.

3. Ignoring COG's own planning efforts

The Council of Governments (COG) has spent millions of dollars over the last 15 years on citizen vision planning and on improving their own analysis of land use and transportation options for the region. Agreeing to include the ICC would ignore the majority of citizens who opposed the Outer Beltway in the 1996 "Getting There" vision planning effort. Including it before the current Regional Mobility and Accessibility Study is complete and its options evaluated will mean that entire process has wasted citizen time and public tax dollars.

4. Air Pollution

Our region has unhealthy air quality and is classified as SEVERE non-attainment. Cars and trucks contribute about 40% of the precursors that form ozone pollution. The ICC will significantly increase sprawl, vehicle miles traveled, and air pollution without reducing existing traffic, and adding to our unhealthy air. Officials in all three states have desperately sought to pay for emissions reduction measures and they did not intend to allow these gains to be destroyed by the addition of this massive road project. The EPA has already lost 3 suits brought by Sierra Club and their attorneys, the Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund, for allowing this region to miss air quality deadlines.

Summary: The Wrong Approach for the Wrong Region

• The ICC would not relieve traffic congestion according to the last DEIS.
   
• It will shift jobs and investment from Prince George's County and DC. Prince George's County Council voted unanimously to oppose the ICC for this reason.
   
• The Ehrlich administration is attacking transit funding (both long range capital funding and current operating funding for Metro), while proposing to pour $3 billion of state money into the ICC .

Where to Send Letters, Faxes, E-mails

Faxes and letters should go to (and you should cc to your local rep listed below) :

Chairman Chris Zimmerman
Chair, Transportation Planning Board
Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments
777 North Capitol Street, N.E.,
Suite 300 Washington, DC 20002-4290
TPBPublicComment@mwcog.org
Phone: (202) 962-3200
Fax: (202) 962-3202

Our local COG Transportation Planning Board Representatives:

County Council:
Michael Knapp
100 Maryland Avenue
Rockville, MD 20850-2540
Councilmember.Knapp@montgomerycountymd.gov
(240) 777-7955

Executive Department
Al Genetti
Director, Department of Public Works and Transportation
101 Monroe Street, 5th Floor
Rockville, MD 20850-2540
director.dpwt@montgomerycountymd.gov
Phone: (240) 777-7168