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Re: Ensure full funding of transportation infrastructure for White Flint's transformation
Dear Council member:
We appreciate your support for the White Flint Sector Plan. Now that we have a new vision and plan in place to recreate White Flint Metro station area as a thriving, walkable place, the Council needs to persevere and complete a workable financing plan that guarantees construction can begin immediately.
The area's rebirth is valued at billions of dollars in new tax revenues over the next decades. Developers have offered to provide an unusual level of contribution towards the necessary infrastructure costs. Despite this, the County Executive's financing plan falls short of ensuring the capital to meet all major facility needs. The Executive's plan fails to sufficiently fund the needed infrastructure investments to transform Rockville Pike and the surrounding area into a multi-modal, bicycle and pedestrian-friendly environment. We call on you to act to secure a dependable infrastructure financing plan that will ensure transportation facilities are built as new development occurs. As we heard at the public hearing, the early and certain transformation of Rockville Pike is the top priority of everyone, residents of urban apartments, neighborhood associations, environmental and smart growth advocates, and major developers.
Transforming our automobile-dependent suburbs into vibrant, walkable mixed use places takes consistent commitment and requires setting spending priorities that match our vision. The payoff is clear—turning Rockville Pike into a multi-modal boulevard, building a network of complete streets and making the area friendly to walkers and bicyclists will add far more value, both social and economic, than following the same old patterns of building costly road widenings and grade-separated interchanges.
The Council must work with County Executive and developers to ensure that a new financing plan addresses the full need—a plan that is feasible and moves the White Flint Plan forward immediately to implementation. Falling short would be a tremendous loss for Montgomery County and the region. Changing demographics along with the declining accessibility of automobile-dependent sites make a new White Flint a leading economic development opportunity for the County. We urge you to act to secure a financing plan that's fair, feasible and certain.
Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Cheryl Cort, Coalition for Smarter Growth
Ben Ross, Action Committee for Transit
Pam Lindstrom, Sierra Club, Montgomery County Group
Diane Cameron, Audubon Naturalist Society
Caroline Taylor, Montgomery Countryside Alliance
Shane Farthing, Washington Area Bicyclist Association
