Send one e-mail or fax to oppose the first steps ever toward including the InterCounty Connector (ICC) as a construction item
and forward this alert to others throughout the region
 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.
E-mail the Transportation Policy Board at TPBPublicComment@mwcog.org
Use your own words to fill out your message, but tell them they should delay for several months taking any steps to include an ICC in our region's
long-term transportation plan because:
- Studies have barely begun AND too little is known about the effects of the project.
- 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.
- The current COG Regional Mobility and Accessibility Study should be completed before considering the ICC.
- 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.
(Additional points and detail below)
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, DC20002-4290
TPBPublicComment@mwcog.org
Phone: (202) 962-3200
Fax: (202) 962-3202
Local TPB Representatives:
Phil Mendelson
Councilmember, Council of the District of Columbia
1350 Pennsylvania Ave., NW Suite 400
Washington, DC 20004
(202) 724-8064
Sharon Ambrose
Councilmember, Council of the District of Columbia
1350 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20004
(202) 724-8072
Jim Graham
Councilmember, Council of the District of Columbia
1350 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Suite 400
Washington, DC 20004
(202) 724-8181
Michelle Pourciau
Deputy Director, District of Columbia Department of Transportation
2000 14th Street, NW, 6th Floor
Washington, DC 20009
(202) 671-2628
Andrew Altman
Director, District of Columbia Office of Planning
801 N. Capitol Street, NE, Suite 4000
Washington, DC 20002
(202) 442-7600
Position Vacant
City of Bowie
2614 Kenhill Drive
Bowie, MD 20715-2599
(301) 262-6200
Wayne Cooper
Charles County Commissioner
P.O. Box 2150
La Plata, MD 20646
(301) 645-0550
commissioner@govt.co.charles.md.us
Andrew Fellows
City of College Park
(301) 864-8666
Bruce Reeder
Frederick County Commissioner
Winchester Hall, 12 East Church Street
Frederick, MD 21701-5447
(301) 694-11105
Stanley Alster
Gaithersburg City Council Member
31 S. Summit Avenue
Gaithersburg, MD 20877-2098
(301) 258-6310
Rodney Roberts
Greenbelt City Council Member
25 Crescent Road
Greenbelt, MD 20770-1886
(301) 474-8000
Michael Knapp
Montgomery County Council Member
100 Maryland Avenue
Rockville, MD 20850-2540
(240) 777-7955
Al Genetti
Director, MontgomeryCounty Department of Public Works and Transportation
101 Monroe Street, 5th Floor
Rockville, MD 20850-2540
(240) 777-7168
David Harrington
Prince George's County Council
(301) 952-3864
Betty Hager Francis
Director, Prince George's County Department of Public Works and Transportation
9400 Peppercorn Place
Largo, MD 20774-5359
Phone: (301) 883-5600
Robert Dorsey
Rockville City Council Member
111 Maryland Avenue
Rockville, MD 20850-2364
(240) 314-8290
Kathryn Porter
Mayor, City of Takoma Park
7500 Maple Avenue
Takoma Park, MD 20912-4998
(301) 270-8680
Marsha Kaiser
Director, Office of Planning and Programming, Maryland Department of Transportation
Post Office Box 8755
BWI Airport, MD 21240-8755
(410) 865-1277
Carol Petzold
Maryland House of Delegates
222 House Office Building
Annapolis, MD 21401-1991
(301) 858-3001
John Giannetti
Maryland Senate
Senate Office Building
Annapolis, MD 21401-1991
(301) 858-3141
Ludwig Gaines
Alexandria City Council Member
301 King Street
Alexandria, VA 22314-3211
(703) 838-4500
Christopher Zimmerman
Chair, Arlington County Board
2100 Clarendon Boulevard
Arlington, VA 22201
(703) 228-3130
Robert Lederer
Mayor, City of Fairfax
10455 Armstrong Street
Fairfax, VA 22030-3630
(703) 385-7800
Linda Smyth
Fairfax County Board of Supervisors
(703) 560-6946
Catherine Hudgins
Fairfax County Board of Supervisors
12000 Government Center Parkway
Fairfax, VA 22035-0065
(703) 478-0283
David Snyder
Falls Church City Council Member
Harry E. Wells Building, 300 Park Avenue
Falls Church, VA 22046-3395
(703) 248-5014
D.M. "Mick" Staton, Jr.
Loudoun County Board of Supervisors
1 Harrison Street, S.E.
Leesburg, VA 20175-7000
(703) 777-0204
Harry Parrish II
Vice Mayor, City of Manassas
9027 Center Street
Manassas, VA 20110
(703) 257-8212
William Wren
City of Manassas Park
Manassas Park, VA
(703) 335-8800
Sean Connaughton
Chairman, Prince William County Board of Supervisors
1 County Complex Court
Prince William, VA 22192-9201
(703) 792-4640
Thomas Farley
Northern Virginia District Administrator, Virginia Department of Transportation
Avion Lakeside I, 14285 Avion Parkway
Chantilly, VA 20151
(703) 383-2477
Harry Parrish
Virginia House of Delegates
9009 Center Street
Manassas, VA 20110-5486
(703) 367-0505
Patricia Ticer
Virginia Senate
City Hall, Room 2007
301 King Street
Alexandria, VA 22314-3211
(703) 549-5770
Richard White
General Manager, Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority
600 Fifth Street, NW
Washington, DC 20001-2693
(202) 962-1000
More Talking Points for the Washington Council of Governments' Transportation Policy Board:
1 ) STUDIES NOT COMPLETE: The Draft Environmental Impact Statement 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 CountyConnector, 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 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.
5 ) SUMMARY: THE WRONG APPROACH FOR THE 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 .
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