ICC Bikeway Meeting Tonight

April 2: Public information meeting
          Public participation encouraged!         
          7 p.m.- 9 p.m., Shady Grove Maintenance Yard

This thing is a real mess, some background below

In September, the Montgomery County Planning Board approved the hiker-biker trail study, which will determine ways to connect existing and planned county bikeways and sidewalks to bicycle transportation hubs, such as the Shady Grove metro station and popular county parks like Olney Manor and Northwest Branch. As part of the study, planners will develop a comprehensive bikeway plan amendment to address those issues, particularly in light of the route’s path through  some of the county’s most environmentally sensitive stream valley areas.  The study will result in an amendment to two county plans: the Countywide Bikeways Functional Master Plan and the Countywide Park Trails Plan.      

Among their priorities, planners will develop a route that accommodates pedestrians and novice bicyclists as well as expert cyclists and avoid constructing paved trails in environmentally sensitive areas such as Upper Paint Branch Stream Valley Park.

Seven miles of the route will be a hard-surface trail built by the state in the highway’s right-of-way. The remaining 11 miles will either follow existing roads or run parallel to the highway within parkland and remain flexible enough to minimize its environmental impact.

The study also will examine potential designs and locations for two interchanges: at Briggs Chaney Road and a future connection with Mid-County Highway.

Transportation planners are creating an informal advisory team of bicycle and hiking advocates, park and trail users, and environmentalists to gain their input for the hiker/biker route, both along roads and through parkland. They also plan to convene experts from the State Highway Administration (SHA) and county agencies in a technical working group, as well as to engage interested residents in public meetings in early 2008.

Planners will research the issues associated with the route and provide recommendations – developed in concert with the advisory groups and public input – to the board next summer.

I f you look at the map (above or in the study) what you see is a nice smooth blue line moving with the ICC - the county bikeways Master Plan Route - and a purple line that jarringly detours from the ICC route to make a longer bicycle route that covers less distance - the new State Highway Administration route. The route was moved "to protect the environment". Because the road is fine as is, but the bike path is - once again - the straw that breaks the camel's back. Seriously, if this project is so close to causing irreparable damage to local stream beds that it can't tolerate a bike trail than it should probably be scaled down. The multi-lane highway, Ok - the millions of tons of car exhaust and automobile waste - OK, but a 10-12 foot bike trail - what about the environment? Look at the picture above. Top and bottom ones are of the proposed road, middle two are of other trails - which do you think is more of an environmental concern?

Addendum: The Gazette has an article or two on this out.

Kines said eight county residents attended the Burtonsville meeting and brought up some unique points, such as whether the state would allow for a natural-surface trail to be built within the right-of-way after the ICC is built.

He said they also wanted to know if the construction access roads could be converted into trails for mountain bikers and equestrians to use after the ICC is built. Those routes are made of gravel

Other voices need to be heard (I'd go, but I'm out of town).

Kines said when the State Highway Administration published its final Intercounty Connector plan in May 2006, it recommended 7 miles of the trail be built as part of the highway. That decision also included a bicycle and pedestrian plan, identifying a route for the trail’s remaining 11 miles along parallel roads.

In January 2007, Park and Planning staff briefed the county Planning Board on a proposed implementation strategy, which provided a rough analysis of bikeway and trail issues, he said

By the way, here's an article on how the environmentally friendly ICC is aiding transportation.

The first phase of the development will be its nucleus, the 488-acre Konterra Town Center East, which is slated for a late 2011 or early 2012 opening. The cost of town centers East and West has been estimated at $3 billion, and the firm has said construction of the full development could take up to two decades.

Built on undeveloped greenspace.

Konterra’s plan for the site includes updates to Ammendale, Gunpowder and Contee roads and relies on the Intercounty Connector to bring in much of its retail clientele.

‘‘It seems like the whole emphasis [of Konterra’s presentation] was on luxury and retail,” she said. ‘‘We need to make sure we’re more focused on what’s good for the environment.”

Ah, sprawl. The Konterra footprint is significantly larger than the ICC trail's.

Comments

[Murph]

Thanks for posting. This is ridiculous. Sometime long in the future, when people finally get it, they will realize the absurdity of rejecting and rerouting a bike path based on environmental impact while allowing a multi-lane highway to proceed.

[Jack]

Show up tonight folks!

Here's the kicker: "planners will develop a route that... avoids constructing paved trails in environmentally sensitive areas".

So the Planning Dept. is doing little more than affirming the detours and forever enshrining them in the master plan.

Here's my plan: Protest this effort, lobby the Planning Board, and get the County Council to override the Planning Board if necessary.

[Jack]

The meeting was well-attended and many people vocally complained about the Planning Dept's efforts to reroute the trail around anything green and leafy (except the weeds on the Randolph Road sidewalk where we'll be expected to ride). The planners were not hiding the fact that the trail would be little better than the state's horrid detours. An environmental planner defended the non-native trout that would be terribly impacted by the trail if it went through park areas, the adjacent giant highway notwithstanding. Apparently there are impervious surface caps that are "already being violated" by the ICC so we have to not add any pavement.

Nifty approach.