Mountgomery Green's Testimony

on Transportation Policy

Presented before the Montgomery County Planning Board

by Dan Kulpinski of Potomac

Dec. 6, 2001

The Green vision includes a commitment to build a sustainable future for our county and state, as well as a commitment to protect and preserve the environment. We believe the principles of sustainability and environmental protection should guide the land use and transportation planning process.

The sprawl pattern of growth in the county is not sustainable. Building communities farther and farther away from our urban core gobbles up open space and causes more people to drive greater distances to work. The increase in cars and paved surfaces as a result of sprawl leads to a decrease in air and water quality. Sprawl perpetuates dependence on cars, which ensures future gridlock.

There is a better way to grow. We should insist on Smart Growth by requiring developers to build livable, mixed-use communities near transit nodes. By renovating abandoned buildings and developing empty lots near transit centers, we can revitalize our urban areas while preserving our rural areas. Using the existing infrastructure to accommodate the rise in population is a more efficient way to grow.

We can ease transportation congestion without building anything, if we reduce the demand on our transportation systems. To do this, the county should provide incentives for businesses to offer employees options such as telecommuting, even for one or two days per week; alternative work weeks, such as one in which employees work four, 10-hour days; flexible work hours; parking cash-outs to employees who forego buying parking permits; and subsidized transit passes for employees. Some of these recommendations are in the report, and we applaud them. The county should also give citizens incentives, such as property tax rebates, to move closer to their jobs. All of these measures are key to addressing the cause of our transportation woes.

The next step in solving our transportation problems is to encourage smart, transit-oriented land use planning. Building mixed-use developments near transit will allow people to walk or bicycle to the store, the library or even to work. Plus, they won’t be on the road in their cars.

We like many of the land use recommendations in the Transportation Policy Task Force Report, such as: balancing jobs and housing within each area of the county, so people can live closer to where they work; planning for more housing around Metro stations; and preserving agricultural and open space.

We also like the recommendations for transit-oriented development, such as supporting redevelopment and infill development in existing areas served by transit; creating identifiable town centers with housing, retail and community uses; and providing bicycle and pedestrian access to transit, shopping and open spaces.

We strongly support an inner purple line as a way to increase mobility in the inner suburbs and reduce traffic congestion.

All of these aspects of smarter growth – reducing demand, employing transit-oriented land use policies, investing in transit like the purple line – will help protect our environment. We’ll preserve green, open spaces; we’ll keep air quality from deteriorating further by holding down the amount of car emissions in our community, thus limiting the amount of ground-level ozone. And by building fewer roads, we’ll prevent further stream pollution and erosion caused by storm water runoff from roads into our streams.

Environmental protection benefits us all through better health and quality of life, and it benefits the state by revitalizing the Chesapeake Bay.

We think it’s time for new solutions. The public overwhelmingly supported transit and smart, balanced land use planning in the Transportation Policy Task Force’s survey. We urge the Planning Board to do what’s sustainable, what’s best for the environment, and what the people want: make transit and smart, balanced land use planning the top priorities.