City to Ask State to Study Moving CCT Out of King Farm

Lisa Conners said she can’t imagine rail cars coming down the street in front of her condominium on King Farm Boulevard.

 But that’s just what a state proposal for a mile-long stretch of the Corridor Cities Transitway would do, placing a light rail line in a 50-foot-wide median just 20 feet from Conners’ front door, she said.

“It just doesn’t all compute,” she said.

She worries that the proposed route will bring upheaval to her neighborhood and will not bring the state the ridership it wants.

The project, part of a proposed 14-mile transit line between the Shady Grove Metro station and the COMSAT site near Clarksburg, was a cornerstone of plans for the new urban, transit-oriented, pedestrian-friendly development that began to take root in north Rockville at the end of the 20th century.

More than a decade later, the neighborhood’s residents don’t all share that vision.

“The whole situation doesn’t work anymore,” Conners said. She worries that the public officials who will make decisions about the CCT—including Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) who is scheduled to decide on details, including the alignment and the mode of transit used, in the spring—aren’t concerned about the impact on her neighborhood.

“I don’t think the people in Annapolis are even worried about my little mile,” Conners said.

Conners did not testify before the Rockville City Council on Tuesday. But seven of her neighbors, members of the Coalition for the Preservation of King Farm, did.

Their message: The project, should it pass through King Farm, would cut the neighborhood in half, block vehicle and pedestrian traffic, create noise and change life as King Farm residents know it.

The City Council seemingly heard that message, spending more than an hour discussing how to draft a letter to submit to the state before the public record on the project closes on Feb. 1.

In the end, the council voted to ask the state to study alternate routes along Interstate 370 and Shady Grove Road that do not include transit stations in King Farm. The council will refrain from stating a preference between light rail or bus rapid transit and will offer to work with MTA on details to mitigate any impact on King Farm.

Councilman John Britton was the sole vote against pursuing the Shady Grove and I-370 alignments, saying that he supports light rail and that the alternate routes would rob the project of its benefits.

The CCT is a regional project, that would benefit King Farm, which would be an desirable address for workers at the "" in Shady Grove that is itself relying on the transitway to aid its development, Britton said.

“I think King Farm is going to be very attractive for a number of the high tech people moving in for jobs in the new science center,” Britton said. “I think [light rail] gives us a more guaranteed transportation mode.”

Department of Public Works Director Craig Simoneau said that state transit representatives who met with city staff on Dec. 23 pledged to work with the city to address noise and connectivity issues under a King Farm Boulevard alignment.

While it is unclear how many intersections would be blocked under a King Farm Boulevard alignment, “We’re not really at a wall dividing the city, if something comes in,” Britton said.

“Right,” Simoneau said.

If engineers were to pursue another alternate CCT alignment along Gude Drive, Mayor Phyllis Marcuccio said that she would like to consider providing access to Montgomery College’s Rockville campus through a station for the CCT and Metro near the campus.

“We need to think about public transportation to that college,” she said. “If there was a way to somehow get the benefit of this CCT and serve that college, I’d like to explore it.”

The Gude Drive alignment failed to gain broad support, however, as councilmen Mark Pierzchala and Piotr Gajewski said that moving the alignment to Gude Drive could result in passing King Farm’s issues on to the College Gardens community.

Pierzchala called the Gude Drive alignment “intriguing,” but added that putting a Metro station near the college would have a major impact.

Eight hundred King Farm residents have signed a petition that requests the study of an alternate alignment that does not use the King Farm Boulevard median to connect the CCT to the Shady Grove Metro station across Route 355 from the north Rockville neighborhood, said Joan Hannan, the coalition’s chairwoman.

“We request that the mayor and council issue a letter to the [Maryland Transit Administration] that recommends study of alternate alignments that do not use King Farm Boulevard, that withdraws prior preference for [light rail] and that conveys our concern,” Hannan said during testimony before the council.

While some alternate alignments, such as along Piccard Drive or Redland Boulevard, would raise similar issues for King Farm residents, an Interstate 370 alignment “may avoid many of those issues and afford some advantages,” she said.

The CCT will reduce crossing points for pedestrians and vehicles, said Marshall Levy, a King Farm resident.

“Pedestrians will live in either North King Farm or South King Farm,” Levy said.

Levy said that he enjoys walking to the bank or Safeway but that due to “physical maladies that limit his walking,” restricted crossing points on King Farm streets “will compound my walking enough to force me to get into my car to get a loaf of bread or plate of spaghetti at the Fontina restaurant.”

King Farm has grown into a pedestrian-oriented community where “cars yield the right-of-way to people as a matter of course,” said Larry Alpert, a coalition member.

“We’re concerned that the culture and clash of a rapid transit system in a residential community may pose some safety concerns,” he said.

Residents are also concerned about a one-year construction period that will close some or all of King Farm Boulevard, said Sue Beckerman, who lives on the north side of King Farm.

“This is a long time to endure bumper-to-bumper traffic day in and day out,” she said.

“Since most of us will never see the inside of a CCT vehicle, it’s sometimes a challenge to remember why we’ll be doing this,” Beckerman said.

King Farm Associates, the developer of King Farm, supports running the transitway run down the median of King Farm Boulevard, as defined in the 1995 annexation agreement, said Barbara Sears, a partner with Linowes and Blocher, an attorney for the developers.

“We believe that the CCT as planned is most definitely the appropriate way to support the density approved at the King Farm, get people out of their cars as anticipated and link and utilize existing transportation resources in an economically responsible manner,” Sears told the council.