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News

Loudoun County Pushes Yet Again for Potomac Bridge - Funds Third Study in 5 years

10/11/2018

 
Here We Go Again (Again).... Press Release Here
MCA and our partners are pushing back yet again against this misguided project but we need your support. We are the boots on the ground protecting Montgomery County's Ag Reserve and this local focus requires local support.
​Please make a tax deductible gift today. ​
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Loudoun Supervisors released this map of potential corridors (in green highlighter)
1988, 2001, 2004, 2015 and 2017- all years that a Potomac bridge and highway crossing have been studied and found to not be a good solution.  And yet- the Supervisors in Loudoun County have funded yet another study to identify crossing points. Loudoun's study even parrots the negative findings of the 2017 Regional Transportation Planning Board: ​
Based on the results of the November 2017 study, a new Potomac River bridge would have “low” benefits to road congestion, incidents and safety, bottlenecks and reliable access to intercity hubs when compared to the current 2040 Constrained Long-Range Plan (CLRP). A new Potomac River bridge would have neutral impacts to transit crowding, inadequate bus services, and access to bike/pedestrian options, development around Metrorail, housing and job location, Metrorail repair needs and pedestrian and bicyclist safety when compared to the current 2040 CLRP. A new Potomac River bridge would have negative impacts to roadway repair needs, environmental
quality and open space development when compared to the current 2040 CLRP.
So... why are we studying it again, again?

MCA joins with our partners at Coalition for Smarter Growth and Piedmont Environmental Council, collectively representing our hundreds of thousands of supporters on both sides of the River in calling for Loudoun County to drop this campaign and instead focus on proven solutions that will actually get traffic moving - among them, fixing the American Legion Bridge and better planning land use patterns. As proven for the 5th time in 20 years, this project does not offer traffic relief and would do great harm. 

The Maryland side of the map above makes it looks like the Ag Reserve has no obstacles to these proposed crossing points. MCA has made the case time and again  - farms are not holding ground for future development, they are small businesses that supply our basic needs for food and fiber.  “The bridge would directly impact the drinking water intakes for most of the region’s population; potentially impair the Piedmont groundwater aquifer, which serves as the sole source of drinking water in rural Montgomery County; create development pressure in the nationally recognized Agricultural Reserve; and increase vehicle miles traveled,” says Taylor.
Dip into the Archive of our posts on the Bridge Here
From Greater Greater Washington "Why Won't the Zombie Bridge Die?"

Montgomery Countryside Alliance  is the small (but mighty!) organization founded around Ag Reserve kitchen tables to battle back plans for the bridge in 2001. Since then, we have grown to a full fledged watchdog organization for Montgomery County's Agricultural Reserve. Our focus on local farms relies on local support. Please make a tax-deductible donation to keep us engaging tenaciously on the issues that matter to you. 
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Transportation Planning Board Data: The Bridge is Costly, Ineffective and Inequitable

12/30/2017

 
Update: The Transportation Planning Board has chosen 5 of the 10 studied transportation projects as priorities for the coming years. Not among them - the Potomac River Bridge and associated highway through the Reserve, and for good reason. Read on below for our original post diving into the data behind the Bridge's poor showing in comparison to other land use measures that would better reduce traffic congestion with far fewer ill effects and cost to taxpayers. To read a great synopsis on this - see this article from Greater Greater Washington which explains how traffic is more like a gas while these misguided big projects treat it like water. Also - A Wrap up from the TPB  Really worth a read.  Thanks to our partners on both sides of the river and our supporters who wrote in on this issue.  We've called this project the 'Zombie Bridge' so no promises that it won't re-animate from the drawing board in a few years - stay tuned. ​

Read More

The Potomac Bridge on the  Kojo Nnamdi Show

7/24/2017

 
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This afternoon the Kojo Nnamdi show on WAMU took up the topic of the Potomac bridge project.  (click here to listen) In attendance were Bob Buchanan, a developer and member of the 2030 group, one of the main backers of the bridge and Stewart Schwartz from our partner organization Coalition for Smarter Growth. Stewart revealed the lunacy of this project point by point and highlighted the immense personal financial stake Mr. Buchanan and his development partners have in building the sprawl that would come from this boondoggle. 

Right out of the gate, Mr. Buchanan casually brushed aside concerns about the sprawl and detriment to established communities and again cited a poll that has been discredited in the media. The 2030 group had a polling firm call up 800 residents and ask them if the bridge is a good idea - no budget figure, no location - as you might imagine, most traffic weary residents said yes. Stewart Schwartz rightly called the poll's validity into question.  What followed in the time remaining was a chorus of listeners (one being MoCo Council President Berliner who called in) on both sides of the river calling this project into question for its negative impact on communities, water, habitat, agriculture and its efficacy as a traffic solution in the first place. Our friends across the River at Piedmont Environmental Council have prepared a great list of 8 myths used to sell this zombie project yet again.  For those wondering why this project is called the "zombie" bridge and why it gets re-animated so often, this is a great summary. 

The bridge segment today was cut a bit short so the show could properly honor dearly departed DC broadcaster Jim Vance. There is much more discussion to be had  and much, much more work to do. Join us won't you?

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Read on for our favorite tweets and observations about the Kojo Show today:

@kojoshow Who's not concerned about sprawl? the person who has land interest in rural areas that seeks development #PotomacBridge

— MoCoAlliance (@MoCoAlliance) July 24, 2017
"It endangers several communities that plan to use and need clean water. That area has been designated as a Sole Source Aquifer:
The Potomac River, extending east almost as far as the Loudoun/Fairfax line, is included in the Poolesville Area Aquifer Extension of the Maryland Piedmont Aquifer. A sole source aquifer is an EPA designation that local community has applied for, and been granted."

Santa Claus and Tinker Bell poll well too. We need to back real solutions, not fantasy: https://t.co/GZLuNu72ff

— Roger Berliner (@RogerBerliner) July 24, 2017

This latest bridge proposal is not regionalism. It only serves to fracture us when we should be focusing on real congestion relief: https://t.co/9q6vOFEfhL

— Roger Berliner (@RogerBerliner) July 24, 2017

@kojoshow caller from #Loudoun - "the developers want this bridge not us" #PotomacBridge

— MoCoAlliance (@MoCoAlliance) July 24, 2017

Action Needed: A Terrible Idea Gets New Life: The Zombie Potomac Bridge Rises Again UPDATE

7/19/2017

 
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Update (8/28): What are the proposed routes for the highway? There are a whole, whole lot of them:
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click to see this map larger
Update: 
7/19 saw a meeting of the Transportation Planning Board (TBP) of the regional Council of Governments. One of the 10 items being considered for study between now and December when the board will make decisions based on said studies is ----yes --- a re-re-re-study of the Potomac Bridge. Along with our partner Stewart Schwartz from Coalition for Smarter Growth, our own ED Caroline Taylor was there to provide testimony cautioning the board to not look at transportation in a vacuum - this project would impact land use, the Ag Reserve and particularly water resources - the federally designated Piedmont Sole Source Aquifer and the fact that the proposed connection point would be just upstream from the WSSC intake. 

Board member and MoCo Councilmember Elrich attempted to float an amendment to remove the Bridge from the list of other reasonable projects the Board was voting to study - many of them transit oriented and proven to reduce gridlock. The amendment failed to get enough votes, the Bridge will be studied, for the 4th time. To be fair, a number of votes in favor of yet another bridge study are not in favor of the bridge being built. 

The bottom line:  The TBP has only until December to study and report on all of these 10 projects at which time they will vote to move ahead with some of them. We are concerned that there is not enough time to make this a comprehensive study, the kind of solid investigation that has shown time and again that this bridge will not objectively ease, and may even exacerbate current gridlock. See the map below for all the different routes that have been studied over the years. 


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There is much work to do on this, we give thanks to those who have written in comments so far. Please sharpen your pencils, stay tuned and if you have not already done so- please become a member of MCA with your tax deductible donation.
​​

Read More

The Recurring Cry for Outer Beltway and Bridge Crossing Through the Reserve: 2017

12/19/2016

 
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February 2017 Update:
Loudon County has project listed as a legislative priority.
MCA has partners across the river who will fight the project.
We are working to establish strong political and preservation protection against this boondoogle.

Previous Post:
What is it that is said… oh yes, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.”  And so it is with the boosters that ascribe global relief from traffic woes to the construction of a Potomac bridge and highway through Montgomery‘s Ag Reserve. More pavement, sprawled from population centers is truly geared to open corridors of farmland and open space to development.  Studies have concluded, time and again, that this proposed boondoggle does nothing to relieve metropolitan Washington gridlock and yet its boosters continue to trumpet it as a priority. 
 
Take note:  MCA and partners will hold fast the line against this boondoogle. And our reasons are sound and compelling.
 
Maryland loses an average of 20,000 acres of farmland annually... 20,000 acres! In Montgomery County, planners and representatives saw this disaster coming and did something proactively in 1980 with the establishment of the Functional Master Plan for the Preservation of Agriculture and Open Space - downzoning and protecting roughly a third of the County, roughly 100,000 acres.
 
 Why? It's really quite simple:

Managed growth vs conventional development (sprawl) = Savings in cost in both human and natural resources. 
 
Taxes and other revenues from residential development do not cover all the public services residents demand. The county needs a balance of land uses, including farms and open space, to reduce overall infrastructure costs and provide sufficient revenue to pay for these services. Otherwise, as more residential development occurs in existing subdivisions, services will be stretched thinner or cut—or property taxes will have to be raised.  Put simply, agricultural land and open space pay more in local tax revenues than they receive back in services.
 
The Reserve provides for local food and fiber production, employing over 10,000 residents, contributing over 300 million dollars to the local economy.
 
Protected open space and well-managed farms provide for clean air shed and high quality water resources.

No shortage of past updates on this issue Click here to read through those. 
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Montgomery Countryside Alliance
P.O Box 24, Poolesville, MD  20837
301-461-9831  •  ​info@mocoalliance.org
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MCA is proud to announce that we have been recognized for a third time as one of the best small charities in the D.C. region by Catalogue for Philanthropy: Greater Washington. A panel of 110 expert reviewers from area foundations, corporate giving programs, and peer non-profit organizations evaluated 270 applications.

​MCA is known as an effective and innovative non-profit whose efforts to preserve and promote Montgomery County’s nationally recognized 93,000 acre Ag Reserve have brought increased public and governmental support of local food production and farmland and open space preservation. Most importantly, MCA’s efforts are putting more farmers on the ground and keeping them there.
COPYRIGHT © MONTGOMERY COUNTRYSIDE ALLIANCE 2008