The following letter to the editor was submitted by Ed Reich, a White Flint resident and local condominium association president, in response to this story on the controversy over Montgomery County’s latest design of Old Georgetown Road near Rockville Pike:
Dear Aaron,
I am writing to you out of a deep concern about recent developments with the proposed MCDOT redesign of Old Georgetown Road.
I am a long-time resident of the neighborhood directly affected by this issue, having lived at Georgetown Village Condominium, off Nicholson Lane and Executive Boulevard, since 1979. I have also been the President of Georgetown Village Condominium for the past 16 years.
My community has been very interested in the the development of White Flint and the infrastructure necessary to support it for many years. We commented during the evolution of the White Flint Sector Plan, and have also commented on a number of the projects arising from it. In general, we have been very supportive of the Plan and the projects but only with the understanding that the promised infrastucture would be there to support it.
The most fundamental reason we have supported both the Plan and the projects is because we believe strongly in the concept of a walkable neighborhood, giving us options for shopping and restaurants that do not require the use of a car. Unless the area is truly walkable, the already horrendous traffic situation will just get worse, and this great experiment in urban redesign will fail.
It is for that reason that I was so disturbed by the recent Bethesda Now article on the Western Workaround and the MCDOT redesign of Old Georgetown Road. As described, it seems to ignore all the work that went into developing a Sector Plan that received community buy-in. As citizens of Montgomery County, we have a right to demand that the concepts and specifics embodied in the Plan, adopted by the County Council and signed by the county executive, be respected and honored.
More particularly, we are being presented with a design that would necessitate crossing eight lanes to traffic to reach Pike & Rose from our neighborhood (including turning lanes). By no definition is that walkable. I know that having to cross a road that wide will be a substantial deterrent to going to Pike & Rose, despite the great restaurants and shops starting to open there. What a lost opportunity for our residents and for the county.
Losing the bicycle/shared use lanes is also disturbing. It seems totally at odds with the emphasis on increasing options to use a bicycle as an alternative to using a car that we see elsewhere in our neighborhood. I cannot understand why the county put bike lanes on Marinelli Road, where they were not planned, and yet removed them from Old Georgetown Road, where they are critically needed.
I understand that MCDOT has said that the road can be rebuilt to conform with Sector Plan expectations down the road. Pardon my extreme skepticism that this will ever happen. The focus and momentum are here now. We cannot trust in some vague and likely illusory promise that we will eventually be afforded the infrastructure already promised. Even if this were true, it is a colossal waste of funds to rebuild the road twice.
The other thing that deeply disturbs, and even offends, me, are the implied criticisms of Lindsay Hoffman and the Friends of White Flint. I have always found Lindsay to be extremely knowledgeable about issues relating to Sector Plan development. More importantly, Lindsay, and the Friends of White Flint, work very hard to ensure that community voices are heard and respected, and to facilitate communication among all parties interested in or affected by White Flint development. We need to stay focused on the merits of the important issues facing us and not be diverted by personal attacks.
The county has done a number of very positive things in support of implementation of the White Flint Sector Plan, and for that I am greatly appreciative. The quotes from Ramona Bell-Pearson imply that the county is still committed to the fundamental concepts of that Plan. If so, I sincerely hope that MCDOT will agree to a more open and inclusive approach to dealing with this critically important issue, with all stakeholders fully engaged.
Edward Reich
