For Immediate Release: Thursday, April 27, 2017
Summary from Your Upcounty Today! enewsletter
The County Council’s Planning, Housing, and Economic Development Committee (PHED) met April 24 and one of the agenda items was to discuss next steps for the road project which is currently in the Master Plan of Highways and Transitways.
County transportation planners are reviewing and revising the county’s Master Plan of Highways and Transitways, an effort that classifies each Montgomery County road in the transportation network, in the first comprehensive update to the plan since 1955. The plan will update the road network with current classifications, incorporate road changes, and align it with the County Road Code, which was comprehensively updated in 2007. The update will consolidate all roadway amendments that have been approved as part of Master Plans as well as limited functional Master Plan of Highways amendments. The new plan will also include transitways, rail stations, and other transit centers.
At a full Council session on April 4 and during the Planning Board’s Semi-Annual Report, the council discussed the project briefly and what the next steps might be. The Department of Transportation (DOT) has completed its Midcounty Corridor Study Supplemental Report in February with findings that Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) and M-83 do not replace each other in terms of benefit to the surrounding communities. The Council at that time tasked Planning staff to come back to the PHED Committee this week with options for including the project in the Planning Department’s proposed work program.
The Planning Department’s three alternatives for discussion were as follows.
Alternative #1: Accelerate the Highways Master Plan; include technical corrections and updates with minimal M-83 analysis by Planning Staff.
Could be completed around February of 2018 with action taken around June/July
Alternative #2: Delay Highways Master Plan and technical corrections by one year and transmit M-83 analysis to Council by May 2018.
Was not actively considered by committee due to fact that it could not be acted on in time for this Council
Alternative #3: Complete Highways Master Plan with technical corrections and updates immediately followed by M-83 analysis; delay Gaithersburg East and Aspen Hill Master Plans by one year.
Would include thorough analysis including overall land use
Would come back to Council around March 2019 – around the same time the new Council would also receive from DOT cost estimates for MD355 BRT.
The PHED Committee upon further discussion, decided to go with their own alternative that leaves the road project in the Master Plan of Highways and Transitways, however, a resolution will be drafted to instruct planners not to assume M-83 in their transportation capacity determinations for future master plans. All future master plan reviews would analyze capacity without consideration of this roadway. The PHED Committee will present this recommendation to the full Council.
Release ID: 17-097