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The concept of the Fairland Master Plan was for Bus Rapid Transit. The county did a bus rapid transit study in 1993-1995.

I disagree. The concept (and highest priority) of the 1997 Fairland Master Plan was to undo at least some of the damage done by the 1981 Eastern Montgomery County Master Plan.

It was BRT that encountered fierce opposition, especially from the Four Corners area. There were good reasons for the opposition (based on issues, by the way, that this year's BRT task force did not address, and will have to be dealt with if BRT is to be built).

In addition to opposition in Four Corners (much of it apparently orchestrated by owners of commercial property along U.S. 29 in the Four Corners area), there was also plenty of opposition in Fairland, mostly because we feared that new and high-capacity transit would be used to justify even more residential density (probably in the form of more rental garden apartments).

My recollection is that Harry Sanders managed to convince the BRT opponents to have a somewhat more open mind about light rail on that route. But the county never pursued light rail -- it only studied BRT.

Harry worked hard to lobby various groups and people along U.S. 29 (including at least some developers).

The Maryland Department of Transportation did not encourage light rail along U.S. 29 in the late 1970's and early 1980's, when the 1981 Plan was being developed; and the MDOT did not change its position when the 1997 Fairland and White Oak Master Plans were in development - a process that started with the so-called Trip Reduction Amendment in 1990.

The Planning Board recommended to the county council and state that they not pursue BRT on US 29. That recommendation was followed. More details are here (link to the Planning Board's letter is currently not working -- I'm working on getting it fixed).

BRT is in and of itself not a bad thing (in my opinion). The express coach service on Md. 200 (Maryland Transit Administration Routes 201, 202, 203, 204 and 205) is by some definitions BRT (though I wish some of that service served Briggs Chaney). But many of us that worked on those master plans in the 1990's were deeply skeptical of anything that could have been used to justify upzoning Fairland's residential properties for countywide goals and objectives, be they increased transit patronage; increased affordable housing or receiving even more transferable development rights to protect the far-away Agricultural Preserve.

Please remember that the Briggs Chaney area of Montgomery County that Dan wrote about is between 15 and 16 miles (by streets, from Google Maps) from the U.S. Capitol Dome. Compare and contrast with the Friendship Heights area of Montgomery County, which is between 7 and 8 miles away from the Capitol, or the Clarendon area of Arlington County (so admired by some members of the Montgomery County Council), between 5 and 6 miles from the Capitol. Densities and land use patterns appropriate for close-in communities with Metrorail stops are not appropriate in a place like Fairland, and likely never will be.

On the other hand, Dan is right to mention the disconnected (and sometimes pedestrian-hostile) street network in and near Briggs Chaney. One of the reasons that we were so in favor of the grade-separated interchanges along U.S. 29 was to make it easier to walk from one side to the other (compare crossing U.S. 29 at the Briggs Chaney Road overpass with crossing it at Fairland Road, where a crash-prone at-grade signalized intersection remains).

by C P Zilliacus on Jun 9, 2012 9:12 am • link • report