Posts about Charles County

On the Maryland rails: Senator Barbara Mikulski enthusiastically endorsed Charles County's push for light rail from Branch Avenue to Waldorf, but said the Red Line and Purple Line must come first. (SoMDNews, Ben Ross) ... The Red Baltimore Red Line's planner answers the line's critics. (Baltimore Brew, Fern Shen) (Comment)

Charles County adopts traffic cameras: This weekend, Charles County is joining the list of area jurisdictions with automated traffic enforcement. The county will create traffic cameras in 9 school zones. (Examiner) (Comment)

Exurban sprawl stopped: Charles County smart growth and environmental activists stopped the Cross County Connector, which would have destroyed 6 acres of wetlands and brought 2,000 new houses to a sensitive creek watershed. (Post) (Comment)

Light rail to Charles Co?: Officials in PG and Charles counties are pushing for a light rail line from the Branch Avenue Metro to Charles County. However, competing with the Purple Line and Baltimore's Red Line for state money will be difficult. (Examiner) (Comment)

Waldorf wants light rail (not Metro): Charles County is asking for a light rail line from Branch Avenue down to Waldorf. They don't want a Green Line extension because they say that would trigger more development than they can handle. (Baynet, Bossi) (Comment)

Charles County sprawlway: The Interior Department recommended that permits for the currently-proposed cross-county connector between Waldorf and Route 210 in Charles County be denied, citing the impact road construction will have on wetlands, forests and watersheds. The county maintains that the road is necessary to accommodate auto congestion from planned residential sprawl. (Post) (Comment)

A Green City but without green transportation: Developers hope to rebuild St. Charles, a planned community in Waldorf, to enlarge it and make buildings much more energy efficient. Still, it's 22 miles from DC, an dcan't be a true "Green City" if everyone drives in single cars to central jobs. Scott points out, why not do the same for other older communities in inner Prince George's County? But if you're going to build in Charles County, this is at least a better way to do it. (Post, Scott, Cavan) (Comment)

Studies slamming sprawl: A Brookings report looks at "job sprawl", the movement of jobs away from the city center in 98 metropolitan areas. (Jaime) ... Another report classifies Mattawoman Creek in Charles County as endangered, which could slow or stop the sprawl-inducing Charles County Connector. (News Channel 8, Dave Murphy) (Comment)

Preservation

Dinner links: hungry for good architecture, stimulus money

by David Alpert • January 14, 2009 5:59 pm

Photo by Prince of Petworth.

Not so historic: Prince of Petworth posts a very non-historic building in Capitol Hill. Good reason to have historic preservation laws, or a nice addition of variety to the block?

Arlington Bike/Pedestrian Committee meeting tonight: Michael Perkins encourages you to check out the meeting, 7 pm at the Birch room of the Courthouse county offices. Interesting agenda items include "Pedestrian/motorist awareness, 'Look-Wave' (aka 'eyeball to eyeball'), and "Planning for Lee Highway" among others. If you go, email your notes or an article to info@ggwash.org.

Seattle won't boulevardize: Seattle will get rid of the ugly elevated Alaskan Way Viaduct, but only to build a $4.25 billion tunnel instead. Douglas Willinger must be pleased, but Ryan Avent isn't. "It is a curious political world when the perfect—in this case, converting the elevated highway to a surface road—is much cheaper and easier to build, and yet loses out nonetheless."

Being right is war: Today's installment of Adam Pagnucco's "War On Chevy Chase" series compares each Purple Line alternative side by side. In almost every metric, light rail comes out on top.

Apple knows what to do: Georgetown Metropolitan rebuts Marc Fisher's criticism of locals' rejection of the Apple Store design. GM talked to Georgetown ANC commissioner Ron Lewis about it. "They know what we want, he said, they just aren't delivering it."

Stimulus update: Charles County Commissioner Gary Hodge wants a light rail line from Branch Avenue as part of the federal stimulus; USDOT nominee LaHood has strong ties to road building companies; transportation's share of the stimulus is shrinking amid tax cuts and other spending.

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Tags: Arlington, boulevardize, Capitol Hill, Charles County, Chevy Chase MD, DC, Georgetown, historic preservation, light rail, links, Maryland, Purple Line, Ray LaHood, Seattle, stimulus

Roads

Breakfast links: Scratching poison ivy in Maryland

by David Alpert • October 29, 2008 8:19 am

Photo by bankbryan on Flickr.

ICC's eviler cousin: Have you ever heard of the CCC? That's another freeway Maryland is busy building in Charles County to destroy the natural beauty of its southern region. Imagine, DC writes, "building highways to alleviate traffic is like scratching poison Ivy to get rid of the irritation."

From airport to sprawl: Hyde Airport in Clinton, MD will close, to be replaced with more houses and stores nowhere near transit, continuing Prince George's pattern of having no particular development plan as they rapidly convert their county into auto-dependent suburban sprawl.

More vanilla in our chocolate: Rob Goodspeed crunches the census numbers and concludes that if trends continue, DC will stop being majority-black in 2014. Ryan Avent thinks the bigger news is that the population growth in Wards 1, 2, and 6 will change ward boundaries in 2010 and move political power from the edges into the center.

Please reread the definition of "news": A remarkably unhelpful Gazette article reports on excited reactions by the Takoma Park City Council to improvements in New Hampshire Avenue. Only problem is, the article completely fails to say anything about the actual improvements. Meanwhile, WTOP announces that DC may use eminent domain in Southeast Washington. How about including where? (City Desk does).

Plus: Might a Trader Joe's be coming to 14th and U? Infosnack analyzes the ballpark performance parking pilot's flaws and makes suggestions; No deal is in the works with Columbia Country Club.

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