Organization for an alternate Purple Line route

Discussion Points for inclusion in correspondence:

The Silver Spring and Thayer Avenues (SSATA) alignment is not a viable option for the Bi-County Transitway (BCT) and therefore not worthy of Alternatives Retained for Detailed Study (ARDS) consideration, based on the following factors:

• Economic- The SSATA alignment which consists of approximately one-half mile, or only 3.4% of the proposed BCT, would have an incremental cost of $66 to $90 million in excess of the base cost of an arterial roadway alignment for the same half-mile distance. The high incremental cost of the SSATA alignment is due to the large number of takings required and the tunneling costs. The proposed taking of 167,967 SF (66 feet wide by 0.48 miles) across over 50 detached single family properties would be extremely time consuming and expensive. Assuming reasonable market appreciation, assembling and acquiring the necessary property would cost $6.6 million to $13.0 million. The SSATA alignment, as proposed by the Maryland Transit Administration (MTA), would consist of a tunnel constructed through the method commonly referred to as “cut and cover”. While cut and cover is more affordable than other tunneling methods, the incremental capital costs for a “cut and cover” tunnel in excess of “at grade” development costs are between $125 and $160 million per mile. This equates to $60 to $77 million for the SSATA alignment.

• Easements- 

  • SSATA is the only alignment, which does not leverage an existing transportation right of way. Rather, its proposed route transits over 50 private properties.  

  • The initial basis for considering the SSATA alignment was modifying the use of a 25-foot wide storm sewer easement into a mass transit easement. The existing easement use is explicitly limited to the construction and maintenance of the storm sewer. Therefore, the storm sewer easement affords little to no additional or special rights for a mass transit use. 

• Time- Choosing an alignment, which directly impacts over 50 properties and ultimately would require condemnation proceedings, could impede the overall project timeframe and add significant expenses for litigation as well as time-value and other risk-based costs. Condemnation proceedings can add multiple years to a project timeline and in politically sensitive projects, delays can last even longer.

• Environmental- The properties, which would be impacted by the SSATA alignment, are located in the Sligo watershed and comprise one of the largest contiguous green spaces in Silver Spring. The canopy and extensive root networks of the more than 200 trees that would be impacted by the SSATA alignment have been years in developing. They control runoff by decreasing total stormwater volume and slowing peak flow that is discharged into the sewer system and runs off into Sligo Creek. The roots also filter pollutants in the water, improving water quality. The destruction of this system and replacement with impervious cover of the tunnel would increase water flow removing the filtering that would have been undertaken along the paths the county constructed to divert several streams. Additional hydrological engineering would be required to control flooding and erosion. The tree canopy is also removing air pollution, reducing the urban heat island of downtown Silver Spring and sequestering carbon without cost, which are all high on the Metropolitan Council of Governments' list and which many communities are having to invest in to maintain healthy communities and to save energy. The SSATA area provides a wildlife corridor between Sligo Creek Park and Georgia Avenue, serving as a sanctuary for at least 35 species of birds. The list below are some of the birds identified in the SSATA community:  

  • Mourning Dove, American Goldfinch, White-breasted Nuthatch American Crow Red-shouldered Hawk, Grackle, Red-tailed Hawk, House Finch, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Carolina Chickadee, Eastern Screech Owl, House Wren, Downy Woodpecker, White-throated Sparrow, Baltimore Oriole, Mockingbird, Tufted Titmouse, Red-headed Woodpecker, Belted Kingfisher, Song Sparrow, Black-throated Green Warbler, Cardinal, Dark-eyed Junco Wood Thrush, American Robin, House Sparrow, Yellow Warbler, Northern Flicker, Brown Thrasher, Pileated Woodpecker, Brown Creeper, European Starling, Carolina Wren, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Blue Jay, Cedar Waxwing

• Community Impacts- The SSATA alignment would have a number of negative impacts to the composition and health of the community and would not optimally serve the overall goals of the BCT project. o East Silver Spring is a relatively low-density community as the majority of the neighborhood consists of detached single-family homes. By transiting a lower density corridor, the BCT serves a smaller market, hurting the efficacy of the BCT as well as under serving the market. According to the September 30, 2004 Memorandum to the Transportation and Environment Committee from Glenn Orlin (the September Memorandum), alignments north of East Silver Spring would transit higher density areas, serving a larger market as well as support the existing business district (which still has plenty of expansion capacity).

  • East Silver Spring is a diverse community. The streets impacted directly by the SSATA alignment are especially diverse from an economical, racial and age perspective with a large volume of young families. The community also has a mix of long standing residents and new owners infusing fresh capital into the neighborhood. The neighborhood has improved substantially over the last decade but is still in a delicate state. Merely the risk of an alignment bisecting the neighborhood could reverse the positive strides the community has made over this time. It would defeat the purpose of the planning community to destroy one strong, growing, diverse neighborhood, in the hopes, not the guarantee, of developing another one with the same characteristics. o According to the September Memorandum, Silver Spring and Thayer Avenues were rejected immediately as alignments because of many negative impacts to the community stating that it is a neighborhood consisting of many single-family homes and an elementary school. The construction, noise and environmental impacts of tunneling through the properties would be no better than the street option, which was summarily rejected. 

  • As stated in the September Memorandum, residents adjacent to an alignment would also have to deal with pressure to convert the homes to business uses. Typically, developers and planners want high densities near mass transit to optimize the mass transit use. Additionally, large organizations such as the General Services Administration mandate for most of their offices that they are within close proximity of mass transit which puts additional pressure to rezone mass transit areas for higher density uses. Homes that do not convert to businesses would be negatively impacted by adjacent properties with newer higher density, non-residential uses. The SSATA residents, if impacted by the alignment would therefore have to deal with both the loss of property as well as pressure from the direct benefactors of higher-density development. o As stated in the September Memorandum, positive community impacts were identified for alternative alignments. However, with the SSATA alignment, there are no identifiable positive impacts to the community. It is apparent that the purpose of the SSATA alignment is not to develop East Silver Spring or the SSATA neighborhood but rather to just transit through to improve other communities at the risk of impairing East Silver Spring. Conclusion Due to the aforementioned reasons, the SSATA alignment is not a viable alternative for the BCT alignment and should not be included as an Alternative Retained for Detailed Study. It is an extremely disruptive alignment, it is the only alignment that mandates the taking of private property and it is not economically feasible for any of the municipal stakeholders. The numerous reasons why the SSATA alignment does not make sense in conjunction with the extremely short timeframe the community has had a chance to respond should disqualify the SSATA alignment from the analysis from a factual, reasonableness and due process basis.

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