Building Purple Line would affect more than 340 properties, state says

State transit planners have long said that trying to thread the two-track light-rail line through Washington’s inner suburbs would be challenging. The line was intentionally routed through densely populated areas to serve the most riders, but that also brings trains close to homes, yards and shopping centers. Running light-rail trains on local roads often requires widening the streets. State transit planners have said building extensive tunnels is too expensive.

Adding to the difficulty is that most of the Purple Line hasn’t been part of local development plans for long, leaving little preserved right of way beyond the Georgetown Branch trail between Bethesda and Silver Spring — a segment that has sparked its own controversy.

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 Rebuilding the Capital Crescent Trail through a tunnel in downtown Bethesda as part of a Purple Line transitway would require funneling runners and cyclists through an eight-foot-tall clear tube built above light-rail trains, state engineers say.

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Harry W. Lerch, a Bethesda land-use lawyer who specializes in condemnation litigation, said Maryland law doesn’t require the state to give a certain amount of notice when buying and condemning property under its powers of eminent domain. The law only specifies when and how the state is allowed to take possession of the property, he said.

Lerch said he had a client who didn’t realize that his home was in the path of the newly built Intercounty Connector until a state official knocked on his door with an appraisal and a contract to sign. Transportation planners typically wait until most of the engineering is done before notifying property owners, he said.

Lerch said his firm worked over several weeks to compile its own list of 230 property owners affected by the planned Purple Line route.

He said his firm plans to notify those owners in hopes of generating business but declined to release the list because it is not official.

Lerch said he found the most impacts in Riverdale, where the state proposes to widen East-West Highway (Route 410) east of Kenilworth Avenue (Route 201) and along Kenilworth.

“That’s a tricky area,” Lerch said, “because it’s totally built out.”

Joe Brice, president of the Prince George’s County Civic Federation, said many residents would welcome better transit but are concerned about a light-rail line destroying homes and forever changing neighborhoods.

Once state officials release a list of properties being considered for condemnation, Brice said, “the protest against [the project] will increase. . . . I’m quite sure they understand that.”

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