Neighbors Roll Dice on Connector

Sam Raker, who oversees the state's community outreach on the project, noted that Ehrlich has made building a connector his top transportation priority. The General Assembly recently approved the highway's financing plan.

"It's made major steps towards becoming a reality," Raker said. "I personally would not bet against a road being built at this time."

Unlike a history of a leaky roof or wet basement, home sellers and their agents aren't required to disclose the proximity of a potential highway, real estate agents said. It's up to buyers or their representatives to know about it or to research it in the county's master plan or the state's environmental impact study.

Real estate agent Victor Llewellyn said he recommends that prospective buyers check the planned routes for the connector before he sells them a home nearby. He said he sold a home two months ago in Norbeck Estates in Rockville for $57,000 above the asking price.

"It had no impact whatsoever," Llewellyn said, "and that was literally six houses from where the ICC would be coming."

Some recent buyers said they presume sound walls or trees would buffer the noise and obscure the view -- assumptions state highway officials say are not always accurate.

Neil J. Pedersen, Maryland's highway administrator, said the state has tried to minimize impacts on neighborhoods. Plans call for sound walls along eight to 16 miles of the 18-mile road, depending on the path chosen. The road would be sunken where topography allows, which could make it quieter and less visible, Pedersen said. It would have to be elevated over wetlands and streams.

Beth Gatti, 35, a freelance editor and writer who works from home, said she and her husband, Jon, knew the connector could run behind the townhouse they bought in October in the Longmead Crossing subdivision in Silver Spring. But the neighborhood seemed great for children, Beth Gatti said, and it's convenient for her husband's commute to Bethesda and the District.

She said they hoped that, even if plans for a highway went through, court fights would delay its construction until they moved. She and her 2-year-old son suffer from asthma, she said, and they couldn't endure the vehicle pollution.

As first-time home buyers, Gatti said, they couldn't pass up the $340,000 price tag.

"You get squeezed because housing prices are so out of control, and we didn't want to have to move way out to Centreville or Frederick," Gatti said. "We felt extremely lucky we were able to afford something this close to D.C., so it was a gamble we were willing to take."

Some buyers can't envision where a highway would go or what it would be like to live near one, said Dave Savercool, a real estate agent.

"Would it be below grade or would there be sound walls or a buffer?" Savercool said. "Those are the things people don't know now."

Greg Smith, who has been involved in a campaign against the intercounty connector, said he is concerned that even people who wade through the "huge data dumps" in the state's voluminous draft environmental impact study won't learn enough about the possible health risks of living amid highway pollution.

"Some people may be buying their home without knowing the real potential impacts," Smith said. "If they did know, they might not buy that home, given a choice."

Database editor Dan Keating contributed to this report.