Dread and Defiance in the Connector's Path

Burton, 52, said she and her husband, Roger Metcalf, hope that environmental groups will fight the proposal in court or that public officials will reject the highway as too expensive before their family is forced to leave their Derwood house of 23 years.

"I don't plan to leave this home, period," said Burton, who runs library programs for children. "Have you heard of civil disobedience? We don't plan to be displaced from our home."

She said she didn't know what form their protest would take. But, she said, "Personally, I'm prepared to fight this to my last breath, and I hope Governor Ehrlich knows that."

Burton's neighbor, Lashmit, 79, called the state's plan to buy his home "sickening." In addition to hiring a property appraiser, Lashmit said, he's considering moving to North Carolina if he loses the four-bedroom house that he has lived in for 50 years.

"I don't want to stay here anymore," said Lashmit, an accountant. "It's been very peaceful until these people came along and are aiming to throw us out."

Neil J. Pedersen, Maryland's highway administrator, said the state appreciates the emotional stakes of uprooting residents.

"I wish we could build highways that didn't impact people at all," he said. "But given that there are impacts associated with any major highway project, we want to try to help them as much as we can in relocating. . . . We try to have as compassionate a process as possible."

The intercounty connector has been a divisive, sensitive issue for about 50 years. Supporters say the highway is badly needed because motorists traveling east-west have few options outside the congested Capital Beltway. As a result, highway supporters say, roads once lightly traveled have become crowded and unsafe. An intercounty connector, they say, would cut travel times and provide a key link between Montgomery's biotechnology corridor along Interstate 270 and the I-95 corridor, including Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport.

Opponents say the road would not alleviate traffic jams and would devastate streams, wetlands, parkland and wildlife habitat. When finance costs are included, the highway is estimated to cost $3 billion, making it one of the most expensive transportation projects in the country. Critics say the money would be better spent on options that spur people to get out of their cars, such as improving rail and bus service.

Determining the Value of a Home

For those living where the highway would go, the opposition is far more personal.

Federal and state eminent domain laws allow the government to seize private property to build highways or expand roads, and the U.S. Constitution requires fair compensation.

In Maryland, a private appraiser hired by the state determines a property's "fair market value," based on recent sales of similar homes in the area. The state then reviews the appraisal and makes an offer to the property owner. The offer could exceed the appraised value if the state determines that the owner would need more money to buy a comparable home, Larson said.