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Regional Transportation Initiative Stuck in Planning Gridlock

A regional effort to solve the Washington area's long-range transportation and development problems has broken down because of a dispute over whether to build more roads or expand mass transit.

This month, a group of political, environmental, civic and business leaders put together by the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments was supposed to release its transportation and development priorities for the region. A new plan is needed, the officials said, to avoid Los Angeles-style traffic congestion predicted for the Washington area by 2020.

But the recommendations have been held up by COG's Transportation Planning Board, a group of officials who decide the region's transportation policies, because of a disagreement between environmentalists and business leaders over roads and transit.

"The [planning board] just chickened out," complained Pamela Lindstrom, a Maryland environmental leader involved in the effort. Added Jeff Blum, another environmental activist: "We need a Council of Governments with teeth. We have one whose gears don't even mesh."

During the last six months, environmentalists produced a set of recommendations calling for expanded mass transit -- such as Metro trains circling the Capital Beltway -- and more bikeways and walking paths. They also said new development should be concentrated around Metro stations inside the Beltway. New roads that would worsen suburban sprawl should not be built, they said, and existing roads that contribute to the problem should not be widened.

A separate group that included many pro-growth business leaders came up with a list of new road, bridge and transit projects it wants built during the next 25 years, including a new Woodrow Wilson Bridge, a western bypass and a highway linking Montgomery and Prince George's counties. A regional transportation authority would be created to administer the projects. Suburban job centers should be connected by a combination of roads and transit, the group said.

The idea was to release those competing visions of Washington's future to allow the public to comment. After public meetings, the transportation board would come up with a consensus plan to guide the region for the next 25 years. Now, that planning effort, which is being financed with more than $1 million in federal money, is in limbo.

"The developers are afraid the people will say they don't want more sprawl and roads," said Kathy Mitchell, a Loudoun County resident participating in the planning effort.

Business leaders said they are concerned that the planning effort has been dominated by environmentalists and that the views of real people stuck in traffic won't be reflected. The Greater Washington Board of Trade, noting that only 5 percent of the region's commuters use mass transit, conducted its own study of Washington's transportation needs.

The environmentalists' recommendations "have not been real-world tested to determine what is realistic, achievable, affordable or practical," said Robert Chase, a spokesman for Tysons Corner business leaders.

Fairfax Board of Supervisors Chairman Katherine K. Hanley (D), whom environmental leaders blamed for the move to stop the release of the recommendations, said it would be irresponsible to make the proposals public without calling attention to their costs. For example, she said, environmentalists called for freezing Metro's fares while also expanding its hours of operation and building more parking facilities and stations. Fairfax cut bus service this year, she said, and barely can afford its current transit subsidies.

"People will choose to have a lot of things if there's no price tag involved," Hanley said. "When these vision plans require local taxpayers to pay for the implementation, local taxpayers should be informed about the costs."

Virginia Sen. Patricia S. Ticer (D-Alexandria) said the transportation board's planning effort was not supposed to detail costs. Instead, the participants were told by the board to be bold in fashioning their vision of what Washington should be like in 25 years.

"You can't make decisions about what's right strictly based on cost," Ticer said.

The transportation board's staff director, Ronald F. Kirby, said he would attempt to rescue the planning effort by adding cost figures and simplifying the recommendations.

"I don't think there's any intention to stall," he said.

Leo J. Schefer, a leader of the planning effort, said that although "there's no clear agreement on what philosophy this region is trying to follow," the opposing sides need to come together to forge a single view. Otherwise, he said, "the public will begin to see why nothing ever gets done."