What's Driving the Intercounty Connector?

Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan (left) shakes hands with Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. after a news conference announcing the southerly path of the Inter-County Connector as state Sen. John A. Giannetti Jr. looks on. (Baltimore Sun photo by Elizabeth Malby)

I talk all the time about the "Growth Machine" thesis. A letter to the editor in today's Post, "What's Driving the Intercounty Connector?," is a perfect illustration. (Note that I wrote about this last summer in the blog entries, "More on the Maryland Growth Machine" and "It's all about the Growth Machine...".) From the letter by Arlene Thorne of Silver Spring:

Maryland highway officials have extended the review period for the intercounty connector's final environmental impact study to March 23 [Metro in Brief, Feb. 23]. That gives the public only 75 days to review a 10,000-page behemoth. Readers would need to consume 133 pages a day... it seems as though the state is being stingy about review time for the taxpayers who would foot the bill.

Maybe that's because the study shows that the connector won't relieve Beltway traffic but will add 3,000 or more cars a day to traffic on Connecticut and Georgia avenues and Colesville Road. Why build the road if it won't relieve traffic? Well, here's a nugget starting on page IV-416 of the study's first volume:

"The proposed town center and regional upscale mall proposed within Konterra are contingent upon the development of additional transportation facilities, for example, the ICC, and therefore are not included in the future planned development. However, they are considered as secondary development as a direct result of the ICC." In briefer words, the mega-development of Konterra depends upon a connector.

Go to the head of the class!

Click here to review the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the proposed Maryland Inter County Connector freeway/toll road in Montgomery and Prince George's Counties.

Chris Carney, a member of the Sierra Club, protests the proposed route for the Inter-County Connector. (Baltimore Sun photo by Elizabeth Malby). Jul 11, 2005. Click here for more information on the Sierra Club Metro DC- Challenge to Sprawl Campaign.

Read Molotch's article City as a Growth Machine: Toward a Political Economy of Place.

Index Keywords: growth-machine