Chevy Chase Nimbys Want County Taxpayers to Subsidize Anti-Purple Line Committee

[Updated Monday April 16th: Here is the link to the letter sent by Action Committee for Transit to the Montgomery County Council on this matter.]


From Ben Ross, Action Committee for Transit (Montgomery County):

Just hours after asking the Montgomery County Council for a $1.5 million subsidy, the Town Council of a 1200-home enclave in Chevy Chase voted last night to spend 9% of the town's entire budget on an effort aimed at blocking construction of a new light rail line that would run behind some residents' houses.

The request for county tax money, to be used for storm sewer upgrades, was made in testimony by the Town of Chevy Chase yesterday afternoon (Wednesday) at a County Council budget hearing. That same evening, the Town Council voted at its monthly meeting to appropriate $250,000, or more than $200 for each household in the town, for "independent studies" of the Purple Line. The studies were requested by Meir Wolf, who chairs the main anti-Purple Line lobby and serves on the Town Council.

"Hundreds of thousands of dollars of Columbia Country Club's money has already been spent on this Not-In-My-Backyard obstructionism," commented Ben Ross, Vice President of the Action Committee for Transit. "Now the NIMBYs want a subsidy from the taxpayer. Why should my own tax money go to keep me stuck in a traffic jam?"

ACT will write to the County Council later today, asking them to deny the Town of Chevy Chase funding request. The Town is wealthy enough to spend a quarter million dollars for the benefit of a very small group who live near the future light rail line. Opinion on the Purple Line in the town is divided and the spending plan was adopted despite a letter of opposition signed by numerous residents. Subsidies from other county residents, many of whom are less affluent, are hardly needed.

Supporters of the Purple Line, Photo: Mitchell Miller, WTOP Radio.