Enviros Push Transportation Bill

ANNAPOLIS — Environmental groups are backing a bill they say would provide a map to Maryland's transportation future.

The legislation would require county or local governments proposing new projects for the state's list of transportation priorities to describe how the projects meet state and local transportation and development goals.

It aims to highlight how the projects address smart growth and gas emissions reduction goals and other factors, such as whether there is a transit option.

"It's actually looking at transportation and land use much more broadly and saying, ‘OK, how do these things work hand-in-hand?'" said Dru Schmidt-Perkins, executive director of 1000 Friends of Maryland, a state environmental group.

The transportation bill ranks second on a list of priorities for environmental interests. Preserving green initiatives in the budget tops the list, which also includes expanding stormwater management fees to all counties.

Rising gas prices, the demand for more transit and controversies over the Intercounty Connector and the cross-county connector, a north-south road upgrade through Charles County, have highlighted the need for better planning, Schmidt-Perkins said.

Environmental groups have given Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) high scores for his focus on green initiatives and on smart growth, which aims to build around infrastructure such as water and sewer and transportation routes.

But they point to O'Malley's refusal to halt construction of the ICC, which began under Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R), as being out of step with his otherwise green bent.

The $2.6 billion, 18-mile toll road currently under construction in Montgomery and Prince George's counties will run from Interstate 370 in Gaithersburg to U.S. Route 1 in Laurel.

Meeting planning needs might mean building a new highway, Schmidt-Perkins said.

But the bill "also allows for a level playing field" for considering options such as better funding of transit, commuter buses, bike trails and land use that avoids traffic gridlock, she said. "We're trying to take it away from a highway vs. transit fight."

Del. Stephen W. Lafferty, who introduced the House version of the bill Wednesday, said it aims to "institutionalize" criteria to require sustainable, necessary projects. If that can be done, "then it transcends administrations or personalities" and puts the focus on which projects should be funded, he said. But it won't transcend politics.

"There's always going to be politics involved in the decisions because locally there's going to have to be some prioritization based on a range of needs," said Lafferty (D-Dist. 42) of Stoneleigh.

But the bill will allow transportation planners to be better informed about those jurisdictions' priorities, he said.

The bill seeks to clear up a "hodgepodge" of smart growth criteria, said Sen. David C. Harrington, who is co-sponsoring the measure in the Senate with Sen. Catherine E. Pugh (D-Dist. 40) of Baltimore.

Crystallizing the criteria could result in ranking large road projects lower on priority lists than transit projects such as the Purple Line, a proposed light rail or bus link between the Bethesda and New Carrolton Metrorail stations, or the Red Line, an east-west rail line in Baltimore, said Harrington (D-Dist. 47) of Cheverly.