Over 50 Groups and City Deliver a Sharp Legal Critique Challenging Gov. Hogan’s I-495 and I-270 Toll Lane Plan

December 1, 2021

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: 

Lindsey Mendelson, 240-706-7901, lindsey.mendelson@mdsierra.org 

Over 50 Groups and City Deliver a Sharp Legal Critique Challenging Gov. Hogan’s I-495 and I-270 Toll Lane Plan 

MARYLAND - Last night, 51 groups and the City of Rockville delivered a searing critique of Governor Hogan’s plan to widen I-495 and I-270 with private toll lanes. The groups and City assert that Governor Hogan’s private I-495 and I-270 toll lanes expansion plan would be unaffordable to any but the most affluent users, would not reduce congestion for most drivers, and would make highway users less safe while harming the environment, communities, and environmental justice populations in the surrounding area. The critique demonstrates that viable alternatives to Governor Hogan’s toll lane plan exist and were not adequately considered. Maryland Sierra Club joined dozens of groups and the City of Rockville in submitting 183 pages of technical and legal comments containing this critique on the final day of the 60-day public comment period for the project’s Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Statement (SDEIS) which was required when the project was downsized in May 2021. 

The comments highlight: 

  • The Maryland Department of Transportation failed to disclose hidden taxpayer costs, cumulative impacts, and impacts to specific sites of cultural significance.  

  • The information presented in the SDEIS shows the Governor’s expansion plans will create new and larger traffic and safety problems at key interchanges and merge areas, and will permanently harm Maryland’s irreplaceable natural, historic, and environmental resources.

  • The SDEIS fails to take the required “hard look” at environmental justice issues and  ignores the harms that environmental justice communities would suffer during construction and operation of the expansion proposal. 

  • The SDEIS contains no discussion of the human health and environmental effects of the increased greenhouse and other air emissions, in direct violation of NEPA.

The group comments are the result of legal work by Jill Grant & Associates, technical experts, and residents. The 51 groups and the City present a sophisticated legal analysis demonstrating a project that would be extremely harmful to public health and safety and the air, water, biota, greenspace, and parks near and downstream of the new widened highways. The groups and the City of Rockville delivering this critique argue that the known costs of this failing project cannot outweigh its limited and diminishing purported benefits. 

The comments include an expert analysis of the SDEIS traffic modeling by recognized traffic engineer Norm Marshall, confirming problems with the model and reaffirming the new traffic bottlenecks that would be created by this plan. 

“Our analysis shows that Governor Hogan's highway boondoggle will not solve congestion; instead, it will be a disaster for our climate and health and cause further harm to communities already impacted by environmental injustices. We must invest in equitable solutions that actually increase mobility and connectivity across the region. We are grateful to a fantastic legal team and for the groundswell of partner and community support in this major effort and thank everyone who has voiced their concerns about this flawed and harmful project.” – Josh Tulkin, Director, Maryland Sierra Club  

“The SDEIS is the latest round in a flawed NEPA process that fails to evaluate reasonable alternatives, disregards significant environmental and human health impacts, and limits the public’s ability to meaningfully comment on the proposed toll lane expansion project, including by changing versions of the SDEIS’s summary section without notice fewer than 13 days before the comment deadline. The Federal Highway Administration should carry out the Biden Administration’s and Secretary Buttigieg’s commitments to equity, climate justice, and scientific integrity, and put a stop to this biased process.” – Ian Fisher, Jill Grant & Associates

“These powerful legal comments on the SDEIS demonstrate what we have been saying all along. There are safe and equitable transportation options to improve mobility and reduce congestion. Private toll lanes are not the answer. This project does nothing to move our region forward, not in social justice, not in environmental justice and is not the way we should be going.” – Mayor Bridget Donnell Newton, City of Rockville

“The proposed Capital Beltway-widening project would adversely affect the National Register-eligible site of Morningstar Moses Cemetery/Hall in the historic African American community of Gibson Grove in Cabin John, MD.  This is a sensitive, extant burial ground containing hundreds more bodies than previously identified and the foundation of the county’s only remaining Moses Hall. This site already suffered from racial injustice and adverse environmental impacts in the 1960s when the highway’s initial construction concretely separated it from Gibson Grove AME Zion Church, the community’s other lynchpin. The Friends of Moses Hall OPPOSES any planned highway construction that would further desecrate and damage the Morningstar Moses Cemetery/Hall, an important cultural and historic African American resource.” – Diane E. Baxter, Community Descendant, Friends of Moses Hall

“The travel tables in MDOT’s environmental review show that the toll lanes won’t reduce congestion in the general lanes on the I-270-American Legion Bridge corridor.  It is irresponsible to put our environment, communities and wallets at risk for a project that won’t work.” – Barbara Coufal, Co-Chair, Citizens Against Beltway Expansion

"MDOT started with the conclusion: private toll lanes. But we know that the best path to lessen congestion and create a greener world is a comprehensive transit, land use, and demand management solution. More highway lanes and more driving is the absolute wrong way to go in a climate crisis." – Stewart Schwartz, Executive Director, Coalition for Smarter Growth

“‘Luxury lanes’ might sound appealing but the tolls the Beltway Managed Lanes highway expansion project might generate aren't even close to being worth the devastation to forests, streams, and wildlife. This scheme is dangerous for people and disastrous for our environment. The first rule of holes is, “stop digging”! It is time to focus on more excellent and more equitable transit options instead of digging ourselves deeper into climate catastrophe.” – Eliza Cava, Director of Conservation, Audubon Naturalist Society

“MDOT has completed 80% of the I-270 Innovative Congestion Management Project which has created free-flowing traffic on Lower I-270, where the proposed toll road would be built - even during rush hours. Building a toll road where the problem has already been solved makes no sense. Why would MDOT rip up something they just spent $132 million to build, especially when it actually worked, and will continue to work until 2040 or longer? The project and the SDEIS ride roughshod over the public's need to know and the federal laws that govern the process.” – Sally Stolz, Co-coordinator, Dontwiden270.org

“Over the last year, thousands of people have demanded that the Maryland Department of Transportation reconsider its massive, ill-advised I-495 and I-270 expansion plan. Unfortunately, their concerns have gone unheard. MDOT’s current plan would bulldoze more than 1,200 trees on National Park Service Land. Altogether, it would negatively impact 17 acres at three national park sites: the George Washington Memorial Parkway, the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park, and the Clara Barton Parkway. The National Parks Conservation Association is once again calling on MDOT to go back to the drawing board and come up with a plan that includes transit-friendly alternatives that addresses traffic congestion while protecting our national parks.” – Kyle Hart, Mid-Atlantic Field Representative, National Parks Conservation Association

Signatories of the SDEIS Comments:

  1. Sierra Club Maryland Chapter
  2. 350MoCo
  3. Audubon Naturalist Society
  4. Audubon Society of Central Maryland (Howard, Frederick, Carroll Counties)
  5. Baltimore Transit Equity Coalition
  6. Bikemore
  7. Carderock Springs Citizens Association
  8. Cedar Lane Unitarian Universalist Environmental Justice Ministry
  9. Central Maryland Transportation Alliance
  10. Chesapeake Bay Foundation
  11. Citizens Against Beltway Expansion
  12. City of Rockville
  13. Coalition for Smarter Growth
  14. Conservation Montgomery
  15. Defensores de la Cuenca
  16. DontWiden270.org
  17. DoTheMostGood
  18. Downtown Residents Advocacy Network (Baltimore)
  19. Elders Climate Action DMV
  20. Friends of Lower Beaverdam Creek
  21. Friends of Moses Hall/The Board of Trustees of Morningstar Tabernacle Number 88, Incorporated
  22. Friends of Sligo Creek
  23. Glen Echo Heights Mobilization
  24. Greater Farmland Civic Association
  25. Greater Greater Washington
  26. Green Team of St. Vincent de Paul Church
  27. Greenbelt Climate Action Network
  28. Howard County Climate Action
  29. Indivisible Howard County MD
  30. Interfaith Power & Light (DC.MD.NoVA)
  31. League of Women Voters of Maryland
  32. Maryland Conservation Council
  33. Maryland Legislative Coalition
  34. Maryland Native Plant Society
  35. Maryland PIRG
  36. NAACP Maryland State Conference, Environmental and Climate Justice Committee
  37. National Parks Conservation Association
  38. Neighbors of the Northwest Branch of the Anacostia River
  39. Northern Virginia Citizens Association
  40. Our Revolution Maryland
  41. Our Revolution Montgomery County
  42. Policy Foundation of MD / Voices Maryland
  43. Rock Creek Hills Citizens’ Association
  44. Save Our Seminary at Forest Glen Inc.
  45. Sligo Creek Golf Association
  46. Strong Future Maryland
  47. Sunrise Movement Howard County
  48. Takoma Park Mobilization Environment Committee
  49. The Ocean Foundation
  50. Transit Choices
  51. Unitarian Universalist Legislative Ministry of Maryland
  52. Washington Area Bicyclist Association
  53. Washington Biologists’ Field Club
  54. West Montgomery County Citizens Association
  55. Woodside Forest Civic Association
  56. Wyngate Citizens Association