Voice Mail: Our Purple Line vote: What we learned
At our recent General Meeting, the Park Hills Civic Association discussed and voted on key Purple Line issues affecting this east Silver Spring community. With this vote, we learned several things that should be of interest to the Montgomery County and State of Maryland officials who are planning this important East-West transportation link.
First, we learned that these issues are of continuing great interest to our neighbors. The enormous community concern about adverse impacts has not diminished since our September 2007 General Meeting where the PHCA membership overwhelmingly adopted a Resolution requesting that the Maryland Transit Administration prepare detailed studies of “underground” options as well as traffic and congestion studies, so we can better understand the costs and benefits of the Purple Line for our neighborhood.
Second, and importantly, we learned that, while there is great support among our neighbors for mass transit generally, most of the people attending our meeting preferred either further improvements to the “existing” bus system and traffic modernization or “no new transit.” Third, we learned, from our open discussion, that a majority of our neighbors are not yet convinced of the benefits that a new Purple Line transit system might bring to the Park Hills community which would be directly affected by either of the proposed alignments on Wayne Avenue or between Silver Spring and Thayer Avenues. We also learned that there is overwhelming support among our PHCA members for an “underground” option if the State of Maryland selected Wayne Avenue as its preferred alternative.
It is clear that our neighbors need more information from the Maryland Transit Administration about local impact, particularly with regard to possible changes to the critical intersection of Wayne Avenue and Dale Drive, and the impact on Sligo Creek Elementary School and the Silver Spring International Middle School. Our neighbors are concerned about pedestrian safety, an increase in congestion and cut-through traffic, and possible changes in zoning density near suggested Purple Line stations.
The concerns that this community has about the Purple Line are broadly shared with the adjoining Seven Oaks-Evanswood neighborhood whose civic association voted on these issues on the same date. So there exists a strong consensus of our neighbors between Piney Branch Road and Colesville Road that the Purple Line, and particularly a Wayne Avenue alignment at street level, would have a broad range of adverse impacts for these neighborhoods.
From our vote, it is apparent that the MTA has not yet made a compelling case for a new light rail transit system that would cut through and divide our neighborhoods.
As many neighbors noted at our civic association meeting, the impacts of the Purple Line are obvious, but the benefits are not clear. Our community’s vote was not the end of the process, but a good start in assessing where we stand. We ask our elected officials to take note.
— Alan S. Bowser, Silver Spring, MD
The writer is President of the Park Hills Civic Association