Northwood News ♦ December 2015

County Executive Continues Pursuit of Multibillion Dollar BRT Projects Despite Public Opposition

By Jim Zepp

As previously reported in this newsletter, the County government has adopted a plan that would build nine Bus Rapid Transit routes on many of the major roadways.  Because of the expense and complexities of construction, only three of these routes (Rockville Pike, Viers Mill Road, and Colesville Road) and the Corridor Cities Transitway (CCT), which also involves buses, are being currently studied.

Following his withdrawal of a hurriedly proposed state legislation enabling the creation of an Independent Transit Authority (ITA) last January, the County Executive reconvened his Transit Task Force in April to study financing options for constructing and operating this BRT system.  With the addition of some new members (including myself) and a majority from the original 2012 Task Force that recommended the BRT system, the 33 members met almost weekly through the beginning of October.

The Task Force’s final report was issued on 29 October 2015.  Among its findings were:

• The capital costs to build and equip a Phase 1 of the three BRT routes and the CCT would be $2.3 billion.  However, these are very general estimates since no actual engineering/design studies have been done for any of the BRT routes and the CCT is at 30% of its design studies.

• The total financing costs (principal plus interest) for the Phase 1 development of these routes over 30 years would be $5.7 billion.  This assumes a 3.86% interest rate, but the actual rate would be whatever the prevailing rate is at the time that the bonds are sold to pay for the BRT.

• The annual operating costs are estimated as being $93 million.

• No additional costs were estimated for subsequent Phases of the three BRT routes and the CCT as well as the other six BRT routes planned for an undetermined future date.

• This assumes a frequency of a BRT vehicle with a total capacity of 115 passengers every five minutes during rush hours and every 10 in nonrush hour periods.  This is despite an estimate that Colesville Road has only 60% of the demand set as the BRT minimum standard by the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) and Rockville Pike and Viers Mill Road having only 25% of the FTA minimum demand.

• If funded only through property taxes, the cost of the initial BRT Phases would mean an increase of $381 a year for 30 years for a home with an average value of $440,000.

• Since the Task Force leadership considered $300 to be the maximum acceptable property tax increase, various combinations of a local sales tax, an excise tax on commercial and multifamily rental properties, and $40 million a year from an undetermined Federal or State source were calculated for the amount over $300 to develop a politically acceptable financing plan for the BRT.  No specific tax plan was recommended.

• Although the Task Force envisioned the taxes to pay for the BRT would start in 2017, actual BRT service would not begin until 2021 to 2027 depending on the route and assuming nothing goes wrong in the design and construction phases.

• The Task Force recommended the ITA as the only alternative for building and operating the BRT system.

At its 7 October 2015 meeting, 12 of the Task Force members voted to approve the final report, three members voted against, and 18 members were absent.  Three minority reports were submitted.  The County Chamber of Commerce also issued a statement opposing the Task Force’s recommendation for creating an ITA.  The final report and related documents are available at www.montgom erycountymd.gov/transit-task-force-2015/report.html.

In recognition of the overwhelming community opposition to his BRT/ITA proposals expressed at multiple public forums and indications from the County’s State Legislators that any ITA bill would be unlikely to be approved, the County Executive issued a memo on 29 October 2015 stating that he would not resubmit his ITA bill in the State Legislative Session that starts in January 2016, but might in the following year.  He remains convinced that the County citizens and businesses need to be persuaded that the expensive and complex BRT system is a worthwhile investment and that more affordable and immediate alternatives do not merit consideration.   ■