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Opposition to Maryland Route 200

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Maryland Route 200 has gained opposition from several groups, including the Maryland General Assembly and the Prince George's County Council.

Members of the Maryland General Assembly stated opposition in the Spring 2008 and Spring 2009 sessions, the 1998 session, and back to 1979, when a bill introduced in the General Assembly by Delegate Robin Ficker proposed to eliminate funding for a study of the ICC and the never-built Rockville Facility highway project. In 1980, a bill proposed by Delegate Idamae Garrott to forbid the Maryland Department of Transportation from even studying the matter of new highways running east and west between Montgomery and Prince George's Counties was tabled by the Montgomery County Delegation.

In the 1998 session, House Bill 817 was introduced to prohibit MDOT from spending funds or granting approvals to the ICC project, and House Bill 905 was intended to stop the operation of a toll highway altogether. Both bills failed to pass. In 2004, House Bill 732 proposed a similar statement to House Bill 817, extended to include the MdTA. The 2007 Special Session saw the offering of House Bill 37 to prevent construction of the road. Both of these bills also failed to pass. In the 2008 session, two bills proposing to cancel or delay the project were introduced – House Bill 1416 and House Bill 1471. House Bill 1471 proposed to elimiate funding for the road, and, if it had passed, would trigger "liquidated damage clauses that would require it to pay the contractors an estimated $80.0 million upon cancellation of the contracts," according to the Fiscal Note prepared by the state's Department of Legislative Services. Both bills failed.

In the 2009 session, a bill proposing to cancel funding for the ICC was pre-filed by Delegate Barbara A. Frush – House Bill 27. This bill had not attracted any co-sponsors nor had it been scheduled for a hearing. A similar bill, Senate Bill 753, was filed in the Maryland Senate by Sen. E. J. Pipkin and others. The Maryland Politics Watch blog opined that Pipkin's co-sponsorship of SB 753 may be related to his possible desire to run again for the U.S. House of Representatives Maryland District 1 seat. Both bills failed in the 2009 session. House Bill 27 received an unfavorable report from the House of Delegates Appropriations Committee on March 28, 2009; and no action was taken on Senate Bill 753 prior to adjournment on April 13, 2009, though a hearing was scheduled on March 18, 2009 before the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee.

The position of the County Council of Prince George's County in opposition to the ICC has been repeatedly cited by opposition groups, and its 2003 resolution on the subject, CR-32-2003, was adopted on June 10, 2003, where it called for alternatives to the road. In 2007, the Prince George's County Council passed resolution CR-59-2007, which repeats much of what was stated in CR-32-2003, including the language endorsing the ICC in Prince George's County.

In November 2006, environmental groups announced that they were preparing to file suit in order to delay or stop the project, and lawsuits aimed at halting construction were filed by environmental groups and affected residents, assisted in part by pro bono legal counsel from the Institute for Public Representation of the Georgetown University Law Center. One of those lawsuits was originally filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia (possibly as part of a forum shopping effort to avoid having the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals hear the case on appeal - though the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, which would have heard any appeals from the D.C. federal court, had ruled against the Sierra Club and allied groups on similar legal issues in reversing a lower court on a case involving the proposal to reconstruct and widen the Woodrow Wilson Bridge in 1999) but Judge Gladys Kessler of the D.C. federal court ordered the matter transferred to federal court in Maryland on May 17, 2007 and the suits were consolidated. After hearings in October 2007, both lawsuits were dismissed in their entirety on November 8, 2007 by Judge Alexander Williams, Jr. of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland in a 105-page memorandum opinion.

The Baltimore Sun described the decision handed down by the court as a "victory for both Governor Martin O'Malley, who backs construction of the road, and a measure of vindication for former Governor Robert L. Ehrlich, who made it the top transportation priority of his administration." After the opinion was released, environmental groups opposed to the ICC stated that they would "consider their legal options before deciding whether to continue their battle" and some homeowners near the selected route expressed disagreement with the ruling of the court. On January 7, 2008, it was announced that Environmental Defense and the Sierra Club would appeal Judge Williams' decision to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in Richmond, Virginia. In April 2008, persons and groups opposed to the ICC held an "Irish wake" to draw attention to the impact of the ICC, and an op-ed in The Diamondback was printed which raised objections to the ICC.

In June 2008, protests against the ICC were held at Dr. Charles R. Drew Elementary School in Silver Spring. The participants claimed that ICC construction should be halted because of air pollution impacts on pupils at the school, though it was reported that Governor O'Malley has no plans to do so. In August 2008, The Baltimore Sun published a letter to the editor from the executive director of the Coalition for Smarter Growth calling on the Maryland Department of Transportation to "cancel the ICC." In September 2008, The Sun's columnist Dan Rodricks wrote an anti-ICC opinion piece asserting that the ICC was the "Intercounty Anachronism". Rodricks' column was first rebutted by a letter to the editor by Montgomery County Councilmember Nancy Floreen (D-At Large) and then in a longer op-ed by SHA Administrator Neil Pedersen. Also in September 2008, The Gazette published an op-ed by state delegate Heather R. Mizeur (D-District 20) suggesting that the ICC be canceled. The Mizeur op-ed was rebutted in a response (also published by The Gazette) by Neil Pedersen in October 2008.

In November 2008, it was announced that Environmental Defense had dropped its appeal with the Fourth Circuit of the decision handed down by Judge Williams of the U.S. District Court for Maryland about a year earlier. In exchange for dropping the suit, the State Highway Administration agreed to fund new emissions-reduction technology used by public school buses in Montgomery County; and the SHA will also "sponsor a three-year study that involves installing air quality monitors along a major highway selected for its similar characteristics to the ICC and I-95." Press releases were issued by the State Highway Administration and Environmental Defense discussing the details of the legal settlement.

References

  1. Katherine Shaver (2008-03-18). "Opponents Want Legislature to Halt Construction". Washington Post. Retrieved 2008-10-15.
  2. "County's legislative delegation takes public's pulse at hearings". The Gazette. 1997-10-29. Retrieved 2008-12-05.
  3. Kathryn Tolbert (1980-10-23). "Delegates to Join Highway Protest". The Washington Post. p. MD3. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help) not available from the free Washington Post site, but is available (for a fee) from the Post online archives.
  4. "Bill to Halt Study of Highway Rejected". The Washington Post. 1980-10-30. p. MD4. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help) not available from the free Washington Post site, but is available (for a fee) from the Post online archives.
  5. House Bill 817, Maryland House of Delegates, 1998, retrieved March 7, 2011
  6. House Bill 905, Maryland House of Delegates, 1998, retrieved March 7, 2011
  7. House Bill 732, Maryland House of Delegates, 2004, retrieved March 7, 2011
  8. House Bill 37, Maryland House of Delegates, 2007, retrieved March 7, 2011
  9. House Bill 1416, Maryland House of Delegates, 2008, retrieved March 7, 2011
  10. House Bill 1471, Maryland House of Delegates, 2008, retrieved March 7, 2011
  11. Michael C. Rubenstein (2008-03-17). "FISCAL AND POLICY NOTE - House Bill 1471" (PDF). Maryland Department of Legislative Services. pp. p. 7. Retrieved 2008-12-05. {{cite web}}: External link in |publisher= (help)
  12. House Bill 27, Maryland House of Delegates, 2009, retrieved March 7, 2011
  13. Kevin James Shay (2009-01-21). "Delegate: Maryland shouldn't fund ICC". The Gazette. Retrieved 2009-01-25.
  14. Amanda Mock (2009-03-17). "Fiscal and Policy Note - Senate Bill 753 (Senator Pipkin, et al.) - Transportation - Intercounty Connector - Elimination of Funding" (PDF). Retrieved 2009-03-28.
  15. Adam Pagnucco (2009-03-12). "Pipkin's ICC Gambit". Maryland Politics Watch. Retrieved 2009-03-28.
  16. Not directly available on the Web, but the resolution (in Microsoft Word format), can be found through a search of the Prince George's County Government Legislative Information System for Resoution CR-32-2003
  17. Also not directly available on the Web, but the resolution (in Microsoft Word format), can be found through a search of the Prince George's County Government Legislative Information System for Resoution CR-59-2007
  18. Eric M. Weiss (2006-11-02). "Clean Air Act Cited In Expected Lawsuit". Washington Post. Retrieved 2009-07-23.
  19. "Two lawsuits filed against ICC".
  20. Shaver, Katherine (2006-12-21). "Federal Agency Sued Over Environmental Study". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2010-05-20.
  21. Sean R. Sedam (2006-11-08). "Intercounty Connector foes file intent to sue". The Gazette. Retrieved 2009-04-16.
  22. For an extensive summary of the legal issues raised by the plaintiffs in the lawsuits, see: "State & Federal Agencies Violated Law on Protecting Public Health, Environment and Communities, Charge Residents and Environmental Groups in Legal Challenge". PR Newswire. 2006-12-20. Retrieved 2009-04-22.
  23. "Sierra Club's ICC Lawsuit Moved To U.S. District Court for Maryland" (PDF). The Montgomery County Sierran. June/July 2007. pp. p. 4. Retrieved 2008-07-01. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help) The article states, in part, "... some concern about having the matter heard in Maryland, because appeals of decisions reached by the District Court for Maryland are heard by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, which is one of the most conservative in the country on environmental matters" (emphasis added)
  24. The City of Alexandria, Virginia had been the lead plaintiff in this case, but settled out of court on 1 March 1999, leaving the Sierra Club and several allied groups as the plaintiffs/appellees, see the settlement agreement here: http://www.wilsonbridge.com/pdfs/rodReport/Attachment%204%20-%20Settlement%20Agreement.pdf.
  25. City of Alexandria, Virginia, et al., Appellees v. Rodney E. Slater, Secretary, U.S. Department of Transportation, et al., Appellants, 198 F.3d 862 (United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit 1999)., see also Federal Historic Preservation Case Law for a discussion of the Wilson Bridge case here: http://www.achp.gov/book/case153.html
  26. Katherine Shaver (2007-10-02). "Agencies Accused of Wrongly Approving Md. Highway Study". Washington Post. Retrieved 2008-07-08.
  27. Audubon Naturalist Society of the Central Atlantic States, Inc., Environmental Defense, et al. v. United States Department of Transportation, et al., AW-06-3386 and AW-07-1480 (Consolidated) (U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland 2007-11-08).
  28. "ICC Construction Can Move Forward". Associated Press (via WTOP Radio website). 2007-11-08. Retrieved 2007-11-09.
  29. "Judge Rules ICC Construction Can Go Ahead". NBC4. 2007-11-08. Retrieved 2007-11-08.
  30. Shaver, Katherine (2007-11-09). "Judge Paves the Way For Long-Delayed ICC". Washington Post. Retrieved 2007-11-09.
  31. "Court throws out enviros' suit to block start on Maryland Inter County Connector tollroad". TOLLROADSnews. 2007-11-08. Retrieved 2007-11-09.
  32. "Court Rules Against Obstructionists Gives ICC Green Light". Northern Virginia Transportation Alliance. 2007-11-08. Retrieved 2007-11-20.
  33. "ICC is a go, judge says". The Gazette. 2007-11-09. Retrieved 2007-11-09.
  34. Killian, Erin (2007-11-08). "Judge rules against environmentalists, for Intercounty Connector". Washington Business Journal. Retrieved 2007-11-11.
  35. "Md. gets OK for intercounty highway". Baltimore Sun. 2007-11-08. Retrieved 2007-11-09. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  36. "Environmental Groups, Local Residents Express Disappointment in Court Ruling on Intercounty Connector, Vow to Consider Legal Options". Environmental Defense. 2007-11-08. Retrieved 2007-11-09. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  37. "ICC neighbors decry ruling that allows road to proceed". The Gazette. 2007-11-14. Retrieved 2007-11-15. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  38. Miranda S. Spivack (2008-01-08). "Environmentalists Plan an Appeal". Washington Post. Retrieved 2008-09-18. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  39. Michael Dresser (2008-01-09). "Foes of ICC file appeal in U.S. court". Baltimore Sun. Retrieved 2008-06-01. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  40. "Environmental Groups Appeal Ruling on ICC". Associated Press (via WTOP Radio website). 2008-01-07. Retrieved 2008-01-07. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  41. "Environmental Defense Appeals Intercounty Connector Ruling". Reuters. 2008-01-07. Retrieved 2008-01-07. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  42. "Environmental groups appeal ICC ruling". The Gazette. 2008-01-09. Retrieved 2008-01-11. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  43. "Neighborhood 'wake' in Derwood will highlight impact of ICC". The Gazette. 2008-04-23. Retrieved 2008-05-05. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  44. St. George, Donna (2008-04-27). "Derwood Residents Rally Against Highway". Washington Post. Retrieved 2008-05-05. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  45. Matt Dernoga (2008-04-03). "Mass Trans***". The Diamondback. Retrieved 2009-04-20. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  46. Katherine Shaver (2008-06-25). "Students, Parents of School Next to Proposed Road Ask Governor to Halt Construction". Washington Post. Retrieved 2008-06-30. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  47. Stewart Schwartz (2008-08-07). "Md. can't afford to build the ICC". Baltimore Sun. Retrieved 2008-08-07. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  48. Dan Rodricks (2008-09-21). "ICC? It's time to see to more urgent needs instead". Baltimore Sun. Retrieved 2008-10-10. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  49. Nancy Floreen (2008-09-29). "Better mobility boosts economy". Baltimore Sun. Retrieved 2008-10-10. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  50. Neil J. Pedersen (2008-10-10). "A worthwhile investment". Baltimore Sun. Retrieved 2008-10-10. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  51. Heather R. Mizeur (2007-09-25). "Scrap the ICC". The Gazette. Retrieved 2007-10-16. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  52. Neil J. Pedersen (2007-10-16). "SHA administrator responds to ICC criticisms". The Gazette. Retrieved 2007-10-16. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  53. Adam Tuss (2008-11-17). "Controversial ICC clears major legal hurdle". WTOP Radio. Retrieved 2008-11-17. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  54. Eric M. Weiss (2008-11-18). "Maryland, Environmental Groups Settle Last Lawsuit". Washington Post. Retrieved 2008-11-18. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  55. "MARYLAND STATE HIGHWAY ADMINISTRATION AND THE ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENSE FUND SETTLE INTERCOUNTY CONNECTOR APPEAL". Maryland State Highway Administration. 2008-11-17. Retrieved 2008-11-20. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  56. "Group Wins Public Health Benefits in ICC Suit Settlement". Environmental Defense Fund. 2008-11-17. Retrieved 2008-11-20. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
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