Tell them who you are, and why you care. State your name, where you live, and any other details about yourself and your unique perspective on this issue that you would like to share. The more you can share about what motivates you to speak out, the stronger your testimony.
Category: Fact sheets and Flyers
VDOT’s Outer Beltway
VDOT’s OUTER BELTWAY
Community Meeting
Monday, March 11
7:00 – 9:00 PM
Chantilly Regional Library
4000 Stringfellow Rd – Chantilly (map) – served by Fairfax Connector bus rt. 605
Come early to view maps & displays
Resources
At the meeting, we discussed how the Outer Beltway would affect traffic in the region, the impacts on our property and communities, how much new land the project would open to new development, and how many new commuters we can expect on I-66, Route 50, and other major routes
The Regional Medical Center belongs at a Metro Station
All Prince George’s County residents have a vested interest in getting the decision right about where to locate and how to design the new county and state-supported $650 million Regional Medical Center with a workforce of more than 2000 employees. To leverage the most competitive healthcare benefits and economic development opportunities, we need state-of-the-art urban design at a Metro station.
Building a new Regional Medical Center at a Metro station means:
- A regionally transit-connected center of medical excellence that can attract the best in class workforce using a walkable urban design that integrates into the surrounding context;
- Less traffic, more access for workers, and more convenient access to quality healthcare for everyone, including individuals who must rely on transit;
- Jumpstarting other quality mixed-use development, delivering a big economic boost for Prince George’s and the surrounding area.
Largo Town Center Metro station is the best option
- Largo Metro has a vacant 20 acre site (old parcel D) just east of the entrance owned by PNG Schwartz that already has 1 million square feet approved for a federal HHS office building on just half of the site (Commons at Largo). 20 acres is plenty of room for a state-of-the-art hospital and medical office buildings. The 69-acre Boulevard at Capital Centre is on county owned land and could be part of a larger medical complex in the future.
- Largo Metro station has ample vacant land, multiple roadway connections, rail & bus service, nearby retail, office and residential uses.
- Combined with a pedestrian-friendly urban design, a hospital center could drive economic development as an anchor for a mixed-use destination and downtown district for Prince George’s.
- The medical center can be sensitively located in the existing community around the Largo Town Center Metro station to manage traffic and ensure that existing residents will have improved access to the Metro, nearby services, offices, and new jobs.
Why the 2 non-Metro sites would be a major missed opportunity for the county
- Both the Woodmore Towne Centre and the Landover Mall sites are located a mile and half from the closest Metro station – too far to walk & too far to leverage Metro access for more transit-oriented economic development.
- Far from Metro, Woodmore Towne Centre is a sprawling 245-acre, automobile-oriented, outside-thebeltway greenfield site that hasn’t been able to attract the investment it promised.
- Landover Mall needs reinvestment but its distance to a Metro station and lack of connectivity to a mixed-use district makes it a poor candidate for a competitive Regional Medical Center.
- These sites would generate more traffic since it would be difficult for anyone to access the medical center without a car.
Coalition for Smarter Growth: Sign the petition & learn more at smartergrowth.net/PGmedicalcenter
Background Memo on Virginia Transportation Funding
1. VDOT is wasting money on the wrong projects. These include: Route 460: This $1.4 billion proposed new highway between Suffolk and Petersburg; over $1.1 billion of taxpayer funds, plus tolls. The current Route 460 carries just 11,000 trips per day. Coalfields Expressway: $2.8 billion for a new highway in least-trafficked area of the state. Charlottesville Bypass: This $243 million project doesn’t solve congestion and saves minimal travel time for commuters. North-South Corridor: This estimated $1 billion piece of an Outer Beltway around D.C. doesn’t address commuter needs and would add development and traffic in areas without infrastructure. Meanwhile, the state says it will not contribute to roads for Tysons, it hasn’t provided adequate funds to reduce tolls for Dulles Rail and Midtown/Downtown Tunnels, and it has zeroed out secondary road funds.
Key Parking Policy Reforms Worth Talking About in D.C.
A fact sheet detailing three important parking reform policies that would benefit D.C.
Connecting the Dots: An Outer Beltway Before You Know It
A recent history of the Outer Beltway.
Route 460 Would Waste Billions of Dollars and Divert Scarce Revenues From Higher Priority Needs
A fact sheet comparing 2009 traffic volumes on Route 460 against other roadways in Virginia, using VDOT’s traffic volume data. The data demonstrates that traffic is not projected to increase by an amount that warrants the cost and risk of this project.
Life without a car: Possible and Popular in D.C.
What the 2010 Census tells us about auto and transit use in the District.
Virginia Pedestrian Safety Fact Sheet 2009
Statistics on how Virginia compares nationally on measures of pedestrian safety.
Review of VDOT Techway study on American Legion Bridge
Proponents of a new Potomac River bridge crossing, the so-called “techway,” have long claimed that “U-shaped commuters” are clogging the American Legion Bridge and that this justifies a new bridge to get them directly from homes to jobs in Montgomery and Fairfax/Loudoun. Yet the new study shows that at most 2000 commuters out of 24,679 Maryland and Virginia cars counted are making what could be called a U-shaped commute…