Connector road debate heats up

The start of a study examining a university-supported solution to calm Route 1 traffic snarls has morphed into a political stalemate between city, state and university officials as an election looms in the backdrop.

To hear university officials tell it, a proposed connector road that would connect the Beltway with Comcast Center would alleviate rush-hour gridlock and provide a direct route to the campus. But city and state elected officials have fought hard against any plans moving the project forward, so the start of the study has roiled those in opposition.

The source of the opposition centers around the road's potential impact on the land it will be built on. Though the general location for construction has been decided, the study, led by the State Highway Administration, will examine how to best navigate a route through an area of private homes and a federally protected research park with minimal impact.

Residents and city officials fear routes could impact the College Park Woods neighborhood or permanently overtake the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, a complex proposition because state highway officials would need an act of Congress to take over the land.

It is unclear how much students would benefit from the road, although university President Dan Mote has said the road could become the "prominent entrance to the campus."

"This road is the only solution that anyone has been able to identify to my knowledge to reduce traffic along Route 1 and the traffic that would increase as a result of the [M-square] research park," Mote said.

But Mote's "only solution" assertion has caused consternation among the Annapolis delegation, which introduced a bill this year that would require the university to study ways to reduce traffic on the campus. Results of the study would likely provide the delegation with ammunition to kill funding for the connector road because it would likely increase on-campus traffic.

"Anything we can do to get cars off the road, I support," said Barbara Frush (D-Anne Arundel and Prince George's), who sponsored the bill. "If the university is so hell-bent on this, they can bring it through their own property. Unfortunately, it would come through the golf course."

In addition to the road encroaching on private and federally protected land, several officials have raised the possibility that the road would be closed to the public and made available to students and faculty only.

But the prospect of a private road for exclusive university use is a source of sharp frustration for College Park Mayor Stephen Brayman, who says taxpayers should not have to shoulder the burden of a road they cannot use. Additionally, Brayman and other local officials share a widespread concern that the connector road would draw away funds and attention from Route 1 redevelopment.

"Every dollar taken away and spent on something else in College Park is potentially setting up the future to be creating an even more dysfunctional Route 1," Brayman said. "It's a real shame that state officials can't understand that Route 1 is not a priority."

State Sen. John Giannetti (D-Anne Arundel and Prince George's), a key supporter of the road, shrugs off assertions that he hasn't made Route 1 a priority in Annapolis. He also said if local officials would get on board with the connector road, things might come together more quickly for Route 1 redevelopment.

"The city council and I are together on Route 1, but they're against the connector road," Giannetti said. "The county executive is not going to reward them with a project like [Route 1] until everybody's on the scene. - It hurts us politically."

Vice President of Administrative Affairs John Porcari said "all we have asked for is a study" to determine feasibility. He said a high level of community input would be sought during the comment phases of the study, allowing both residents and city officials to voice opposition. State Highway officials said the study would take three to four years.

But College Park Councilwoman Joseline Peña-Melnyk, who is running for a seat in the House of Delegates and lives in the College Park Woods neighborhood which could be impacted by the road, would have preferred no study go forward at all.

"The city and the community people living around the university feel it's a bad mistake to even consider a connector road," Peña-Melnyk said. "It will ruin the community, it will take property from the Beltsville Agricultural station. It's the wrong road in the wrong place."

Contact reporter Kevin Litten at littendbk@gmail.com.