Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Washington Post
January 11, 2008
Pg. B1
Montgomery Wants Reconsideration for Expansion Program
By Steve Vogel, Washington Post Staff Writer
A frustrated Montgomery County Planning Board called on the federal government yesterday to pay more for transportation improvements needed for the expansion of the naval hospital in Bethesda, saying the Navy has provided too little information and promised too little help.
Plans released by the Navy last month project more than 950,000 visitors a year, almost double the current number, at the National Naval Medical Center after 2011, when the Pentagon closes Walter Reed Army Medical Center in the District.
Planning commissioners criticized the Navy's draft environmental impact statement as vague and inadequate and questioned its contention that $70 million in road improvement projects outside the base -- among them a proposed widening of already congested Wisconsin Avenue -- do not meet criteria for military funding.
"This is not a Montgomery County challenge, nor a Maryland challenge. This is a national challenge," said Commissioner Jean Cryor. "It needs national money."
The expansion, creating a state-of-the-art military hospital, is part of the national base realignment and closure recommendations.
Local officials believe that the road projects should qualify for the Defense Access Roads Program, under which the military pays for a share of the cost of road improvements to mitigate "an unusual impact of a defense activity" that results from base realignment.
At Fort Belvoir, which is in the midst of growth expected to bring 19,000 jobs to the Fairfax County post, the Army has certified several road projects improving access to the Engineer Proving Ground as eligible for military funds.
But the Navy report said the planned expansion at Bethesda does not meet the definition of "unusual impact." The staff there, which numbers 8,000, is expected to grow by no more than 2,500, and so traffic is not expected to double, as required by the definition.
A county planning report called it "curious" that the Navy "does not consider this merger of primary elements of two major military medical facilities in a densely populated urban setting to be unusual. . . . While traffic may not be doubled, it is difficult to understand why this criterion does not take into account the existing level of traffic congestion."
John Carman, chairman of the county's BRAC Implementation Committee, told the planning commission yesterday that the definition "makes no sense" in an urban area.
"I don't think anyone wants to be the first patient of the doctor who waited 40 minutes to take a left turn to get into work," he said.
"The limited traffic analysis that's been done to date is not adequate."
The commissioners' complaints about the Navy report were echoed by representatives of neighborhood groups who spoke at the board's meeting yesterday. A Navy representative monitored the meeting but did not speak.
The planning commissioners forwarded recommendations for road improvements to the County Council, including adding turn lanes at several intersections and widening Wisconsin Avenue. But they acknowledged that there is little the county can do to force the Pentagon or Congress to pay for more infrastructure improvements.
"We're responding almost as if we're powerless, and we are, to a certain extent," said Commissioner Allison Bryant, who nonetheless said the county should urge "bold" action in the hopes that it "might in fact stimulate others who do have control."
Commissioners also said that the Navy's draft statement provided few answers about the amount of traffic that will be generated and other effects of the doubling of the number of visitors.
"The questions are just extraordinary," Cryor said. "All we seem to know is, they're coming."
Chairman Royce Hanson, supported by the board, asked the Navy to provide a more comprehensive analysis of the impact of the expansion on roads and the availability of housing.
January 11, 2008
Pg. B1
Montgomery Wants Reconsideration for Expansion Program
By Steve Vogel, Washington Post Staff Writer
A frustrated Montgomery County Planning Board called on the federal government yesterday to pay more for transportation improvements needed for the expansion of the naval hospital in Bethesda, saying the Navy has provided too little information and promised too little help.
Plans released by the Navy last month project more than 950,000 visitors a year, almost double the current number, at the National Naval Medical Center after 2011, when the Pentagon closes Walter Reed Army Medical Center in the District.
Planning commissioners criticized the Navy's draft environmental impact statement as vague and inadequate and questioned its contention that $70 million in road improvement projects outside the base -- among them a proposed widening of already congested Wisconsin Avenue -- do not meet criteria for military funding.
"This is not a Montgomery County challenge, nor a Maryland challenge. This is a national challenge," said Commissioner Jean Cryor. "It needs national money."
The expansion, creating a state-of-the-art military hospital, is part of the national base realignment and closure recommendations.
Local officials believe that the road projects should qualify for the Defense Access Roads Program, under which the military pays for a share of the cost of road improvements to mitigate "an unusual impact of a defense activity" that results from base realignment.
At Fort Belvoir, which is in the midst of growth expected to bring 19,000 jobs to the Fairfax County post, the Army has certified several road projects improving access to the Engineer Proving Ground as eligible for military funds.
But the Navy report said the planned expansion at Bethesda does not meet the definition of "unusual impact." The staff there, which numbers 8,000, is expected to grow by no more than 2,500, and so traffic is not expected to double, as required by the definition.
A county planning report called it "curious" that the Navy "does not consider this merger of primary elements of two major military medical facilities in a densely populated urban setting to be unusual. . . . While traffic may not be doubled, it is difficult to understand why this criterion does not take into account the existing level of traffic congestion."
John Carman, chairman of the county's BRAC Implementation Committee, told the planning commission yesterday that the definition "makes no sense" in an urban area.
"I don't think anyone wants to be the first patient of the doctor who waited 40 minutes to take a left turn to get into work," he said.
"The limited traffic analysis that's been done to date is not adequate."
The commissioners' complaints about the Navy report were echoed by representatives of neighborhood groups who spoke at the board's meeting yesterday. A Navy representative monitored the meeting but did not speak.
The planning commissioners forwarded recommendations for road improvements to the County Council, including adding turn lanes at several intersections and widening Wisconsin Avenue. But they acknowledged that there is little the county can do to force the Pentagon or Congress to pay for more infrastructure improvements.
"We're responding almost as if we're powerless, and we are, to a certain extent," said Commissioner Allison Bryant, who nonetheless said the county should urge "bold" action in the hopes that it "might in fact stimulate others who do have control."
Commissioners also said that the Navy's draft statement provided few answers about the amount of traffic that will be generated and other effects of the doubling of the number of visitors.
"The questions are just extraordinary," Cryor said. "All we seem to know is, they're coming."
Chairman Royce Hanson, supported by the board, asked the Navy to provide a more comprehensive analysis of the impact of the expansion on roads and the availability of housing.