Montgomery County planning sneaky speed limit cut on Josiah Henson Parkway

The Montgomery County Planning Board is on the verge of approving a War on Cars draft of the Master Plan of Highways and Transitways at its meeting this Thursday, April 10, 2025. Removal of the M-83 Highway (Midcounty Highway Extended) is the centerpiece of the document. Opponents of the highway have successfully blocked its construction for decades, but anti-highway officials on the Planning Board and County Council are seeking to take matters a deranged step further by removing any possibility of its construction, despite it being the most-essential piece of infrastructure to support the growth upcounty that has already been approved and realized over the last twenty years. Also buried within the document are thousands of speed limit reductions to 20 or 25 MPH, even on major state highways.

Just one of many egregious speed limit cuts proposed is on Josiah Henson Parkway, between the "Western edge of downtown White Flint" and E. Jefferson Street, and from E. Jefferson Street to Towne Road. The change would lower the speed limit from 40 MPH to 25 MPH. In addition, the street classification of Josiah Henson Parkway (a.k.a. Montrose Parkway) would be changed from "parkway" to "Downtown Boulevard."

If this sounds familiar, it's because it has already happened elsewhere in the County. Developers seeking to demolish homes, churches, and country clubs along major state highways, and replace them with urban apartment towers, were successful in politicizing the Maryland State Highway Administration during the Larry Hogan administration. Formerly staunch advocates of sound traffic engineering best practices, MDSHA became a political playtoy amenable to any request from local officials beholden to development interests. This led to major speed limit cuts on highways like Georgia Avenue and River Road.

Josiah Henson Parkway is a County road, and the Montgomery County Department of Transportation was politicized even earlier this century than MDSHA was. The speed limit drop and street reclassification request for the parkway is being made (surprise!) on behalf of developers who are seeking to redevelop the land around it. This is yet another abuse of the system in Montgomery County. Not only was our master plan highway system never completed, but we have a continual effort to further cripple the congested roadways that somehow got built. Taxpayers were charged a fortune to build Josiah Henson Parkway, a mere shadow of the Rockville Freeway that was originally intended to use this right-of-way between Falls Road in Potomac and the InterCounty Connector in Silver Spring. Further impeding the (already-compromised) vehicle throughput function of the road we paid for, to facilitate private developer profits, is an abuse, theft, and misuse of public property.

The revision of the master plan of highways is a massive compendium of many such abuses. Most of the public will be unaware of the changes proposed until the new speed limit signs are installed. The document is fully "woke," to be sure. And while planners are smugly proud of their newfound power to ram things through over any public objection - a.k.a. dictatorship - they are most proud of the document's "Racial Equity and Social Justice Statement," which pretty much tells you how insane and out-of-touch-with-reality planning and governing in Montgomery County have become.

Montrose Parkway East extension is essential infrastructure for Montgomery County

A third major effort to kill the long-delayed eastward extension of Montrose Parkway to Veirs Mill Road is underway. The war-on-cars Montgomery County Council is due to vote on the funding for the project in January. Killing the road or delaying it further would not be well-received by their constituents, who are stuck on the few existing east-west roads during rush hour daily. Then again, some on the Council sealed their electoral fates this fall, when they voted to kill the Midcounty Highway Extended (M-83), so maybe they have nothing to lose.

In times when radical ideologues put political whims and developer interests above their constituents, and are derelict in their duty to provide essential infrastructure, it's worthwhile to review the facts.

1. The Montrose Parkway, including the Montrose Parkway East, is arguably the infrastructure linchpin of the White Flint sector plan. 

2. Opponents often claim it is incompatible with the White Flint street grid, which misses the critical point: Montrose Parkway is not and was never meant to be part of the White Flint urban street grid. Its primary function, in fact, is to keep traffic that is not destined for White Flint off of that local street grid. That actually makes it safer for the pedestrians and cyclists we are encouraging to use those alternate modes of transportation to get around the urbanized Pike District.

3. Montrose Parkway, especially including the eastern extension, is critical to the success of retail and restaurant businesses in White Flint. The parkway's secondary function is to bring patrons of the businesses in the Pike District who live elsewhere in the County into the "downtown" from places like Wheaton, Aspen Hill and the I-270 corridor. Increasing trip times will only send those drivers to other commercial destinations. With a private-sector economy increasingly termed "moribund" by even the most progressive voices in the County, a loss of more than 2000 retail jobs since 2000 (according to the Maryland Retailers Association), and a stagnant restaurant sector (according to Melvin Thompson of the Restaurant Association of Maryland), we can hardly afford to self-sabotage White Flint.

4. The Montrose Parkway is a vital piece of a cross-county right-of-way known as the Rockville Facility. It was placed in earlier master plans as a future road to handle what everyone tells us will be a massive influx of new residents and development between now and 2040. The Rockville Facility extends from Falls Road in Potomac along Montrose Road and the Montrose Parkway to the Intercounty Connector, near the former site of the Indian Springs Country Club in Layhill.

For that reason, any attempt to downsize or intentionally slow traffic on the parkway will have dire repercussions far beyond the Pike District. It is gambling away what little capacity and valuable right-of-way we have left in reserve. The reality is, there is no other such east-west route available for a road.

5. Failure to build the extension, including the grade-separated interchange at Parklawn Drive, would forever stain the records of those who cast such a vote. There are four major infrastructure projects that were promised by all stakeholders in exchange for profitable development opportunities at White Flint, a $72 million developer tax cut, and hefty campaign checks for the Montgomery County Council. Only one of them, the Western Workaround, is currently moving forward. Still unprovided by the County Council are the new elementary school, the new MARC station, and the Montrose Parkway extension.

Very similar to the Council's bait and switch betrayal of upcounty residents with the M-83, cancellation of the Montrose Parkway East would prove that councilmembers only give lip service to necessary infrastructure in order to ram through the development. That's exactly the attitude that caused term limits to pass by an overwhelming vote by County residents last fall.

6. Funding for the Montrose Parkway vs. other long-delayed infrastructure in the County is not a zero-sum game. The parkway is an essential piece of infrastructure upon which all of the current and future development in White Flint and White Flint 2 will rely for adequate transportation capacity, and to promote the success of a walkable urban street grid amongst its new developments. It is not something that can simply be deleted because funds are tight, or because the Council has dropped the ball on infrastructure countywide. That's not the way planning and infrastructure work.

Much like M-83, the time to fund and construct the Montrose Parkway East is now; based on what County officials are hinting at for the redevelopment of Aspen Hill, Glenmont and Wheaton, it won't be long before we'll have to start planning future extensions to Connecticut Avenue (where ramp stubs are already in place for the road's planned cloverleaf interchange), Georgia Avenue and the ICC.

7. There are enough major development opportunities at the Montrose Parkway-355 interchange that we don't need to sabotage the parkway to create a smaller one near Parklawn. Air rights above the entire interchange can be sold to any interested developer. Along with the orphaned, pointless parking lot north of Pike & Rose, decking above the interchange could eventually create a seamless pedestrian connection between that development and a redeveloped Montrose Crossing.

The County Council's vote will cement their historical position as either responsible, honest stewards of growth and infrastructure (and I realize that is, frankly, a laughable thing to say about this Council) at White Flint, or a radical, war-on-cars mob of firebrands who have no qualms about burning down the foundations of the sector plan they passed unanimously in 2010.

Montrose Parkway extension would reduce congestion, increase Pike access in Pike District (Photos)

Representatives of the Montgomery County Department of Transportation and Maryland State Highway Administration held a public hearing at the Executive Office Building last night, regarding the planned eastward extension of Montrose Parkway. Bruce Johnston of MCDOT's Division of Transportaton Engineering said that despite the addition of transit and bicycle facilities in the Pike District, those improvements "still need to be accompanied by additional roadway capacity."

Like the already-completed segment of the Montrose Parkway, the extension would again utilize the Rockville Facility right-of-way. That highway facility dates back to the 1960s, when it was planned as part of the never-built Outer Beltway. By the 1970s, that road site moved northward to the present Sam Eig Highway/Interstate 370/ICC in Gaithersburg. The Rockville Facility was then expected to be used for the 6-lane Rockville Freeway, which would stretch between Falls Road in Potomac and the ICC east of Layhill Road. The Rockville Freeway was ultimately canceled by County Executive Sid Kramer in the 1980s, which remains one of the biggest blunders in county transportation history.

Needing more road capacity for then-percolating redevelopment plans for White Flint, planners and politicians then resurrected a portion of the Rockville Facility between Montrose Road and Veirs Mill Road. This time, they planned a 4-lane parkway, named the Montrose Parkway. Phase 1 has already been built between Montrose and Randolph Roads, included a grade-separated interchange at Rockville Pike. Completion of that project produced tangible results, cutting travel times between Bethesda and Rockville by up to 5 minutes.

With that success in mind, two more eastward segments are in the works. The one discussed last night will run from Randolph Road, cross over the CSX railroad tracks and Parklawn Drive as an elevated highway, and connect to Phase 3, the final leg to Veirs Mill.

The parkway will allow east-west through traffic to pass through the Pike District without causing congestion on the Pike District's urban street grid. At the same time, it will provide additional connectivity between residential developments around it and the Pike, engineers said. Residents of the Bethesda Park condos, for example, could walk from Parklawn Drive to the 10 foot shared-use path along the Montrose Parkway, and end up at Rockville Pike, they said.

Speeds on the new parkway segment would be 40 MPH, and forest conservation and environmental improvements would be part of the project, Johnston said.

Unfortunately, a developer-backed effort continues to try to foil the grade-separated section of Phase 2, and make it just a local street with more traffic lights and slower speeds. That is because such a street would facilitate higher-density development around it.

That effort was foiled temporarily when the Montgomery County Planning Board voted 4-1 to approve the grade-separated interchange.

Why is the grade-separated interchange so critical?

Because the Montrose Parkway design will have countywide traffic impacts now, and for decades to come. Most of the area around the Rockville Facility is now planned to experience a massive increase in population and vehicle traffic over the next 20 years. The White Flint Sector Plan is already on the books and building out steadily. Coming soon are the City of Rockville's Rockville Pike Plan, White Flint 2 Sector Plan, and Aspen Hill Sector Plan, to name a few.

Two consecutive Planning Board Chairs have expressed support publicly for an urbanization of Aspen Hill, which would involve demolition of existing affordable housing, and construction of thousands of new luxury apartments and condos there. Neighboring Glenmont will be growing even larger. In short, nearly every stretch of the Rockville Facility is scheduled for a building boom, but without any new major roads to support that growth.

This means that eventually the Montrose Parkway will have to be extended from Veirs Mill to Connecticut Avenue, Georgia Avenue, Layhill Road and the ICC. Such a connection would have positive benefits for economic development between White Flint and the I-95 corridor, as well as boosting small businesses in places like Aspen Hill, which would be more accessible.

That's why the big picture has to be remembered when discussing this one tiny portion of the Montrose Parkway around Parklawn. If you gum up the Parkway there as an urban street, it will cause backups countywide years later.

If you want an idea of how big of an impact the Rockville Facility has on areas that aren't even adjacent to it, examine old planning documents. In the 1970s, county planners told the County Council that they couldn't tell them how many housing units they could approve in the Kensington Sector Plan, unless the Council told planners whether or not they were going to build the Rockville Freeway (they never did build it, of course, which is one reason traffic is bumper to bumper through Kensington every rush hour).

There were also transportation compromises in the Pike District that made the Montrose Parkway the linchpin of the White Flint Sector Plan. An emphasis on transit, biking and walkability meant no future streets in the Pike District's urban grid are designed for maximum vehicle flow during rush hour. And more recently, a "road diet" was approved for Old Georgetown Road between Executive Boulevard and Rockville Pike. That decision was facilitated by directing a large portion of that existing traffic to take the Montrose Parkway to access the Pike. So reducing speeds and increasing congestion on the Parkway would have a disastrous impact on Old Georgetown Road and Rockville Pike traffic.

It doesn't make sense to try to develop around Parklawn by sabotaging the transportation needs of the County as a whole, when there is the possibility of decking over the parkway's interchange with the Pike, and creating a large development site there. A similar decking was done to create the Wisconsin Avenue "air rights" development between Elm Street and Bethesda Avenue in downtown Bethesda. Federal Realty, for example, could connect Pike & Rose with its future potential redevelopment of Montrose Crossing, as one way to make a seamless connection between White Flint 1 and 2.

Aside from development interests opposing the grade-separation over Parklawn, nearby residents have concerns about noise. Out of 8 total speakers last night, several mentioned the need for sound walls along the parkway extension.

A Franklin Park resident also brought up a good point about the existing parkway traffic signals. While travel time has been reduced on Rockville Pike over the parkway, the traffic signals along Montrose Parkway tend to turn red too often, and stay red too long. I notice this particularly when trying to make the left turn under the MD 355 bridge to reach the Pike. That will have to be adjusted as greater vehicle loads use the road.

One Bethesda Park resident brought up a fallacy regarding the potential to extend Montrose Parkway eastward past Veirs Mill Road. This is a common misperception that even planning staff and the Planning Board were not aware of until I testified at the hearing where they ultimately switched their votes to approve the grade-separated parkway segment for Parklawn. The misperception is that the rest of the Rockville Facility has been permanently designated as Matthew Henson State Park, and cannot be used as a transportation facility in the future.

That's not true.

The truth is that the misguided state legislation that was used to help kill the Rockville Freeway contains a loophole, that allows the state legislature to revert Matthew Henson State Park to a highway facility at any time in the future.

Again, this is why we have to keep the big picture, and the greater good in mind. Certainly, it would be important to have sound walls where needed. But it's important to remember that the Rockville Facility/Montrose Parkway isn't a new idea dropped on the area like the Westbard or Chevy Chase Lake urbanization plans. As far back as the 1960s, residents knew that some kind of major road was coming through there. In fact, the prior roads were going to be far noisier and higher-speed than the current parkway proposal.

This is one of several unbuilt highway projects critical to the future of Montgomery County.

PIKE AND ROSE PHASE II: A BIRD'S EYE OVERVIEW (PHOTOS)

Even as Phase I of Federal Realty's Pike & Rose development rises over White Flint, Phase II is now coming before the Montgomery County Planning Board.

In these images from Federal Realty and the planning department, you can see what Federal Realty is proposing, as well as where the public use spaces will be.

One intriguing note on Figure "5" where you see various parcels divided up by ownership: Take a look at the yellow area adjacent to the Montrose Parkway. Notice the owner of that piece is the Maryland State Highway Administration. Above that, get out your magnifying glass. By golly, you can barely make out the words, but, sure enough, it says, "Rockville Freeway."

This was likely an off ramp from the unbuilt Rockville Freeway that would have carried exiting freeway traffic onto southbound MD 355.

Similar plots remain for freeway interchanges at Seven Locks and Montrose Road, as well as Falls Road and Montrose.

MONTGOMERY COUNTY PLANNING BOARD RECOMMENDS GRADE-SEPARATED INTERCHANGE FOR MONTROSE PARKWAY AT PARKLAWN, AGAINST CLOSURE OF RANDOLPH ROAD

The Montgomery County Planning Board made two White Flint-related recommendations requested by transportation authorities yesterday.

Maryland's State Highway Administration and the Montgomery County Department of Transportation sought the board's input on whether or not to close Randolph Road permanently at the CSX railroad crossing, and what type of interchange the Montrose Parkway should have at Parklawn Drive.

After public testimony and discussion, the board recommended to keep Randolph open.

The commissioners voted 4-1 to recommend a grade-separated, single-point urban interchange for the Montrose Parkway at Parklawn.  Commissioner Casey Anderson cast the lone dissenting vote.

I believe these were both good decisions for White Flint, and the county as a whole.

Leaving Randolph open will allow residents and patrons of businesses access, while also making it easier to travel to the new White Flint development via bicycle from Randolph Hills.

And keeping through traffic moving with the highway-style interchange will keep it off the new street grid in White Flint, allowing safer movement for pedestrians and cyclists.

By retaining the original express traffic concept, the larger Rockville Facility remains viable to construct the long-delayed Rockville Freeway. The Rockville Freeway, if you are not a regular reader of this blog, includes the built and planned Montrose Parkway segments, but would continue northeast to Connecticut Avenue, Georgia Avenue, and Layhill Road, ending at an interchange with the ICC near Indian Spring Country Club.