Montgomery County Council hands taxpayers $54 million bill for CCT tunnel in Bethesda

Council declined to

force developers to

pay for it in 2014

The Montgomery County Council yesterday took a preliminary step toward funding a $54 million tunnel under Wisconsin Avenue in Bethesda for the Capital Crescent Trail. While the tunnel is vital and widely supported in the community, it's critical to remember that you - the taxpayer - should never have had to pick up the tab for it. The Council had the choice and authority - and the moral obligation and fiduciary responsibility - to require in the 2014 Apex Building Minor Master Plan Amendment that the future developer of 7272 Wisconsin Avenue fund and construct the CCT tunnel in exchange for the added height and density they would receive via the amendment. Not surprisingly for a Council that received over 80% of its campaign contributions from developers, it declined to make its developer sugar daddies do so.

While the Council tried to frame yesterday's straw vote as a humanitarian good work on their part, it was instead a reminder of their corruption, and their endless dodging of their fundamental responsibility to work for the People who elected them. If the Council had stipulated construction of the tunnel as a condition in that 2014 amendment, imagine what else we could be putting that $54 million in capital funds toward in the coming years. At this point, only delusional optimists like our Councilmembers can even be confident that such funds will be there in the mid-2020s, following the coronavirus-fueled Depression we are now entering.

Instead of opening the tunnel simultaneously with the rest of the project, completion of the CCT under Wisconsin Avenue will take years after the Purple Line begins operation. That will send pedestrians and cyclists across Wisconsin Avenue at a busy intersection for that many years longer. Heckuva job, Brownie!

Where the bicycle tire rubber meets the trail pavement, our "transit-only" Council transportation geniuses just happen to have a horrible record on infrastructure and transit. Damascus doesn't even have bus service at all on weekends and holidays anymore. Hard truth: the CCT tunnel, and trail users' safety, absolutely was not a priority for the County Council in 2014, when they gave developers a free pass. Neither was fiscal responsibility - and we know this complicated engineering project will end up costing far more than $54 million by its years-late completion.

The Council action yesterday was the equivalent of crashing a rental car, robbing a bank to steal the money to pay for it, and then expecting to receive the key to the city and a gold watch for your humanitarian works. It's outrageous.