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Urban Road Code Compliance in Clarksburg

Letter to Planning Board, April 25, 2018

Dear Chairman Anderson,

Action Committee for Transit (ACT) is an advocacy group dedicated to better communities through improved public transit in Montgomery County. We have been strong supporters of Council Bill 33-13, which established an urban road code. The urban road code applies to designated urban areas, including the Clarksburg Town Center urban area.

Clarksburg CIP Project No. 508000-09 (Clarksburg Road - Frederick Road) is in the Clarksburg Town Center urban area. Yet according to the Planning Department's staff report, the proposed project does not comply with the requirements of the urban road code. We therefore ask the Planning Board to disapprove this proposed project and recommend that MCDOT revise it so that it complies with the urban road code requirements.

The project as currently proposed fails to meet the requirements of the urban road code as follows.

1. Target speed. The urban road code requires a target speed of 25 mph or less. However, the proposed project has a design speed of 35 mph, with intended posted speed limits of 30 mph on Frederick Road, 30 mph on Clarksburg Road southwest of the intersection, and 35 mph on Clarksburg Road northeast of the intersection. Clarksburg Road northeast of the intersection is a county road. (MCDOT's adjacent CIP project 508000-03 at Clarksburg Road and Snowden Farm Parkway also does not comply with the urban road code requirements. This project is also in the Clarksburg Town Center urban area, and both roads are county roads. Yet the project has a design speed and intended posted speed limit of 35 mph.)


2. Pedestrian facilities. The urban road code requires pedestrian facilities. However, the proposed project fails to do so in at least three respects:
   • The proposed project does not provide sidewalks on either side of Clarksburg Road southwest of the intersection, or on the southwest side of Frederick Road.
   • For Clarksburg Road northeast of the intersection (a county road), the proposed project does not provide marked crosswalks at any of the three intersections (Tanner Ridge Road/Public House Road, Catawba Manor Way/General Store Drive, and Windsong Lane). The proposed project does not even provide for pedestrian ramps/sidewalk lead-ins. There would thus be a distance of 3,400 feet (two-thirds of a mile) between marked crosswalks.
   • The proposed project does not provide a marked crosswalk across the south end of Spire Street (a county road), for use by people walking on the proposed sidewalk on the northeast side of Frederick Road.


3. The urban road code requires curb radii of 15 feet or less. However, the project provides a very wide turning radius from northbound Frederick Road onto northbound Spire Street. (The staff report recommends that MCDOT consider reducing the radius to 25 feet or less.)

As you know, under mandatory referral review, the Planning Board's decision and recommendations are advisory only. Government agencies planning construction projects located in Montgomery County must refer their plans to the Planning Board for review, but they may then overrule the Planning Board's disapproval and proceed with the proposed project.

Since the County Council passed the urban road code bill in 2014, MCDOT has repeatedly proposed designs that do not comply with the requirements of the urban road code - most notably at White Flint in 2015, but also with other projects, including this one. What is the point of county code, if a county department can simply disregard it? At White Flint, MCDOT eventually agreed to change their designs to comply with urban road code requirements. The urban road code applies -- and is needed -- just as much in Clarksburg as at White Flint.

Sincerely,

Miriam Schoenbaum

Board Member, Action Committee for Transit