SILVER SPRING – When an application for new development is brought before the Planning Board for consideration, planners calculate how much impact each proposal would have on area roads and transit.
Last year, the County Council asked planners to develop a new policy area test, the Transportation Policy Area Review (TPAR), that would ensure that transportation infrastructure – roads or transit – would be adequate to serve new residents or anyone traveling to or from a new development. In response, planners developed a draft TPAR test, which will be the subject of a public hearing before the Planning Board next week.
The proposed transportation test would measure the effect of new automobile or transit trips that would be generated by new development in each of the 21 policy areas in Montgomery County. TPAR would replace the Policy Area Mobility Review, or PAMR, that planners have used for the last several years to measure transportation adequacy.
TPAR is based on transportation recommendations that are included in each master plan and take into account regional growth projections. TPAR also would measure automobile and transit adequacy separately to make it clearer for decision-makers to understand how new trips would affect the policy area and make it easier to determine where solutions are needed.
The TPAR test would identify specific road and transit solutions, making it easier to schedule and fund capital projects. Funding is suggested to occur through public-private partnerships linked to county and state transportation budgets.
Under the proposed TPAR guidelines, an annual report would monitor both development and the progress of transportation projects.
Sign up to testify at the public hearing. At the date prompt, scroll to 4/19 and scroll to item 7.
WHO:
Montgomery County Planning Board
WHAT:
Transportation Policy Area Review (TPAR) Public Hearing
WHEN:
2 p.m. Thursday, April 19
WHERE:
Park and Planning Headquarters auditorium
8787 Georgia Avenue, Silver Spring
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