Wednesday, September 2, 2009

the ICC in longmead crossing



Longmead Crossing in Layhill has been at the forefront of the InterCounty Connector debate. The 80's-era neighborhood was literally built around the right-of-way of the highway, while some residents prayed that the verdant strip of woods running through their subdivision would never be cleared. So much for that. Here are some photos I took last week of ICC construction in Longmead. I wonder if, when all the trees are removed, will I be able to stand at the west end of the ICC in Shady Grove and see all the way to Prince George's County?

Additional ICC construction slideshows:

the ICC in Tanglewood (Route 29 and Briggs Chaney Road)


the fall colors in Avonshire (Route 29 and Briggs Chaney Road)

2 comments:

Bowie Mike said...

Interesting pics. It's strange to see a highway construction site with so many trees in the background. I'm so used to driving through the construction in Tysons Corner where all of the trees have been removed.

C. P. Zilliacus said...

Dan, as I think I have said here before, please remember that what we now call Longmead Crossing was once going to be part of Leisure World.

But in the 1980's, the owners of Leisure World at the time decided to sell-off that (large) parcel of land and see it developed as a non-age-restricted development disconnected from Leisure World, which was approved by the Montgomery County Planning Board of the M-NCP&PC - with a very significant condition of approval - that the land planned for use as highway F-9 on the Master Plan of Highways (e.g. the ICC) be deeded over to the Maryland Department of Transportation for use as a highway (not a park and not a nature preserve and definitely not a monument to Idamae Garrott).

So before the first home in Longmead Crossing was sold and occupied, that land was placed in reservation with the obvious intent that it be used to build a freeway.

Now many people apparently had enjoyment from being next to a thickly-forested swath of land (untouched for decades, since the 1960's, when what was then the route for the Outer Beltway was moved from south of Rockville to north of Rockville and south of Gaithersburg), and I am glad that they did. Some thought it would stay that way forever.

But the expectations of anti-ICC activists in Aspen Hill generlly and Longmead Crossing in particular were never backed-up by reason or by the law - the legally-binding master-planned route on which the ICC is being built remained on the Master Plan of Highways, even after Parris Glendening "canceled" the ICC.

The "Longmead United Against the ICC" web site is no longer up, but thanks to Archive.org, it's possible to have a look at what it said at the links below:

What is the ICC?

Where would it be? (this page is remarkably accurate)

If the links above do not work, go to Archive.org and enter www.luaicc.org next to Search: and you should be able to see what the Web site looked like.