Transit-oriented development to get transit — despite opposition
King Farm, an award-winning transit-oriented development in Rockville, Maryland, will likely get light-rail at some time in the future after the State of Maryland reaffirmed the alignment of the Corridor Cities Transitway this week.
In January, a vocal minority of King Farm residents fought the transit line, which has been planned through the community since the 1990s. According to the blog BeyondDC:
"If the Corridor Cities Transitway is built, it will be built along the King Farm Boulevard alignment that has been planned for decades, despite opposition from the Rockville City Council.
"The King Farm neighborhood of Rockville was designed and built in the 1990s, specifically with the intention that a future Corridor Cities Transitway extending west from Shady Grove Metro station would serve as the spine of the community. King Farm Boulevard, the neighborhood’s main street, was intended to be the alignment of that transitway, and was constructed with a wide grassy median to accommodate it. For 16 years the City of Rockville steadfastly supported and planned around having the Corridor Cities Transitway in King Farm.
"Then in January of 2011 a small number of neighborhood activists complained, and the City Council reversed years of planning to request that Maryland reroute the transitway outside of King Farm."
The compaints were widely criticized in DC-area smart-growth blogs. King Farm has 3,200 units and about 8,000 residents. It is located near the Shady Grove station of the DC area's Metro system, but that station is not easily walkable to the development because it involves crossing a heavily traveled state highway.
The light rail is planned to run along King Farm Boulevard, a thoroughfare that passes through the heart of King Farm and has a very wide median strip designed to accommodate a transit line.
