By MDP Staff: , Director of Communications; , Director of Smart Growth; and , Communications Intern
National Center for Smart Growth
State and county officials and local advocacy groups are leading an effort to create a livability strategy to ensure that people living and working in the communities along the proposed Purple Line benefit from the new light rail transit system.
But how will that work, exactly?
The stakeholder groups, led by the Purple Line Corridor Coalition (PLCC), will develop a community compact that will lay out strategies for revitalizing and stabilizing mixed-income neighborhoods, preserving community assets, supporting small businesses and connecting workers to jobs, all intended to create healthy and vibrant communities. Similar to Baltimore’s Red Line Community Compact and Minneapolis’ Central Corridor Funders Collaborative in planning their Green Line, the compact will address things like maintaining affordable housing for residents, maximizing labor market potential and creating transit-oriented places.
The Purple Line is a proposed 16-mile light rail line through Montgomery and Prince George’s counties, connecting Bethesda and New Carrollton. The compact, suggested by local advocacy groups and embraced by the coalition, is a way to address local concerns and multiply the advantages a new transit line brings. It will bring greater attention from state agencies like the Maryland Department of Planning, which is participating in its development, as well as the Departments of Housing and Community Development, Transportation, Labor, Licensing and Regulation and the Maryland Smart Growth Subcabinet.
State agencies can play a big role in multiplying the positive effects of the transit line beyond the infrastructure itself; for example, the compact can highlight a need for new resources or coordination to achieve goals like economic development.
Maryland Transit Administration rendering of Purple Line light rail car
“The proposed Purple Line compact gives us an opportunity to ensure that, along with the building of a needed transit connection between Maryland’s most populous counties, we are planning for development that takes full advantage of proximity to transit,” said Planning Secretary Richard E. Hall. “A compact also reinforces the roles and responsibilities of state agencies that work in community and economic development.”
To engage those with a stake in Purple Line communities, the PLCC will host two workshops to hammer out the contents of the community compact, the first of which will be held Saturday in Silver Spring. A second workshop will be held in November; leaders expect those authoring the compact to participate in both.
The PLCC aims to allow community organizations to voice their concerns and have a conversation with government officials about issues including housing choices, business retention and expansion, creating jobs and celebrating neighborhood identities. While community compacts are non-binding agreements, they state the intent of signatories to work together toward common objectives.
Baltimore’s Red Line Community Compact, for example, created strategies to contract workers within Baltimore for the construction of the Red Line, prepare Baltimore residents to work on the Red Line, increase green space, use clean energy and invest in redevelopment of neighborhoods along the Red Line. They improved station neighborhoods through street resurfacing, street lighting and land and streetscaping. Baltimore also created ongoing Station Area Advisory Committees with representatives from the communities, businesses and government for continued outreach and collaboration in future development to sustain mixed-income communities and provide decent and affordable housing to Baltimore residents and maintain business success.
The Purple Line is expected to cost approximately $2.4 billion and construction is scheduled to begin in 2015. It will be the largest investment in Maryland’s transportation infrastructure in the 21st century.
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