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District of Columbia
Base Relocations Raise Major Transportation Issues for Military and Civilian Personnel in D.C. Area
The Greater Washington area has weathered such moves before, but the Pentagon's current base realignment plan, reports Baltimore Sun writer Timothy B. Wheeler, ''is potentially more disruptive'' to regional efforts to contain sprawl, traffic and air pollution, because security-driven relocation will take more than 25,000 military and civilian personnel from the district and its densely populated suburbs to Virginia and Maryland bases some 18, 20 and 40 miles away, with little or no transit options.
Growth management experts, planners and conservationists are worried. ''This is a region already grappling with crushing traffic congestion and all of the associated problems,'' pointed out Smart Growth America Executive Director Don Chen, concerned about local government ability to shoulder additional burdens.
''The federal government primarily is looking for what enhances the security of Department of Defense facilities and what's the most cost-effective solution for the federal taxpayer,'' observed Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments Executive Director David Robertson. ''I don't think the BRAC (Base Realignment and Closure Commission) process considers other issues like affordable housing, air quality and transportation.''
Virginia Tech's Metropolitan Institute Associate Director Arthur Nelson and 1000 Friends of Maryland Executive Director Dru Schmidt-Perkins made similar points. ''It's one thing to close a base and try to find a way to reuse it, but it's another to reshuffle the employment and put it into places that aren't prepared to take it,'' said the former, while the latter stressed, ''What we've done is take those people who are largely on transit and move them to nontransit spots. That's not going in the right direction.'' -- Baltimore Sun
5/22/2005
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