ICC noise still a concern for the quiet hamlet of Washington Grove

Town airs concerns to in another heated session

Wednesday, Aug. 2, 2006

by Andrew P. Moisan

Staff Writer

Maybe they heard. But are they listening?

This was a question residents and officials of Washington Grove had Monday of state authorities as they met for the latest bout in the perennial debate over how the looming Intercounty Connector may impact the small town near Gaithersburg.

What they told State Highway Administration officials was that current plans for the ICC, a suburban highway to link busy parts of Montgomery and Prince George’s counties, underestimate the potential impacts — such as noise levels — on the historic municipality.

The purpose of the meeting, arranged by state Sen. Patrick. J. Hogan (D-Dist. 39), was to allow an open forum between the town and state officials. The three-hour meeting drew about 30 residents to McCathran Hall.

What ensued was at times heated, with state officials saying their ears were open but that there was only so much they could do and the town volleying back their continued frustrations with a project it has generally never wanted.

The town, a rural refuge nestled amid a swiftly developing corridor to be the starting point of the 18-mile highway, has long opposed the ICC. But with the project’s final approval earlier this year, the town’s aims have shifted from opposing the plan to keeping itself as far away from it as possible.

‘‘We’re not here to protest the ICC,” Washington Grove Mayor John Compton said at the top of the meeting. ‘‘The issues which I believe are appropriate to address are, ‘Okay they’re gonna build it, let’s at least get the least impact and the best road for all of us, particularly Washington Grove.’”

The meeting, one of several the town expects to have with officials as the state inches closer starting construction on the project, was also attended by Dist. 39 Dels. Nancy J. King and Charles E. Barkley, who mostly listened as officials poured over maps and took questions from residents.

Of particular concern to the town are potential noise levels from the highway — already a factor given the proximity of Interstate 370 — and the visual impact it may have, both seen as threats to the town’s ambiance.

‘‘We have porches, we live on the porches, we sleep on the porches,” said Robert Booher, the chair of the Historic Preservation Commission. ‘‘We live outside. That’s what we do.”

The town specifically charges that state noise studies have wrongly shown that noise from the ICC would not be loud enough to justify building a sound wall between the town and the highway.

That led the town earlier this year to hire a sound engineer to review the state’s measurements, which they said were taken during non-peak traffic hours and at locations that wouldn’t be the most prone to noise from the ICC.

The state responded by saying that even if a sound wall was built, the quarter-mile distance between the town and the wall would render the abatement useless.

State officials also defended their noise studies, saying they are done in 20-minute intervals over 24-hour periods and that the results reflect the noisiest hour of the day, which, when cars are bumper-to-bumper, may not always be rush hour.

‘‘It’s a process that we have to use time and time again for a number of projects,” said Wesley Mitchell, an ICC project manager and one of four highway officials there. ‘‘This is our standard that we stand by.”

But Mitchell added that even if the state declines to put a sound wall in place, there are other abatement options it might be willing to consider.

More broadly, the town aired concerns over whether it would be able to have input on the project and how it might affect the town. State officials say the earliest construction could begin is next March.

‘‘From what you’re saying, we’re just feeding you information about our feelings, but we’re not hearing how you’ll act on it,” said David Neumann, a resident of the town, later standing and raising his voice at David Wallace, another ICC project manager who spoke at the meeting.

‘‘I understand, we talk and you listen,” Neumann said later, responding to Wesley’s assertion that the state would return to the town as the process moves forward, ‘‘but we don’t know how hard you listen.” Word missing?

Several other residents spoke, touching also on concerns that trees now in place on the nearby Casey Field tract, acting as a visual screen between the town and the ICC, may be in jeopardy with pending development there.