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With billions of dollars in transportation projects promising to redefine traffic patterns and quality of life in Gaithersburg, this year's slate of city candidates brings a hodgepodge of ideas for how to best bring those ideas together.

Mayor Sidney A. Katz wants MARC trains to run more often and for the widening of Interstate 270 to better account for its full impacts on neighborhoods. His opponent, Richard Koch is calling for an "express" alignment of the Corridor Cities Transitway to run down the Frederick Avenue corridor.

Councilman Henry F. Marraffa Jr. envisions the CCT as a light rail with "feeder lines" breaking off to serve Olde Towne, Montgomery Village and the "Science City" project in Shady Grove. Michael A. Sesma, the other council incumbent, cautions that Gaithersburg cannot hold onto a self-image as a suburban, not urban, community. And as the CCT, widening of I-270 and "Science City" loom, council candidate Tom Rowse thinks that city leaders haven't been emphatic enough with county and state officials who will make the ultimate decisions.

The expansion of I-270 and the opportunities inherent to the 14-mile CCT offer the chance to create a comprehensive transportation network that would better connect disparate areas of Gaithersburg, said Rowse, one of several candidates who believe the city hasn't taken an aggressive enough stance.

"We're a giant doughnut wrapped around [National Institute of Standards and Technology], and we need to tighten that doughnut up," Rowse said. "... If we do, it's going to be a boom for all of us. That connectivity can give us something a lot of other cities don't have."

Of the more than a dozen CCT stops that would eventually be built, half are in or just outside city borders. Gov. Martin O'Malley is expected to announce the final alignment and his choice of light rail or rapid bus before the end of the year.

The city had until recently backed the light rail option, which would carry between 21,000 and 27,000 riders per day — about 3,000 more than the bus option. But with rapid-bus so far seeming more likely to win federal funding, city leaders have taken the position that it is better to have a bus line than nothing.

Mayoral candidate Rich Koch wants a shift in CCT thinking: the state needs to consider running the CCT east of I-270 to help spur redevelopment along Route 355 and in Olde Towne. That alignment was part of CCT talks in the 1990s, but county planners dropped it 10 years ago as the state started its environmental study.

Koch is calling for an "express alignment" through the Frederick Avenue corridor with the more-discussed alignment running as a "local route" on the other side of I-270.

"Right now when I look at the [CCT] plan, we conspicuously bypass the core of Gaithersburg and I don't know what the long-term plan is to redevelop the Frederick Avenue corridor, how to redevelop Lakeforest mall, how to redevelop Olde Towne."

Marraffa wants the main line of the CCT to stay west of I-270, he envisions "feeder lines" breaking off toward Olde Towne, Montgomery Village and the proposed 900-acre "Science City" just south of the city.

Either way, city leaders need to take "a much more direct approach" with state and county officials, Marraffa said.

Tied to the state's study of the CCT is the widening of I-270, which is weighing seven options for a 30-mile stretch from Shady Grove Road past Frederick, most of which call for adding toll lanes.

The city backed an option that would add two reversible lanes. City leaders want lanes designated for car pools and buses.

Under the worst-case scenarios for most of the seven options, the $4-plus billion project could force hundreds of homes to be destroyed. State planners think they can reduce that impact to a few dozen by building retaining walls and narrowing shoulder widths.

But several candidates want the state to keep in mind that the interstate could have a lasting impact on the threatened neighborhoods.

"They shouldn't just put up a wall and say that they can live there," Katz said.

As with the widening of I-270, city leaders are wary of the proposal to turn a 900-acre area wedged against the city's southern border into a dense "Science City.

The mayor and council have supported that general vision but fear the traffic. The draft of Gaithersburg West Master Plan calls for the widening of several roads — including Key West Avenue and Sam Eig and Great Seneca highways — and construction of four grade-separated interchanges.

"What those road improvements and infrastructure serve to do is actually isolate those neighborhoods from the community that they're planning," Sesma said. "They call it Smart Growth, but it's not smart enough."