King Farm is an award-winning, 440-acre transit-oriented development (TOD) in Rockville, Maryland (20 miles from downtown Washington, D.C.). It was designed around a yet-to-be-built transit line that will link King Farm to an existing Washington Metro station. The developer built King Farm Boulevard, which runs through the community, with extra-wide medians to accommodate future transit.
Now that the Maryland Transit Administration (MTA) is moving forward with its Corridor Cities Transitway (CCT), some vocal King Farm residents have opposed the CTT going through King Farm Boulevard's median. According to Gazette.net, the CCT opponents claim that they were unaware of the proposed transit when they bought their property. They are also concerned about the CCT’s impact on street connectivity. Four out of five Rockville City Council members sided with the CCT opponents and agreed to ask the MTA to study alternate routes around the King Farm TOD.
The Gazette.net article states that Rockville has little influence over the CCT’s route because the “state owns land along King Farm Boulevard and does not own land along alternate routes.” Regardless, this episode sheds light on the potential pitfalls of “transit-ready” development. Perhaps developers should provide home buyers/businesses in a “transit-ready” development with unambiguous documentation explaining that the community is “transit-ready.”
