Hours after the council's Transportation and Environment Committee met with officials from the Maryland Transit Administration and county Planning Board, the council voted unanimously to suspend its usual procedures and immediately pass a resolution opposing the creation of a rapid busway on Jones Bridge Road from Bethesda to Chevy Chase.

"There's a state budget deficit out there," said Councilman Thomas E. Perez (D-Dist. 5) of Takoma Park. "The state shouldn't waste money on an approach that nobody wants, not the business community, not the neighborhoods, and not county residents who desperately need more transportation options."

The rapid busway option surfaced in March when state transportation Secretary Robert L. Flanagan announced his department would study Jones Bridge Road as a route for a rapid busway. The busway would serve as part of the Purple Line, a transit connection that would link Bethesda and Silver Spring to communities in Prince George's County.

Based on a 2000 proposal by state Del. John A. Hurson (D-Dist. 18) of Chevy Chase, the Jones Bridge busway would effectively replace the Inner Purple Line, a light-rail system advocated by the County Council and former Gov. Parris N. Glendening. The Inner Purple Line would run inside the Beltway alongside the interim Georgetown Branch hiker/biker trail.

Pointing to a study from the county planning staff, Councilman George L. Leventhal (D-At large) of Takoma Park said a busway would threaten the safety and property values for Jones Bridge Road residents, some of whom might have to be displaced, without solving the area's transit problems. It would also violate master plans, he said, and pose access problems for North Chevy Chase Elementary School.

Belaboring the busway issue buys time for state officials to stall the Purple Line, he said, to the point of effectively killing the entire project.

"The priority of this governor is roads," said Leventhal, who advocates building the Inner Purple Line. "The priority of this governor is not transit ... The goal of further study, it's clear to me, is to do nothing."

One study or two

Under the Glendening administration, state transportation officials had divided the Purple Line project into two studies: one of the portion east of Silver Spring and one of the western portion. The state completed a study of the western portion, designed as a light-rail system, and had arranged for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) to study the eastern portion.

This year, Flanagan reneged on that agreement and announced his department would analyze the remaining portion instead. About the same time, Flanagan also announced the state would study the possibility of using buses and existing roads instead of light rail, effectively reopening the entire project for reexamination.

During the committee meeting, Leventhal and Perez grilled Henry Kay, planning director of the Maryland Transit Administration, on the new timeframe for the state study.

"I heard the state say in December that you could begin construction on the Bi-County Transitway in 2005," Perez said. "Today you are talking about the end of 2007 before you have a final draft of the environmental impact statement. So let's assume we start construction in 2008. ... That means it's not built until 2011, under your best-case scenario. A year ago, the state of Maryland told people we would be addressing gridlock along a choked corridor by 2008."

Kay said Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s administration supports the Bi-County Transitway (the name state officials are using to refer to the Purple Line) and has recommended it to federal officials for design and construction funding. But given the state's expanded look at the plan since Ehrlich's election, he agreed the transitway might not be built until 2011.

"The secretary would like to find a project that is less controversial and less expensive [than the Inner Purple Line]," Kay said. "He recognizes it may not be out there, bit he thinks we should be looking for it."

Perez challenged Kay's statements about controversy, noting that more County Council members in Montgomery and Prince George's counties support the Inner Purple Line than support the Intercounty Connector, a highway project that Ehrlich has vowed to begin construction on within his first term.

"If we're not going to build a project because the politicians can't get their house in order, I think the ICC should come to a screeching halt."

Whose right of way?

It remained unclear at the end of the day how far the state could pursue the busway option without the county's cooperation, since Jones Bridge Road is a county road.

Kay said he thought the state would have to pursue the project in conjunction with the county. But Glenn Orlin, deputy council staff director, noted that the intersections along the route are state right of ways. If the state did not choose to alter Jones Bridge Road and limited its busway plan to intersection improvements, such as queue jumpers and grade separations, the busway option might be possible even if the county objects.

Leventhal blasted Hurson, who was not present during the council meetings, for persuading state officials to consider the busway option in the first place, saying the proposal will harm Hurson's Chevy Chase constituency.

"Residents' property values are dropping, and they have Bob Flanagan and John Hurson to thank," Leventhal said.

Reached by phone Tuesday, Hurson rejected the notion that his busway proposal harms his constituents, and defended the state for taking time to combine the eastern and western portion of the Purple Line studies.

"The whole idea of a building an east-west connection doesn't makes any sense until we do a study of the entire connection between Bethesda and New Carrollton," he said. "I think they will eventually realize the property values along the entire route will go down ... if they build light rail."

Hurson has also done his own share of criticizing the county recently. On June 26, he sent a letter to Planning Board Chairman Derick P. Berlage accusing the planning staff of "obfuscation and intellectual dishonesty" in analyzing the busway plan this spring, at the request of the County Council.

"I am shocked and disappointed at the biased and intellectually dishonest nature of the Jones Bridge-Purple Line Study," the delegate wrote. "I believe the [Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission] no longer has the ability to assist our community in finding a compromise to the very divisive problem of determining the future use of the Georgetown Branch."

The entire council voted to support the anti-busway resolution; Councilwoman Marilyn J. Praisner (D-Dist. 4) of Calverton was absent. While siding with the council on the busway, Councilman Howard A. Denis (R-Dist. 1) of Chevy Chase renewed his objections to the Inner Purple Line, saying that neither plan amounts to the kind of transportation "vision" the area needs. The real solution, he said, lies in expanding Metro.