Intercounty Connector Opens In Fall; How Might It Affect Property Values?
May 20, 2010 10:53 - 17 Comments
>Rockville Central friend Mike Holden sent along a note to us pointing out that the first segment of the ICC is set to open this fall. While it’s just outside of our normal Rockville Central borders, it’s very possible that it will have a big effect on folks here in town. A lot of discussion has focused on possible environmental impacts, traffic impacts, and whether it’s a good idea to increase reliance on fossil fuels.
However, Mike asks a good question that is not getting a great deal of play. He lives near the ICC, and he asks what effect it’s likely to have on property values:
Suddenly, it should get much easier for anyone living near us to work in places like Columbia and Baltimore or fly out of BWI, to give just a few examples of what the new road could offer, and I anticipate the ICC will have a positive affect on property value for those with easy access to it. My hunch is that we might see an up-tick in the next few months, as the opening of the first stretch nears and buzz around it builds, with more to come as we approach the opening of the remaining stretches that will connect 270 and 95 in late 2011.
Could be. On the other hand, potentially increased local traffic (on/off of the ICC) could reduce property values. What do you think, and why? Let us know in the comments!
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As a Realtor with 24 years of experience in Montgomery County, I think that proximity to the ICC will certainly be a selling point for the homes with quick and easy access. Commuting will only become a bigger issue as Montgomery County continues to grow. The 2030 group, a think tank about Montgomery County development, predicts over 1.7 million population growth by 2030. People will continue to put commuting time as one of their key criteria in home buying.
Now that the nasty truth has been revealed to us that the ICC is going to be a toll road that will cost a great deal of money on which to travel, this means that the real estate development for which proximity will be an “asset” will probably, by necessity, be comprised of the high end of the socioeconomic strata. This new road will be inaccessible, at least on a regular basis, to a significant portion of the population who simply won’t be able to spend hundreds of dollars a month on tolls for commuting.
The notion that the ICC will provide quick easy access is based on oil remaining cheap. As Temperance noted, the ICC won’t be cheap regardless due to the tolls. But by 2030 we will likely have had 15 or 20 years of falling oil production. Check out the chart down the page at http://petrole.blog.lemonde.fr/2010/03/25/washington-considers-a-decline-of-world-oil-production-as-of-2011/ The Dept. of Energy forsees possible shortages starting as soon as next year and getting bigger as time passes till we have half the oil we currently have by 2030. Or rather the world would have half the oil. We could have substantially less here in America – see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Export_Land_Model The ICC doesn’t make sprawl housing a good investment. We are slowly coming to the realization that we bought the ICC instead of the Purple Line and Corridor Cities Transitway, unless we truly dig deep for more funds. Indeed, Maryland is now shorting funds to the Metro system because its all going to the ICC. The ICC is a tragic mistake.
With the exception of those houses immediately abutting the road, I think the ICC will be a net positive for the Rockville area. Where else can you live in the area that you can get to the following places within a 45 minute drive?* Downtown DC* Frederick, MD* Baltimore, MD*Northern VA (ok, maybe not during rush hour, but no one gets to NVA in 45 min at that time of day)*Greenbelt* LaurrelIn short, in an effort to keep commuting time low, (and spend more time with family) I see Rockville remaining a very sought-after location.
I live close to what will be the eastern end of the road in Rockville and know that historically major roads do not boot property values. The only transportation improvement that consistently boosts property values is rail based, an example modern trolleys, called light rail is quiet, energy efficient and fast since they don’t sit in traffic and do not share road space with cars. Major highways simply cause more congestion.
From our house in Rockville it’s about an hour to get to National, to Dulles or to BWI as the roads stand now. That’s as convenient as it gets without living with aircraft flying over your house low enough to see the eye color of the pilots. Using the ICC to justify that really doesn’t hold water. From here I can get to my friend’s house in Columbia in a bit over half an hour going across Norbeck and 198; the ICC *might* take another 5 minutes off that trip, and it *might* take another 10 minutes off a trip to BWI, but for the money proposed it’s just not worth it to me. Had the road been built a long time ago, before the Norbeck-198 connection and the 198 improvements, it might already be an established E-W route that might have precluded even the perceived need for the ICC – but of course, at this point, this is mere speculation.I will be interested to see how much traffic this road gets, both initially and long-term once regular commuters see the true cost of the tolls for a daily commute to work.
House values of communities near highways seem not to be affected. A few houses very close to a highway might take longer to sell. Think of West End, New Mark, Woodley Gardens area. They are very, very desirable in spite of hearing the traffic on I-270, and their prices are not affected. This is what I observed from nearly 40 years as a real estate broker and Realtor.
A good deal of the purpose of the ICC was to raise property values – but for a specific property. The Konterra property is right where the ICC meets I-95. The ICC drops south for a couple miles to join with I-95 at that point and offers its own exit ramp for the property, where they have plans to build a new edge city about the size of Tyson Corner. The Gould family who owns Konterra donated generously to pro-ICC candidates. Once the ICC is complete and Konterra opens, it will create jobs by stealing them from the businesses in Wheaton and Silver Spring that it drives out of business. There is some chance that the peak oil driven collapse of the economy may short circuit all this, but that’s the plan.
I just hope it brings the property values to the the “relative” level they were before the road starting being built. Property values were at an all time high. Part of my property was take by the State and I am backed up to the iCC. Unfortunately, I think the high toll (which has not been a secret) is going to prevent too many people from using it. Would I use it if I were all of a sudden be commuting to Baltimore? I don’t think cost is worth the time saved in this case. Maybe if I was running late.
My late father, Richard C. Blalock, was one of the most outspoken anti-ICC activists in the late 1980s and early 1990s. As the president of the National Capital Chapter of Trout Unlimited, and a resident of Silver Spring who lived near Paint Branch, he was particularly concerned with the effect that the ICC would have on the population of native brown trout that live in the tributaries of the Montgomery County creek ecosystem.Since the ICC was such a controversial and volatile issue for several decades, I’ve encountered some unpleasant situations where co-workers, acquaintances, and even friends became angry at me when they expressed their beliefs that the delays in building the ICC adversely affected their own quality of life. I’ve heard more than a few of them state that most of the current “problems” with the ICC, including the total price tags of billions of dollars and the high rates of tolls, would have been attenuated had the project been built 10 or 15 years ago. I personally don’t believe that would have been the case, but I’m more concerned about the fact that, had it been built way back then, we would most likely now be confronting the issue of the capacity of the ICC having reached its maximum, and we would be wrestling with yet another massive infrastructure project to cope with the traffic volume that inevitably ends up clogging whatever venue we present it with.
Temperance – I had no idea you are Dick Blalock’s daughter. I spent many an evening in Lois Sherman’s basement with him, Barney Evans, Idamae Garrott and others who are still with us plotting ways to defeat the ICC. Mr. Blalock believed that if only people could see the treasure they planned to destroy they would change their minds. I believed that if only people were aware of the depth and nature of the energy challenges that face us they would change their minds. And Mark Robinowitz believed that you can’t wake some one up who is pretending to be asleep. Sadly, the most cynical view was proven right. They were always lying about the cost of the ICC. It wasn’t the delay that increased the cost so much as the fact that we are now realizing its full cost. Every toll road, bridge and tunnel in the state is going up in price to pay for the ICC. Maryland’s contribution to Metro was shorted to pay for the ICC. And of course some of the most beautiful spots in this county are now among the most ugly. What a tragic, senseless waste. If only they had listened to your dad.
Maryland has always talked a good game but done as it darn well pleased…or rather whatever way made the most contributions. The ICC is a joke, a waste, and really leaves too far north of me to be useful…it also hits 95 too far south. Yeah, if you live in g burg and drive to laurel daily it’s ideal. If you want to spend the 8 or 16 dollars each day. They’ve borrowed against anticipated federal dollars to finance it…and I see federal dollars to the states going to zero before going anywhere else. I was in Minneapolis yesterday and milwaukee today, and both places are in an orgy of road building and expansion. We can’t even maintain the road and rails we have now, yet were building more.Carls point about the long term reliance on oil is valid, if a bit overused, though short term prices are being driven more by demand, or lack of it. Iam a little concerned that two of the biggest peak oil cheerleaders are those who stand to make the most by shortages…namely Messrs. Pickens and Simmons. The energy situation is likely one we’ll solve, a separate question is what kind of world do we keep building where endless roads result in endless time in cars.
Temperance Blalock wrote:”My late father, Richard C. Blalock, was one of the most outspoken anti-ICC activists in the late 1980s and early 1990s. As the president of the National Capital Chapter of Trout Unlimited, and a resident of Silver Spring who lived near Paint Branch, he was particularly concerned with the effect that the ICC would have on the population of native brown trout that live in the tributaries of the Montgomery County creek ecosystem.”Temperance, I knew your Dad slightly, and did not agree with him regarding the InterCounty Connector. Having said that, I must respectfully point out a factual error in your words above.The brown trout that your Dad was concerned about are in no way native to the Paint Branch of the Anacostia River, nor to any other watershed in Maryland or the United States. They are an alien, introduced species.
I stand corrected then. They are not native. <a href="http://www.eopb.org/publications/montgomery_trail.php" target="_blank" Here's a link >that describes their status as an “indicator species” of the ecologic health of our local wetlands, and their role in the development of the ICC.
Carl Henn wrote:”Every toll road, bridge and tunnel in the state is going up in price to pay for the ICC. Maryland’s contribution to Metro was shorted to pay for the ICC.”Carl, please describe the toll increases on Maryland toll roads (other than the ICC). What is going to happen to the LONG sections of Maryland toll facilities for which _no_ tolls are currently charged, such as all of the southbound section of I-95/JFK Highway and nearly all of the northbound section of same; the westbound U.S. 50/301 Bay Bridge; the eastbound U.S. 40 Hatem Bridge and the northbound U.S. 301 Nice Bridge. And the generous commuter discounts granted to frequent users of the I-95 Fort McHenry Tunnel, the I-895 Baltimore Harbor Tunnel and the I-695 F.S. Key Bridge.
I don’t think that it’s necessary to have a comprehensive knowledge of the entirety of the State Highway Administration’s work scope to conclude that the tens of billions of dollars that were committed to the ICC will create a corresponding deficit in some other project or infrastructure that either won’t be built or else won’t be upgraded. And I don’t think that we are being granted some sort of “discount” just because the Maryland State Highway system is currently not as confiscatory as some of our neighbors like Pennsylvania or New Jersey.
In response to Mr. Zilliacus – See page 4-1 of http://www.iccproject.com/PDFs/2009-financial-plan.pdf . This confirms that the ICC is being funded in part through toll increases at all seven existing tolled facilities in Maryland. Sorry, I was unable to find documentation of how much the toll increases at each facility is going to the ICC. I am unaware of plans to expand tolling to other road segments.