History Conversations REWIND | Road to Sprawl: The Intercounty Connector & the Limits of Mobility, Development, & Land Preservation

with John Spiers, Ph.D. |

Suburban communities have spent a lot of time dealing with sprawl but keep making the same choices that got them there in the first place. Focusing on the case of the Intercounty Connector, I will discuss how efforts were made to support public participation and environmental review for the highway, but ultimately, the highway’s creation was an attempt to build one’s way out of congestion without modifying underlying land use policies to support compact growth. Recent proposals to expand I-270, the Capital Beltway, and other major thoroughfares reaffirm that auto-based transportation limit the possibilities for local development and land preservation. Originally aired during the 2022 Montgomery County History History Conference.