This project provides for planning and preliminary engineering design for new and reconstructed mass transit projects under consideration for inclusion in the Capital Improvements Program (CIP). Prior to the establishment of a stand-alone project in the CIP, the Department of Transportation will perform Phase I of facility planning, a rigorous planning-level investigation of the following critical project elements: purpose and need; usage forecasts; traffic operational analysis; community, economic, social, environmental, and historic impact analyses; recommended concept design and public participation are considered. At the end of Phase I, the Transportation, Infrastructure, Energy and Environment (T&E) Committee of the County Council reviews the work and determines if the project has the merits to advance to Phase II of facility planning: preliminary (35 percent level of completion) engineering design. In preliminary engineering design, construction plans are developed showing specific and detailed features of the project, from which its impacts and costs can be more accurately assessed. At the completion of Phase II, the County Executive and County Council hold project-specific public hearings to determine if the candidate project merits consideration in the CIP as a funded stand-alone project.

Current planning projects include Clarksburg Transit Center, Hillandale Bus Layover, Metropolitan Grove Park and Ride, and White Oak Transit Center. FY23 funding includes $700,000 to plan for reorientation of transit services and infrastructure around a zero-emissions fleet.

There is a continuing need to define the scope and determine need, benefits, implementation feasibility, horizontal and vertical alignments, typical sections, impacts, community support/opposition, preliminary costs, and alternatives for master-planned mass transit recommendations. This Facility Planning project provides decision makers with reliable information to determine whether a master-planned mass transit facility recommendation merits inclusion in the CIP as a stand-alone project.

Beginning in FY23, this project splits out current revenue from the Mass Transit Fund previously included as a funding source in Facility Planning-Transportation (P509337) to fund Mass Transit facility planning studies.

A pedestrian impact analysis will be performed during design or is in progress. Expenditures will continue indefinitely.

Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, Maryland Department of Transportation, Maryland Department of the Environment, Maryland Department of Natural Resources, Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, Department of Permitting Services, Utilities, Municipalities, affected communities, Commission on Aging, Commission on People with Disabilities, Montgomery County Pedestrian Safety Advisory Committee.