You are invited: Forum Seven | Completing the Capital Crescent Trail

As you know, Purple Line NOW operates on a bare bones budget - and we spend every dime we raise to make sure the project is the best it can be by providing educational opportunities like this for those communities along the Purple Line route, by testifying before local, state, and federal entities, and by providing regular information regarding the progress and any major project developments through our website, Twitter, and Facebook. Please take a moment, especially if you haven't given this year, to become a sponsor.

Your name or your business name will be highlighted at all of the fora in the Envisioning the Purple Line series, as well on our website.

WE APPRECIATE THE GENEROUS SUPPORT FROM OUR SPONSORS!

FEATURED SPONSORS

CHEVY CHASE LAND COMPANY

THE MALLOY AND SANDERS FAMILY

TINA, DON, AND JESSIE SLATER

UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND UNIVERSITY COLLEGE (UMUC)

SUPPORTING SPONSORS

ATU Local 689

ENGINEERS

Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce

Bee and Brian Ditzler

Nancy and Rob Soreng

CONDUCTORS

Action Committee for Transit

Anne Ambler

John Carroll

Dr. Troy Jacobs and Dr. Kawsar Talaat

Landmark Realty, Inc.

Ben Ross

Christine Scott and JohnR Llewellyn

Sam Statland

COMMUTERS
Dave and Linda Anderson, Elizabeth Barbehenn, Glen Bottoms, Jonathan Elkind, Neil Greene, Virginia Haufler, Melanie Isis, Kevin Kirby, Mary Lanigan, Rhonda Long, William Mallari, Anita Morrison, Gareth Rosenau, Bill Strein, Eric Talbot

PASSENGERS
Tim Anderegg, Charles Bell, Douglas Bowen, Casey Brennan, Jeff Cronin, Ronit Dancis, 
Joseph Fainberg, Miti Figueredo, Patrick Flaherty, Cody Goebel, David Hondowicz, Greg Madde, Judith Morenoff, Rodolfo Perez, Mark Posner, Jason Poteat, Dan Reed, Frederick Schultz, Elizabeth Shannon, Jerry Withers, William Young

As you know, Purple Line NOW operates on a bare bones budget - and we spend every dime we raise to make sure the project is the best it can be by providing educational opportunities like this for those communities along the Purple Line route, by testifying before local, state, and federal entities, and by providing regular information regarding the progress and any major project developments through our website, Twitter, and Facebook. Please take a moment, especially if you haven't given this year, to become a sponsor. Your name or your business name will be highlighted at all of the fora in the Envisioning the Purple Line series, as well on our website.

WE APPRECIATE THE GENEROUS SUPPORT FROM OUR SPONSORS!

FEATURED SPONSORS:

THE CHEVY CHASE LAND COMPANY

THE MALLOY AND SANDERS FAMILY

TINA, DON, AND JESSIE SLATER

THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND UNIVERSITY COLLEGE (UMUC)

SUPPORTING SPONSORS:

ATU Local 689

Bee and Brian Ditzler

ENGINEERS:

Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce

Nancy and Rob Soreng

CONDUCTORS:

Action Committee for Transit

Anne Ambler

John Carroll

Dr. Troy Jacobs and Dr. Kawsar Talaat

Christine Scott and JohnR Llewellyn

Sam Statland

Patrick Wojahn

PASSENGERS:

Tim Anderegg, Dave and Linda Anderson, Elizabeth Barbehenn, Charles Bell, Ralph Bennett, Glen Bottoms, Douglas Bowen, Casey Brennan, Jeff Cronin, Ronit Dancis, Jonathan Elkind, Joseph Fainberg, Miti Figueredo, Patrick Flaherty, Cody Gebel, Virginia Haufler, David Hondowicz, Melanie Isis, Kevin Kirby, Mary Lanigan, Rhonda Long, Greg Madde, William Mallari, Judith Morenoff, Anita Morrison, Rodolfo Perez, Mark Posner, Jason Poteat, Dan Reed, Gareth Rosenau, Ben Ross, Frederick Schultz, Elizabeth Shannon, Bill Strein, Eric Talbot, Jerry Withers, William Young

In today's edition of Purple Line NOW News, here's what you'll find:

• An Announcement for the Next Purple Line NOW Forum - Completing the Capital Crescent Trail
• An Update on New Development Around the Purple Line Corridor
• An Appeal to Help Purple Line NOW Continue Its Work - All Levels Welcome!

Save the Date for the Next Purple Line NOW Forum

We are excited to announce the next forum in our Envisioning the Purple Line series will be on July 25 from 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm at the Lawton Community Center in Chevy Chase, Maryland. The long-requested topic will be: Completing the Capital Crescent Trail.

We are busy pulling together a fantastic panel with representatives from Montgomery County Council, Washington Area Bicyclist Association, Purple Line Transit Partners (the folks who are building the project), and the Montgomery County Planning Board. Stay tuned for more details coming soon.

An official invitation will arrive in your email box next week – make sure you click on the link in the invitation to reserve your seat. The event, as always, is free and open to the public, but seats must be reserved in advance due to space limitations.

Share This Newsletter

Please feel free to share this newsletter - no permission from us needed! You can always find a link to our newsletter on our Purple Line NOW website which makes it easy to share with your friends, neighbors, constituents, customers, and employees.

CONSTRUCTION NEWS TO KNOW

Development Spurred by the Purple Line

Last Friday, a multidisciplinary and cross-regional panel at the Urban Land Institute discussed changes spurred by the Purple Line and why those changes will matter for our communities. Panelist and Montgomery County Planning Board Chair, Casey Anderson observes, “Even those that won’t use the Purple Line will still benefit from a focus [on] the neighborhood... It creates places that are affordable, but also a good quality of life because they have services and amenities that are convenient.”

American University Radio WAMU 88.5 reported that the panelists expect "communities on the eastern side of the corridor, between College Park and New Carrollton, are likely to see the greatest growth opportunities. Areas like Riverdale have more room to add new development without disrupting existing neighborhoods."

The panel also discussed affordable housing, a topic this newsletter intends to delve into more detail about in a future edition. You can read more in WAMU's article, As The Purple Line Moves Forward, When And Where Will Development Take Off?

This past month has also brought concrete examples of new projects currently under construction, just broke ground, or planned for future construction around the Purple Line. 

On May 7, Maryland Today, a publication from the University of Maryland’s Office of Strategic Communications, announced they were breaking ground on a 105,000-square-foot office building located at 4600 River Road. This project is a joint venture between Corporate Office Properties Trust (COPT) and the University of Maryland. The building will have four stories of office space and will be located in the UMD’s Discovery District in College Park. The Discovery District is, according to the University’s website, “the epicenter of academic, research and economic achievement and will strengthen existing research partnerships, retain a pipeline of talent locally and offer more experiences for residents, faculty, staff and students.” The Purple Line, once completed, will be nearby and provide a direct link to the main UMD campus.

Rendering Courtesy of COPT

According to the same Maryland Today article, the building will have a courtyard, outdoor gathering spaces, and even a café. A tech company which offers online security training, Cybrary, will anchor the building.

The aforementioned panel discussion also brought news of a new $150 million project which will be a mixed-use development in the works along Route 1 in College Park planned by Bozzutto Development. According to WAMU, this will be the "first major non-student housing project in the area, with housing for nearly 400 residents.” 

Chevy Chase Lake, a development being planned on Connecticut Avenue will have a Purple Line station right at its location. Nearly 750,000 square feet of residential and retail space will be housed in the development. The development is scheduled to be finished before the Purple Line opens.

If you know of more development along the route, send them our way and we’ll make note of it in a future email.

PURPLE LINE NOW NEWS AND EVENTS

Next Forum: Completing the Capital Crescent Trail

We are busy pulling together a fantastic panel with representatives from Montgomery County Council, Washington Area Bicyclist Association, Purple Line Transit Partners (the folks who are building the project), and the Montgomery County Planning Board. Stay tuned for more details coming soon.

An official invitation will arrive in your email box next week – make sure you click on the link in the invitation to reserve your seat. The event, as always, is free and open to the public but seats must be reserved in advance due to space limitations.

Upcoming Community Advisory Teams

May 29, 2019
University Boulevard
6:30 – 8 p.m.
Langley Park-McCormick Elementary School (Multi-Purpose Room)
8201 15th Avenue
Langley Park, MD 20783

June 5, 2019
Bethesda/Chevy Chase
7 – 8:30 p.m.
North Chevy Chase Elementary School
3700 Jones Bridge Road (All Purpose Room)
Bethesda MD, 20815

PURPLE LINE NOW ACTION

Purple Line NOW Needs Your Sponsorship Today

Sponsorship is another way to help Purple Line NOW continue our efforts to bring you important Purple Line related news and information via our newsletters, outreach, and public events. Our organization has been around for a long time and is almost entirely run by dedicated volunteers. We don't hold big fundraisers and we do not receive underwriting grants from any source, government (local or otherwise), nor are we a membership organization (we do not ask for annual dues). We operate solely on donations from individuals and businesses who care about the Purple Line and whose generosity allow us to continue our work.

If you need more information before you push the donate button, we sent out a request a few weeks ago that will give you a good, indepth idea of how hard we make your donations dollars work. Click here to read all about what we do with your donations!

All levels of sponsorships are welcomed and appreciated!

As always, we are happy to share financial information about our operating expenses and our income. Just shoot us an email or give us a call. When we say we do a lot on a skinny budget, we mean it. We try to only ask for donations when our bank account gets low enough to make our treasurer nervous - and that is usually around the $3,000 mark.  

We hope you will consider joining the sponsors already on board (you can see these awesome folks here) – and remember, with your donation, your name (or your business name) will be listed on our website and in event literature and signage for a year following your donation.

Get Connected

Make sure you are signed up for timely alerts from Purple Line NOW via our Twitter and Facebook pages, and at our website Purple Line NOW.

In today's edition of Purple Line NOW News, here's what you'll find:

• The Debut of MTA's Redesigned Purple Line Website
• Riverdale and Glenridge/New Carrollton CAT Meeting Summary and Art-in-Transit
• Our Treasurer is Nervous, Consider a Sponsorship to PLN Today - All Levels Welcome!

Please feel free to share this newsletter - no permission from us needed! You can always find a link to our newsletter on our website (www.purplelinenow.com) which makes it easy to share with your friends, neighbors, constituents, customers, and employees.

CONSTRUCTION NEWS TO KNOW

Highlights from the MTA Website Redesign

The Maryland Transit Administration (MTA) made a big announcement at the April 30 Community Advisory Team (CAT)  meeting in Riverdale Park. They have launched an updated version of their Purple Line website, PurpleLineMD.com.

The new home page looks pretty snazzy and the site is still the place to go to sign up for construction updates, to see CAT materials, and even to see the P3 contract. However, what we're most excited about is the addition of some long-requested content. The most fun to browse may be found by clicking on the new “Gallery” tab at the top of the page. Here, you’ll find lots of photographs showing the progress of construction.

Additionally, you can go to the "Public Involvement" tab to see the materials the state has been presenting both at special purpose neighborhood meetings, such as the Greater Lyttonsville Community Meeting that took place before the bridge construction, as well as overall project summaries presented to the Montgomery and Prince George's Councils. We've previously been able to share some of these materials with you, our newsletter readers, but we are glad the full range of materials is now officially available.

We will definitely be highlighting relevant parts of the site in future newsletters, but please let us know if you find something particularly interesting in your own exploration!

Riverdale and Glenridge/New Carrollton Community Advisory Team Summary

The first meeting of the latest series of Community Advisory Teams was held on April 30 and focused on the section of the project from Riverdale Park through New Carrollton, which encompasses Beacon Heights, as well as the new maintenance yard at Glenridge. The Riverdale and Glenridge/New Carrollton CAT meeting presentation is on the new website in both English and Spanish.

The presentation included a number of interesting topics, including the art-in-transit program, construction progress with a particular focus on Ellin Road, and concerns about Glenridge construction noise. We encourage you to view the presentation and holler back to us if you have any questions - we'll try to get the answers for you.

We were entranced by the art plans at the elevated Riverdale Park station, which, according to their presentation, will create a “dynamic experience where vertical folded columns gently sway offering the public an iconic gateway outside of the station entrance. The kinetic sculpture is activated by engagement; as people sit in the folded seats it will cause the columns to gently sway and reflect a play of colored lights above them." We can't wait to see this!

A lot of terrific citizen input, public official advocacy, and county resources have gone into making sure the Riverdale Park station will be effectively integrated into the community and we are glad to see the appearance of the ground level approach has not been neglected. Check out the presentation for a preview of the art at the other three stations!

We'll have a wrap-up of the May 7 CAT meeting in College Park in our next newsletter.

Have any questions about who handles what aspect of the design, construction, or maintenance of the line - or anything else Purple Line-related, for that matter? Just drop us an email and we'll find an answer for you.

PURPLE LINE NOW NEWS AND EVENTS

Next Envisioning the Purple Line Forum

We are working on the next Purple Line NOW forum happening this summer. The topic will be "Completing the Capital Crescent Trail" and will be held at the Jane E. Lawton Community Recreation Center in Chevy Chase. We will announce the date and time very soon, so watch this space. We expect a good crowd for this forum. As always, all of our fora are free and open to the public and media, but we require a seat reservation, so look for your invitation to arrive in your email box soon. We are working on a terrific and informative panel of speakers who will bring us all up to speed on the trail as it relates to the Purple Line.

PURPLE LINE NOW ACTION

Purple Line NOW Needs Your Sponsorship Today

Sponsorship is another way to help Purple Line NOW continue our efforts to bring you important Purple Line related news and information via our newsletters, outreach, and public events. Our organization has been around for a long time and is almost entirely run by dedicated volunteers. We don't hold big fundraisers and we do not receive underwriting grants from any source, government (local or otherwise), nor are we a membership organization (we do not ask for annual dues). We operate solely on donations from individuals and businesses who care about the Purple Line and whose generosity allow us to continue our work.

If you need more information before you push the donate button, we sent out a request a few weeks ago that will give you a good, indepth idea of how hard we make your donations dollars work. Click here to read all about what we do with your donations!

All levels of sponsorships are welcomed and appreciated!

As always, we are happy to share financial information about our operating expenses and our income. Just shoot us an email or give us a call. When we say we do a lot on a skinny budget, we mean it. We try to only ask for donations when our bank account gets low enough to make our treasurer nervous - and that is usually around the $3,000 mark.  

We hope you will consider joining the sponsors already on board (you can see these awesome folks here) – and remember, with your donation, your name (or your business name) will be listed on our website and in event literature and signage for a year following your donation.

Thank you!

Get Connected

Make sure you are signed up for timely alerts from Purple Line NOW via our Twitter and Facebook pages, and at our website Purple Line NOW.