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Clarksburg Mall Transit Fiasco Shows Need to Fix
Broken County Development Rules

Press release issued November 3, 2016

Outdated county development rules have left workers and shoppers with little or no transit access to the new Clarksburg outlet mall, the Action Committee for Transit charged today.

The newly opened Clarksburg outlet mall paid $18 million to enlarge a highway interchange, but contributed not a cent for transit. As a result, the only transit access is a bus that runs once every 30 minutes and stops two football fields away. Riders must walk across four busy roadways to reach the mall.

Even worse, the bus stops running on weekdays half an hour before the mall closes, and it doesn't run on weekends at all. As a result, shoppers with 9-to-5 jobs, as well as many mall employees and potential employees, have no transit access at all.

Clarksburg Mall Bus Stop

"This fiasco is the direct consequence of planning rules that put moving cars ahead of moving people," said ACT president Ronit Aviva Dancis. "It shows why it's so important to fix the Subdivision Staging Policy without further delay."

The Planning Board has proposed amendments to the Subdivision Staging Policy that would reduce the county's reliance on automobile-only transportation tests that channel spending into highway widenings at the expense of transit and ease of foot travel. The amendments are now before the County Council.