Evening star., 1953-10-02
Planners Seek
To Lift Lawsuit
Threat 10 Roads
Urge Agreement on
Parkway Status Of
Belt and 24O Routes

Belt and 240 Routes
Solution of the dispute over
the Southeast leg of Route 240
and the Inter County Belt route
can be reached if all parties
agree the two are parkways,
the Maryland National Capital
Park and Planning Commission
said yesterday.
In a clarifying statement" the
commission said it considered
the roads as parkways well
within the spirit and letter of
the Capper-Cramton Act"
The National Capital Planning
Commission has withheld its ap-
proval of State Roads Com
mission plan to run the contro-
versial southeast leg through a
portion of Rock Creek Park in
Maryland. The commission,
however, has sanctioned the To-
cation of the belt route through
q section of the park.
The planning commissions
statement was aimed at resolv-
ing the issues and Staving off
litigation which it said would de-
lay construction of the roads.
Cites Comparable Examples.
1.-The Maryland commission, "
the statement read, regards
these parkwayS as similar, for
example, to Rock Creek and Po-
tomac parkway from the Lin
coin Memorial to the Calvert
Street Bridge within Rock Creek
Park in the District, extension
of which is now planned by the
National Park Service. the pro-
posed Fort drive, as well as to
the Henry Hudson and Bronx
River parkways in New York" !"
The Rock Creek and Potomac
Parkway, the Maryland plan
ners said, was constructed by
the National Park Service with
approval of the National Capt.
tai planners on parkland ac-
uuired under the Capper-Cram-
ton Act.
Fort drive, the Maryland group
continued, is located on lands
acquired under the Capper-
Cramton Act and is designed
as a four-lane divided highway
with the APPROVAL of the National
planners.
Sees Another Similarity.
The Maryland commission also
pointed to the George Washing
ton Memorial Parkway between
Arlington Memorial Bridge and
Spout Run In Virginia as an
other four-lane divided highway
built with the approval Of the
National commission on Capper-
Cramton park land.
Specific congressional ap-
proval of such tour-lane di-
vided express parkways with the
Capper-C -Cramton park system is
seen in the specific reference in
Section / (a) of the act to the
Mount Vernon Memorial high
way and it's recognition as an
appropriate parkway for inclu-
sion in the George Washington
Memorial Parkway SYSTEM" the
statement continued.
The commission said it could
see no reason to suppose that
Congress used the term parkway
in the section of the Capper-
CramtoA Act applicable to the
two Maryland roads any differ
emily than in the sections appli-
cable to the George Washington
Memorial Parkway and Fort
drive.
Express ParkwayS.
Both Maryland roads, the
commission said, are express
parkways, construction of which
has been approved by the sub
urban planners.
This commission regards such
parkways as an appropriate park
and parkway use for the same
reason that similar construction
has been-and we think prop
erly-regarded as an appropriate
use under the same act in other
portions of the Capper- Cramton
parks"
j Bond Smith, general coun-
sci for the Maryland planners,
urged that every effort be made
to prevent court fight over
the proposed park route of the
two roads.
Even if we won suit" he
said, 1--WE would lose because we
would forfeit the right of i'm
mediate construction of the
roads"
Mr.. Smith urged the statement
be made to clarity the suburban
planning commissions basis for
granting the roads commission
the right to build the two high