A Metro board committee voted Thursday on an 11th-hour measure that could delay a multimillion-dollar land transfer critical to the construction of Maryland’s light-rail Purple Line.
Metro is expected to hand over to Maryland the land rights to properties at New Carrollton, College Park and Silver Spring Metro stations so Purple Line work crews can begin construction. The properties are valued somewhere between $24 million and $37 million.
Maryland wants the rights to those stations in exchange for a 450-space state-owned parking lot and a plot of state land, valued together at $17.1 million.
But Thursday, members of the board’s capital planning and real estate committee said they’re concerned that Metro is being underpaid in the exchange. In a surprise move, the committee passed a substitute resolution that gives tentative approval for the transfer of property rights — but only if officials from Metro and Maryland enter negotiations and come up with a new figure for “fair compensation” on the exchange.
Click here to read the rest of the article written by Martine Powers over at the Washington Post