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College Park officials are not sure when they will receive state funding to improve the city's congested and damaged stretch of Route 1, but that doesn't mean they're going to stop asking.

The state's Consolidated Transportation Plan draft, which outlines the state's transportation budget for fiscal years 2010 to 2015, was released Sept. 15 and includes no funding for Route 1, due to budgetary constraints. Nonetheless, the City Council unanimously approved a letter Tuesday night urging state transportation officials to improve the road as soon as possible.

"I understand that the state doesn't have much money, but we are going to continue to call on the funding for the two highest-priority transportation projects for the city," said Mayor Stephen Brayman, referring to Route 1 and the Purple Line, the 16-mile light rail route from New Carrollton to Bethesda that will run through the University of Maryland, College Park.

The Purple Line remains funded in the transportation plan.

Among the city's suggestions in the letter was that the state look into using a cost-sharing approach to improve the road, in which private developers would build on Route 1 and pay to refurbish the stretch of road in front of their property.

This would likely be done during future East Campus development, which is expected to bring $900 million in mixed-use development on the east side of Route 1 across from the University of Maryland, said Councilman Robert Catlin (Dist. 2). However, Catlin said the state would likely require more detailed planning for the Route 1 improvements before considering cost-sharing.

"The state position is that the plan is not far enough developed yet," he said. "You need to have better design and engineering done before the state would typically require that."

While city officials were disappointed by the CTP's omission of Route 1, they were pleased with several other aspects of the plan, including its continued funding for the Purple Line and discontinuation of a study into the feasibility of an access road from I-95 and I-495 to the University of Maryland.

Brayman said the access road would likely bring construction and traffic into neighborhoods and would require the removal of undeveloped land used for university and government research. He also worried that the access road would gain favor from university officials, leaving Route 1 neglected.

"If we can't get Route 1 funded, how are we going to get two projects funded?" he said. "We should not be attempting to relieve vehicular congestion in College Park by putting new roads in that upset our neighborhoods and their quality of life."

Calls to the Maryland Department of Transportation were not answered by press time.