DDOT’s Barney Circle & SE Boulevard: Is This What We Want?

At the January 14, 2014, meeting of ANC6B, the Commission voted 10-0 to send a letter to DDOT outlining its concerns about plans announced by DDOT on November 21, 2013, under its Barney Circle & SE Boulevard Transportation Study.  Here is the ANC’s 10-page letter:

01-14 DDOT – 2nd Public Mtg of Barney Circle & SE Blvd Transportation Planning Study

For those in a hurry, here is an except from page one:

“In summary, the Commission:

• rejects DDOT’s proposed 4-lane SE Boulevard with parking lots and no connections to the existing street grid,
• opposes the inclusion of a multi-modal parking facility in any form,
• opposes Barney Circle Option 2 and has concerns about many aspects of Barney Circle Option 1, feels the study suffers from a lack of neighborhood planning and involvement by DDOT with its AWI partners the DC Office of Planning, the Deputy Mayor for Planning & Economic Development, and the DC Department of the Environment; and
• questions the sufficiency of DDOT’s traffic planning scope and assumptions.

“These positions are discussed more fully [in the rest of the letter] and lead ANC6B to the following conclusions in keeping with the Anacostia Waterfront Initiative (AWI) goal to ‘redesign highways and freeways to reduce barriers between neighborhoods and waterfront parks.’

• If a road is to be built to replace the SE/SW Freeway, then the best option may be a two-way street fully connected to the grid, along with a pedestrian and bicycle bridge, that opens up the possibility of using the balance of the land for recreation and economic development; and
• Barney Circle should be designed to accommodate the decision on whether or not there is a direct road connection to 11^th Street and what type of road that will be and in ways that directs commuter traffic to appropriate arterials while protecting residential streets from cut-through traffic.”

DDOT’s presentation of November 21 is on the AWI website.  And, I discussed the previous DDOT presentation on this study of February 2013 back in March under the title “If you Build a Road, Who will Come?”