Maryland Lags in Delivering its Share of Bike Trial

DC bicyclists got their chance to "meet the Met" (i.e. 1.5 miles of the newest section of the Metropolitan Branch Trail) earlier this month at a hula-hoop and dance-laden event hosted by the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy. But it will likely take residents and smart growth advocates in Maryland upwards of eight years before they get to make the acquaintance of their own little piece of hiking and biking heaven.

The Metropolitan Branch Trail (MBT) is an eight-mile stretch of off-road trail that runs from Union Station (almost) to Silver Spring, Maryland. Built atop the old B&O Railroad corridors, the MBT will provide the area's walkers and bikers with their own car-free connections to neighborhoods and Metro stations.

Jennifer Kaleba, Vice President of Communications for the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, a group dedicated to converting "unused railway corridors to biking and hiking corridors," hoped the "Meet the Met" event would give residents on both sides of the Maryland-DC border a taste of what an "integral bicycle beltway" connecting DC to Silver Spring would feel like.


A look at the 2011 Operating Budget - newly approved by the Montgomery County Council on May 27th - shows that the Trail's funding has now been doubled from its original $6 million price tag. Via the 2011-2016 Capital Improvements Program, $12.1 million will now be allotted toward the design and construction of Phase 1 and the design of Phase 2.

The bad news? Despite the 1,000 person turn-out at the DC event and the funding increase, folks on the Silver Spring side of the MBT will have to wait about nine years to take advantage of their portion of the integral beltway. And that's the new, accelerated timeline.

Just this past February, Montgomery Councilmember Valerie Ervin complained that "this project's lack of progress may signal to residents that the County is uncommitted to non-automotive modes of transportation" in a letter to Montgomery County Department of Transportation Director Arthur Holmes.

In an email to DCMud, Richard Romer, Policy Analyst for Councilmember Ervin's office, explained the Councilmember's frustrations that "So little was occurring in Montgomery County" to build the trail. "After discussion, the Council allocated funding for programming design, land acquisition, and construction of the first phase of the Silver Spring Transit Center to east of Georgia Avenue (including a new bridge over Georgia Avenue), and the design of the second phase from east of Georgia Avenue along the CSX tracks and King Street to Takoma Park."

But with design concepts for the trail still in their infancy and negotiations with track land owners expected to carry on through 2014, the most optimistic estimate coming out of County work sessions is that the final trail will not be available to non-motorists until late 2018/early 2019. Washington DC, on the other hand, has been aggressively completing its share of the bike trail and expects completion within two years.

Maryland Real Estate and Development News

MBT Bike Trail Opens New Section in Northeast

District of Columbia officials opened the newest section of the Metropolitan Branch Trail (MBT) today, a 1.5 mile stretch of pavement that connects Brookland (Franklin Street) to NoMa (New York Avenue).

In all, the MBT will run the 8 miles between Union Station and Silver Spring, largely on dedicated bike trails, complimented by murals, solar lighting, new parks, and connecting the National Mall with 7 Metro stations.

"We plan to continue to build trails until we have a complete, interconnected system in the District," said DDOT Director Gabe Klein in a prepared statement. In fact, planners of the trail hold out hope that the trail will be entirely off-street, though current plans still contemplate significant portions of street lanes at several points on the trail. In another step forward, the District has received an easement from WMATA to connect the trail to the Rhode Island Avenue Metro station.

The District broke ground on this section of the trail in May of 2008, after PEPCO donated property along the CSX railroad lines to form the trail. Several portions of the trail have already been completed. In time the trail will connect to the Capital Crescent Trail at Silver Spring; the CCT now ends just east of Rock Creek Park. The MBT will also later add a spur from the Ft. Totten Metro to West Hyattsville.

Still to be resolved are land acquisitions at Ft. Totten Metro and several pedestrian-bike bridges, which those knowledgeable of the trail expect within the next two to three years.

Washington DC transportation news

Golden Arches Go High-Rise in Downtown Bethesda

Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School students will have one less parking lot to congregate in now that New York-based developers, the Clarett Group, have gotten the go-ahead to demolish the existing McDonald’s franchise at 4500 East West Highway and replace it with a nine-story office building.

The site – which currently houses the fast food chain, a small office building and a vast amount of surface parking – is to be re-appropriated for a new 98-foot, nine-story high-rise that will feature 13,300 square feet of ground level retail. The prominent downtown Bethesda location – just a block from the aforementioned high school and the Bethesda Metro Center – is intended to house a new restaurant and a few commercial outlets above three levels of below-grade parking. The rest of the Shalom Baranes-designed development will go towards Class A office space and a green roof.

However, to receive the approval of the Montgomery County Planning Board (MCPB), the development team was forced to acquiesce to a laundry list of county demands: the building must be completed in one construction phase, achieve a LEED silver certification, provide – at a minimum - 20% public use space.

In order to live up to the latter of those specifications, Clarett will install a 4500 square foot public plaza with “plantings, a water feature, and artwork” at the corner of East West Highway and Pearl Street. A final decision on the choice of artwork lies with the Montgomery County Art Review Panel, which is expected to announce their decision soon. According to Planning Board staff, the proposed plaza is a “direct response” to the provisions of Bethesda Sector Plan and will “serve as a gateway to downtown Bethesda.”

Furthermore, the site is also to be incorporated into the Georgetown Branch Trail, a local biking path that shadows the route of the upcoming (and much debated) Purple Line. Two 5-foot wide on-street bike paths will be laid along Pearl Street in order to connect it with the popular footpath, for a total of 6885 square feet of on-site public use space. Pearl Street itself was once proposed a Purple Line stop for Bus Rapid Transit –before the MCPB instead moved in favor of a light rail system. Given the close proximity of the high school and the heavy hiker/biker traffic in the area, Planning Board staff pledged that these infrastructural improvements will keep the “emphasis on safety and pedestrian access.”

After a preliminary hearing last October, Clarett’s final project plan was approved by the MCPB on December 4th. The MTA Purple Line Project team has also ruled that the plans present no conflict with their plans for a light rail system, as have the Maryland State Highway Administration and Montgomery County Department of Transportation. Construction is expected to commence in the fourth quarter of 2009. James G. Davis Construction Corp. will serve as general contractor.

DC’s Newest Development District is…the Florida Avenue Market?

Just around the corner from the ongoing revitalization effort that is NoMa, the Office of Planning (OP) is setting its sights on a similarly minded redevelopment initiative: transforming DC’s wholesaler haven, the Florida Avenue Market, into a “vibrant, mixed-use neighborhood that protects the look and feel of the historic retail markets” while also bring new residential, retail and office projects to the Northeast site.

With the aid of CORE Architecture and Design, EHT Traceries, Inc. and Economic Research Associates, OP released their findings on just how to achieve that seemingly insurmountable task (the surrounding area includes two of the District’s most notorious neighborhoods: Trinidad and Ivy City) late last month in the Florida Avenue Market Small Area Plan. The report details an impressive list of obstacles in the way of redevelopment – even for a city with as many impressive redevelopment challenges as Washington.

Though the crime rate in the surrounding communities goes unmentioned, here’s what OP sees as its primary concerns. Firstly, current zoning statutes prohibit residential development in the industrial zone - a problem that two nearby developments, the Washington Gateway and the Gateway Market and Residences, have been able to circumvent through the PUD process. Secondly, the Market area is comprised of 120 lots with 68 different owners – a ratio that will make acquisition by the city a costly, confusing and time consuming proposition. Lastly, of those lots, many are, in the words of OP, “underdeveloped” or vacant, which gives potential developers little or nothing to work with.

However, OP hopes to relieve that burden somewhat with their framework for potential redevelopment. Taking into account the site’s historic significance (the Center Market first opened in 1802; the flagship Union Terminal Market in 1928), current conditions and infrastructure, current economic and real estate analyses, and community input – “achieved through a series of community planning sessions, property ownership workshops, and through an Advisory Committee” that included City Councilmembers Tommy Wells and Harry Thomas, Jr., the ANCs 5 and 6, Gallaudet University, and Apollo Development – OP has arrived at a preferred mix of commercial and residential uses for the market area (pictured). In an ideal scenario, the Florida Avenue Market will become a new destination by linking NoMa, the New York/Florida Avenue Metro and the neighboring Gallaudet campus into cohesive, walkable and, yes, friendly, whole.

To that effect, the plan outlines extensive overhauls for each prime thoroughfare in the Market area - including the to-be-reopened 3^rd Street – with rehabilitated historic buildings, public parks, new signage and linkage to the Metropolitan Branch Trail. All of this would be done according to “Deaf Design Space principles,” in order to make the area welcoming for Gallaudet’s 1500 strong student population. Sound like a challenge? It will be, but OP hopes to relieve some of the burden from developers by encouraging a 20% tax credit towards the renovation of historic buildings on site.

Presumably to fill in the many remaining question marks (and gear up for an oncoming onslaught of RFPs), OP will be hosting a “Mayoral Hearing” concerning the Market on May 18, 2009 from 6:30 PM - 8:30 PM at Gallaudet’s Merrill Learning Center Building . The meeting will be open to the public - with questions and comments on the Area Plan encouraged. OP’s two-part plan for the Market can be read in its entirety here.

MBT Bike Trail Construction to Resume

In an announcement that cyclists have long anticipated, the District of Columbia held a press conference this morning to proclaim the imminent construction of the MBT - the Metropolitan Branch Trail - an eight-mile bike/jogging trail that will run from Union Station to Silver Spring. In his announcement this morning, Mayor Fenty stated that the District had reached an agreement with PEPCO to donate property adjacent to the CSX railroad lines, land currently worth (they are telling the IRS) $3.3m. The new trail will connect the New York Avenue Metro to Franklin St., NE. The agreement represents a key parcel of real estate, stretching through NoMa and Eckington, and the city's resulting ability to add a crucial connector.

The MBT began as a concept in the early '90's, several segments have already been built. When completed, the MBT and its contributing paths are envisioned to run from the Mall to Silver Spring, northwest into Bethesda, where it will connect to the already completed Capital Crescent Trail. The MBT portion will later add a spur from the Ft. Totten Metro to West Hyattsville. The section of the trail announced today will connect the recently completed New York Avenue Metro station on NoMa's north end, running over Florida Avenue, under New York Avenue, and over Rhode Island Avenue at the Metro station, where the trail will take the form of roadside bike lanes until it reaches the Brookland-Catholic University Metro.

Officials involved with the project project that design work will begin immediately, with construction to start hopefully by year end. With this latest acquisition, the MBT still has numerous issues to work through at the Ft. Totten Metro station, including a land acquisition from WMATA.

Eric Gilliland, Executive Director of Washington Area Bicyclists Association, which has worked with the District in support of the trail, extolled the virtues for both bikers and Metro riders, projecting that the newest leg will increase access to the New York Avenue Metro - a station that is currently cut off by Florida and New York Avenues, an interchange Gilliland called "really terrible for pedestrians." Gilliland predicted that connecting remaining pieces within the District would take and additional two and a half to three years, but that the Silver Spring to Bethesda section was waiting on plans for the Purple Line.

DDOT will be in charge of construction. To date most of the costs have been paid for with federal dollars, though the project will undoubtedly be a boon for a few neighborhoods like Eckington that will be suddenly be connected along the the railroad tracks that once condemned them to relative isolation.

Eckington Fairfield Residential Project Now Off?

Despite earlier reports that groundbreaking would start in June 2007, it now appears that Fairfield Residential and CSX Realty Development will not be pursuing their $150 million mixed-use development at Eckington Place and Harry Thomas Way, NE. Word on the neighborhood Bloomingdale blog is that CSX has decided to not sell the land for this project. The development, to be located on 4.3 acres across the street from XM Satellite Radio and north of the Fedex center just off the intersection of New York and Florida Avenues, was to feature three buildings containing up to 675 condo units, 15,000 sf of retail, and almost 800 parking spaces, with about 70 of the units reserved for workforce housing. The project was to also extend Q Street NE through the project, and connect it to the nearby Metropolitan Branch Trail (which travels under New York Avenue and then becomes elevated over Florida Avenue alongside the Red Line tracks). 

Washington D.C. real estate development news