As DDOT studies options for Palisades Trolley Trail, questions arise over what’s most suitable

What’s now a grassy footpath along the Potomac River from Foxhall Road to Galena Place NW along the former Glen Echo trolley route could become a full-fledged pedestrian and bike trail connecting Georgetown and the Palisades, depending on the findings of the DC Department of Transportation’s pending feasibility study.

Neighborhood support for development of the 3-mile trail was mixed at the first DDOT public meeting on the potential project, which grew out of a neighborhood resident’s efforts to galvanize support for the idea. But while supporters say that the project would create an accessible and safe path and connect the Palisades to other bike trails, others counter that a formalized trail would be redundant and not worth the cost — concerns that Ward 3 DC Council member Mary Cheh recently cited when questioning DDOT officials about the project. Given the conflicting views, the Palisades Citizens Association is working to find middle ground.

DDOT officials say that the study — due to be completed this year — will gauge the project’s viability amid a desire to increase routes for cyclists and preserve the Foundry Trestle Bridge, a contributing element of the Glover Archbold Park Historic District. The bridge, which was abandoned in 1960, will be inspected as part of the study, and officials are considering incorporating it into the refurbished trail. The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority has already applied for a permit to demolish the bridge if it is not deemed useful by DDOT.

“There’s an opportunity to step in and preserve this historic structure that could be lost,” project manager Michael Alvino said at DDOT’s March 7 meeting on the feasibility study. “But we don’t know what the future costs are. We don’t know if it’s feasible. We don’t know if it serves a purpose from a transportation perspective.”

Officials and consultants affiliated with the project emphasized that the feasibility study could still result in a conclusion that the trail is not needed.

In a heated question-and-answer session, several residents in the audience nonetheless questioned DDOT’s motives in studying the project, and at least one suggested that the money would be better used on other priorities.

Officials do not yet have a cost estimate for the trail; an agency representative did not respond to questions about how much is being spent on the study.

“Have you asked the taxpayer whether they actually want to spend their money on this feasibility study?” asked one resident. “If DC is so flush with money, why don’t you go fix those potholes for us?”

Detractors said the trail is already used by some residents for jogging and walking and does not need to be developed further. Others said that the Capital Crescent Trail, which hugs the study area, makes the potential development redundant.

“I’m a biker,” said one audience member. “Literally I could almost throw a rock and hit the Capital Crescent Trail” from the area under study.

Other comments, left on sticky notes DDOT left out for responses, focused on the perceived environmental degradation that paving the trail might have.

Brett Young, who has lived in the Palisades for eight years and originally advocated for developing the trail in a 2014 article for Greater Greater Washington, countered jabs at the meeting. He said the trail would be useful for people all over Northwest, and called the current trail “woefully unused.”

Young says the trail could be a great asset for promoting bike travel in the neighborhood. “Inside the Palisades boundaries, there are currently zero bike lanes, and the roads are dangerous for cyclists,” Young wrote in a March update to his original article. “There are four schools along this trail, and as DC pursues Vision Zero, it is important that children have a quality option to cycle to school.”

Young describes the proposed trail as a safer route for students on bikes since it’s likely that the only at-grade crossings would be at Chain Bridge Road and MacArthur Boulevard/Foxhall Road NW, with an overpass already in place over Arizona Avenue. The study is examining the feasibility of building three new bridges to replace the ones removed at Clark Place, Reservoir Road and Maddox Branch in the 1980s during construction of a crosstown water main.

At the meeting, he accused trail detractors of “NIMBYism” — a reference to opponents who essentially say “not in my backyard” to any nearby project. In this case, that’s not entirely figurative since the grassy footpath backs up to the yards of hundreds of homes.

Other trail supporters at the meeting emphasized that the current footpath — which has steep drop-offs at various points — isn’t accessible for many who are aging or who have disabilities.

“I want to age in place. I’m 50 now, I want to live there when I’m 90,” said one audience member who has lived along the trail for 12 years. “If you’re a mom with a stroller, you can’t get to the canal. If you’re a person that walks with a cane, I don’t know how you get to the canal from at least our end of the area.”

The Palisades Citizens Association conducted a survey in late 2014 and early 2015 to gauge neighborhood support for redoing the trail. Two-thirds of the 800-plus DC residents who participated in the survey supported enhancing the path throughout the study area into a well-drained, fully contiguous, regularly maintained and more interconnected trail with better-defined access points, survey summary materials show. Sixty-eight percent of respondents were Palisades residents. A natural surface for the trail — favored by 48 percent of survey respondents — was the most popular choice.

Avi Green, president of the Palisades Citizens Association, says he is very much in support of the development. “There are a relatively small number of people that have very strong feelings about the trail, most of whom live along the trail,” he said. “I’m excited that the District is studying it because it is a public resource and everyone — not just the people who live along the trail — have a right to have better access to it.”

Green said that the neighborhood is currently dangerous to traverse on bike via MacArthur Boulevard, illustrating the need for an alternative route.

The Palisades Citizens Association has not taken an official position, however. “The PCA has been very involved in gathering community input and working with DDOT to get the needs of the trail on their radar,” Green wrote in a recent email to The DC Line. “We haven’t taken an official stand, although we’re currently working on a statement of principles called ‘Middle Ground’ that will endorse a solution between paving and doing nothing.”

Meanwhile, advisory neighborhood commissioner Alan Karnofsky wrote in an April newsletter that he wants to see the trail left in its “current natural state,” with DDOT making only drainage improvements. He also suggested that local officials work with the National Park Service to improve neighborhood access to the Capital Crescent Trail.

The Transportation Department completed an online survey last month, and a second public comment meeting for the trail study will be held in June. The study is anticipated to conclude in August.

In the meantime, the issue surfaced at the council’s recent hearing on the Transportation Department’s budget.

Ward 3 DC Council member Mary Cheh, whose district includes the study area and who oversees the committee that oversees DDOT, said she sees the trail as redundant due to the proximity of the Capital Crescent Trail. Cheh also questioned whether altering the surface of the footpath is truly necessary.

“Do we really need to change the natural environment of that trail? We can deal with the flooding. We can deal with some of the other issues, but why do we have to pave it?” she asked at her committee’s April 11 budget hearing.

Jack Koczela, chair of the DC Recreational Trail Advisory Committee, emphasized at the committee meeting that the land ought to be available for wide use. “It’s a public piece of property,” he said. “Every person is entitled to use that public right of way and have access to open space.”

Cheh faced some pushback on Twitter from cyclist- and pedestrian-safety advocates, who questioned whether her position belies her support for the District’s goal of reducing traffic deaths to zero.

The group Ward 3 Bicycle Advocates is hoping to convince Cheh that the project deserves her support. In a May 1 letter calling for improved infrastructure in Ward 3 and elsewhere, the group urged that the project be included in the city’s five-year capital budget.

“This three mile trail represents one of the few opportunities in the District to implement a new trail for cyclists and pedestrians where cars are not present, and is an opportunity for both recreation and commuting,” the group wrote. “Currently, there are no bike lanes within the Palisades that permit cyclists to safely connect with downtown, particularly since MacArthur Blvd is devoted solely to the throughput of car commuters.”

Jeff Marootian, director of DDOT, said at the committee meeting that the department does not currently have a cost assessment for the renovation of the Foundry Branch trestle bridge — a major factor in determining the project’s overall cost.

The mayor’s agent for historic preservation held a hearing in March on the demolition permit sought by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, but continued the proceedings until Oct. 1 to allow DDOT to conclude its study. The DC Preservation League has an online petition urging against demolition that had about 2,300 signatures as of Tuesday afternoon.

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Scenes of the varied landscapes and views along the existing path:

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