Breakfast links: Parking and/or central Maryland

by David Alpert • November 23, 2009 8:35 am

Plan for the Anderson Automotive site in Baltimore.

Check the foundation first please: 32-year-old concrete pilings near West Falls Church will support a Silver Line bridge over I-66. But the contractor has resisted testing the pilings' strength despite FTA pressure to ensure any bridge will be safe. (Post)

Champlain Street lane open: 15th Street isn't DC's only contraflow lane anymore. The one-way road and contraflow (but not separated) bike lane on Champlain Street under Marie Reed Center in Adams Morgan is now open as well. (TheWashCycle)

Floating houses, underground parking: You might expect the American Trucking Association to want some parking. And on Capitol Hill, they are digging right under two historic row houses to make room for an underground garage. (WBJ)

Don't take a taxi to work: You might expect the Taxi and Paratransit Association to emphasize living in areas with alternatives to driving, where people use the occasional taxi or paratransit service when transit isn't possible. But instead, they tout the free parking at their office location, off the Beltway and I-270 far from Metro.

"Dundalk pays, Potomac plays": Montgomery elected officials are valiantly pushing for lower tolls on the ICC, a road they approved knowing it would have high tolls. But as Michael Dresser notes, any toll reduction will just come out of the pockets of those who use the other toll facilities, which are almost all around Baltimore. (Baltimore Sun)

Street-facing, and retail, but not street-facing retail: Several auto dealerships in Charles Village, near downtown Baltimore and JHU, may become a mixed-use development with a Lowe's, supermarket, smaller stores, and housing. But instead of an urban design with the stores on the street and parking inside or underground, the stores will face the internal parking lot, and one edge street will have nothing but garage and surface parking. (Daily Record, jfruh)

Dorsey-Oriented Tunnel: Howard County is considering a proposal for a mixed-use development near the Dorsey MARC. The Route 100 freeway separates the station from the site, so the developer proposes a 1,400-foot pedestrian and bike tunnel along with shuttle service. Will people actually walk or bike to the station? Residents are divided. (Baltimore Sun)

Have a tip for the links? Submit it here.

14 comments

Tags: Adams Morgan, bad streets, Baltimore, bike lanes, Capitol Hill, contraflow lanes, DC, development, free parking, FTA, Howard County, ICC, links, MARC, Maryland, Metro safety, Montgomery, parking design, retail, Rockville, Silver Line, TOD, tolls

David Alpert is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Greater Greater Washington. He has had a lifelong interest in great cities and great communities. He worked as a Product Manager for Google for six years and has lived in the Boston, San Francisco, and New York metro areas in addition to Washington, DC. He loves the area which is, in many ways, greater than those others, and wants to see it become even greater.

Comments
Add a comment »

That American Trucking Association building plan is a pretty neat engineering project. Seems like best of both worlds - protect historic homes and provide some needed underground parking spaces for the building tenants.

by Fritz on Nov 23, 2009 9:45 am

"Needed" is debatable. That building is one block from the Metro. "Wanted" is probably more accurate.

by Reid on Nov 23, 2009 10:27 am

I'm all for more retail in Baltimore City, but it needs to be pedestrian friendly and embrace the neighborhood, not turn its back on it. Three stories of parking is not a good use of street frontage. The housing and small shops are great but they need to be open to the sidewalk instead of rear-facing. A big-box like Lowe's can be an asset, but it shouldn't be designed to the suburban sprawl model. Put that parking back by the tracks and get the stores out front where they belong.

by Matthias on Nov 23, 2009 10:33 am

Just because it's a block from Metro doesn't mean all employees and visitors can take Metro.

And bike contraflow lanes aren't "needed" as much as "wanted" either.

by Fritz on Nov 23, 2009 12:14 pm

I do agree about the Baltimore development, but in the end, i'd rather have it the way it is than not have it at all. Hopefully they can be talked into some more pedestrian friendly designs, but in the end, I'll be happy with biking through parking lots to get to Lowes a mile from me, instead of biking 10-12 miles or taking 3 buses to get to the Home Depot.

by Jed on Nov 23, 2009 12:23 pm

Will the ATA underground lot involve a new curb cut?

by Steve on Nov 23, 2009 12:31 pm

Im not against the new Am Trucking development either- actually I am glad that they are not just demolishing the buildings but making a big effort to reuse them.

That storefront on North Carolina Avenue once had the best pizza place in DC- back in the early 70's.

They sold it by the slice, too...

by w on Nov 23, 2009 12:47 pm

Will the new ATA parking garage have 13'6" clearances?

by ksu499 on Nov 23, 2009 1:20 pm

if the historic preservation people are allowing something like this to be built- why are the neighborhood powers that be so adamantly against bringing back the historic uses of some of our residential buildings that were originally mixed use?

We have lost untold mom& pop and small retail establishments over the years on CH to be converted into strictly residential use. They need to get over their hostility towards mixed use - where a store is downstairs and a residence/office /workshop is upstairs. If they allow this kind of intensive development- why is it such a stretch to allow block by block retail that is truly representative of the historic urban fabric?

by w on Nov 23, 2009 2:21 pm

The Trucking Association parking garage will also serve as desperately needed public parking for Capitol Hill visitors. I know, use Metro. Well, guess what, some people don't for whatever reason and right now, their parking choices are the lot at South Capitol St under the overpass or neighborhood streets. So this new garage (which is really just an expansion of an existing garage) will get cars off of neighborhood streets while preserving two historic homes.

Sounds like a win-win for everyone.

by metronic on Nov 23, 2009 3:31 pm

Also, the American Trucking Associations (yes, it's plural) parking isn't free. I know, it'd be crazy to have free parking in that area. But just in case anyone was wondering.

(Disclosure, I'm an employee, but not in the Hill office.)

by T on Nov 23, 2009 4:29 pm

Regarding the Baltimore development: this is one where having parking on the inside makes sense. The neighborhood is run down and there are crime problems,and needs stable employers and businesses first. Having centralized access permits greater security both for cars and for people. I have lived in several parts of Baltimore, and can attest that security is definitely a factor in business success.

by SJE on Nov 23, 2009 4:35 pm

I found it interesting that you placed 'Metro safety' among the link tags. WMATA did not contract for the construction of the future provisions column piles, VDOT did. WMATA has no say in how the N Route Silver line will be built, This is a MWAA DTP managed project. The only input WMATA has had in this project is providing general specification guidelines to DTP.

The plans in the 2005 FEIS were not going to make use of the column piles and footings that VDOT built in 1977. The change was made in the 2006 Preliminary Engineering Design Refinements Environmental Assessment (PEDREA).

DTP has made many changes to the plan both before and after the release of the PEDREA to bring cost down to win funding grant money from the FTA. Had the FTA not been so insistent in reducing costs this would not be an issue.

by Sand Box John on Nov 24, 2009 9:05 am

Thanks for writing about the proposed Lowe's in Baltimore. I am the VP of a community association in Remington (the neighborhood in which the Lowe's would be built), and if this goes forward, we are going to do our damnedest to get them to do a complete redesign.

You'll all be interested / horrified to learn that this is the same developer who built the Home Depot on Rhode Island Ave. in DC. You may all cry tears of blood now.

If you want to stay apprised on the inner workings of this project, offer design solutions, etc., please contact me at remplan@gmail.com Here's my community group's website: www.griaonline.org

Thanks!

by Chris on Nov 24, 2009 1:18 pm