Posts about Gas Stations

Sustainability

What if gas powered everything?

by Matt Johnson   •   November 29, 2011 2:01 pm

The disadvantages of relying on a carbon economy for transportation are well known, yet pushes to move to an alternative energy economy often face significant opposition. Nissan has a great ad out wondering what would happen if everything ran on gas.

History

Then and Now: Minute Service Station No. 1

by Kent Boese   •   July 8, 2010 4:00 pm

As the area north of Farragut Square transitioned away from its residential roots the area built up and changed quickly. The northwest corner of 17th and L Streets, NW, gives an indication of the speed of that change.

The historic image above shows the site in early 1922. The filling station under construction was designed by R.F. Beresford for the Washington Accessories Co. in 1921. In looking at the image, the Dome of the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle is clearly visible.

As shown in the following photographs, by late 1922 the filling station was completed. In the final image taken sometime after 1925, L Street Garage, also by Beresford and built in 1923, occupies the site west of the filling station and the Mayflower Hotel obscures the view of the cathedral.

Historic images from Library of Congress.

Development

Proposed Costco gas station is the wrong place, wrong time

by Cavan Wilk   •   May 17, 2010 12:07 pm

Back in January, David argued that Montgomery County could better use the $4 million proposed for subsidizing a Costco at Westfield Wheaton. Costco is still coming to Wheaton. However, the County Executive's Office is now now proposing circumventing well-established gas station permitting processes through a Zoning Text Amendment.

There are many circumstances where circumventing existing zoning is reasonable. However, the environmental implications of a gas station make sidestepping the process misguided in this case.

Costco wants to open up at the former Hecht's site in Westfield Wheaton. Westfield wants to make a deal with them. Eastern Montgomery County and northern DC has a strong customer base and Wheaton has a Metro station on the line with the highest ridership in the system. Many people for miles and many Metro stations away would love to shop at another transit-accessible Costco. We don't need to throw our environmental zoning laws out the window for a very successful national business that already intends to locate in Wheaton.

Pedestrians

Brookland to become all open space

by David Alpert   •   April 1, 2009 2:05 pm

This article was posted as an April Fool's joke.

The DC Office of Planning has released a new Small Area Plan for the Brookland neighborhood that calls for converting the entire neighborhood to open space. The plan will set maximum allowable heights of 0 feet and adjust the permitted FAR to 0.

"We heard the message loud and clear from the ANC," said Ward 5 Planner Deborah Ostrich. "Vocal residents expressed a desire to maximize the amount of open space in the neighborhood, and this plan does this." All houses will have to comply with the new zoning by 2015. At that time, the plan assures that riders getting off at the Brookland Metro station will not have any structures blocking their view.

Residents will be able to remain in their homes provided the buildings have basements. DC zoning laws allow for small penthouses provided they are set back at least ten feet from all property lines. Brookland residents will be able to take advantage of this rule to construct penthouses for entry and exit.

DDOT will also remove all obstructions to automobile traffic, including curbs, bulb-outs, and medians. "This plan will ensure that residents no longer have to circle the block to reach the parking lot for the Yes! Organic Market on 12th Street," said ANC Commissioner Carolyn Jumpfoote. Residents had criticized DDOT's previous design for the streetscape, which created a median blocking some left turns and bulb-outs which allegedly reduced the number of parking spaces. Residents will also no longer be constrained by such impediments as sidewalks and corners, but will instead be able to choose the shortest route to their destination. The new transportation plan will ensure no obstacles block emergency vehicles.

Councilmember Harry Thomas, Jr. (Ward 5) praised the new plan, especially the section on accessory structures, which will permit gas station pumps as long as they do not exceed six feet in height. "DC has lost many of its gas stations in the last ten years," he said. "We need to create an incentive for more full service gas stations in the District of Columbia." The Small Area Plan allows any property to contain small structures under six feet covering no more than 15% of the lot.

Parking

Car-centric and walkable instincts vie within evolving Thomas

by David Alpert   •   March 20, 2009 3:01 pm

As society's view of the shape of our communities and the role of our streets has shifted, so have the views of our elected officials. In the 1920s, a public debate over the role of cars dedicated streets to cars alone. Communities passed laws mandating the suburban form of development. Today, we're reevaluating those decisions and their negative consequences, and with varying degrees of speed, our representatives are coming along for the ride.

Some, like Councilmembers Tommy Wells, Mary Cheh and Congressman Earl Blumenauer, lead the pack, but the average representative's views typically lag public opinion by a few years. Different communities sit at different points along this continuum as well. Cleveland Park seems more ready for walkable development at a major corner than is Tenleytown. H Street is eager for new commercial development, while Brookland is torn.

Exemplifying the uncertainty between 20th and 21st century urban views is Ward 5 Councilmember Harry Thomas, Jr. Thomas recognizes the value of adding housing and retail opportunities next to our Metro stations, and supported the Brookland Small Area Plan despite fierce lobbying from some residents. At the same time, he travels by car, and still thinks about public space from a cars first standpoint. For example, he jokingly chided Mayor Fenty for choosing a smaller car over a muscular SUV.

On Tuesday, Thomas introduced a bill to provide specific tax breaks for gas stations, including to encourage the development of more. After all, the number of stations has plummeted almost 50% in recent years. Shouldn't our public policy help fight that trend? It sounded appealing enough at first that Councilmembers Mary Cheh (Ward 3), Phil Mendelson (at-large), Jim Graham (Ward 1), Jack Evans (Ward 2), and Yvette Alexander (Ward 7) signed on as co-sponsors.

However, this is actually very bad policy. It's not bad because we ought to squeeze all gas stations out of the District in an effort to force people to stop driving, as some hilariously allege when talking about this blog's views. Instead, it's bad because real market trends are driving the decline. People are driving less, which means we need fewer stations. Land in DC is becoming more valuable, making a mixed-use retail and condo development more appealing. Those are good trends for the city, and if the economy is moving in that direction, the last thing DC should do is spend money to swim against the tide and subsidize the stations.

Richard Layman, Ryan Avent, and Matthew Yglesias quickly jumped to criticize the bill. Plus, Avent pointed out, there are still plenty of stations. Gas prices here are still lower than in much of Montgomery County. We've lost some stations, but there's no sign of a crippling gas shortage. Stations in DC rarely seem crowded. The supply seems to meet the demand just fine. Are people really traveling outside DC to buy gas in huge numbers?

There is one unfortunate reason for keeping gas stations: the federal government allocates transportation spending proportional to the gas tax revenue collected by each state. That creates a perverse incentive for jurisdictions near state lines, like DC, to sell as much gas as possible. Congress ought to revise this formula in the upcoming transportation bill, to allocate based on actual driving total multimodal miles traveled or some better formula (good point, Ryan) rather than gas sales.

That Thomas bill received the most press, but is actually not the only pro-car-subsidy bill Thomas introduced Tuesday. He also submitted the Recreation Center and Public Library Municipal Parking Pilot Program Act of 2009, which would call on the Mayor to develop a plan for "municipal parking structures" at DC parks and libraries, including an analysis of costs and benefits, safety, "potential increase in public transportation", and surrounding jurisdictions' experiences. Profits from such structures would add to the parks or libraries budgets.

It's unlikely that such structures would make money, and even more unlikely they would increase public transportation use. Thomas may be thinking that numerous commuters from car-dependent parts of the city will drive to garages near Metro, and they'll make a profit. However, where exactly will these garages go? Most DC libraries sit on small lots in dense neighborhoods, and for a reason: they're closer to more residents that way. The new Benning library in Ward 7 will have only a small lot. The Shaw library, next to a Metro station, will have no parking at all. Do our parks have empty lots next to them for garages? Parks have lots of open land, but for recreation, not car storage.

Underground garages cost a bundle. Developers have been asking to reduce the amount of underground parking, not increase it, even in neighborhoods like U Street where it's hard to park evenings. If the developers of, for example, the Whitman-Walker project at 14th and S thought they could profit from another garage level, they wouldn't have asked for a special exception from parking requirements. For the Tenley-Janney PPP, where LCOR would have built underground parking, parking for the Janney school was the amenity LCOR would give the community in exchange for profits from residential sales, not the other way around.

Plus, what rates do we expect to charge? When most people talk about "municipal parking" they think of low rates. Montgomery County subsidizes its parking garages. Instead of making money for other uses, the County steers meter revenue into maintaining the garages, relieving drivers of paying the cost of their spaces. Metro's garages don't pay for themselves either. The bottom line is that providing parking is usually a money loser. Some cities do earn money from above-ground garages, but with the limited amount of land in DC and our height limit, almost any other use would generate even more tax revenue.

Of course, the bill only requires a study. Perhaps the study will prove that such parking structures would not make any money. Maybe that's why Councilmembers Cheh and Tommy Wells (Ward 6) cosponsored, along with Chairman Gray, Muriel Bowser (Ward 4), Kwame Brown (at-large), Graham, Marion Barry (Ward 8), and municipal parking aficionado Michael Brown (at-large).

It's right to criticize these silly policy proposals. However, it's unlikely that Thomas is introducing them out of a desire to reduce transit ridership or push driving. Instead, like many people in his area and of his generation, he sees the world primarily from a driving point of view. There's congestion? Build more roads. It's hard to park? Build more garages. Gas stations are closing? Retain them with incentives.

Those are natural instincts for many people. We must educate them about other ways of looking at policy. Nick Partee wrote,

[Greater Greater Washington is] getting people to think in a different way. ... The funny thing is, I didn't realize I was thinking in a car-centric way until I began reading and saying, "that's been me", about just wishing roads were wider. I didn't think about the systemic problems that lead to traffic and demand for wider roads.

We must explain to Thomas and Michael Brown why their understandable eagerness for municipal garages is misguided. We must connect the dots for Cheh, Graham, Evans, Gray, and the others about how these proposals don't jibe with their avowed desire for more walkable and mixed-use communities on DC's scarce acres. Graham has already started to reexamine the parking biases he inherited from father while growing up. With time and persistence, more of our elected leaders will evolve along with the changing public view of our cities.

Roads

Public Space Committee says Shell, No

by David Alpert   •   December 19, 2008 11:27 am

Capping a very long hearing yesterday, DC's Public Space Committee agreed with resident opposition and denied the public space permit for a new Shell gas station at 14th Street and Maryland Avenue, NE. This site is around the corner from the revitalizing H Street corridor, and within a few blocks of two other gas stations. Echoing the "livable, walkable" mantra, several residents talked about how another gas station is not right for the community and not consistent with the Comprehensive Plan.

The Public Space Committee, which comprises representatives from DDOT, the Office of Planning, DCRA, and others, doesn't get to decide whether the owners can operate a gas station, but can decide how the station might use public space. Current zoning in this area allows gas stations as a "special exception", which the Board of Zoning Adjustment decides. The Public Space Committee reviews any use of public space, including the public park(ing) area between the sidewalk and the property line. On Washington's original L'Enfant diagonal avenues, such as Maryland Avenue, this public park(ing) area is particularly wide. And the owners want to pave or repave most of the public space surrounding their proposed gas station.

Fortunately for opponents of the project, Public Space Committee members found plenty of negative impacts from this proposal on the public space. Chairman Matthew Marcou focused the discussion quickly on some of the key issues. While the owners may currently have the right to let vehicles cut across the public space to access the property to and from the street, cars would also drive on the public space to circulate around the pumps and queue up to pump gas. Also, the pumps are close enough to the property line that many cars would partially sit on public space while filling up. Marcou also pointed out flaws in truck circulation, the size and height of the proposed sign, and the wide driveways.

(Marcou, by the way, repeatedly mentioned that he uses Zipcar instead of having his own car. Sometimes he brought it up in amusing ways, such as when discussing the sizes of various vehicles, where he said, "I'm a member of Flexcar [now Zipcar], so I own thousands of vehicles.")

Many other gas stations in DC do share these same flaws, but those are grandfathered and don't conform to current standards. Office of Planning's representative on Public Space, Chris Shaheen, also laid out a case why this area is different than, say, upper Wisconsin Avenue. He explained how the public park(ing) area creates a "sequence of open spaces" which L'Enfant-era planners expected to be landscaped, not paved. In particular, Shaheen argued, along avenues like Maryland, the public park(ing) connects small triangular parks and leads to the Capitol. Therefore, we should consider this public space as part of a public park network.

The applicant's attorney, Richard Aguglia, argued that DC needs more gas stations. Aguglia said that the number of stations fell from 277 at some point in the past (I didn't write down the exact date) to 130 in 2002, and further since; after the ballpark opened, more gas stations closed nearby. "DC needs a gas station at this location," he argued. The Council even considered, but rejected, a measure years ago to create tax incentives for new gas stations. But the owner of some nearby stations testified that he sells much less gas (25,000 gallons a month) than in the past. The drop in gas stations isn't a bad thing. People are driving less, commuters prefer to just get their gas in the suburbs, and we can now utilize land in DC in much better ways than with suburban gas stations.

Aguglia also said that any other use of the property, like a 2-3 story building, would occupy more of the lot and lack space for parking. That's true, but makes the logical leap that another use needs on-site parking. A garden shop or daycare center, some of the alternate uses neighbors have suggested, could do fine with just street parking, assuming our zoning laws allowed it. Thinking that a gas station is the best use of a small lot, because other uses require parking while the gas station only requires paving over the public space, is a very gas-station-oriented view of our city.

The property owners can now redesign their proposal to use less public space, if they choose, though they would have to significantly shrink the station to fit everything on the property. They also might appeal the ruling, an eventuality the ANC's lawyer, Richard Luna, warned about. Or, perhaps they will simply find a more "livable, walkable" business to establish on this property to better serve the H Street neighborhood.

Roads

Afternoon links: (Rail)road to the future

by David Alpert   •   December 17, 2008 2:13 pm

No to new roads: Friends of the Earth has launched a campaign to keep roads out of the upcoming federal stimulus. "The road-building lobby is attempting to hijack [the stimulus] bill and divert billions of dollars to the construction of new, unnecessary roads, highways and bridges that would deepen our nation's dependence on oil and increase greenhouse gas emissions," they write.

Yes to high-speed rail: You probably saw this Monday, but USDOT is talking to contractors about designing a new high-speed Northeast Corridor rail link. Congress funded the study (but not yet the line itself) in October. Via DCist.

No to a Shell: Tomorrow at 1 pm, DDOT's Public Space Committee will consider the proposed Shell gas station at 14th and Maryland, NE. Right near the revitalizing H Street corridor, that major corner should have some retail or apartments, not a gas station. The hearing is at 1 pm, 941 North Capitol St, 7th Floor. Via Frozen Tropics.

Convert those garages into cafes: Suzan Tobin suggests in Planning Magazine that suburbs can become mixed-use quite easily, by legalizing accessory retail, like cafes, bookstores, or flower shops in the garages of today's houses.

Driving makes you fat: So says a new study by University of Tennessee and Rutgers researchers, reports Jalopnik. Tip: Joel.

How about one at DC USA? Check out this amazing bike parking system in Japan. Via BoingBoing; tip: Alex.

Photography

Photo of the day: Church of the unleaded

by David Alpert   •   December 6, 2008 2:41 pm

BeyondDC posted this photo of a church in Rosslyn built above a gas station. Or was a gas station built under a church? Does it count as Good Works to enable people to fill up their tanks?

I do ponder this (mixed-use gas stations, not religious charity) when walking by some gas stations in the midst of very walkable areas, like at 18th and S or 15th and U. How about some housing with ground-floor retail offering regular, premium, super, and diesel?