Stormwater - Greater Greater Washington

Bike to work and school, and much more on the calendar

Tue, 07 May 2013 12:47:00 EDT

May is a great month to bike to school or work (and so is every other month!) Tomorrow is the national Bike to School Day, Bike to Work Day is Friday, May 17, and Greenbelt is having a vintage New Deal-themed bike ride later this month.

Photo from WalkBikeToSchool.org.

Also, there are public meetings to learn about and weigh in on some of the most important questions shaping our communities, like what the Purple Line will look like and how tall buildings should be in DC, a more walkable Route 1 in Fairfax, and Montgomery's Bus Rapid Transit plans, and more.

Here's what's coming up on the Greater Greater Washington calendar:

Purple Line open houses: The Maryland MTA is holding 5 open houses to inform residents about the Purple Line, now looking a lot more likely to actually become a reality. They're tonight (Tuesday) in Silver Spring, Thursday 5/9 in Riverdale, Saturday 5/11 in Langley Park, Tuesday 5/14 in Bethesda, and Wednesday 5/15 at Woodridge Elementary School in Hyattsville. Each is 5-8 pm, except the Saturday one which is 11-2.

Bike to school: If you have children in school and don't bike to school regularly, tomorrow is a great time to try. 17 DC schools are participating, and for the dozen on those which are on Capitol Hill, families can congregate in Lincoln Park for an event featuring Ray LaHood, then form bike trains to the schools. Sandra Moscoso has more on Greater Greater Education.

Walk Route 1: CSG's next walking tour looks at Route 1 in Fairfax, the oft-forgotten highway where big box sprawl has the potential to become eco-friendly, walkable communities. Volunteers will help groups take the bus from Huntington Metro for those arriving by transit. RSVP before it's full!

Height "master plan" meetings: The National Capital Planning Commission and DC Office of Planning are working together on a study that might recommend changes to the federal height limit, or might not. Regardless, the issue is sure to be completely noncontroversial, since as we know nobody ever wants to argue about the height limit. (Kidding.) The first public involvement is next week, with a meeting Monday, May 13, 6:30-8:30 pm at the Petworth Library, and then Saturday, May 18, 10:30-12:30 at the MLK Library by Gallery Place Metro.

Learn about, push for BRT: There's a big hearing on Montgomery County's BRT plans on Thursday, May 16, 6-9 pm in Silver Spring. Can you testify? Also, Montgomery transportation planner Larry Cole will talk about BRT as well as MARC expansion at ACT's monthly meeting Tuesday, May 14, 7:30 pm in Silver Spring.

What's up with Pennsylvania and Potomac? The second public meeting on the intersection at Potomac Avenue Metro is Thursday, May 16, 6:30-8:30 pm at Payne Elementary. Have DDOT and its consultants listened made the early designs even better to walk and bike, or have they gotten worse? We'll find out!

Bike to work: Just a little over a week after Bike to School Day (but much farther down our chronological calendar) is Bike to Work Day on Friday, May 17. Pledge to ride, stop by one of the pit stops around the region, join one of the commuter convoys along popular routes, and support almost all of the event sponsors.

Talk Smart Growth with David Grosso: Ward 3 Vision, the smart growth resident group in upper Northwest DC, is having a meet and greet on Tuesday, May 21, 6:30 pm at Guapo's by the Tenleytown Metro. At-large councilmember David Grosso will be there to hear from you about your vision for a more walkable and vibrant Ward 3 and all of DC.

Roosevelt Ride: Ride around Greenbelt, the New Deal planned community, in your best New Deal-era attire, followed by a picnic. You can also get a free tour of the Greenbelt Museum, which shows how families lived in what was built as working-class housing in 1937. That's Sunday, May 26; the ride starts at 11, the picnic after, and the tours at 1.

Have an event we should consider including on the ? Send them to events@ggwash.org. Please include a URL to a webpage that has the information about your event as well, so that we can link directly to your event.

3 comments

DC Water is spending big

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 08:29:00 EDT

by Nick Casey

DC Water is spending $2.6 billion on tunnels to keep stormwater out of basements and the Anacostia River. When completed, the tunnels will be 12.8 miles long. (Post)

Comment

Where does the water go? (Oct 30, 2012)
DC Water increasing impervious area charge, water rates (Mar 9, 2011)
Vancouver-style Anacostia ferries and the Water Mall (Oct 2, 2012)
With DC stormwater, who pays, and for what? (Jun 22, 2012)
How much land is in each quadrant? (Mar 18, 2011)

Bigger park, taller buildings on tap for McMillan site

Wed, 06 Mar 2013 13:41:00 EDT

by Malcolm Kenton

DC Water will temporarily use two former water filtration cells in the McMillan Sand Filtration Site to store excess rainwater and mitigate flooding in neighborhoods like Bloomingdale beginning in spring 2014. That decision forces Vision McMillan Partners (VMP) to redraw its plans to transform the site into a mixed-use neighborhood.

Rendering of redesigned park space at the south end of McMillan. Image from Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects.

The previous plan called for new rowhouses on the south end of the site to extend the character of the existing neighborhoods. A park in the middle would have separated the townhouses from denser mixed-use towers on the north end.

Instead, VMP will now construct a larger park on the south end, build new rowhouses in the middle, make the buildings on the north end a bit taller, and construct more roads through the development.

VMP's next step is to design the buildings themselves. They will hold a community meeting about preliminary building designs on Saturday, April 20, 10 am-noon at a location to be announced.

Under the Northeast Boundary Neighborhood Protection Project, developed by the Mayor's Task Force on the Prevention of Flooding, DC Water will store excess rainwater runoff in the two cells as a temporary remedy for flooding. In the long run, DC Water's Clean Rivers Project will build large underground sewers to store water by around 2022. When that is done, the two cells will be drained and will become available for use, potentially as unique public spaces.

The now larger park along Channing Street NW will feature an open grassy lawn. One of the filtration cells to store excess runoff will be underneath part of the park. The other cell lies at the site's northeast corner, and the original development plans already called for retaining it.

Rendering of the newly-designed park space, seen from North Capitol Street at Channing Street NW. Image from Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects.

At the east end, next to the park's main entrance on North Capitol Street, will be a small pond that echoes the now-underground Tiber Creek which once flowed across the site. The pond will also serve as a reservoir for the site's stormwater runoff, allowing pollutants to settle out of it before it enters the combined sewer system.

Next to the pond will be an amphitheater and a community center with a green roof. The west end will feature a sculpture garden and plaza, with a spray jet fountain and smaller park spaces between the two, alongside the open grassy area. A tree-lined "Olmstead Walk" will surround the entire development, including the park.

Vision McMillan Partners' new planned layout for the site.

The office and residential buildings with ground-floor retail on the north end will be fewer than under the original plan (5 instead of 9), but taller. Instead of being in a stand-alone building, the "premium" grocery store will be on the ground floor of a 6-story apartment building.

The plan won't set back the buildings along North Capitol Street as far as under the original plan. Much of the office space will remain devoted to medical offices.

There will be less public space in the non-park areas of the site. The North Service Court (one of the two rows of original sand towers and regulator houses that sit on the site today) will feature wider sidewalks, but there will also be more through roads. Douglas and Evarts Streets will extend across the site (Douglas using the South Service Court as its median), a new Middle Street NW will use the North Service Court as its median, and a new Half Street NW will run north-south from Michigan Avenue down to Douglas Street.

The new plan integrates affordable housing throughout the development, instead of having a particular apartment building dedicated to affordable senior housing.

6 comments

Go green to save green

Fri, 14 Dec 2012 08:36:00 EDT

by Steven Yates

Instead of a large and expensive tunnel system, DC Water may go for a more decentralized, greener solution for its stormwater management plan, involving rain barrels and rain gardens that could even save money. (DCmud)

Comment

Landscape architects envision a greener Chinatown

Wed, 12 Dec 2012 12:04:00 EDT

by Sarah Lewis

How could Chinatown be a greener and more livable neighborhood? Designers from the American Society of Landscape Architects and Fuss & O'Neill created a vision for an inter-connected series of green "complete streets," with new, safer bicycle lanes, a pedestrian-friendly "festival street," and a central hub for new street-level sustainability education programs right in front of ASLA's door (and below its green roof) on I Street.

All images from ASLA.

There's no time to waste. The city's complete street and green infrastructure guidelines, which are in place, will soon mix with more stringent stormwater policies that impose higher fees on private property owners that create runoff.

To green this neighborhood, any plan has to start with the streets—all of them. Beginning a new green neighborhood means tackling all the alleyways running off I Street that contribute to stormwater runoff. Just as Chicago has done with its innovative green alleys program, the neighborhood could put in permeable pavements along with underground cisterns in key areas that would preserve car access while absorbing water into the ground.

Along I Street, the intersections at 9th, 8th, and 7th streets could become green, permeable ones. What is now a source of huge amounts of runoff in the center of the streets could become a central place for absorbing rainwater into the underlying soils. Additional layers of stone or sand underground could also help boost absorption rates.

Crisscrossing an east-west system of green streets along Eye street would be a new north-south green "festival street" running down 8th Street, transforming an underused, garage-heavy street into an active, pedestrian-friendly zone.

Designed to be like a Dutch woonerf or pedestrian mall, this "B or C street," which means it doesn't get that much car traffic, could be designed to slow down car traffic so that pedestrians could move more freely between the National Portrait Gallery and the commercial complex at K Street.

Throughout this new green boulevard, which could be a pedestrian "arboretum," different materials would designate different realms—those for people or for cars. There would be no curbs, creating a flat plane for pedestrians. For 8th and other streets, redesigning the street so it can evolve may be the way to go. Kent Schwendy, senior vice president at Fuss & O'Neill, said many engineers want to simply lock streets into one use, but he argued that "streets change and their uses evolve. We have to let that change happen."

Where 8th Street meets I, new open grates would feature prominently so that "people could actually see that water moves through this area, even when it doesn't rain. This will help educate people about stormwater," said ASLA President Tom Tavella. But the street-level stormwater management systems proposed for I Street wouldn't be "lipstick on a pig," said Chris Ferrero, who runs urban planning and landscape architecture at Fuss & O'Neill but represent an "integrated series of events, a system."

Some 6 additional feet would be added onto the sidewalks, giving 2-3 feet for "green gutters along the curbs" and another 2-3 feet for a step area to get to bridges that would take people across the new gutters. Intermixed among the new green gutters would be rain gardens, which all inter-connect with the existing tree pits and proposed permeable pavement systems.

On 9th Street, creating a new "two-way cycle track," a dual-direction bicycle lane, actually creates an opportunity to create yet more green infrastructure. The bicycle lanes would be protected by a 4-foot "physical separation filled with plants, not just paint and bollards," said Tavella. That physical separator would not only protect bicyclists from car traffic but also help create a sense of place and add greenery.

The street may certainly need it: Wade Walker, Jr, head of transportation planning at Fuss & O'Neill, said the bicyclists he saw on that street were "up on the sidewalks, showing that they didn't feel safe being there."

Lastly, right in front of ASLA, there could be a new parklet, taking up 2 parking spaces, which would be designed to give people a place to sit and view the green roof education video and read signs about the new green features of the neighborhood. Throughout the district, "signage would show what a green street is about, what porous pavements do," said Tavella.

According to Nancy Somerville, Hon. ASLA, CEO/Executive Vice President, ASLA, the next steps will include pitching Fuss & O'Neill's concepts to stakeholders in the neighborhood, starting the fundraising process, and further refining the plans to meet the approval of the many DC government departments involved. Hiring landscape architects to turn the concepts into real designs also sounds like a next step, given the positive early feedback from the DC planning office.

At the end of the intensive, two-day design charrette, Chris Shaheen, who manages the public space programs with the DC planning office, said "we've tested many of these ideas here and there, but this brings it all together. This is what the city wants to do." The city knows, just like ASLA does, that really ambitious proposals like this are needed if the city will reach its goals of making 1.5 million square feet of public right of way permeable by 2016.

A version of this article was originally posted on The Dirt.

17 comments

Landscape architects teach us about DC public spaces (Sep 14, 2012)
Plans envision multimodal "crossroads" at Mt. Vernon Square (Dec 10, 2009)
Plans envision "green street" for C Street, NE (Mar 9, 2010)
With DC stormwater, who pays, and for what? (Jun 22, 2012)
New, greener, safer, better design coming for 15th and W (Sep 28, 2012)

Use McMillan site to stop flooding?

Fri, 07 Dec 2012 08:34:00 EDT

by Thaddeus Bell

DC may create catchment tanks at the McMillan sand filtration site to prevent flooding in Bloomingdale and LeDroit Park. The planned 1st Street relief sewer may also happen sooner than planned. (Post)

Comment

Get to know the McMillan water filtration plant (Sep 22, 2011)
At McMillan site, compromise could be beautiful (Oct 29, 2010)
Thomas plan would split McMillan from affected residents (Nov 1, 2011)
McMillan visions take shape (Nov 22, 2010)
New McMillan plan blends growth and preservation (May 7, 2012)

Why Sandy didn't flood Bloomingdale

Wed, 31 Oct 2012 08:28:00 EDT

by David Alpert

Bloomingdale actually didn't flood during Sandy. Is the flooding problem fixed? No, it's just that regular drainage could handle the sustained, less-intense rain we had, but not sudden heavy downpours. (City Paper)

Comment

Navy Yard sidewalks get sustainable stormwater systems (Sep 1, 2010)
Breakfast non-links: Sandiest (Oct 30, 2012)
Bloomingdale is not Alaskan tundra (Jan 6, 2009)
I Wish This Were... in Bloomingdale/Eckington/Truxton Circle (Dec 12, 2010)
On the calendar: Kojo in McLean, Bloomingdale parking, Prince George's development, Anacostia streetcars (Mar 22, 2011)

New, greener, safer, better design coming for 15th and W

Fri, 28 Sep 2012 10:12:00 EDT

by David Alpert and Eric Fidler

15th and W Streets and New Hampshire and Florida Avenues, NW all come together in a large, barren expanse of asphalt that Stephen Miller nicknamed the Death Star after a driver killed a pedestrian there in 2009. But DDOT is on the side of the rebels and is striking back with a redesign.

15th, W, Florida and New Hampshire today. Images from DDOT.

None of the roads at this intersection are very wide or carry much traffic. However, traffic engineers in years past made the block between V and W function like a set of freeway offramps. The lanes merge to a narrower 15th Street and a gradual slip lane onto Florida that encouraged drivers to make the turn at high speed. Chevrons mark off a large tract of pavement between the two.

After the 2009 fatality, DDOT quickly moved to install temporary curbs and posts to slow traffic at the corners. On Wednesday, they presented preliminary options for a permanent solution to a committee of the local ANC.

Both options would limit traffic in the block of 15th from V to W only 2 lanes, moving back the 3-lane to 2-lane merge point to the block between U and V. At W Street, one lane would continue up the hill on 15th, while the other would let drivers turn right onto either Florida Avenue or W, in more of a traditional intersection.

The 2 options only differ in the location of the newly-created green space. One option puts it mostly on the east side of the street, while the other divides new green space between the east and west sides.

Click on an image to enlarge.

These options have safety trade-offs. Keeping the roadway on the left (left-hand image) makes the lane shift on 15th more gradual and makes speeding easier, but it also allows for a larger triangular pedestrian island in the middle of the intersection. Shifting the roadway to the right (right-hand image) forces drivers on 15th to slow down more as they approach the hill, but leaves a smaller pedestrian island.

Both proposals add numerous bulb-outs at the crosswalks just as the agency has included on H Street NE and other places around town. In these places, the curb juts out toward the travel lane and reduces the distance pedestrians must spend vulnerable in the roadway while crossing the street.

The design also extends the 15th Street cycle track into this area. Right now, the 2-way track ends at V Street. Riders heading northbound have to cut across traffic to a bike lane on the east side of the street (or just share the lane), while riders southbound can't legally use 15th in this area (though many do anyway).

The part of 15th going up Meridian Hill now has two bike lanes, both northbound, one on each side of the street. DDOT's original hopes for the 2-way 15th Street cycle track included having it stretch to Euclid, the northern edge of the park. DDOT bicycle program head Jim Sebastian says that when DDOT rebuilds the "Death Star" intersection, they will also complete a continuous 2-way bicycle facility from U to Euclid.

DDOT could just build the cycle track in this intersection along the edge of the roadway, separated with poles, as with the rest of the cycle track today. Other options, though, elevate it up to sidewalk level like many European cities do. The tree boxes would still separate the track from the sidewalk, but then one of a few different curb treatments would divide it from the roadway.

At the meeting, DDOT planner Gabriela Vega said the agency was still weighing the pros and cons of the last three designs' barriers between the cycle track and the parking lane. The barriers in the last three designs all include permeable pavers that allow the ground to absorb more stormwater.

Renderings show treeboxes between the sidewalks and streets including rain gardens to trap stormwater and "flow-through planters," where water that lands in one treebox can gradually flow to the next as it runs downhill, feeding more than one tree.

If those treatments make the trees extremely verdant, the intersection could ultimately look something like this:

Even while the trees are growing, it'd be a huge improvement over today:

Image from Google Street View.

Many years ago, DDOT had considered an unsignalized roundabout for the intersection. In 2008 we published a proposal of what that might look like. Back then, the agency responded that they had dropped the idea of a roundabout.

When asked at Wednesday's meeting why a roundabout was not under consideration, Vega said DDOT's traffic models showed that a roundabout could not accommodate the traffic volumes of both 15th Street and W Street.

The designs DDOT presented are preliminary concepts. The agency will update the ANC again in a few months with refinements. DDOT is still seeking input, especially on the cycle track separation options and the roadway alignment options mentioned above.

31 comments

DDOT proposes new option with cycle track for 15th Street (Nov 10, 2008)
DDOT to start 15th Street contraflow bike lane next week (Oct 23, 2009)
DDOT may restore two-way traffic on 15th Street (Jan 10, 2008)
Where's the 15th Street contraflow lane? (Aug 6, 2009)
Support two-way 15th Street today (Jun 19, 2008)

Water in McMillan's future?

Thu, 27 Sep 2012 08:21:00 EDT

by Steven Yates

DC Water is looking into whether it can relieve flooding in Bloomingdale using the McMillan Sand Filtration Site. That could stall development plans even to 2025, or at least require building it in stages. (Post)

Comment

Get to know the McMillan water filtration plant (Sep 22, 2011)
Thomas plan would split McMillan from affected residents (Nov 1, 2011)
McMillan visions take shape (Nov 22, 2010)
At McMillan site, compromise could be beautiful (Oct 29, 2010)
New McMillan plan blends growth and preservation (May 7, 2012)

Green roofs get more green

Mon, 30 Jul 2012 09:21:00 EDT

by Steven Yates

Green roofs can be good for the environment, but they can also be good for the pocketbook for DC residents, as they are eligible for rebates from fees related to stormwater runoff. (Post)

Comment

Southwest Ecodistrict would repair 1960s damage

Mon, 16 Jul 2012 10:00:00 EDT

by David Alpert

One day, disjointed streets and lifeless blocks around L'Enfant Plaza could become a complete neighborhood with a connected street grid, park space, mixed-use buildings, a museum and more.

Images from NCPC.

That's the vision of the Southwest Ecodistrict plan from the National Capital Planning Commission and a companion plan focusing on Maryland Avenue, SW by the DC Office of Planning.

It is one of DC's greatest ironies that the name "L'Enfant Plaza" was given to an area where L'Enfant's original street grid is least intact. The railroad took over parts of Maryland and Virginia Avenues before 1888, and later projects to grade-separate the rails created a patchwork of roadways at different levels that don't connect to one another.

The federal government razed every building in the area as misguided urban renewal in the 1960s. The extension of 10th Street known as the L'Enfant Promenade was originally designed as a pedestrian mall for cultural buildings, but turned into a largely vehicular roadway between government office buildings. The "12th Street Expressway", a set of off-ramps from I-395, also divides the blocks on either side.

Now, NCPC wants to fix these mistakes from its forerunner, the National Capital Park and Planning Commission, and other federal agencies of the day. On Thursday, it released a draft of its plan for public comment.

Redevelop the Forrestal building

A centerpiece of the plan is a proposal to ultimately redevelop the Department of Energy's Forrestal complex, a mid-century concrete structure that spans 10th Street and cuts off views from the Smithsonian Castle. While historic preservation officials have been landmarking many federal buildings of this type, in this case they prefer to restore the view than keep the building.

That will create many opportunities to right numerous mistakes of that era. The buildings replacing Forrestal, which the plan dubs "Independence Quarter," could also restore the viewshed along Virginia Avenue to the Washington Monument. Despite opening up these views, there's plenty of room to build something with more space than the current complex. That means it could accommodate DOE and also add residences, making the area lively more of the day and bringing in money to fund the project.

The new buildings could narrow 10th Street back to a width more resembling its role in the L'Enfant Plan, which could accommodate vehicles, sidewalks, bicycles and sidewalk cafes without the enormous expanse of sun-baked concrete of the current "promenade." The entire street would gain many more trees along its length.

Promenade now (left) and potential future (right).

These new buildings, and many others in the district, would incorporate state-of-the-art stormwater handling, energy efficiency, waste management, green roofs and more to create an eco-friendly district. A heating and electricity plant, which currently only serves federal buildings, could be rehabilitated to a more modern and energy-efficient system and serve the private buildings as well as federal buildings in the area.

Make Banneker Park more appealing and give it a museum

At the end of the promenade is Banneker Park, a hillside with an attractive fountain and some grass but little else to draw people. Curving freeway ramps on and off of the adjacent Southwest Freeway cut up the park, linking a traffic oval around the fountain to the freeway and nearby 9th Street.

The plan proposes to straighten out those ramps, so that the off-ramp from I-395 skirts just the edge and reaches a new intersection with 9th Street, while an extension of G Street links 9th to the central oval and 10th Street.

The rest of the park would get a redesign to give it more of a sense of place and a more inviting atmosphere. On part of the site, NCPC proposes placing one of the many museums that groups want to build on the Mall. According to project manager Beth Miller, museums haven't wanted to go there yet because it "doesn't have a setting befitting a national museum." The plan aims to give it that setting.

Concept sketch of future Banneker Park.

The plan says that some have suggested building some underground parking for the tour buses that currently idle in surrounding streets, clog the roads and pollute the air for residents and workers. The plan notes that underground parking could be a good idea, but it might also conflict with a museum's security needs depending on the type of museum, and that the museum is a higher priority.

There is also space underneath the 10th Street promenade for parking now, and the plan suggests putting some tour bus parking there as well as stormwater cisterns.

New buildings would deck the freeway and fill in elsewhere

NCPC proposes decking over I-395 between the 12th Street off-ramp and 9th Street with new buildings. These could create more opportunities for mixed-use living and offices and connect the pedestrian realm along 9th and 10th, including the all-important walk to the new museum.

Model showing buildings decking freeway and solar panels.

Farther east, the freeway rises and there isn't room to place buildings over the freeway at street level, the plan says, but it suggests covering the trench with an array of solar panels.

Finally, the plan would rebuild the grid in this area. That ties into the District's Maryland Avenue Small Area, which we'll discuss in part 2.

29 comments

Southwest Ecodistrict looks to fix '60s planning failure (Jul 27, 2011)
Southwest Ecodistrict visions take shape (Feb 18, 2011)
A busy day for NCPC (Jul 10, 2008)
Plan envisions decking railroad, adding 4th track in SW DC (Jul 17, 2012)
NCPC worries about viewsheds in waterfront development (May 4, 2010)

With DC stormwater, who pays, and for what?

Fri, 22 Jun 2012 12:38:00 EDT

by Brianne Nadeau

Water bills for DC residents and businesses may increase soon to help pay for improved stormwater infrastructure. But not everyone agrees how to pay for the infrastructure or even what kind of infrastructure to build.

Photo by eutrophication&hypoxia on Flickr.

Next week DC Water's Retail Rates Committee will meet to decide what rate increases will take effect this fall for customers whose properties have characteristics that contribute to stormwater runoff and pollution. As they do this, advocates are calling for a more equitable distribution of fees as well as discounts for low-income residents.

And as DC Water moves ahead with plans to manage stormwater runoff, it is also working to convince the Environmental Protection Agency that implementing green infrastructure would reduce the amount of runoff altogether and decrease the need for more expensive projects.

DC struggles with the causes and costs of stormwater runoff

Every time we get a torrential downpour in DC, the first thing I think about (other than why haven't I bought good rain boots yet?) is the incredible amount of pollution that will be flowing into our rivers and stream. This happens because of the amount of impervious surfaces in the District.

Impervious surfaces, or surfaces such as concrete, brick, and asphalt that are non-porous and do not allow rain to seep through them into the ground, make up 42% of the District's land area. This is typical in urban settings, but it means that rather than rainwater being absorbed by a grassy yard, field, or forest floor, it flows downhill, washing all of the filth accumulated on the ground into storm drains.

To make matters worse, about one-third of DC is served by a sewer system that combines both stormwater and sewage. This system also serves customers in parts of Maryland and Virginia. The sheer volume of stormwater runoff from this large, urbanized are is much greater than our system can handle.

As a result, when heavy storms happen the system must release overflow into our waterways before it has been treated, polluting Rock Creek, the Anacostia, and Potomac Rivers and ultimately the Chesapeake Bay.

There is a plan in progress to add 3 sets of massive storage tunnels to our system. The first set, to serve the Anacostia River, is now under construction. The second two will serve the Potomac River and the Rock Creek system.

This program, called the Clean Rivers project, will cost DC Water $2.6 billion and is funded in part by the fastest growing component of your water bill: the Clean Rivers Impervious Area Charge (IAC). The IACs go up each year, most recently by 92%. Another 47$ increase is proposed for October 1.

District residents foot disproportionate share of the bill

The current fee structure put in place to address this issue disproportionately puts 93% of the burden on DC customers, with the customers in Maryland and Virginia paying only 7%.

Some might argue that these suburban jurisdictions should not have to pay into the Clean Rivers project to assist DC with the management of its own stormwater. However, there have been, and continue to be, major savings for these jurisdictions by virtue of being a part of our system, and it's completely appropriate to re-examine this arrangement under our current circumstances.

Furthermore, IACs apply only inside squares and lots, and not to impervious areas in DC's transportation rights of way. Yet the fact is that 47% of the impervious surfaces in DC are roads, streets, sidewalks, and alleys. While DC residents benefit heavily from them, suburban residents, businesses, commuters, and visitors get big benefits from them as well.

Additionally, there is currently no difference in the fee structure for residential customers and commercial customers. Commercial properties, such as office buildings, benefit disproportionately from the roads and sidewalks that employees, customers, and suppliers use to get there, and they additionally have the opportunity to disperse costs to their customers. It makes sense to have a slightly higher fee structure for them than, say, a single-family home.

Although DC Water has established a Customer Assistance Program (CAP) for low-income residential customers, that CAP does not apply to the IAC portion of the bill. Before the IACs started to increase so dramatically, bills under the CAP averaged about one-half of other residential bills.

Many of our residents in DC live on fixed incomes and would be deeply impacted by this type of increase in their water bills. In a recent letter, I urged DC Water to set a 50% discount for the IAC component of bills to CAP customers.

Reduce runoff instead of storing it

DC Water has been required by the EPA to build this new system of storage tunnels to manage stormwater runoff, and as it stands, DC customers will pay the bulk of the cost it takes to implement this new system. The desperately needed storage tunnel for the Anacostia runoff is being built and needs to be paid for.

Before construction begins on the remaining two storage tunnels, however, DC Water is hoping to persuade the EPA to re-examine the current requirements and instead allow for a plan involving the aggressive implementation of green infrastructure to reduce runoff altogether instead of storing it.

This would involve green roofs, permeable pavement and roads, and new trees and gardens. It would have the added benefit of creating jobs, improving air quality, adding green space to our communities, and creating subsidies for property owners to take individual action. That sounds a lot better to me than a couple of underground tunnels.

We can encourage the EPA to support DC Water's proposal by writing to EPA Regional Administrator Shawn Garvin. We also don't have to wait to make green improvements to our properties. The District Department of the Environment offers incentives to homeowners for green property enhancements through its Riversmart Program.

Runoff reduction strategies can be implemented incrementally, improve our streets and neighborhoods, and may even be more cost effective than stormwater storage infrastructure. Check it out. I'm looking into rain barrels for my home this week. Maybe after that I'll finally get those rain boots.

25 comments

DC Water increasing impervious area charge, water rates (Mar 9, 2011)
Impervious Area Charge is an integral part of sewer service (Oct 8, 2010)
Navy Yard sidewalks get sustainable stormwater systems (Sep 1, 2010)
DC Council is baaaack! (Sep 16, 2008)
Stormwater program nears reality in Prince George's (Jun 21, 2012)

Stormwater program nears reality in Prince George's

Thu, 21 Jun 2012 15:32:00 EDT

by Brent Bolin

Runoff from storms can floods homeowners' basements, erode property, and damage parks and public spaces. Prince George's County is considering forward-thinking legislation that will strike a good balance between quality of life, density, and design in creating incentives for property owners to deal with stormwater.

Photo by Andrew Bossi on Flickr.

Last Thursday. the Transportation, Housing, and Environment (THE) Committee of the Prince George's County Council unanimously passed a Stormwater Management Retrofit Program. The bill still must be passed by the full Council, but that seems likely.

The proposed program would offer a rebate to individuals, businesses, or non-profits that install certain stormwater retrofits, such as rain barrels, pervious pavers, and rain gardens, on their property. Retrofits like these are win-win because in addition to reducing damaging stormwater runoff, they also create a more attractive property where more people want to shop, live, and work.

Similar, highly successful programs already exist in DC and Montgomery County, so this piece of legislation would keep Prince George's competitive in the region.

Casey Trees found that "people are willing to travel farther, visit more frequently and pay more for goods and services in business districts with trees—on average 12 percent more." A study in Philadelphia showed that improvements to streetscapes, such as street trees and other plantings, can increase home values by as much as 25%.

These programs are just as popular with the public as they are with policy wonks. DC's RiverSmart Homes program has been so successful that homeowners now must wait 3 to 4 months after applying just for an initial audit.

Witnesses at the hearing did express concerns about maintenance of the projects and how low-income residents could overcome the upfront cost. Department of Environmental Resources (DER) director Sam Wynkoop suggested that the projects be subject to a permit or have maintenance agreements recorded in property records.

While these retrofits clearly work best when maintained, such requirements would be so burdensome that they would scare off property owners from even starting. A simple landowner maintenance agreement, that would be signed and kept on file by DER as a pre-condition for receipt of rebate funds, would be one effective tool to ensure that proper maintenance happens.

Because this is a rebate program, property owners will need to pay for the project installation out of pocket, and then be reimbursed. Councilmember Karen Toles expressed concern that this cost could be prohibitive for many low-income residents. However, resources to overcome this barrier already exist in the county; nonprofit organizations like the Watershed Stewards Academy could perform the work and receive the rebate directly.

The bill will go before the full council on July 24th and seems headed for passage. The evolving environmental leadership in Prince George's bodes well for the county where much of our region's development will occur over the next decade.

8 comments

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Prince George's moves toward complete and walkable streets (Apr 16, 2012)

Prince George's moves toward complete and walkable streets

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 13:45:00 EDT

by Christine Green

Can Prince George's County make its streets, safe to walk and bicycle? At a recent forum, county officials agreed that they face many challenges to do so, but this must be a top priority today.

Photo by Editor B on Flickr.

Prince George's CountyStat Manager Adam Ortiz said, "Streets are not just places for cars to get from point A to point B, they are public spaces, and as public spaces, should belong to us, not just cars."

Greg Slater, Director of Planning and Preliminary Engineering for the Maryland State Highway Administration, agreed. "The road cannot be the centerpiece of what we are doing. Community truly needs to be the centerpiece of what we are doing," he said. "This is a community; the roadway is a piece of the community."

The forum, on April 11, was sponsored by the Coalition for Smarter Growth, the Envision Prince George's Community Action Team for Transit-Oriented Development, and the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission.

The county's decisions about its streets affect the financial and physical health of its residents. A large portion of Prince George's residents outside the Beltway pay over 45% of their income for housing and transportation costs. These communities also have a Walk Score less than 50%, said Yolanda Takesian from Kittelson and Associates.

Blue areas show where housing plus transportation expenses exceed 45% of income. Image from Center for Neighborhood Technology. Click for interactive version.

RJ Eldridge, a planner with Toole design and councilmember in the Town of Cheverly, pointed out that about 67% of county adults are obese or overweight, as are 33% of children ages 2-11.

Ortiz said that County Executive Rushern L. Baker has committed $17 million to a "Green Streets" fund. This will pay for sustainable streets that accommodate all uses, including walking and biking.

The county is no stranger to environmentally sustainable streets. Ortiz said that the county's Department of Environmental Resources pioneered bioretention, where streets include planted areas to absorb stormwater, around 1990. Their bioretention on Route 202 was the first in the nation. Bioretention has now become an accepted practice in stormwater management.

Incorporating walking and bicycling with green streets is a natural next step. Andre Issayans, Deputy Director of the Prince George's Department of Public Works and Transportation, listed several projects that will be the next "complete and green streets," including Oxon Hill Road, Harriet Truman Drive, and Ager Road. Construction will start on Oxon Hill Road in late summer or early fall.

Council Member Eric Olson discussed a bill he and Councilmember Mel Franklin have proposed that would allow the Planning Board to require developers to construct adequate pedestrian and bicycle facilities on new development. The Board would have to determine the infrastructure necessary to access destinations within ½ mile such as a public school, parks, shopping center or transit.

Developing a network for walking and biking goes beyond just transportation planning, but must include land use decisions as well, Eldridge elaborated. He said that that development codes must complement capital improvements from transportation. Infrastructure investment should serve many purposes beyond just moving cars.

The Countywide Master Plan of Transportation already outlines a Complete Streets policy. Eldridge recommends the next step is for the county to develop a design manual that brings Complete Streets principles to actual projects.

While the County representatives agree with complete and green streets, the forum ended on a note of reality. Many of the county's best intentions depend on funding. Planned projects may stay on the list far longer than anyone would like.

Residents also called attention to the fact that a walkable community is not only about infrastructure but about personal safety as well. Coalition for Smarter Growth Policy Director Cheryl Cort questioned the need for a new 4-lane highway to Branch Avenue Metro station when the county should be focusing on building a walkable community.

Slater said the project will include bicycle and pedestrian facilities, but that doesn't satisfy many residents concerned that the county still overbuilds auto infrastructure. It's great to accommodate pedestrians and bicyclists on roadways, but a high-speed highway with token sidewalks and bike lanes still doesn't create a livable place.

Prince George's has taken some significant steps, but county officials and supporters of better communities alike should continue to work together to address the challenges they face as a community.

9 comments

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Developers should provide sidewalks, not just road capacity (Apr 18, 2012)

Rewritten DC zoning code corrects past mistakes

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 10:47:00 EDT

by David Alpert

Accessory apartments, corner stores, alley dwellings, and less parking, all of which were legal when DC's historic neighborhoods grew into their current form, could become more prevalent under a proposed new zoning code. The first third of the code is now out as a public draft, and residents will debate these and other changes in the coming months.

Photo by M.V. Jantzen on Flickr.

Formal Zoning Commission hearings to approve or reject the zoning code will come later this year, but there is a sort of preseason exhibition hearing tomorrow. The DC Council's annual oversight hearing for the Office of Planning will bring sparks as advocates on various sides push their cases, though the council doesn't actually decide these issues.

The Office of Planning has been working for 4 years to rewrite the District's zoning code. Now, after hundreds of public meetings and many rewrites, OP's draft of the actual new zoning text clocks in at 458 pages, and that's just for the first third of the text, covering general issues as well as low- and moderate-density residential zones.

The vast majority of the work just updates, streamlines, and simplifies the text. Today, under the zoning code approved in 1958, rules and restrictions appear in general chapters that cover zone types or other, neighborhood-specific sets of rules called "overlays." Many rules use terms that aren't defined anywhere, like "building façade line," which seems very simple until you start thinking about buildings with rounded turrets.

There are also a few significant policy changes. In particular:

More homeowners will be able to create accessory dwellings, like garage or basement apartments.
A limited number of small art studios, corner groceries, shoe repair shops, hardware stores and the like will be able to open in residential areas when there aren't any commercial areas nearby.
Fewer buildings will be forced to provide parking, or will not be forced to provide as much.
More alley lots will be able to have houses.
Green Area Ratio will require landscaping and other stormwater-managing features in projects, though not the low- and moderate-density residential buildings covered in the chapters released so far.

With the exception of the Green Area Ratio, a very 21st-century sustainability idea, the other changes acually harken more back to a past era than to the future. They correct some of the most egregious problems from the 1958 code, where it imposed social engineering ideas in vogue at the time that ended up eliminating local corner stores, pushed people out of urban neighborhoods, and forced new buildings to take a suburban form incompatible with the walkable communities that previously existed.

If Georgetown, Capitol Hill, or Petworth didn't exist today, they couldn't be legally built as they are. Even many single-family neighborhoods of detached houses like AU Park, Brookland, and Hillcrest are mostly illegal as well under current zoning. Where the new zoning code makes changes, it's to legalize the kind of development patterns that formed the neighborhoods residents treasure today, rather than forcing radically different forms which characterize much of the mistakes of the mid-to-late 20th century.

Accessory dwellings

Anacostia. Photo by DDOTDC on Flickr.

Back when the 1958 zoning code was written, the average DC household had far more people than today. Families had more kids, senior citizens more often lived with adult children, and more young and/or single people lived in group homes and boarding houses than now.

Therefore, fewer people live in DC's existing houses than they did at the time. Allowing accessory dwellings is a way to let those buildings serve their historic population levels in the modern day. An accessory dwelling is a separate legal unit either in the same building as a larger, main residence or in an accessory building like a garage or carriage house.

Row house neighborhoods like Capitol Hill, Columbia Heights, and Bloomingdale already allow these units because they are R-4 districts, which allow 2 apartments per building. But in the few R-3 row house neighborhoods, like Georgetown, the northern half of Petworth, Anacostia, and a few small others, these units are illegal except in those unusual buildings which are completely detached, and then only with a "special exception" from the Board of Zoning Adjustment.

Low and moderate residential zones as of 2008.

There are many neighborhoods with semi-detached houses, where houses are connected in pairs (the orange areas in the above graphic), and accessory dwellings are also illegal in these buildings. Fully detached single-family homes (the yellow areas) can have accessory dwellings, but only by special exception (except to create housing for domestic employees in the 2nd story of a garage), and only in a main building, not a standalone garage or carriage house.

This is bad policy. These houses used to hold more people. Today, many owners are empty nesters who used to have kids in the house but no longer do. Retirees on fixed incomes find it harder to afford to keep up their homes. The simple solution is to let people rent out separate units to get some extra income, or even live in those small units and rent out the main house.

OP proposes a policy change to let people create accessory dwellings by right in the detached and semi-detached residential areas. In the R-3 row house areas, owners could create them as well, but would still need special exceptions.

This is a good change, but there's no reason to impose such burdens just on people in these row house districts, especially when only slightly denser row house districts allow far more by right. OP should amend its proposal to permit accessory dwellings by right in R-3 zones (which will be called R-14 in the new code) as well as in lower density ones.

Corner stores in residential areas

Georgetown. Photo by M.V. Jantzen on Flickr.

A big part of historic development patterns was the local corner stores selling many of the necessities of life. Far more Americans could walk a short distance to do their daily shopping than today. Those days aren't coming back, because malls and online shopping can be quite convenient, but there's still enormous value in having some local options.

The local shops of today might be different than those of the past, like yoga studios rather than general stores, but the principle remains. Under current zoning, however, no commercial use can locate in a residential zone.

OP's proposal would allow some limited retail in residential areas, but with a great number of restrictions:

Only "Arts Design and Creation" (arts studio, furtniture making, radio broadcast station), "Food and Alcohol Service" (deli, ice cream parlor), "Retail" (drugstore, grocery, jewelry store, but not auto shop or firearm sales), and "Service" (bank, travel agency, tailor, but not daycare, animal boarding, health clinic, or sexually based business) uses are allowed.
They can't be in any building within 500 feet of a commercial or mixed-use zone, so this doesn't let existing retail corridors expand (though, arguably, some of that might be a good idea).
There can't be more than 3 other arts, retail or service uses within 500 feet, or more than 1 other food establishment, to prevent too much of a concentration of these non-residential uses in one area.
It can't be above the ground floor of any building, except for artist live-work spaces. This prevents a building from becoming entirely commercial.
It can't be larger than 2,000 square feet.
It can't be open after 7 pm or before 8 am.
There can't be more than 4 employees at the business at any time.
It can't have more than 1 sign, a lighted side, or a sign sticking out from the building.
All of the trash and materials have to be stored inside; there can't be a dumpster, for instance.
Any alcohol sold has to be for consuming elsewhere, not at the business, and can't take up more than 15% of the business's floor area. That means a small grocery could offer some beer and wine, but there can't be a wine bar or liquor store.
Food sales can't involve cooking food on-site, but reheating pre-cooked food is okay. Grease traps (a part of kitchens that do frying or other cooking with grease) aren't allowed.
There can't be dry cleaning chemicals, so a dry cleaner in a residential district has to be the kind that sends its clothes out to be cleaned rather than doing the work in the building.

Despite these regulations, a number of people are nervous about allowing any commercial use in a residential area. They understandably worry about noise, traffic, and other effects of commercial activity. OP seems to have tried to set rules that cut off the problematic impacts, like late night activity.

Maybe there need to be additional restrictions, or maybe some of the proposed uses are just too risky for neighbors to be comfortable. If so, we should amend this section rather than scrap it entirely.

Minimum parking requirements

Dupont Circle. Image from CSG.

Few zoning rules have done more to harm urban neighborhoods than parking requirements. The view in the 1950s was that since everyone would drive everywhere all the time in The Future, all buildings need to have lots of space for cars.

It turned out, however, that many of the parking requirements were far too high, forcing buildings to dedicate precious space to parking lots. That makes construction more expensive and creates gaping holes in the urban fabric. It also pushes architects to design buildings around cars rather than people, making them less pedestrian-friendly and forcing residents to drive more and walk less.

In the low- and moderate-density residential areas covered by the zoning rules OP just released, buildings of 9 or fewer units don't have to build any parking. That's great, but many buildings still do. Nobody can build larger residential buildings in these zones, but existing ones become nonconforming.

All non-residential uses in these districts also have to build parking. That includes churches, schools, daycares, rec centers, chanceries, and retail. These are the very kinds of buildings that shouldn't be car-oriented in residential neighborhoods. A daycare in a residential area ought to be serving the neighbors, not attracting people from far away. If it has no parking, that's more likely.

Many neighborhoods have fought with churches which want to tear down historic row houses just to create parking lots for parishioners who don't live in the city. Minimum parking requirements only exacerbate this problem instead of solving it. Neighbors have fought with embassies about converting grassy yards to parking lots. Why make this mandatory in the zoning code?

The rationale for these requirements is that curbside space is limited, and neighbors don't want the patrons of these other uses to take up curbside parking. But the proper way to solve this problem is by pricing or restricting curbside parking, not to force such buildings to devote a lot of their space to parking which makes traffic even worse. If DCPS builds a new school in a residential neighborhood, building less parking, not more, lets kids have more space to play and encourages as many teachers as possible to take the train or bus.

The higher-density residential, mixed-use, and other areas of the city will distinguish between transit-oriented areas, near Metro, high-frequency bus or streetcar lines, and areas without good transit access. While it's probably unnecessary to require it in zoning, there's some argument that a store in a commercial area far from transit might need some parking.

But these parking minimums for non-residential uses in low- and moderate-density residential areas even will apply right next door to a Metro stop. A potential school just a block or two from Takoma, Potomac Ave, or Deanwood Metro will nonetheless need to build considerable parking. That's wrong.

Alley lots

Blagden Alley. Photo by thisisbossi on Flickr.

Residences in alleys are a big part of DC's history. African-Americans came to live in many DC alleys after the Civil War, and a number of alley residences remain. While the ones in the late 19th Century weren't the most sanitary or well-built, there's no reason modern ones can't be perfectly safe and habitable.

Current rules allow alley dwellings as long as the alley lot is 400 square feet or greater, it has adequate plumbing and so on, and the alleys serving it are particularly wide, at least 30 feet. The new code removes the 30-foot alley rule, but any alley unit will still have to get a special exception and satisfy DC agencies on fire safety, traffic, waste and more.

If the fire department doesn't think it can put out a fire in an alley dwelling, it shouldn't go in, but if one satisfies them, DDOT, DPW and the others, an arbitrary alley width shouldn't be the obstacle.

Example Green Area Ratio for a property.

Green Area Ratio

A 21st-century change creates a new "Green Area Ratio" for large buildings. Projects which have a GAR requirement must include a certain as a percentage of the lot area. Grassy space, green roofs, water features, trees, and other sustainability elements each give a certain number of points based on their size, and the sum of all of those must equal a set fraction of the lot's size.

Parking lots, in particular, also have landscaping requirements, mandating a certain number and size of trees and grassy areas to ensure that parking lots have shade, don't form urban heat islands, and can handle some stormwater runoff.

This version is still just a draft. OP will make changes from comments by residents including a citizen task force, hold more public meetings, make more changes, and finally move to formal public hearings before the Zoning Commission. You can send OP your comments here.

Opponents of these changes are organizing groups to attend tomorrow's oversight hearing, which starts at 10 am. If you want to speak, email aphelps@dccouncil.us to sign up, or you can watch the fireworks online.

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