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Oct. 11, 2003
Re: Removal of Residential
Permit Parking on Section of Whitehaven Parkway
Notice: 03-40-TS
William W. McGuirk
Acting Associate Director
Traffic Services Administration
200 14th St. NW., 7th Floor
Washington, D.C. 20009
Dear Mr. McGuirk:
I received yesterday (Oct. 10) your letter of Sept.
25, 2003 announcing your intention to remove two-hour residential permit
parking (RPP) on a lower stretch of Whitehaven Parkway in response to a “cry
for help” from the Lab School. I hasten to respond before you unilaterally
take precipitate action–which would not be in keeping, permit me to say,
with the cooperative approach we have come to expect from DDOT under
Director Dan Tangherlini-- with potentially adverse consequences for our
neighborhood.
As you surely appreciate, parking has become
increasingly tight along sections of MacArthur Boulevard. That is
particularly the case at the intersection of Whitehaven and MacArthur, where
you have demands for parking from several schools, from businesses and their
customers and employees and from residents of the Palisades. Thus, if you
take steps to provide parking for one party–in this case, the Lab School–
your action may have an impact on several other parties who may have a
desire or need to use that parking space–and indeed may already be using it.
The suggestion I draw from all this is that before by
unilateral edict you change parking to help the Lab School, you should
consider the needs and desires of others in the neighborhood, including Our
Lady of Victory School, St. Patrick’s School, merchants in the neighborhood,
residents and, of course, Advisory Neighborhood Commission 3D with a legal
mandate to advise you on such matters. If you would be interested, I would
be willing to convene a special meeting of ANC3D so that we could have
collective consideration of parking in the neighborhood.
Permit me to clarify the record on one point in your
letter. You state that “in an effort to create a safer environment for
pedestrians,” several parking spaces on the upper stretch of Whitehaven that
were “traditionally used” by the staff of the Lab School were eliminated as
part of a carpool parking study for St. Patrick’s School. That is only
partially correct, for the parking was eliminated to provide a free flow of
school and non-school traffic up and down Whitehaven, particularly during
student drop-off and pick-up times. With all the schools in our
neighborhood and parents driving to let off and pick up their children, we
have considerable traffic congestion that makes it difficult during certain
times of the day for traffic to move on MacArthur and Reservoir. Indeed, you
might want to check with Mr. Laden’s planning office on this subject, for
last spring that office promised a study of traffic and parking by schools
in our Palisades neighborhood with the goal of alleviating the traffic
congestion.
Parenthetically, permit me to say I have trouble
following the logic that since some members of the Lab School staff
“traditionally” parked in public spaces that were changed to no-parking to
facilitate traffic, therefor, they are entitled to public parking on another
stretch of Whitehaven. The logic seems to rest on the false premise that the
Lab school staff members are entitled to parking places on public streets.
I would also suggest that before you respond to “a
cry for help,” however plaintive, from the Lab School, it would be desirable
that you check on whether the Lab School is in compliance with the cap on
size of faculty and staff imposed on it by the Board of Zoning Adjustment
and whether the school is in compliance with the zoning regulation that it
provide off-street parking for two-thirds of its faculty and staff. It may
be that its demand for parking on public streets is prompted by the fact
that its faculty and staff exceeds the cap and thus it is incapable of
providing sufficient on-site parking. Toye Bello, the enforcement officer
for the BZA, might be able to help you on whether the Lab School is in
compliance with District law.
I look forward to a prompt response from you in the
hope that come Oct. 25 you do not arbitrarily make changes in parking in our
neighborhood without consulting with the residents, the businessmen, the
schools, and our ANC.
Respectfully yours,
John W. Finney
Chair, ANC3D
finneyj@att.net
966-6921
5275 Watson St. NW DC 20016
Copies to:
Commissioners on ANC3D
The Lab School
St. Patrick’s School
Council Member Patterson
Council Member Schwartz
Our Lady of Victory School
Palisades Citizens Association |
