'Insufficient' Information from University Stalls Zoning Review of DDOT Transportation Report

District Department of Transportation (DDOT) officials said the agency cannot support the current Georgetown University Campus Plan application primarily because the transportation information submitted by the university was insufficient. The Zoning Commissioner members were left wondering how they could evaluate a plan without specific guidance or suggestions from the transportation agency.

Commissioner Peter May said it is "unusual" to get a report, especially for something in the works for a long time like the campus plan, and for DDOT to then "say you believe their report is inadequate."

DDOT staff member Karin Ricks, the report author, agreed with May, but added that the information needed to properly evaluate the transportation management plan had trickled in bit by bit, with some information arriving as recently as April.

Ricks said the plan for the loop road was of concern to the agency to the extent it would impact the "major regional corridor of Canal Road." The transportation analysis provided by the University was insufficient for the agency to be able to make an evaluation of the impact of the new loop on external traffic, she added.

"There is a point where we are creating adverse impacts ourselves...for me this is a key piece," said Commission Chair Anthony Hood. 

"I don’t see us moving a whole lot further without this DDOT report," he added.

Ultimately the commission opted to delay any additional testimony and cross-examination until Georgetown University (GU) officials produced sufficient information for DDOT to make an appropriate evaluation.

The kink in the plan is that the report's author, Karina Ricks, will no longer be with the agency by the time the required data can be furnished.

The Commissioners did allow a few questions about the proposed loop road to bring buses in and out of campus via Canal Road.

Neighbors in the Foxhall community, represented by Ann Haas of ANC3d, are particularly concerned about the traffic and noise that will result from a new loop road. Neighbors and Councilmember Mary Cheh proposed an alternative to the proposed loop that as planned runs along National Park Service land.

However, Ricks said the agency is "very much in favor of having a north south alignment on campus," but that the "loop road is on their campus property and it is not under DDOT jurisdiction to determine how it will operate or align except where it intersects with the public network."

ANC-3d Commissioner Ann Haas also expressed concern about future use of any such loop road on the campus. As the University and MedStar continue to negotiate plans for the hospital to build elsewhere on campus, the worry for neighbors is that the loop road will become an access road for the next MedStar facility.

"This is actually something DDOT struggled with as well," said Ricks.

It is "difficult to discuss impact" of the project when there is a "large void in not knowing growth of the hospital," she said. 

To help fill that void, the agency "explicitly put as a condition on this report that they [the University] must include a 20 year plan horizon, so that we can capture a proxy for what that impact the university hospital might be."

Among the additional information DDOT requested from the University was a 20-year planning horizon to help capture new growth anticipated on campus and off campus, such as expansion of the Department of Homeland Security.

Check in later today for our article on the neighborhood groups' testimony in opposition and the strenuous cross-examination by the university.