Brian Flahaven

During its Jan. 14 meeting, Advisory Neighborhood Commission 6B voted unanimously (10-0) to send a letter (pdf) to the District Department of Transportation (DDOT) expressing the commission’s opposition to the agency’s proposed design concepts for the Barney Circle-Southeast Boulevard Transportation Planning Study. DDOT is currently seeking public comments on the study, which envisions the construction of a full traffic circle at Barney Circle SE and a new “Southeast Boulevard” to connect the circle to the Southeast/Southwest Freeway at 11th Street SE.

In the letter, ANC 6B points out a number of flaws with the Barney Circle and the Southeast Boulevard design concepts and options presented by DDOT at its Nov. 21, 2013 public meeting. Specifically, the commission:

• rejects DDOT’s proposed 4-lane SE Boulevard with parking lots and no connections to the existing street grid;
• opposes the inclusion of a multi-modal parking facility in any form;
• opposes Barney Circle Option 2 and has concerns about many aspects of Barney Circle Option;
• feels the study suffers from a lack of neighborhood planning and involvement by DDOT with its Anacostia Waterfront Initiative partners the DC Office of Planning, the Deputy Mayor for Planning & Economic Development, and the DC Department of the Environment; and
• questions the sufficiency of DDOT’s traffic planning scope and assumptions.

Read the full ANC 6B Letter to DDOT on Barney Circle-Southeast Boulevard Study (pdf)

A big thanks to all who submitted comments and feedback to ANC 6B or copied me and other commissioners on comments sent directly to DDOT. I’m particularly appreciative of the comments I received on the Barney Circle options from residents living on 16th, 17th, Kentucky Ave and H Streets SE. Hopefully, DDOT will listen to our concerns and reconsider their design concepts.

Also, thanks to Commissioner Kirsten Oldenburg (6B04), ANC 6B’s Transportation Committee Chair, who assembled the comments and drafted the bulk of the letter.

If you have not already done so, I encourage you to e-mail your comments and feedback directly to DDOT at barneycircle@prrbiz.com.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 16th, 2014 at 10:54 pm and is filed under 17th Street SE, Barney Circle, Penn East, Transportation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.