A raft of regulatory agencies, advisory neighborhood commissions, community groups and individuals reviewed and weighed in publicly with the D.C. Zoning Commission about the $567 million MedStar Georgetown University Hospital construction project expected to start in the coming year.

There was a conspicuous absence: the National Park Service. NPS Rock Creek Park staff oversee Glover Archbold National Park, a woodland that stretches past the entire western front of the GU campus.

GATE 4, NOW: On June 23, 2017, about 9 a.m., traffic on Reservoir Road passes the westernmost access to Georgetown University, across from the French Embassy and beside Glover Archbold National Park, where traffic is expected to intensify and a signal light is planned in the wake of campus developments. Photo Credit: John A. Bray

NPS staff reviewed the GU Hospital project and an earlier GU 20-year plan covering the broader campus.

“No plan has been developed between Rock Creek Park and Georgetown University related to these projects because it was determined that there would be no significant impacts to Glover Archbold Park,” according to a June 20, 2017 NPS statement provided in response to inquiry I submitted about the agency’s role. “Therefore, Rock Creek Park staff did not file any report or analysis about these projects with the zoning office or any other agency.”

Plans call for installation of a traffic light at the Gate 4 campus entrance beside the park on Reservoir Road, intensified vehicle use of a lane that runs along the northern third of the park border and construction of an east-west road behind the hospital that will parallel Reservoir Road. In coming years, there is the prospect of demolition of the massive Yates Field House that faces the park just to the south.

On June 8, 2017, the Commission voted 4-0, with one member absent, to approve the MedStar GU Hospital construction. The commission included in its findings that the Office of Planning, the Departments of Transportation and Energy and Environment had reviewed the project and supported it.

David Avitabile, a lawyer helping shepherd the campus plans through the zoning review, told the Commission during the June 8 public hearing on the hospital project that Gate 4-area plans were presented to NPS as part of earlier review of the 2017-36 GU campus plan. “We met a couple of different times to go through the project and representatives of the park service didn’t have any concerns,” Avitabile said, adding nothing has changed since.

GU included in its 2010 campus plan a proposal to construct a north-south thruway for its heavy commuter buses along the park border that would connect the south entrance on Canal Road to Gate 4. The thruway proposal was approved by NPS, even though GU had deeded to the United States a “scenic easement” along the border in exchange for millions of dollars in federal taxpayer money to expand its south entrance. But GU, facing community opposition, eventually dropped the thruway plan.

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“All that got taken out and plans were adjusted,” Commission member Peter May, who also is NPS’s Associate Regional Director for Lands, Resources, and Planning with the National Capital Region, noted during the hearing.

“Yes,” Avitabile said. “We’ve already settled there are other ways to get through the campus. There is no reason to do anything on the western edge of campus. It stays as is.”

Notwithstanding what’s in the works.

Robin A. Morey, GU vice president for planning and facilities management, told the Commission that the Yates replacement would “depend largely on philanthropy” and that it might be “10-plus years” before anything happens.

Morey said the Gate 4 access lane “will be fortified and built respectful of the scenic easement with the park service.” Regarding construction of the east-west road, Morey said that there will be “plantings to block light emissions.” Buses will not be routed through the area “unless we come to an agreement through the community partnership,” Morey said, referring to the group of community members and GU officials that has jointly worked on campus plans but is not a public entity.

May asked for assurance that there would be “further coordination with the park service regarding anything that is to happen along that park border.”

“Absolutely,” said Avitabile.

© 2017 John A. Bray