Deep division in the Palisades was on display Wednesday night in a nearly 3 hour airing of opinions on the future of a trail that follows an abandoned rail line along the south side of the community.

Signs of conflict about proposed trail renovations have been cropping up for months and a draft letter from ANC 3D to the city transportation agency about its plans touched off a showdown.

About 60 people turned out at the ANC 3D regular meeting for sometimes acrimonious exchanges about transit safety, environmental impact and whether commissioners were acting with sufficient respect for the democratic process.

The DDOT project — Reconstruction and Rehabilitation of the Pedestrian Bridge and Connecting Trail at Arizona Avenue, NW — involves a stretch of the trail from Galena Place to Sherier Place-Nebraska Avenue. As for the bridge, DDOT says it is “too low to meet Federal bridge clearance standards and also shows age and structural-related wear meriting substantial intervention,” according to the draft letter.

Source: DDOT

Backed by a boisterous contingent from his district, 3D05 Commissioner Alan Karnofsky came out swinging against what he claimed was an attempt by his fellow commissioners to undermine him. Karnofsky, whose district abuts a section of the trail, said the draft letter, intended to help guide DDOT’s plans, had been put on the agenda before he had a chance to see it and consult with his constituents.

ANC Chair Chuck Elkins apologized for not circulating the document to Karnofsky. Elkins said it was an oversight, not a sub rosa plot, and that he believed discussion of the issue was needed now to help make sure the community’s voice is part of any decisions by city agency administrators. Other commissioners acknowledged a misstep in their dealings with Karnofsky, but also noted that he had been included in a call about the drafting of the letter.

3D04 Commissioner Michael Sriqui drafted the letter, which offered DDOT support for the project, conditioned on a series of concerns about implementation. Sriqui, saying that much community input had been received, called the letter an attempt to strike a compromise. He said that the ANC already voted in 2018 in favor of resurfacing the trail and his current letter was posted on the ANC website.

Karnofsky pressed his concern about premature action by the Commission. “We need to see the design of the project before we approve it,” Karnofsky said, drawing cheers. Karnofsky said he had ANC 3D’s only competitive race in the most recent election and that he aims to represent his district.

With boos from the crowd, commissioners voted 8-2 to deny Karnofsky’s bid to pull the letter from the agenda. While it was mostly people in Karnofsky’s corner as the meeting opened with the agenda debate, by the time the matter came up for discussion many letter backers had showed up on the other side of the room.

Much about the plan for the trail remains unsettled, including, apparently in the eyes of some, the position of Ward 3 Councilmember and Transportation and Environment Committee Chair Mary Cheh.

After one resident claimed receipt of an email from Cheh about her view, several other residents piped up to say they’d gotten different opinions from the councilmember. Cheh constituent services specialist Nicholas Kram Mendelsohn weathered the flurry and said he would take the comments back to the boss.

As The Trail Turns

The trail can be easy to overlook. The east end, for example, starts behind a commercial complex, near an overgrown and dilapidated trolley bridge approach at Foxhall Road and MacArthur Boulevard. Wide and grassy in places and narrow and eroded and cut by roads in others, the trail flows quietly through the Palisades, offering stunning vistas of the Potomac River. And therein lies some of the rub.

There are people who like the trail just the way it is and some who want drainage problems fixed. Others want to see it renovated to support bicyclists, better connection between destinations east and west and easier access for people with disabilities.

As residents queued up to the mic to vent, Elkins appealed for civility and respect for the two-minute limit. “We don’t want to have to serve breakfast,” Elkins said.

The first of nearly 40 speakers overran her time and disengaged only after multiple stops and starts amid shouts for order. Thereafter, a fairly even pace was kept.

With the project only covering part of the trail, one resident attacked “piecemeal” development as a boondoggle in waiting. “I don’t care if we get China to pay for it,” she said, “I don’t want the waste.”

Some residents said they fear for their lives and the lives of their children in riding bikes on MacArthur Boulevard and that a renovated trail, even a mere segment, would offer a safe alternative to conflict with autos, including a safe route to the Palisades Recreation Center. “I watched as my kid almost got hit,” one man said of his young biker, trembling with upset and urging Commission action to prevent the issue from being “just like Brexit.”

The Capital Crescent Trail, which also parallels the Palisades, is too busy and fast for recreational bikers, some people said.

People called attention to multiple surveys that have circulated online and confusion about how they are being used and whether they accurately delineate the issues and fairly represent community opinion. “People who don’t get on computers and do surveys should have a say based on actual choices,” a resident said.

Many appealed for clearer information about the details of the project, including what would be used to pave the trails. There was lament about community fracture and vitriol in listserv messages.

DDOT Talk

Much of the debate Wednesday night focused on the process and worry about DDOT imposing a plan at odds with the community.

The Commission’s draft letter bemoans that common ground has been made more difficult to find because of DDOT’s management of the issue. The letter also asks that the agency “avoid irrationally altering its plans at the eleventh hour,” refrain from trying to definitively assess public opinion on the project; and more “carefully consider all the implications of its proposals before presenting them to the community.”

It specifically expresses disappointment that “untreated, decomposed granite medium” was presented as an “obvious compromise trail surface without first determining that it did not comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act.” It took DDOT “over eleven months to reply to the Commission’s past inquiries on this particular point,” according to the letter.

To address community fear about transformation of a tranquil trail into a bicycle freeway, the letter advises use of plantings and bollards to control speed.

Sriqui agreed to recast parts of the letter based on comments, including adding emphasis on holding public meetings and reframing it as a straight call for DDOT to provide a plan that considers the community’s goals.

“Why give them conditional approval?” Elkins said. “Why not just tell them what we want them to do?” Elkins said the letter also should convey that the agency is required to give “great weight” to the ANC’s input and, by law, must say in writing what is persuasive about that input and what isn’t when it makes a decision.

But Karnofsky hit a wall with a request that the letter include a call for a special meeting with DDOT for residents whose property abuts the trail.

Sriqui, himself an abutter, bristled.

3D09 Commissioner J.P. Szymkowicz said an abutter meeting is a “horrible idea.” “Abutters should be heard along with everyone else,” he said. “You cannot have private meetings.”

Karnofsky said then secret meetings that have been held on this project need to be addressed.

Szymkowicz said “we have open meetings law” and that he would “strongly support” calling out those who don’t abide by it.

Karnofsky said DDOT had committed to an abutters meeting in a previous meeting.

3D07 Commissioner Taylor Berlin asked Karnofsky: If DDOT made such a promise, what are you worried about?

3D03 Commissioner Paige Ela voiced some sympathy for Karnofsky’s cause, noting that she lives on Dalecarlia Parkway, where DDOT has changes under consideration, and that those closest have special concerns.

But Commissioners, voting 9-1, opposed support for an abutters meeting. At about 10:45 p.m., they voted 9-1 in support of Sriqui’s letter to DDOT, to be amended as discussed.