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JAMES E. EVANS
PRESIDENT

January 25, 2001

Mr. William H. Hussman, Chairman
Montgomery County Planning Board
Maryland National Capital Planning Commission
8787 Georgia Avenue
Silver Spring, MD

Dear Mr. Hussman:

SUBJECT: Metropolitan Branch Trail

The North Takoma Citizens Association strongly supports the development of the Metropolitan Branch Trail (MBT). Our Association has approximately 300 residents situated north of Piney Branch Road. Our western boundary is along Fenton Street and Takoma Avenue, paralleling a key segment of the Trail extending from Montgomery College to the District line. As proposed by the M-NCPPC staff and Lardner/Klein Landscape Architects, this Takoma Park section will provide our residents a safe, convenient, and aesthetically pleasant pedestrian, cycling and skating right-of-way. It will allow our residents easy access to the entire MBT, a major transportation and recreation link to downtown Washington and Silver Spring, as well as a direct connection to the Capital Crescent and Anacostia Tributary Trail systems.

As currently envisioned, the Takoma Park section of the Trail will be located between the aforementioned streets and the CSX/Metro tracks. Because of the narrowness of Takoma Avenue from Buffalo to Baltimore Avenues, parking will be eliminated on the west (track) side of the street (currently parking is permitted on both sides of the street). Residents along this stretch of Takoma Avenue accept, and some even welcome, this outcome. At Jequie Park, where there is parking allowed only on the west side of the street, the proposal to move the parking to the east side will not only better accommodate the Trail, but will greatly enhance the safety of those families who currently use the park and playground. They will no longer be required to cross this busy road with small children in tow, having no well defined crosswalk in the middle of the block.

Even with parking moved to the east side of the street, the width of the Trail will be constrained in some places to protect the existing trees between the road and the railroad right-of-way. These mature evergreens provide the residents along the street with at least some shielding from the noise and visual impact of the trains and Metro and need to be maintained. They will also buffer the Trail from the rail line and provide users with a more aesthetic, residential experience. Major consideration should be afforded the current and future health of these trees, both during detailed design as well as construction of this Trail segment. In addition, design of the trail in this area should be compatible with and even enhance the historic residential character of the neighborhood it traverses.

Speed along Takoma Avenue is a major concern of residents and narrowing the traffic lanes would produce a desirable traffic-calming effect . Therefore widening the Trail at the expense of the vehicular traffic lanes should not be considered a negative trade-off.

In conclusion I would like to thank the M-NCPPC staff and their consultant Lardner/Klein Landscape Architects for a thoroughly researched, thoughtful proposal which we hope will be quickly approved by the Commission. In particular, we appreciate the work and cooperation of Rachel Newhouse and Margaret Rifkin of the staff, and their lead consultant, Jim Klein, who actively sought community involvement and who were responsive to community concerns and suggestions. We look forward to furthering this co-operative effort as the project moves to the implementation stage.

Please do not hesitate to call if you have any questions or I may be of further assistance.

Sincerely,

James E. Evans

© 2003 Mark Freedman