Buzzards Gap

[Bruce&Linda Dwyer]

Friends of Trails, Bicyclists and pedestrians,

As usual, good news, bad news on the Buzzard's Gap situation.
The good news (maybe): The Council passed the SUP with an amendment for an easement with the staff recommended  option B 15 foot path that would have two 90 degree turns in it that I believe may be restricted to pedestrian use. Any path proposal would be subject to the public hearing process.  The initial SUP motion without the path easement was offered by Pepper.  Krupicka offered the path amendment which passed 4(Krupicka, Gaines, Macdonald, Smedberg) to 3 (Pepper, Woodson, Euille) and the final SUP was passed by with the same vote.  
Discussion went on for a long time maybe 30-45 minutes on top of the hour spent on this at the Saturday Public Hearing. A lot of time spent with no clear consensus on the merits of this path or interconnecting neighborhood paths in general.
Woodson and Pepper dominated the discussion with statement that this path will provide an opportunity for misadventure by young teens and for other crime.  The police testified steadfastly that in general based on city crime statistics, trails and parks in the city are not hot spots for crime.  Woodson and Pepper persisted in promoting the crime angle despite the police testimony and statements by Krupicka and Parks Director Whitmore that nationally, neighborhoods with parks and trails are safer because people frequent them, which is a deterrent to crime.  Krupicka also cited the evidence that interconnecting parks and trails promote community spirit, safe routes to school, etc.  He said all the right things for a vision of the city.  Macdonald and Smedberg said that they were not convinced that a path will work in this location but would vote for the easement to see if a more fully developed proposal with full public input can emerge. Pretty weak from my point of view.  I don't believe Gaines made any comments.
On the bad news side:
-Trails and parks have been characterized by one planning commission member and  two City council members as potential havens for crime and mischief.  I consider this as fear mongering that will do the open space and trails plan serious damage.
-New trails that need to go close to private property will be faced with the same arguments.  Alexandria is a highly developed city and interconnecting neighborhoods will naturally require some retrofitting of trails.
-The process of getting any neighborhood trail approved will be long and arduous.  For Buzzard Gap, Council guidance is for public hearings before Park and Rec. Commission, Planning Commission, City Council, all with coordination with Environmental Policy Commission and Police. This will be a significant burden on existing staff that has little or no formal training in multi-use path planning and design.
-We only have one clear City Council member Rob Krupicka as a champion for interconnectivity of trails. 
-Woodson said that the vast majority of speakers spoke against the easement and the decision needs to be based on what the public is saying.  I did not keep count, but at least 7 spoke in favor of the trail and 2 more spoke in favor of keeping the area open so people could have access.  I think that this was a significant voice.  She not only is mischaracterizing the nature of the public hearing input but also did not pay credence to the survey results that 63% of Alexandrians think trails are the most important recreation need in the city.

More  good news (really):  Macdonald formally requested the City Manager to look into making the temporary Mt Vernon Trail alignment permanent.  Bruce made a presentation to the Waterfront Committee and Jerry discussed this at the Wilson Bridge Neighborhood Task Force meeting and Macdonald said that letters of support would be coming from both groups.  Later in the meeting in reference to affordable housing, the City Manager said that the Hunting Towers area was going to be the subject of a small area plan starting this spring and concluding by 12/31/2004.  Not sure, but the trail may also come under this study.  He seemed to indicated that VDOT would (or should) not go ahead with a sale without this information.  This is all a little fuzzy to me.

Thanks to those of you who wrote letters and/or testified at the public hearing: Bill Dickinson, Bill Hendrickson, Dave Levy, Ann Hunt, Larry Grossman, Don Mela, Scott Newsham, Kenyon Larson, and anybody else I may have overlooked.  I am afraid there is an uphill battle for trails and bicycles in Alexandria.  I had hoped that survey results and benchmarking to the successes in other communities would carry more weight with our city staff and elected officials.  But, it seems that the constituency to serve is still perceived as those that speak out in letters and at public hearings.  Over the last 12 years, the Bike committee has done the vast majority of the technical work of planning for trail locations.  It would appear that the focus must now turn to getting a vocal constituency.  

Bruce Dwyer