A Trip Within the Beltway: Newcomer Development Residents Threaten Transportation Improvements

Friday, December 26, 2014

Newcomer Development Residents Threaten Transportation Improvements

My fears of new development projects as a serious political threat to much needed transportation infrastructure improvements are being played out with the CSX Virginia Avenue Tunnel improvement.

That railroad tunnel is over 100 years old and is a major transport link, in need of reconstruction with greater clearances to allow doublestacked railcars

Yet it is being challenged mainly by local residents in immediately adjacent dwelling projects constructed in only the past decade or so, particularly by developers with an infamous disregard for society' transport needs, such as EYA: already infamous for its "Capitol Square" project placing a row of 28 townhouses next to the SW Freeway complicating its improvement widening and tunnelfication, and now with regard to the Virginia Avenue railroad tunnel with the "Capitol Quarter" project.

EYA 'Capitol Quarter' with SE Freeway-Virginia Avenue Tunnel corridor at left

photo by JD

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/citydesk/2014/04/30/navy-yard-residents-to-council-we-really-really-do-not-want-the-csx-tunnel/

I blame the EYA development company. Really, I do.

Why? Because the folks yelling the loudest about this are the ones who paid 700k plus in 2008 to buy one of EYAs town houses at Capitol Quarter.

In late 2007/ early 2008 when EYA started construction, CSX had already been talking about this for nearly 2 years. I was interested in buying, and actually asked an EYA sales person at their sales center what the schedule was for the CSX improvements and I was led to another room away from the interested buyers and given some line in hushed whispers about how they didn't know anything and the work would probably never happen. I asked the question a week later on a blog EYA had set up to discuss the development, and the question disappeared the next day. Basically, EYA wanted nothing to remotely interfere with their sales and so they weren't going to say anything about a enormous multi year infrastructure project to take place mere feet from dozens of their homes they were trying to sell for 700k and up.

Fast forward 6 years, and we have a bunch of people making any specious argument they can make so the value of their now 900k homes aren't affected. CSX doesn't owe anyone anything. It's their tunnel and it isn't their fault you bought a 700K house feet from it.

And to those of you complaining that “ no plan”has been put forward, you are either blind or willfully ignorant. There have been 4 plans put forward, and they are all under discussion right now. Once the final plan is decided upon, they will then start the final design and you can have all the detail you like. Quit making specious arguments and cladding them in your willful ignorance.

Newcomer disregard for long term transportation planning is here being taken advantage of by EYA builders, according to the above statement being guilty of censoring information.

This disregard is being further facilitated by the increasingly obviously arrogant "Committee of 100 on the Federal City" which has long promoted the idea of wealthier neighborhoods getting over upon the less affluent, and upon society in general.