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Mixing cars and play
Neighborhood says city’s deal with developer
endangers children at N.Y. Avenue Playground
(Published October 6, 2003)

By MARY LEE MALCOLM
Staff Writer

The New York Avenue playground has a new driveway. The problem is that it runs right through the middle of the property.

George Williams is angry about this. He lives a few blocks from the park and says he often brings his small children to play there.

"It’s a ridiculous situation," he said. "Kids go there now and use the speed bumps as ramps for their skateboards. They use the slope of the driveway to get speed up on their bikes. We can’t wait for a tragedy to occur to do something about this."

Williams and a small group of community activists are convinced that the new driveway constitutes a serious safety hazard for the children who use the park, and they want to get rid of it.

Located on the corner of New York Avenue and First Street NW, the playground includes a ball field, a basketball court, two play areas with equipment, and a small day care center operated by the D.C. Department of Parks and Recreation. On July 8, at the request of the mayor, the D.C. City Council unanimously granted NextGen Development Inc. a permanent easement through the park.

The terms of the easement authorized NextGen to expand the park’s existing service road. DPR originally built the road (which was about five car lengths long) to enable service vehicles to enter the park from N Street. Now staff and parents at the New York Avenue Day Care Center also use the access road.

"Personally, I feel it is a hazard for children who are not supervised," said Diane Alexander, director of the day care center. "Before the driveway, we would go to the park area and collect acorns and rocks. I wouldn’t dare bother about going over there now — safety is our number one priority."

Brian Brown, a longtime resident of the east Shaw neighborhood bordering the park, is president of NextGen. He built the new driveway to provide access to a gated, nine-car parking lot behind 115 New York Ave. NW, an upscale condominium complex he created out of a dilapidated four-story building.

As part of the easement package, Brown agreed to make improvements to the park valued at more than $100,000. The improvements included building a fence, improved lighting and landscaping and general upkeep of the park’s playground equipment for five years. He also paid the District $20,000.

Brown said he is frustrated by the opposition he now faces.

"I decided to do condos instead of apartments because I read a study done in New York that said that where quality condo developments go in next to public parks, conditions in the park improve," he said.

"I went to most of the people who live on Kirby and First — the people who are most affected by what goes on in this park — and I got a majority of the neighbors to support it. And now with more light, and the fact that the drug dealers and prostitutes can’t cut through the park so easily because of the new fence, it’s a safer place," he said.

Brown is adamant that the driveway poses no safety hazard.

"I have a 3-year-old who plays in this playground," he said. "I don’t want to do anything unsafe. Parents were already driving up and down the driveway to drop off and pick up kids from the day care during the day. I fenced off the driveway. I put in speed bumps. I tried to do this in a straightforward process. I’m a small developer. I went to the city, to DPR, and I asked them, ‘What do I have to do?’ They explained the procedures, and I followed them. I am committed to this neighborhood. I live here."

The new, larger driveway cuts directly through the park property. On one side, an old chain link fence and a low retaining wall separate the driveway from the day care center and the basketball court. A new 6-foot-high wrought iron fence, installed by NextGen, runs along the other side of the driveway, creating a right field fence for the baseball diamond that anchors the northeast corner of the park. The playground equipment is located farther away, behind the day care center.

The new fencing allows pedestrians to cross the driveway at the point where it cuts in from N Street, right in front of one of the two new speed bumps. However, an agile person could easily climb over the old chain link fence or the retaining wall. In some places the wall is barely three feet tall.

Williams and other members of the Better Neighborhood Association insist that their single-member district representative to the Advisory Neighborhood Commission, Joyce Robinson-Paul, did not solicit any input from the community regarding the proposed easement. On April 2, 2002, ANC 5C unanimously approved Brown’s request for support at a regularly scheduled meeting. James D. Berry Jr., the ANC’s chairman, then issued a letter of support dated April 18, 2002, although he was not present at the meeting. His letter acknowledged that the improvements made by NextGen to the park "should help to positively impact and reduce the crime, prostitution, drug and other nefarious activity that is currently taking place in this area."

"The only information we [the members of the ANC] saw at that time was in support of this proposal," Berry said. "To our knowledge there was no organized opposition. It’s unfortunate that things happened that way, because we would have tried to address the nature of the problems."

Robinson-Paul failed to respond to numerous messages left on her answering machine by The Common Denominator.

An aide to city council Chairman Linda Cropp said that city council rules consider an easement that does not involve any changes in zoning to be a "conveyance" and, therefore, there is no requirement that notice of the change be posted at the site. The only public notice for the hearing held regarding NextGen’s easement appeared in the D.C. Register and on the council calendar. No one opposed to the proposal appeared at the public roundtable held by Chairman Cropp last June 24.

Brown said he is willing to make changes to the driveway.

"I’ll put it in a different place altogether if that’s what the neighborhood wants," he told The Common Denominator. "I’m asking $25,000 for each parking space, and I’m willing to put every penny of it back into the park. I just have to have people who are willing to talk to me."

Brown said he is convinced that some of the controversy is personal.

"I got blamed for breaking a water main and I fixed it at my expense. It broke because of corrosion. I had my tires slashed about three weeks ago. I’ve had signs vandalized," he said.

He also shared a flyer that he said was circulated around the neighborhood, accusing him and his wife of being al Qaeda members. His wife is from India. Brown is white. He acknowledges race may be a factor in how people feel about his projects.

"It’s not because of what’s being done here, it’s because it’s me that’s doing it," he said. "There are people who resent the fact I’ve bought and rehabbed several houses in the neighborhood."

On Sept. 29, at hearing on parking policy, Councilwoman Carol Schwartz gave the opponents of NextGen’s easement an opportunity to express their views. George Williams was there, as was Gene Cope, president of the Better Neighborhood Association, and other residents concerned about the driveway’s potential safety hazards.

"I want to implore the council to come up with a mechanism so that citizens, when there is a situation where a developer wants to build a parking lot ... [can] find out about it very early on in the process, or a mechanism where the citizens get some type of...[redress] for these types of situations," Williams said.

Councilwoman Schwartz expressed optimism that the two sides could reach an agreement.

"We have been in touch with the developer, we are going to try and work with him in trying to rectify this situation," she said. "So far, I’ve at least felt a willingness on his part to be helpful."