Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Dear Councilmember McDuffie and Members of the DC City Council: We are residents of the Bloomingdale neighborhood in Ward 5. Many of us live on blocks that are expected to experience extreme disruption during the First Street Tunnel project planned by the City, which will begin in October 2013 and run through 2016. We are writing to solicit your support to help mitigate the construction impacts on homeowners, and to assist in developing a path forward that will ensure that our entire community will thrive. The First Street Tunnel is a 100-Year Construction Project Adopted by the Mayors Task Force and Merits a Serious Mitigation Effort. A Task Force created by the Mayor last year adopted the First Street Tunnel plan, so we believe that the City shares responsibility for this project with DC Water, and the Council must assist in mitigating disproportionate impacts to relatively small groups of homeowners. If the First Street Tunnel is the solution to a 100-year old problem, and its a once in a 100-year construction project, then proportionate mitigation efforts must be taken so that individual residents do not suffer this 100-year burden. To create the First Street Tunnel, DC Water will build several drop shafts and diversion chambers in our neighborhood. This is industrial-scale construction in a residential neighborhood with little precedent. Some of these are directly in front of peoples homes (particularly at Flagler Place and Adams Street NW), and the construction will last for years. With a rush toward construction, which is slated to begin in just a couple months, we ask the Council to focus on mitigation efforts for residents disproportionately impacted by DC Waters construction. We understand that large-scale infrastructure projects, such as the First Street Tunnel Project, inevitably require disruption to residents when undertaken in such a dense urban area. Although we continue to have concerns about the speed with which this project has been designed, the lack of DC Waters engagement with community, and the short, medium, and longterms effects that it may have on our small neighborhood, we are trying to look forward with the proactive steps we have outlined below. We ask for your support. We Request Your Support For Nine Reasonable Mitigation Measures. We ask for your support on the following nine mitigation measures for the short and long-term. 1) Improve Communications with Community: We request your support in requiring DC Water and the contractor selected for the project to hold regular, transparent meetings with residents before, during, and after this project. As detailed in the many comments that residents of our streets submitted to DC Water in response to the Environmental Assessment (EA) for this project, DC Waters communication with affected residents has been exceptionally inadequate. We, like other residents of Bloomingdale, support a solution to the flooding issues that have plagued the community, including some of the undersigned residents. However, we think that frequent and meaningful community
Sincerely,
cc by email: Executive Office of the Mayor Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development Office of the City Administrator DC Office of Planning Mid City East Initiative District Department of Transportation District Department of the Environment DC Water and Sewer Authority Bloomingdale Civic Association Mark Mueller, ANC Representative 5E08 Miller Development (McGill Row, 143 W St) Envision McMillan Partners Friends of McMillan Casey Trees