Comment Opportunity – National Foreign Affairs Training Center

[Fairlington124]

The Schultz Center is actually quite bike friendly itself. When I was living in Buckingham and taking classes there, I would ride along the sidewalk on George Mason Drive and enter on the Rt 50 entrance. A nice fringe benefit was that while those driving there had to pay to park, biking incurred no costs. There is a bike rack right at the front entrance too.

[TwoWheelsDC]

State, like a lot of other USG agencies, is pretty bike friendly within their facilities and for employees, but also like others, they seem to care little for making the surrounding community safer for their employees or others. Some of that is probably the way facilities are managed, some is just in bureaucracy, and some is just not really caring.

[chris_s]

They have released their draft Environmental Assessment. While acknowledging receiving numerous comments about the trail, they have determined that closing it does not represent a “significant impact” to the community. This is yet another federal facility curling up into a tight little ball of security and becoming a barrier to walking and biking in Arlington because of it. If we don’t push back on it, it will keep happening.

The local neighbors would like to see the path stay open and for the NFATC to grant a permanent easement to the County allowing them to extend the existing trail to connect around the perimeter from S Quincy St to 3rd St South at S Oakland Street. This would connect a number of blocks that are cut off from the rest of the neighborhood as well as providing bikes & peds access to another safe place to cross Glebe Road (2nd St S). Currently most Glebe crossing have to happen at 50 or at 7th St S.

Comments on the EA are open until January 15th. You can send comments directly to Alexis Gray of GSA at alexis.gray@gsa.gov, with subject line “NFATC Draft EA comments”. You can also sign a petition started by the neighbors. Given that a federal agency is involved, reaching out to your congressional representation would also be a good tactic. URL=”https://beyer.house.gov/”%5DDon Beyer[/URL URL=”http://www.kaine.senate.gov/”%5DTim Kaine[/URL URL=”http://www.warner.senate.gov/public/”%5DMark Warner[/URL

Here are the neighborhood’s talking points:
The NFATC proposed expansion presents a further and unwelcome incursion into the Alcova Heights community, removing a valued community asset: the pedestrian path connecting S. George Mason and S. Quincy Street. Furthermore, the presence of NFATC represents a significant hinderance to the east-west connections by bikes and pedestrians, unnecessarily forcing community residents including children onto more dangerous roads (Glebe and Route 50) to reach the Thomas Jefferson Community Center and middle school by foot. Moreover, the NFATC bifurcates the Alcova Heights neighborhood into two separate parts (1st-3rd and 5th-9th), connected only by Glebe Road. A fenceline public path along the southern perimeter of the NFATC site would resolve both challenges. Such a path is already envisioned in the County’s Transportation Master Plan. Therefore:
1) We object to the removal of the existing pedestrian path between George Mason and S. Quincy, and further urge GSA to provide a contiguous east-west path around the southern perimeter of the parcel
2) We request that the proposed perimeter fences be pulled back by 20′ and that GSA grant the County a permanent 20′ public access easement to build a perimeter trail connecting 3rd St S to the existing trail at Quincy at 6th St S
3) We request that the proposed perimeter fences be pulled back to the north side of the existing trail between George Mason and Quincy at 6th St S and that GSA permanently provide public access to the existing trail between George Mason and Quincy at 6th St S.

[consularrider]

You think I want to have to deal with cyclists on my way to early morning language class?

[chris_s]

The petition is up over 200 signatures. The comment period closes on Sunday. Please submit comments and email your congressional delegation! The GSA is the decision-making authority here and they routinely ignore the County’s wishes. The County can’t do much on this one other than echo citizen sentiment.

[Author]

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